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	<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:27:39 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>Why Your Business Needs Friends</title>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:27:39 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[ A Guest Post by Johnny B. Truant from The Charlie and Johnny Jam Sessions . I got an email the other day from a man who was at his wit&#8217;s end. ]]></description>
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<p><i>A Guest Post by Johnny B. Truant from <a href="http://charlieandjohnnyjamsessions.com">The Charlie and Johnny Jam Sessions</a>.</i></p>
<p>I got an email the other day from a man who was at his wit&#8217;s end.</p>
<p>The email explained that in this man&#8217;s business, he was doing many of the same basic things that I was doing, but with much less success. He had been building websites for years. He had refined his craft. He felt that the sites he built were better, more complete, and had more features and better support than mine. He had more experience than I had. He even said that he was probably smarter than I was.</p>
<p>Yet I was doing really well and he was not. So what was the problem?</p>
<p>I replied that he was looking at the situation incorrectly. Generating the business I have &#8212; over 70 current active leads at last count &#8212; has nothing to do with making better websites, or being faster, or being cheaper. And it certainly has nothing to do with being smarter. (Besides, I graduated first in my class, ahem.)</p>
<p>There are a million people out there who do what I do. A million people putting up Wordpress sites and making them sing. Plenty of these people are better, faster, and cheaper than I am.</p>
<p>So I told him: People don&#8217;t come to me because I create the best Wordpress websites in the world, because I don&#8217;t. The people who come to me do so because we&#8217;re friends.</p>
<h3>This is the Third Tribe</h3>
<p>I&#8217;m not going to argue that relationship-based marketing is better than bulk-traffic based marketing, because I know that many incomes have been built on attracting a ton of people who you don&#8217;t know and who don&#8217;t know you. However, I will say that if you&#8217;ve never truly tried to get to know your readers, followers, commenters, and casual online acquaintances, you may really be cutting off your profits at the knees.</p>
<p>In case you missed the memo, Darren is one of the principals of the <a href="http://thirdtribemarketing.com">Third Tribe</a> &#8212; a group and a philosophy with its roots in building businesses and audiences based on interpersonal connections. If you&#8217;re operating with a Third Tribe mentality, the sheer number of people who visit your site or read your blog matters far less than the number of people you exchange a few words with, or who you help without asking for pay, or who like you enough that they&#8217;ll retweet everything you post or buy everything you put out.</p>
<p>A Third Tribe business is about getting as many people to like you as possible. I tell my consulting clients that my job is to teach people to make friends.</p>
<p>And yes, I know how naïve that sounds. But hear me out.</p>
<p>Most people in my shoes, looking to sell Wordpress website setups by leveraging social media, would get on Twitter and announce their service&#8217;s features and low prices. They&#8217;d blast their specials and sales out to Twitter and Facebook. Maybe they&#8217;d create a fan page so that people could be &#8220;fans&#8221; of their business &#8212; because, you know, it&#8217;s really natural to be a fan of a business. They&#8217;d optimize sales pages and plan careful upsells, and they&#8217;d massage prospects through their product funnel.</p>
<p>By contrast, here&#8217;s how I use social media:</p>
<ul>
<li>On <a href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Johnny-B-Truant/1496364589">my Facebook profile</a>, I have photos of Robert Goulet Photoshopped into ridiculous scenes from my &#8220;travels.&#8221; (I used to use Robert Goulet as my avatar.)</li>
<li>Most of what I put out on <a href="http://twitter.com/johnnybtruant">Twitter</a> are dumb jokes: &#8220;I&#8217;ll bet zombie dinner parties are really awkward&#8221; or &#8220;They say that true beauty is on the inside. The problem is that nobody can see it in there, so you&#8217;re still going to look ugly.&#8221;</li>
<li>A lot of my own blog posts have nothing at all to do with my business, like &#8220;<a href="http://johnnybtruant.com/i-want-to-join-fight-club/">I want to join Fight Club</a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href="http://johnnybtruant.com/why-im-exactly-like-morpheus/">Why I&#8217;m exactly like Morpheus</a>.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
<p>That all looks really backward, until you realize that my goal isn&#8217;t to create customers, but instead to make friends.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re funny, people tend to like you. (I&#8217;m not saying you should be funny if you&#8217;re not, but if you&#8217;ve got it, flaunt it.)</p>
<p>If you write and talk about yourself as a whole person, rather than a one-dimensional business drone, people tend to be interested in you.</p>
<p>If you answer tweets and emails in a somewhat chatty, personal way instead of going for the sale when it&#8217;s not obviously warranted, people tend to enjoy talking to you.</p>
<p>And when all of those friends &#8212; and friends of those friends &#8212; one day have a need that you are able to fill, they won&#8217;t go to Google and look for the first search result or for the guy with the cheapest price. It&#8217;s human nature that they&#8217;ll come to you &#8212; their friend &#8212; first.</p>
<p>This really can be as simple as I&#8217;m making it sound. If you have an easily consumable product or service that a lot of people need and can afford, then all you really need to do is to get out there and make online friends. And they don&#8217;t even have to be <em>friends</em>-friends, if you know what I&#8217;m saying. They can be people who have read what you wrote somewhere and liked it. I can&#8217;t count the number of times I&#8217;ve heard something like, &#8220;I read something you wrote on IttyBiz about kung fu, and would like you to build me a website.&#8221;</p>
<p>I&#8217;m so not kidding.</p>
<p>The beauty of this approach is that it&#8217;s easy and natural if you can just unlearn some of the ingrained habits you&#8217;ve gotten used to, like a feeling that a businessperson should be &#8220;professional,&#8221; or that a fashion blogger should, you know, always talk about fashion and nothing else.</p>
<p>The web has magnified our interpersonal connections and the ability to meet new folks in new ways, but it hasn&#8217;t changed the fundamental nature of relationships. If we like people, then we want to hang out with them more, and do more with them. It&#8217;s that simple.</p>
<p>Now get out there and make some new friends.</p>
<p><strong><em>Johnny B. Truant</em></strong><em> writes about Fight Club, tweets about zombies, and is one of the two extremely personable guys behind </em><a href="http://charlieandjohnnyjamsessions.com"><em>The Charlie and Johnny Jam Sessions</em></a><em>. If you want to build a cool business while being a real person instead of a boring business drone, you should definitely get in on those.</em></p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.problogger.net">Blog Tips at ProBlogger</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.problogger.net/31dbbb-workbook/"><img src="http://www.problogger.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/468x60.jpg" width="468" height="60" alt="468x60.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/03/14/why-your-business-needs-friends/">Why Your Business Needs Friends</a></p>
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<p>See the original post: <br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/KLKiY1HW5kA/" title="Why Your Business Needs Friends">Why Your Business Needs Friends</a></p>
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		<title>How’d You Like to Bid on Some Money?</title>
		<link>http://feedhat.com/how%e2%80%99d-you-like-to-bid-on-some-money.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedhat.com/how%e2%80%99d-you-like-to-bid-on-some-money.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:11:54 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[ The online auction is nothing new. If you&#8217;re looking to score a deal on a new Nintendo Wii or maybe a used digital camera, heading to a place like eBay isn&#8217;t such a bad idea. One of the newer developments in recent years is the penny auction, giving you the opportunity to buy an iPod for pennies on the dollar]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>
<p><img src="http://www.johnchow.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/bid-header.jpg" alt="" title="How'd You Like to Bid on Some Money?" width="568" height="268" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13888" /></p>
<div><!--/* OpenX Javascript Tag v2.8.1 */--><br />
<a href="http://d1.openx.org/ck.php?n=a9e55169&#038;cb=12345" target="_blank"><img src="http://d1.openx.org/avw.php?zoneid=63472&#038;cb=12345&#038;n=a9e55169" border="0" alt="" /></a></div>
<p>The online auction is nothing new. If you&#8217;re looking to score a deal on a new Nintendo Wii or maybe a used digital camera, heading to a place like eBay isn&#8217;t such a bad idea. </p>
<p>One of the newer developments in recent years is the penny auction, giving you the opportunity to buy an iPod for pennies on the dollar. Quite literally. </p>
<p>Taking a slightly different approach to this concept is <a href="https://www.bidoncash.com/" rel="nofollow">Bid on Cash</a>, the website that serves as the subject of today&#8217;s <a href="http://www.johnchow.com/review" rel="nofollow">review</a>. As its name implies, you actually bid on cash prizes.</p>
<h2>Getting into the Game</h2>
<p>Getting started with Bid on Cash is a very quick and painless process. First, you&#8217;ll need to fill out the <a href="https://www.bidoncash.com/register_account" rel="nofollow">user registration form</a>, which really only asks for a username, email address, and password.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.johnchow.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/bid-profile.jpg" alt="" title="How'd You Like to Bid on Some Money?" width="568" height="293" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13889" /></p>
<p>From there, you&#8217;ll need to confirm your email address and you&#8217;re pretty much ready to go. There is a section to fill out the rest of your personal profile, but you don&#8217;t have to do this right away. You will, however, need to spend a little cash to buy some bids.</p>
<h2>So, How Does It Work?</h2>
<p>In case you&#8217;re not familiar with the <a href="https://www.bidoncash.com/step-by-step/" rel="nofollow">penny auction system</a>, you need to <em>buy</em> bids (a dollar each) that you can subsequently spend on the various auctions. Each time that a new bid is placed on a prize, the cost of the auction goes up by a penny and the countdown timer goes up for a set amount of time.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.johnchow.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/bid-auctions.jpg" alt="" title="How'd You Like to Bid on Some Money?" width="568" height="376" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13886" /></p>
<p>As you can imagine, the auction ends when the timer runs out. The key, then, is to get in the last bid, hoping that no one else puts down another bid after you. The difference with Bid on Cash is that you are, well, bidding on a <a href="https://www.bidoncash.com/" rel="nofollow">cash prize</a> of varying value.</p>
<p>The prizes seem to start at $30 on the low end, all the way up to about $400 on the high end. If you figure that each dollar spent on a bid results in one extra penny in the value of the auction, then Bid on Cash needs to get at least 30 bids ($0.30 value) to break even on a $30 auction.</p>
<p>Look at the list of <a href="https://www.bidoncash.com/ended_auctions/" rel="nofollow">closed auctions</a>, it seems that they&#8217;re currently falling pretty far behind on that goal. Most auctions are ending at below the break-even mark; I saw a $100 auction end at 11 cents. In effect, Bid on Cash lost $89 there, not including the other costs involved in running the site.</p>
<h2>BidJames is Your Automated Sniper</h2>
<p>While you could spend hours on end staring at the main page of Bid on Cash, eyeing the auctions that are soon drawing to a close, you can set up an automated solution instead. That solution is called <a href="https://www.bidoncash.com/BidJames/" rel="nofollow">BidJames</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.johnchow.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/bid-bidpage.jpg" alt="" title="How'd You Like to Bid on Some Money?" width="568" height="384" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13887" /></p>
<p>This virtual assistant, so to speak, will automatically bid on the auctions on your behalf. You activate his services, tell him the bid range and the number of bids to use, and he&#8217;ll do the rest. As you can imagine, you can burn through the bids pretty quickly using a system like this.</p>
<h2>Getting Extra Free Bids</h2>
<p>You can buy additional bids for the site in packs of 20, 30, 50, or 100, but there is no incentive to buy the larger bundles. It always works out to a dollar a bid and, from a business standpoint, I recommend Bid on Cash provide more of an incentive to &#8220;players&#8221; to buy the larger bundles.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t want to <em>buy</em> more bids, you can earn some free bids by referring your friends. When someone signs up and buys a bid package using a <a href="http://www.bidoncash.com/ref/8054" rel="nofollow">referral link</a>, you get 10 free bids and the referral gets one free bid.</p>
<h2>The Penny Auction for Cash</h2>
<p>You probably shouldn&#8217;t expect to get rich from Bid on Cash. It can be a fun game, perhaps, but it can get very expensive at a dollar a bid. Also, like all the other penny auctions on the Internet, you do run into the possibility of fraud and deceit. I received five free bids to do this review and, well, I was always outbid. I saw others win auctions at much lower totals.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.bidoncash.com/" rel="nofollow">CLICK HERE TO BID ON CASH</a></strong></p>
<p>Discover the SECRETS I&#8217;ve Learned to go from zero a month to over $40,000 a month from blogging. Download <a href="http://www.johnchow.com/feedbook" rel="nofollow">Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com</a> for FREE! </p>
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<p><img src="http://feedhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/c05f4518f8header-150x70.jpg" /></p>
<p>Originally posted here:<br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JohnChowDotCom/~3/8WGzkCe_ROg/" title="How’d You Like to Bid on Some Money?">How’d You Like to Bid on Some Money?</a></p>
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		<title>Friday Recap: Pop-Up Video Edition</title>
		<link>http://feedhat.com/friday-recap-pop-up-video-edition.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedhat.com/friday-recap-pop-up-video-edition.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:04:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[ Are you in the mood for some videos? My collection of odds and ends from surveying the Web this week came up heavy on the videos. ]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>
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<p>Are you in the mood for some videos? My collection of odds and ends from surveying the Web this week came up heavy on the videos. Nevermind the stats that people have been <a href="http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3461/online-video-viewing-edges-down-in-jan">viewing fewer videos online lately</a>, according to comScore. I bet we can edge that number back up with this blog post alone! <img src="http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" class="wp-smiley" /> </p>
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<td><a href="http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=357656781573"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4056/4428447820_5559098665_m.jpg" alt="screen shot from SEO interview video" /></a></td>
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</table>
<p>At SMX West last week, <a href="http://twitter.com/jennita/">Jennifer Lopez</a> of SEOmoz and <a href="http://twitter.com/lookadoo">Dana Lookadoo</a> of Yo! Yo! SEO <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/smx-west-2010-man-on-the-street-interviews">interviewed a handful of attendees</a> with a series of five questions. I was honored to be asked to join in, though completely petrified at the prospect of being stumped on camera. Note the visible sigh of relief as I answer each question. Otherwise, it&#8217;s super entertaining to hear these notable Internet marketers&#8217; answers!</p>
<p>One of the featured interviewees in the video above is Ian Lurie, who, among other things, is the blogger at Conversation Marketing. On his blog, Ian takes a cue from Lindsay Lohan, who is suing E-Trade for using a character named Lindsay in their Super Bowl commercial. To <a href="http://www.conversationmarketing.com/2010/03/breaking_news_ian_lurie_filing.htm">avoid Ian&#8217;s litigious wrath</a>, avoid all words that contain the letters &#8220;I&#8221;, &#8220;A&#8221; and &#8220;N&#8221; in succession. Thankfully, my name squeezes through the censors by a hair!</p>
<p>Ready for another video? Bruce sat down with WebProNews while at SMX West to talk about <a href="http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/03/08/examine-your-sites-text-reduce-chances-of-search-engine-confusion">everything SEO under the sun</a>. Attracting links, driving conversions with social media, the inner workings of local search, the effect of page speed, and optimizing for personalized search are all on the agenda in this 20 minute interview. If you&#8217;ve ever wanted to pick Bruce&#8217;s veteran SEO brain, watching this interview may just scratch that itch.</p>
<p>Microsoft Advertising released a whitepaper on the <a href="http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/blogs/analytics/archive/2010/03/09/new-whitepaper-evaluating-the-effectiveness-of-digital-advertising-for-brand-campaigns.aspx">effectiveness of digital advertising for brand campaigns</a>. Microsoft&#8217;s research proves a connection between the amount of time a user spends with an online ad and that user&#8217;s interaction with the brand, including visits to a site, pages viewed and time spent on-site. Not bad to have this research at your disposal when a client wants to know &#8220;Why SEM?&#8221;</p>
<p>While we&#8217;re on the subject of ads, Huffington Post has compiled a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/the-funniest-and-weirdest_n_487145.html">gallery of Google ads</a> that bring on the lolz. Looks like eBay&#8217;s the market leader for auctions on virgins, lost children, and wives. I believe it. (Susan thinks this issue was addressed years ago, but stay on the lookout for AdWords oddities!)</p>
<p>Next video! What is the state of the Internet, you ask?</p>
<p><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/9641036">JESS3 / The State of The Internet</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/jessesaves">JESS3</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>After weeks of hyping an upcoming product that would revolutionize the Internet forever, Cisco announced it was <a href="http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/03/09/cisco-announced-router-upgrade-no-new-settop-box-or-telepresence/">upgrading its routing system to &#8220;CRS-3&#8243;</a>. SiliconANGLE gives us a recap of industry analysis, and from the look of it, no one&#8217;s all that impressed.</p>
<p>The jet packs are here! The <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/first-commercially-available-jetpack/14423/">jet packs are here</a>! Thanks to Martin Aircraft&#8217;s persistence, for just $86,000 you may soon be able to have your own personal flying device. Just a matter of time before hover crafts and sky highways, I tell you! [Yay, we're finally in the future! --Susan]</p>
<p>If you lost your iPhone, would you consider it a tragedy? Ever cuddle up with your iPhone before bed time? According to a survey of 200 students, 75 percent of iPhone owners have an <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/1575996/survey-75-of-iphone-users-have-a-wholly-inappropriate-relationship-with-their-phones">inappropriate relationship with their phone</a>. That&#8217;s crazy talk. I mean, just the other day my iPhone and I were at lunch and you&#8217;d never believe what we saw a Nexus One and its owner doing! In public!</p>
<p>Susan&#8217;s posted her <a href="http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/2010/03/sesny2010-liveblog/">SES New York liveblogging schedule</a> and we&#8217;re both excited to hear what the day 3 session Spotlight on Fashion: Blogging for Style will reveal. Here&#8217;s one real-world example of fashionable tech: a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hp_pc/sets/72157622348689868/">Vivan Tam designed digital clutch</a>. It matches so well with my pretty, nifty things aesthetic. </p>
<p>As does IdeaPaint. Talk about nifty! <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/05/smallbusiness/ideapaint/index.htm">IdeaPaint</a> is paint that lets you dry erase. Make every surface in your home or office your creative drawing board — literally! I&#8217;ve ordered up the free sample and will let you know once I try it out!</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s another special offer worth sharing around. Search &#038; Social Spring Summit is coming up in Tampa, Florida on May 3 and 4. Susan attended last year and found the intimate event to be one of the best search marketing conferences she&#8217;s ever attended. The team at Search &#038; Social wants everyone to be able to enjoy this high-quality educational experience, so they&#8217;re offering a 15 percent discount on the conference pass when you use the <a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/15-off-search-social-spring-summit-for-sej-readers/18628/">discount code for Search Engine Journal readers</a>. I guarantee every penny is worth it.</p>
<p>If that wasn&#8217;t enough, it just so happens that Tampa is #44 on The Daily Beast&#8217;s list of <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-03-11/americas-25-craziest-cities/full/">America&#8217;s craziest cities</a>! Did your city make the cut?</p>
<p>After you&#8217;ve found the answer to that question, take a moment to answer a few more in the name of feeding the hungry? <a href="http://www.freerice.com/subjects.php?t=354424150096">FreeRice</a> asks you questions, and for every one you get right, 10 grains of rice go to the World Food Programme. You can even pick your category: art, chemistry, English, geography, languages and math. To be honest, it&#8217;s so much fun you might actually forget it&#8217;s for a good cause. [The language options are good to see how much high school French you remember. Surprisingly, I can still tell my ils from my nous. --Susan]</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s another warm and fuzzy. As Susan noted when she shared this with me: <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/10/2841589.htm">zombie elephant</a>! The elephant baby that zoo staff believed had died in its momma&#8217;s womb made a surprisingly lively entrance into the world this week. May you grow humongous and prosper, little pachyderm!</p>
<p>And for your final video I present a little story we can all relate to:</p>
</p>
<p>Where the heck did that come from?! Have a great weekend!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/2010/03/friday-recap-pop-up-video-edition/">Friday Recap: Pop-Up Video Edition</a> was originally published on BruceClay.com, an <a href="http://www.bruceclay.com">SEO tools</a> provider.</p>
</p>
<p><img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif" /></p>
<p>Read the original:<br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/2010/03/friday-recap-pop-up-video-edition/" title="Friday Recap: Pop-Up Video Edition">Friday Recap: Pop-Up Video Edition</a></p>
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		<title>Yelp’s Trust Problem</title>
		<link>http://feedhat.com/yelp%e2%80%99s-trust-problem.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedhat.com/yelp%e2%80%99s-trust-problem.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:15:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[SmallBusinessSem]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[seo]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[a-class-action]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[a-natural-bias]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[a-sales-call]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[article]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[black]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[business-data]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[deep-on-yelp]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[small business]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[yelp]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://feedhat.com/yelp%e2%80%99s-trust-problem.html</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ ClickZ is running an article today about Yelp&#8217;s current legal troubles. I&#8217;m quoted in the article (at the end) and I come across as a staunch defender of Yelp. While I do admire the loyalty they&#8217;ve built up amongst users, I&#8217;m actually more in the middle than the article portrays]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>
<p><img src="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/yelp-logo.png" alt="yelp-logo" width="200" height="104" class="right" />ClickZ is <a href="http://www.clickz.com/3639768">running an article</a> today about Yelp&#8217;s current legal troubles. I&#8217;m quoted in the article (at the end) and I come across as a staunch defender of Yelp. </p>
<p>While I do admire the loyalty they&#8217;ve built up amongst users, I&#8217;m actually more in the middle than the article portrays. I really believe Yelp needs to improve its overall messaging to small business owners if it wants to gain wider adoption and acceptance as a marketing channel. And, as I posited in <a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/what-does-advertising-on-yelp-get-you/2892/">my earlier post on Yelp</a> this week, I definitely wonder if &#8220;where there&#8217;s smoke, there&#8217;s fire&#8221; applies to Yelp. It very well could.</p>
<p>But aside from how I feel about Yelp, the bigger issue is the impact of these legal troubles and claims on Yelp&#8217;s trust. The ClickZ piece gets into that a bit, but I think <a href="http://blumenthals.com/blog/2010/03/12/asking-for-reviews-umovefree-finds-the-groove/">this post by Mike Blumenthal</a> today says a lot more about it. Mike interviews a small business owner about reviews, and here&#8217;s what the business owner says about Yelp:</p>
<blockquote><p>We avoid them like the black plague. You can find a lot of articles on the subject so I won’t get on a soap box…but we’ve had around 30 satisfied customers post positive reviews on Yelp and none of them posted to our profile.  When we asked why we were told that the customer has to be an “active Yelp user” or the reviews will not show up.  When we asked what constitutes an “active Yelp user” we were told that formula was proprietary and confidential.  Of course, this didn’t stop them from making a sales call and offering us assistance in getting more positive reviews on our account.  After doing some research and realizing this was a much bigger problem with other business owners, and that they were involved in a class action lawsuit for similar accusations, we just decided to avoid them all together.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I&#8217;m guessing that attitude is more widespread than we think. And it speaks to one of Yelp&#8217;s fundamental flaws: The mysterious algorithm has a natural bias against first-time reviewers. It&#8217;s the old job search catch-22 &#8212; you need experience to get a job, but you can&#8217;t get experience if no one will hire you.</p>
<p>How can Yelp reach its full potential if it regularly punishes new users by not posting their reviews? There&#8217;s a trust problem here with small business owners who see real reviews from real people being zapped from the site, and from people who&#8217;d like to become regular users, but have a bad experience when their first taste of Yelp is essentially, &#8220;We don&#8217;t care what you have to say.&#8221;</p>
<p><b>Advertisement:</b> Improve your website rankings and traffic in just 15 mins/day!  LotusJump will show you how to do your own professional-grade SEO. <a href="http://www.lotusjump.com/sbsem.php">Find Out How Today!</a></p>
<p>This is a post from Matt McGee&#8217;s blog, <a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/">Small Business Search Marketing</a>. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/yelps-trust-problem/2911/">Yelp&#8217;s Trust Problem</a></p>
<p>Related posts:
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/yelp-lets-me-add-new-business-data/846/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Yelp Lets Me Add New Business Data">Yelp Lets Me Add New Business Data</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/att-good-luck-with-your-yelp-competitor/2689/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: AT&#038;T: Good Luck with Your Yelp Competitor">AT&#038;T: Good Luck with Your Yelp Competitor</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/inc-magazine-goes-deep-on-yelp/2669/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Inc. Magazine Goes Deep on Yelp">Inc. Magazine Goes Deep on Yelp</a></li>
</ol>
<div>
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:EVM3snF2fDQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:EVM3snF2fDQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:dnMXMwOfBR0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:guobEISWfyQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=8evM1X0SzQE:qhlgbFymtIQ:guobEISWfyQ" border="0"></img></a>
</div>
<p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/SmallBusinessSem/~4/8evM1X0SzQE" height="1" width="1" /></p>
<p><img src="http://feedhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/fcf1d5450dp-logo-150x78.png" /></p>
<p>Original post:<br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/yelps-trust-problem/2911/" title="Yelp’s Trust Problem">Yelp’s Trust Problem</a></p>
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		<title>Are You Pre-ordering Your iPad Today?</title>
		<link>http://feedhat.com/are-you-pre-ordering-your-ipad-today.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedhat.com/are-you-pre-ordering-your-ipad-today.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:19:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[chow]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[a-fairly-good]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[a-month-from]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[create-another]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[industry]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[into-the-online]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[ipad-as-apple]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[like-the-new]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[money-online]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[online]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[until-it-ships]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[what-it-did]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://feedhat.com/are-you-pre-ordering-your-ipad-today.html</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ The wonder tablet from Apple went up for pre-order this morning. Did you get your order in or are you going to wait until it ships on April 3]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>
<p><a href="http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad?mco=OTY2ODA0NQ" title="iPad Pre-order"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2698/4427819026_894f161d38_o.jpg" alt="iPad Pre-order" width="568" height="212" /></a> </p>
<div><!--/* OpenX Javascript Tag v2.8.1 */--><br />
<a href="http://d1.openx.org/ck.php?n=a9e55169&#038;cb=12345" target="_blank"><img src="http://d1.openx.org/avw.php?zoneid=63472&#038;cb=12345&#038;n=a9e55169" border="0" alt="" /></a></div>
<p>The wonder tablet from Apple went up for <a href="http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad?mco=OTY2ODA0NQ">pre-order</a> this morning. Did you get your order in or are you going to wait until it ships on April 3? I am getting four iPads but I had to get them from the US Apple site because that&#8217;s the only place that is taking orders. I have a fairly good idea on what Apple&#8217;s plans are for the new iPad and it&#8217;s not what you might think. </p>
<p>I see the iPad as Apple&#8217;s entry into the online book market, which is worth $4.5 billion a year. By comparison, online music does $2.3 billion a year, most of which is controlled by Apple iTunes. If Apple can do for books what it did for music, they will revolutionize another industry, put the fear God into Amazon.com and most importantly, create another huge cash cow for themselves. </p>
<p>I like the new iPad so much and what it means that in addition to the four iPads, I purchased a large block of Apple stocks today. What about you? Is an iPad in your future?</p>
<p>Discover the SECRETS I&#8217;ve Learned to go from zero a month to over $40,000 a month from blogging. Download <a href="http://www.johnchow.com/feedbook">Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com</a> for FREE! </p>
<p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NOXn__jEMLhQMUTXy5uu0NB2AlA/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NOXn__jEMLhQMUTXy5uu0NB2AlA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/><br />
<a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NOXn__jEMLhQMUTXy5uu0NB2AlA/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/NOXn__jEMLhQMUTXy5uu0NB2AlA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p>
<div>
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?a=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?a=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?i=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?a=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:wF9xT3WuBAs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?i=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:wF9xT3WuBAs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?a=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:dnMXMwOfBR0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?a=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?i=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?a=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:cTv1dNCI_Tc"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?d=cTv1dNCI_Tc" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?a=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/JohnChowDotCom?i=KiAk01YgSCg:6vX-Dr67Ypo:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a>
</div>
<p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/JohnChowDotCom/~4/KiAk01YgSCg" height="1" width="1" /></p>
<p><img src="http://feedhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/fce3ced0fe1d38-o-150x55.jpg" /></p>
<p>Go here to read the rest: <br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JohnChowDotCom/~3/KiAk01YgSCg/" title="Are You Pre-ordering Your iPad Today?">Are You Pre-ordering Your iPad Today?</a></p>
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		<title>How to Handle Old Directory Listings, Links and off Topic Traffic</title>
		<link>http://feedhat.com/how-to-handle-old-directory-listings-links-and-off-topic-traffic.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedhat.com/how-to-handle-old-directory-listings-links-and-off-topic-traffic.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:41:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[seo]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[directory-listings]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[permanent-link]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[site]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[topic]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[topic-traffic]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://feedhat.com/how-to-handle-old-directory-listings-links-and-off-topic-traffic.html</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ Today&#8217;s post is another answer to a question&#8211;this time from Nathan Schubert , who wants to know what you should do with old links from directories and websites that still drive traffic if you&#8217;ve changed the content on your website. OK]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>
<p><a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/old-links-change/" title="Permanent link to How to Handle Old Directory Listings, Links and off Topic Traffic"><img class="post_image alignnone remove_bottom_margin frame" src="http://www.wolf-howl.com/wp-content/uploads/old-links.jpg" width="600" height="299" alt="Post image for How to Handle Old Directory Listings, Links and off Topic Traffic" /></a>
</p>
<div>Today&#8217;s post is another answer to a question&#8211;this time from <a href="http://twitter.com/NateSchubert">Nathan Schubert</a>, who <a href="http://twitter.com/NateSchubert/status/9248748845">wants to know</a> what you should do with old links from directories and websites that still drive traffic if you&#8217;ve changed the content on your website.<span></span></div>
<div>OK. First off, you never want to have links to your site removed, even if it&#8217;s from a really bad website.  Truth be told, there are <a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/grayhat-seo/sponsored-themes-reputation-management/">some things you need to watch out for</a>, but (generally speaking) it&#8217;s really pretty hard for someone to screw you up by linking to you (I said hard&#8211;but not impossible). Assuming that&#8217;s not the case and you are getting a bunch of off-topic traffic, there are better ways to deal with it.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>You can use htaccess to redirect based on referring domain.</li>
<li>You can set up a 301 redirect for old pages that don&#8217;t exist.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>If it&#8217;s getting a significant amount of traffic, set up a landing page to tell visitors that the content they are looking for no  longer exists and that you&#8217;ve changed the focus of the site. Be polite, matter of fact, and straight to the point. Don&#8217;t be indignant or present a message that suggests people are a &#8220;bother&#8221; to you. I&#8217;d also set up 5 or 6  links to your most popular content or key pages. Encourage visitors to look around if they want. If you do redirect via 301, those links can also act as entry points for search engine spiders. Don&#8217;t let those links go to a 404 page; doing so just flushes the link equity down the toilet.</div>
<p><strong>Advertisement</strong>: <a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/scribeseo/">Scribe SEO Review</a> find out how to better optimize your wordpress posts.  #6</p>
<p>This post originally came from <a href="http://michaelgray.name">Michael Gray</a> who is an <a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/information/consulting/">SEO Consultant</a>. Be sure not to miss the <a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/blogs/thesis-wordpress-theme-review/">Thesis Wordpress Theme review</a>. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/old-links-change/">How to Handle Old Directory Listings, Links and off Topic Traffic</a> <br/></p>
<p><img src="http://www.wolf-howl.com/?ak_action=api_record_view&#038;id=5204&#038;type=feed" alt="" /></p>
<p>Related posts:
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/ideas/off-topic-traffic/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Are You Chasing Off Topic Traffic">Are You Chasing Off Topic Traffic</a> <small> When your blog or website becomes successful and starts&#8230;</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/off-topic-advertising-2/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Off Topic Advertising">Off Topic Advertising</a> <small>If you are involved in selling text links or &#8220;know&#8230;</small></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/experimentation-and-off-topic-posts/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Experimentation and Off Topic Posts">Experimentation and Off Topic Posts</a> <small>My buddy Nick has a golden rule of blogging, it&#8217;s&#8230;</small></li>
</ol>
<p>Related posts brought to you by <a href="http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/">Yet Another Related Posts Plugin</a>.</p>
<div>
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?a=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?i=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?a=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:wF9xT3WuBAs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?i=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:wF9xT3WuBAs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?a=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:dnMXMwOfBR0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?a=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:aKCwKftKxY0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?i=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:aKCwKftKxY0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?a=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?a=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?i=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?a=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:JEwB19i1-c4"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?i=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:JEwB19i1-c4" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?a=hAA7Q87GphI:aqJncMv9Fws:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Wolf-howl?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a>
</div>
<p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Wolf-howl/~4/hAA7Q87GphI" height="1" width="1" /></p>
<p><img src="http://feedhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/9b6d201e5alinks-150x74.jpg" /></p>
<p>Go here to read the rest: <br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Wolf-howl/~3/hAA7Q87GphI/" title="How to Handle Old Directory Listings, Links and off Topic Traffic">How to Handle Old Directory Listings, Links and off Topic Traffic</a></p>
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		<title>Two More Studies Confirm: People Research Online, Buy Locally</title>
		<link>http://feedhat.com/two-more-studies-confirm-people-research-online-buy-locally.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedhat.com/two-more-studies-confirm-people-research-online-buy-locally.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:24:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[SmallBusinessSem]]></category>

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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://feedhat.com/two-more-studies-confirm-people-research-online-buy-locally.html</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ This isn&#8217;t exactly news anymore, but it&#8217;s worth noting that two more reports this week confirm the idea that consumers tend to do their research online prior to buying offline/locally. The first is a Kelsey Group study that indicates 97% of consumers use the Internet to research products or services in their local area . ]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t exactly news anymore, but it&#8217;s worth noting that two more reports this week confirm the idea that consumers tend to do their research online prior to buying offline/locally.</p>
<p>The first is a <a href="http://www.kelseygroup.com/press/pr100310.asp">Kelsey Group study</a> that indicates <b>97% of consumers use the Internet to research products or services in their local area</b>. What specific online research tools do they use? </p>
<ul>
<li>90% use search engines
<li>48% use Internet Yellow Pages
<li>42% use comparison shopping sites
<li>24% use vertical sites
</ul>
<p>If consumers are starting the local buying process online, this reinforces the value of great local content, local SEO, and local visibility in general. In fact, according to the study, <b>consumers use 7.9 different media sources for research</b> when looking for local products and services. That speaks to <i>the importance of being visible on a number of channels</i> &#8212; your own site, your blog, Google Maps, Citysearch, important industry sites, and so forth. Diversity of presence makes a big difference.</p>
<p>The second report <a href="http://milo.com/blog/the-bulk-of-shopping-still-takes-place-in-store/">comes from</a> local product search engine Milo.com in the form of a large infographic that breaks down the percent of online vs. offline buying in a number of industries. The conclusion, based on US Census data, is that less than 5% of retail sales happen online.</p>
<p><b>Advertisement:</b> Try <a href="http://gk.site5.com/t/162">Site5 Web Hosting</a> free for 30 days! 99.9% Uptime Guarantee and our <a href="http://www.ratepoint.com/profile/15460">customer&#8217;s love us</a>!</p>
<p>This is a post from Matt McGee&#8217;s blog, <a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/">Small Business Search Marketing</a>. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/two-more-studies-confirm-people-research-online-buy-locally/2901/">Two More Studies Confirm: People Research Online, Buy Locally</a></p>
<p>Related posts:
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/search-online-buy-offline-has-a-long-way-to-go/1081/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Search Online, Buy Offline Has a Long Way To Go">Search Online, Buy Offline Has a Long Way To Go</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/stats-stats-and-more-stats/280/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Stats, stats, and more stats">Stats, stats, and more stats</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/msn-studies-searcher-behavior/439/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: MSN Studies Searcher Behavior">MSN Studies Searcher Behavior</a></li>
</ol>
<div>
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:D7DqB2pKExk"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:D7DqB2pKExk" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:EVM3snF2fDQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:EVM3snF2fDQ" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:dnMXMwOfBR0"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?d=dnMXMwOfBR0" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?a=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:guobEISWfyQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/SmallBusinessSem?i=-rtamfMy2k8:SxlYQSyiVlM:guobEISWfyQ" border="0"></img></a>
</div>
<p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/SmallBusinessSem/~4/-rtamfMy2k8" height="1" width="1" /></p>
<p>Read more here:<br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/two-more-studies-confirm-people-research-online-buy-locally/2901/" title="Two More Studies Confirm: People Research Online, Buy Locally">Two More Studies Confirm: People Research Online, Buy Locally</a></p>
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		<title>The Surprising Old-School Secret to Blogging Success</title>
		<link>http://feedhat.com/the-surprising-old-school-secret-to-blogging-success.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedhat.com/the-surprising-old-school-secret-to-blogging-success.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:26:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[ About 80% of your blog’s success comes from “ass in chair” time. That’s the time you spend writing posts, editing posts, finding the perfect image, connecting with fellow bloggers, answering comments, shaping up your SEO, and all the other tasks we teach you about here on Copyblogger. ]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><p><img class="center frame" src="http://netdna.copyblogger.com/images/handshake2.jpg" alt="image of holding hands" title="just connect" width="400" height="180" /></p>
<p>About 80% of your blog’s success comes from “ass in chair” time. That’s the time you spend writing posts, editing posts, finding the perfect image, connecting with fellow bloggers, answering comments, shaping up your SEO, and all the other tasks we teach you about here on Copyblogger.</p>
<p>You’ve got to get that stuff right. But great blogs are not built by “ass in chair” time alone.</p>
<p>There’s actually a significant element to your success that you may be neglecting with all that work and focus.</p>
<p><span></span></p>
<p>Every once in awhile, you might consider getting out of the chair and physically setting eyes on a fellow human being. I realize this is a bizarre, arcane practice, but bear with me.</p>
<h3>Social networking 1.0</h3>
<p>Have you ever noticed that you don’t really know what a post is going to be about until you start writing? You throw something out there, and next thing you know, it&#8217;s gone in whatever direction naturally follows.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, you can actually replicate this phenomenon by physically locating yourself in close proximity to another person, with each of you taking turns speaking. This is called a <strong>conversation</strong>.</p>
<p>I know, you know <em>all about</em> conversation already. It’s answering blog comments, writing on your ex-girlfriend&#8217;s Facebook wall, and tweeting how cranky you are in line at the Genius Bar. But here&#8217;s something you might not know &#8212; “conversations” actually predate the internet.</p>
<p>Spend enough time in these &#8220;real world&#8221; conversations, and you actually trigger the growth of new neural connections. You come up with new ideas. You challenge your existing ideas and take them in new directions. You learn.</p>
<p>This phenomenon is improved by another old-school technique, called <strong>listening</strong>. It’s like <em>lurking</em>, except the other person can see you standing there, so at some point you should probably say something.</p>
<p>Conversation and listening can, if you let them, become awe-inspiring weapons in your blogging arsenal. They’ll give you a virtually endless supply of post ideas, angles for content, and insights into human psychology.</p>
<p>And they’ll improve the quality of your thinking, getting you out of the same stale perceptions and approaches to your writing.</p>
<p>Do enough of this and you will make <strong>friends</strong>. These are similar to Facebook friends, except a) you actually like them, and b) if they poke you, you get to smack them in the head and tell them to quit being a jackass.</p>
<h3>Advanced stuff</h3>
<p>Once you’ve mastered these fundamental tools, you may be ready to move forward to a more advanced practice.</p>
<p>You can practice conversing and listening with <em>more than one person at once</em>.</p>
<p>One place you can try this is an entrepreneur’s group in your local community. Generally the way it works is that you show up, pay something, they serve you a really bad lunch, and the real estate guy hits you up for business within the first 2 minutes.</p>
<p>Once you’ve detached the real estate guy, these can be quite fun. You can engage in listening and conversations with other people who are facing the same issues you are. Some stuff you’ll know a lot about, and you can teach them. Some stuff they’re going to be a lot smarter about than you are, which is when you want to shut up and take a few notes.</p>
<p>You can also go to <strong>parties</strong>. These are gatherings of people in one place for multiple real-time instances of conversing, listening, and friending, often accompanied by beer, tequila, and possibly pretzels.</p>
<p>These &#8220;parties&#8221; often include music, dancing, and laughter. Things may even liven up thanks to the noisy presence of one or more highly intoxicated people, who provide entertainment and a comforting sense of moral superiority.</p>
<h3>What do I know?</h3>
<p>I’m writing this post based on a dim memory of these old-school practices, since I haven’t done them for months. (OK, I did a warmup and had coffee this week with <a href="http://www.grandmamaryshow.com/">Grandma Mary</a>, which was delightful.)</p>
<p>I’ve developed quite an impressive blogger’s tan. In other words, I’m about the same color as the surface of the moon. I’ve developed it by holing up in my basement office recording and writing content, editing posts, coordinating transcripts, and other 80% activities.</p>
<p>So I thought I’d try something radical. I’m going to work on my 20% and fly out to Austin today to hang out with Brian and lots of other friends for a few days at the <a href="http://sxsw.com/interactive">South by Southwest Interactive conference</a>.</p>
<p>Maybe you’ll bump into me <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/naomi-dunford-ittybiz/">having a margarita with a pal</a>, crashing a party or two, or just wandering around the streets of Austin enjoying some unobstructed solar radiation.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll be back next week. Maybe. <img src="http://www.copyblogger.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley" /> </p>
<p><em><strong>About the Author</strong>: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/subscribe/">Copyblogger</a> and a co-founder of <a href="http://thirdtribemarketing.com/">Inside the Third Tribe</a>. She solemnly promises this is the last “funny” post you will see on Copyblogger for at least one month.</em></p>
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</div>
<p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Copyblogger/~4/wlctc6F3tXs" height="1" width="1" /></p>
<p><img src="http://feedhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/d6e2953090shake2-150x67.jpg" /></p>
<p>Originally posted here: <br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://feeds.copyblogger.com/~r/Copyblogger/~3/wlctc6F3tXs/" title="The Surprising Old-School Secret to Blogging Success">The Surprising Old-School Secret to Blogging Success</a></p>
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		<title>The First Week of Your Blog: Set Up Key Pages</title>
		<link>http://feedhat.com/the-first-week-of-your-blog-set-up-key-pages.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedhat.com/the-first-week-of-your-blog-set-up-key-pages.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:05:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[ One of the series of posts that we&#8217;re building here at ProBlogger is all about what to do in the first week of your new blog . We&#8217;re assuming you&#8217;ve already got your domain, chosen your blog platform and have installed a template/theme/design &#8211; but what comes next? ]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>
<p>One of the series of posts that we&#8217;re building here at ProBlogger is all about <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/02/16/what-to-do-in-your-first-week-of-blogging/">what to do in the first week of your new blog</a>. We&#8217;re assuming you&#8217;ve already got your domain, chosen your blog platform and have installed a template/theme/design &#8211; but what comes next?</p>
<p>So far we&#8217;ve covered:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/02/16/your-first-week-of-blogging-write-compelling-content/">Writing Your First Compelling Content</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/02/19/your-first-week-of-blogging-plan-your-future-blog-posts/">Planning Future Content</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Today we&#8217;re going to look at some of the key pages on your blog that can be worth setting up.</p>
<h3>Why &#8216;Pages&#8217; are Important</h3>
<p>When a new person arrives on your blog there are a variety of types of pages that they may look for that will help them to decide whether they want to remain connected with you (or that will help them to actually make that connection).</p>
<p>Many blogs come with some of these set up by default but you&#8217;ll want to personalise these defaults as much as possible and possibly create some new pages of your own. These might include:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>About Page</b> &#8211; setting up an about page is really important &#8211; it&#8217;s one of those pages that a new reader will head to in order to help them work out what your blog is about, who is behind it and to decide whether they&#8217;ll keep reading it. Read more on how to do it at <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/03/23/random-blog-tip-include-an-about-page/">Add an &#8216;About&#8217; Page to Your Blog</a> and <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/11/24/how-to-write-your-about-me-page/">How to Write Your &#8220;About Me&#8221; Page</a>.</li>
<li><b>Contact Page</b> &#8211; some bloggers get a little nervous about being contactable either out of a fear of being overwhelmed by emails or over privacy concerns. While I get this &#8211; there are many benefits from being contactable (it opens up opportunities to be contacted by potential partners, advertisers, other bloggers, the press and readers) and there are ways of safeguarding your privacy. If you use WordPress there are numerous contact page plugins that will help you to set up a page that will safeguard your privacy.</li>
<li><b>Subscribe Page</b> &#8211; most blog templates have subscription buttons and links built in by default &#8211; however not all of your readers will be familiar with what they mean or how to use them. While most of us as bloggers understand what that orange RSS symbol means &#8211; many will not. Over at my <a href="http://digital-photography-school.com/">Digital Photography</a> site where I have readers of all levels of tech savyness I have a <a href="http://digital-photography-school.com/subscribe-to-digital-photography-school">subscription page</a> which outlines the different subscription options that we offer. This page is visited a lot and converts very very well both with RSS and Email Subscription methods (note: later in this series we&#8217;re going to explore the idea of &#8217;subscription options&#8217; to help you think through how to let readers connect with your blog).</li>
<li><b>Other Pages</b> &#8211; there are a variety of other types of key pages that you might want to consider setting up, depending upon the goals of your site. These might include a &#8216;<b>Advertise with Us</b>&#8216; page, &#8216;<b>Press</b>&#8216; page, &#8216;<b>Disclaimer</b>&#8216; page, &#8216;<b>FAQ</b>&#8216; page, &#8216;<b>Resources</b>&#8216; page (if you&#8217;re selling something for example), a &#8216;Privacy Policy&#8217; page, &#8216;<b>Testimonial</b>&#8216; page (if you have some good ones from previous customers), a <b>404</b> page, a &#8216;<b>Resources&#8217;</b> page, an <b>Archives</b> page etc. Not all of these would be relevant for new blogs but for more information on these and others &#8211; I&#8217;ve previously outlined <a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/03/29/20-types-of-pages-that-every-blogger-should-consider/">20 types of pages that bloggers should consider</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>What pages have you got set up on your blog?</p>
<h3>Position Links to Your Pages Appropriately</h3>
<p>Once you&#8217;ve set up the pages that are important for your blog it is also important to think carefully about where you&#8217;ll link to these pages on your blog. Having the pages is one thing but you&#8217;ll also want to think about how you&#8217;ll be driving traffic to them.</p>
<p>This will depend upon your blog&#8217;s design but as with anything &#8211; make sure that the pages that are most important to you (for example an &#8216;About Page&#8217; or a &#8216;Contact Page&#8217; might be included in this category) &#8216;are linked to prominently on your blog. This might mean setting up a navigation area across the top of your blog or having one at the top of your sidebar.</p>
<p>Other less important pages might be linked to from your About Page or even in your footer (in this case I&#8217;d be putting things like disclaimer pages).</p>
<p>Post from: <a href="http://www.problogger.net">Blog Tips at ProBlogger</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.problogger.net/31dbbb-workbook/"><img src="http://www.problogger.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/468x60.jpg" width="468" height="60" alt="468x60.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/03/13/the-first-week-of-your-blog-set-up-key-pages/">The First Week of Your Blog: Set Up Key Pages</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.problogger.net/?p=10542&#038;akst_action=share-this" title="E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc." rel="nofollow">Share This</a>
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<a target="_blank" href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/71RZZEY6mWY/" title="The First Week of Your Blog: Set Up Key Pages">The First Week of Your Blog: Set Up Key Pages</a></p>
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		<title>U2 Validates Benefits of SEO</title>
		<link>http://feedhat.com/u2-validates-benefits-of-seo.html</link>
		<comments>http://feedhat.com/u2-validates-benefits-of-seo.html#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:46:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[SmallBusinessSem]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[seo]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[article-makes]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[band]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[check-it-out]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[management-team]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[microsoft]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[ My worlds are colliding. I mean my &#8220;U2 world&#8221; and my &#8220;SEO world.&#8221; I try to keep them separate, but this story makes that impossible. ]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>
<p>My worlds are colliding. I mean my &#8220;U2 world&#8221; and my &#8220;SEO world.&#8221; I try to keep them separate, but this story makes that impossible. Check it out on the <a href="http://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/taunton_news/5052202.Taunton_shopkeeper_restores_U2_Grammy/">Somerset County Gazette</a> web site.</p>
<p>Apparently, a local/small business owner recently got a job fixing a broken GRAMMY Award that belongs to U2. The article makes several cheesy references to U2 song titles, but here&#8217;s the part that matters:</p>
<h3>&#8220;&#8230;one of the band’s management team got in touch after typing in ‘trophy repairs’ into Google.&#8221;</h3>
<p>SEO FTW!</p>
<p><b>Advertisement:</b> <b>Never miss another fax again!</b> Starting as Low as $6.95 mo. Nextiva vfax is a professional-quality virtual faxing service that you can access from anywhere you have internet access! Including most smart phones and Microsoft products, you can even use your existing fax machine! Visit <a href="http://www.nextivafax.com/">www.nextivafax.com</a> for more details.</p>
<p>This is a post from Matt McGee&#8217;s blog, <a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/">Small Business Search Marketing</a>. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/u2-validates-benefits-of-seo/2898/">U2 Validates Benefits of SEO</a></p>
<p>No related posts.</p>
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<p>Excerpt from: <br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/u2-validates-benefits-of-seo/2898/" title="U2 Validates Benefits of SEO">U2 Validates Benefits of SEO</a></p>
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