Google Intros SearchWiki.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Google Intros SearchWiki

Google has added an interesting feature to the search interface called SearchWiki.

Essentially what this allows is the ability to add notes to your search results - wiki style. In addition, you can move the results around on the page. You need to be logged into your Google account to access the full feature set.

The changes you make only affect your own searches. But SearchWiki also is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the community has collectively edited the search results by clicking on the “See all notes for this SearchWiki” link.

So, my question is, what will Google do with what it learns from the collective dynamic search notes. Will this help/hurt rankings, will SEO folks start looking for ways to spam this, will it change the way you interact with Google?

I’ve always admired Google’s ability to keep it simple, it will be interesting to see if this is valuable or simply feature creep. Check out the video demo here

Business Slogans to Live By.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Business Slogans to Live By

I received word from a company called Wallblank, that is doing a pretty cool thing. It’s a form of fine art crowdsourcing. Wallblank curates limited prints from selected artists and then offers them each day until they are sold out. I love this model for all involved and find many of the prints very suitable for office settings.

Each Friday they have a no profit day (another very cool strategy) and offer all proceeds for the day to an organization in need. This week’s no profit print offers advice in the form of a saying I’ve long struggled to live in my entrepreneurial aspirations.

This week’s print says - Starting is Easy, Finishing is Hard and all the profits go to one of favorite organizations - Kiva.org

I decided to add some of my favorite sayings and apply them to the core elements of a business. I’m seeing a nifty line of business slogans to live by t-shirts here!

• Leadership - Strategy before tactics
• Marketing - Marketing is a habit, not an event
• Management - Fix the problem not the blame
• Operations - Starting is easy, finishing is hard
• Finance - Compete on value, not on price

So, got any you want to share?

Twitter for Business Live Webinar.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Twitter for Business Live Webinar

I get a lot of requests for more information about how businesses are using the hot social media Twitter for business.

So, I’m teaming up with social media rockstar, Chris Brogan, to present a live webinar called aptly - Twitter for Business. We will cover basics, strategies, tips, tools and tactics for business folks wanting to explore and enhance the use of this powerful networking and publishing tool.

The session is Thursday, Dec 11th, Noon CST and you can register here at the Duct Tape Webinar Center

I have also recently partnered with iLinc Web and Video Conference for all my webinars (thus the commercial message below) - while at my webinar center you might want to click on the system test tab to make sure you won’t have any issues logging in on the day of webinar. iLinc is very light weight from a user standpoint and both mac and PC friendly. As part of the iLinc sponsorship they have offered to host a totally optional demo at the end of this session for anyone who would like to take a test drive of the system - again, totally optional.

This episode of the Duct Tape Coaching Excellence Series is brought to you by iLinc - Web and Video Conferencing that’s easy to use, affordable and powerful enough to make your online meetings come to life.

Kiva Gives Entrepreneurs Some Wonderful Perspective.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Kiva Gives Entrepreneurs Some Wonderful Perspective

Mark Flannery co-founded Kiva.org with his wife a few years ago and their success has forever altered the way entrepreneurs in the developing world get access to the small amounts of capital that can make a huge impact on their businesses and lives. In doing so they’ve also opened up an entirely new channel of micro lending to businesses and individuals who would like a way to help the smallest of businesses get going.

I think it sort of brings all this talk of economic downturn into better perspective for me.

Matt stopped by the Duct Tape Marketing podcast recently to share the Kiva story.

The incredible thing about this system is that it’s a lending, not gifting, system that allows anyone to lend as little as $25 that might go towards a tiny fish selling business in Mozambique allowing the owner to buy more product and in doing provide a necessary service to a community.

Here’s how it works:

1. You go to the Kiva site and choose an entrepreneur who has posted and been screened for a need
2. You make a loan payment for as little as $25 through Paypal or credit card
3. Receive a journal so you can keep track of how your entrepreneur is doing
4. Withdraw or reloan the proceeds from your load

The amazing thing about this program which now raises millions of dollars a month for poor entrepreneurs is the load payback is at about 99%.

There a several other volunteer opportunities as well.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by iLinc - Web and Video Conferencing that’s easy to use, affordable and powerful enough to make your online meetings really come alive.

The Crowd Spoke and Was Heard.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

The Crowd Spoke and Was Heard

A week or so ago I publicized my partnering with Microsoft Office Live Small Business to produce a primer on using social media for small business.

While readers appreciated the guide there were many comments on the post that didn’t appreciate the process of registering and logging in to the Microsoft Live ID system in order to download the ebook. In a demonstration that social media works - a conversation was started and the course was altered because of it - you can now download the free ebook without registration or login. Way to go crowd - way to go Microsoft!

In my ongoing effort to help small businesses understand, prioritize and use social media tools, I teamed with Microsoft Office Live Small Business on a new very practical e-book called Let’s Talk: Social Media for Small Businesses. It is available for frictionless download here

Do You Suffer from Occasional Contentapation?.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Do You Suffer from Occasional Contentapation?

You’ve got a blog, you’re getting into the education based, content rich, web presence thing, but sometimes you just can’t think of anything to say. Don’t worry, you’re not alone and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Millions of marketers have begun to complain about the symptoms commonly diagnosed as Contentapation.

The good news is, there is a cure. The cure I’m referring does not come in pill form though, it’s a natural, organic and systematic approach to fighting and curing those outbreaks of feeling as though you have nothing to say. (Now, some might suggest this is a disease that shouldn’t be cured - after all, maybe you don’t have anything to say. My belief is that everyone has something to say, it just needs a little shove to get out.)

Here are some quick tips to add to your daily routine:
1) Set up search alerts in Google Alerts or Tweetbeep so you get a steady stream of ideas related to search terms in your industry
2) Use an RSS reader - Subscribe to lots of related blogs in Google Reader or Bloglines and visit your reader to search for ideas that you could explore deeper, apply differently or simply pass on to your readers.
3) Get to know some Social Bookmark sites - Use sites such Digg or del.icio.us to find out what other people are bookmarking, find interesting or are hot right now. This is also great tool to use to bookmark and store sites and pages you might want to right about in a future post.
4) Use an idea notebook - Get a Moleskin notebook and create list of the top ten topics you know you need to write about often because consist of important keyword phrases for search and refer to this list weekly
5) Tap the FAQs - Your customers, prospects, partners, journalists, suppliers and employees ask you questions every single day. Get in the habit of answering these questions on your blog as I’m guessing others might want to know the answers as well.

You can source one or all of the above tactics anytime you’re not feeling wordy but know you need to feed the beast.

Warning - if any of the above approaches cause you to post to your blog more than four times in one day, seek immediate medical help.

Great SEO Tool on Sale Today Only.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Great SEO Tool on Sale Today Only

I just stumbled upon what looks like a very cool do-it-yourself SEO tool and for today only I get to offer it to my readers for $10/mo for life - this offer ends at Midnight PST today. (It’s usually $99/mo - I don’t think I would pay that much, but at $10/mo it’s a steal. By the way, I am using this tool, paying $10/mo, and passing this discount on to my readers, but I don’t profit at all from your sign-ups.)

The tool is called LotusJump and it’s very simple and very useful. You enter the URL for your site and three key search phases. The tool then presents you with a list of tasks that fall into categories such as building high-quality competitive backlinks, buzz, content and directory listings. The thing I like the most about this is that it’s not simply a list of tasks, each task comes with the “how” built right in. You simply click and follow the instructions. The tool also learns over time and keeps presenting new and ever more relevant tasks.

Here’s a mini-sample of tasks it lists for me.
• Build a backlink at michelemiller.blogs.com - marketing - Competitive Backlink
• Post a comment at cindyking.biz - marketing - Buzz
• Write an article on MSN Groups - marketing - Content-building
• Submit www.ducttapemarketing.com to MavicaNet - Directory submission

I just love how simple and direct it is. Do this, do that. For people who don’t really know how to find this kind of road map, this is a gold mine - for people like me, who know how, but sometimes don’t want to take the time to dig up the road map - it’s still a gold mine - in fact, using this tool, you can delegate your SEO activities to just about anyone.

There are lots of options out there when it comes to getting your website to rank higher in the search engines, but this simple tool really shines when it comes to ease of use and low cost. Watch this short movie at lotusjump to see how it works.

Raising Your Visibility Online.

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Raising Your Visibility Online

Increasing your visibility and raising your expert status via social networks is the subject of a recent episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast. My guest is Nancy Marmolejo, CEO of Sizzibility, who I fittingly ran across on several social networking sites.

Online branding, reputation management, content publishing, networking and other social media strategies are quickly becoming required elements in marketing. The ability to find one’s way around a Twitter like tool will become course work in corporate and education classrooms in the near future (one can only hope.)

Nancy shares a very direct, step-by-step approach for anyone wanting to raise their visibility using today’s rich set of Web 2.0 tools. Check out her list of online pr resources too.

We ended this chat with some thoughts on Latino marketing strategies and agreed that the topic would make a great “panel of experts” kind of discussion - more on that later!

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by iLinc - Web and Video Conferencing that’s easy to use, affordable and powerful enough to make your online meetings really come alive.