Article marketing can be a great internet marketing strategy to build your brand awareness online and to build your SEO.  Here are some of the reasons why article marketing works (and by the way, article marketing is writing an article, sometimes called an ezine, and then submitting it to a article site – like freeezinearticles.com – where you are then showing your expertise and knowledge in the form of an article and giving yourself the ability to link your profile back to your site or blog):

1.  Future clients are looking for online information that can help them with a specific problem.  When you have an article available to them that gives them information to solve the problem, you now have the opportunity to help that prospect become a client
2. Publishing articles, just like publishing a book gives you instant credibility as an expert.
3. The more articles you write and publish online for people to use, the more you will start to show up in the search engines and on other people sites with your article, making you the expert in the subject.
4. Articles written give you quality links back to your site, improving your SEO
5. An article gives a prospect to read about what you know. . .if they like what they read, then they will probably opt in to your newsletter, your information, your products or your services

The process is so easy to get started.  If you need help setting up your article marketing strategy, please contact us, your internet marketing consulting team.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

This is a simple internet marketing strategy:  No matter what, if your site is full of ads and links, your site looks suspicious and no one buys, reads or believes a site that looks like spam.  I can turn this into the simplest of examples:

I am wearing jeans and flip flops and walk into a meeting . . .will the attendees think I am an expert?

I am wearing a powersuit and arrive with my iPhone and Mac . . .do I look like an expert now?

Seriously, starting a blog and filling it with Google Ads from AdSense and other banner ads, flashing in my face, says to me (and to the general world):  I built this site so that you will click on one of these links and I can make some money . . .never mind the information, which is filled with keywords but has no actual content or relevance or education.  What kind of internet marketing strategy is that?

So, make sure your blog is clean, simple and minimize the ads – you will be taken seriously and acquire relevant followers and it will be easier to build your SEO.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

Isn’t it cool when the Internet marketing strategies that you preach about building SEO actually work quickly?  I recently showed up in my own Google Alert . . .I mean yeah, me and that Alison Elliott actress show up for Google Alerts on Alison Elliott and yes, I show up for Google Alerts on Corner Your Market and other easy words but I have recently started working on some tougher words…words like “Internet marketing consulting” and “Internet marketing strategies.”

These words require a deeper level of commitment in my SEO work.  So, it was really exciting when my blog, live for only a few weeks and a blog post, submitted to an online blog directory, caused me to start showing up in Google Alerts for my keywords so quickly.  Yes, it took some planning, some set up and will continue to be a blogging requirement for me and my business, but Google now alerts people about me and if that isn’t cool, than I don’t know what is!

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

As in anything, consistency is key.  If you are training to be an Olympic swimmer or run a triathlon, you need to train on a regular basis.  If you are learning the piano, the amount of time you practice will determine the speed of your success and so on . . .you know this right?

So, you need to apply that same principle to your internet marketing, your social media, your advertising and marketing, your blog writing, your networking and your SEO.  Consistency is Key!    Lets start small:

Step 1.  You have a blog, you have a Facebook fan page, you have a Twitter account, you have a twAitter account and you have the keywords you are focusing on to increase business . . .if not, run out and get those.  Or, if the thought overwhelms you, contact us and we can help.

Step 2.  Set up a plan for this week.  If today is Wednesday, make your plan for Wednesday to Wednesday.  If today is Friday, plan your week for Monday or to start with a little blogging on Sunday.  Make the decision and then move to step 3.

Step 3.  Take out a piece of paper and add the five days of the week down the left hand side with space in each section.  Feel free to do this on your computer.  I say write because I am more of a planner on paper (we can get into that later).

Step 4:  write in the articles or posts you are going to write for which day . . .and I hope you know you can schedule a post you write on your blog to post on a different day of the week.  Next, add in which days you are going to write on your Facebook business page and about what.  Then, create a quick Tweet for at least once, if not twice a day.  All of these need to have your keywords in them.

Step 5:  pick the day you are going to do all of this, the time you are choosing each day or who you are going to hire to help you with your internet marketing!

When you sit down to do this, open all your pages – blog dashboard, facebook business page and twaitter.  As you write your blog and schedule the publishing, add the post to Facebook and Twitter with a program that will preschedule it to post and tweet on the day your blog post goes live.  Make it a habit by doing this over and over and over and over and over . . . . . . . . remember, consistency is key.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

One way to really get familiar with what is going on in your keyword on the Internet . . .is to set up some Google Alerts.  You can monitor the chatter for your business.  This is really easy to do and a great internet marketing tip for search engine optimization. 

1.  Go to Google Alerts and sign into your account (or sign up if you don’t have a Google account yet)

2.  Set your keyword alerts.  Be careful on overloading the information you are about to receive.  Simple pick one to three of your focused keywords and then decide how often you want the updates and where

3.  Check your email or texts to read the alerts. 

These alerts help you see who is on Google’s radar for those keywords.  When you write in your blog or on your site, do your new posts show up for your keywords?  Who shows up and for what?  What are they doing?

These alerts serve a dual purpose.  You can monitor your success in showing up for your keywords but you can also keep up to date of what is going on in your industry specifically.

As always, if you need some help, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

Now that you have set up your blog there is a lot to do to customize it.  I am a fan of pushing every button and link inside your dashboard so that you become very familiar with your blogging software and what it can do for your blog.  From an Internet Marketing standpoint, there is so much to customize to make the most of your site:  your page names, your keywords, your tags, your categories, your external and internal links, cross linking, post titles, the words inside each post, a consistent posting structure, pertinent information for your readers, forms for signing up, sequencing when the sign up is complete, what you are going to give your readers to interest them, who is writing about you, your RSS feed, what you are reading, ping backs, comments, videos, photos, photo tags . . .the list goes on and on.

One thing to do immediately:  add the All In One SEO Pack Plugin to your blog.  This will help you with your search engine optimization.  To find the plugin inside your blogging dashboard (if you are using WordPress):

1.  Go to your Plugins section on the right side

2. Click on the “Add New” button near the top

3.  In the search section, type “All In One SEO” 

When you find the plugin, install it and then you will need to activate it and add all your keywords, change your page titles and customize the whole program.  It will make a huge difference in your search engine recognition.  If you need some help implementing this, don’t hesitate to contact us. 

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

You have done your keyword research and purchased your domain name.  Now it is time to set up a blog so that you can write about your business and focus on bringing the world to the realization that you exist and you are a valuable source for your keyword(s).  By the way, start with only three keywords to focus on.

You have a choice:  set up a blog that is hosted elsewhere – think WordPress.com or Blogger – or you can set up a self-hosted blog where you have more control (this is what I recommend).  To do this, you start at WordPress.org and can host in a variety of places.  If you are new to this, I recommend GoDaddy for hosting on this one.  I don’t host there but it is a good place to start.

There are a lot of resources to help you with this process, including information right on their site.  You can purchase this ebook about setting up your own custom wordpress blogon GoDaddy.

If this is overwhelming to you or you don’t have the time to work on your SEO, contact us and we can help.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

After you have done your Google Keyword Research and decided on the keywords you are going to target, you need to purchase a domain name.  I like to purchase my domain names from GoDaddy.com. 

Ideally, your domain name should have your keyword in it and you need to register it for at least three years.  You may have to really get inventive with your domain name, trying dashes and adding word to find the perfect domain name for your site or blog. 

Registering your domain name for three years ensures that the search engines are taking your seriously because you are taking your business seriously – saying you are here to stay. 

So, go buy your domain names and stay tuned for the next steps to better search engine placement.

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of Corner Your Market Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, and Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online , you can sign up to our small business marketing e-guide here.

Why Hire An Internet Marketing Company?

I am really excited to help you with your SEO.  Search Engine Optimzation is truly important to your business.  It is one of the main internet marketing consulting  jobs I work on for businesses.  I know it is easy to ignore it because it seems so mysterious . . . what is it?  why should I spend money on that again?  And if I don’t, what happens? (trust me, it is easy to ignore but might make the difference between an acceptable revenue stream and a life changing revenue stream).

The simple answer is this.  Someone is looking for your service or product online right now . . . really, right now.  This person is ready to buy or in the research process as a future buyer.  This is who you want on your site looking at your business.  So, when they put in “kids shoes las vegas” or “motorcycle helmets”  do you show up?  And, better yet, do you show up in the sought after natural SEO area.  The area in the middle left side of the search answers page? 

Well . . .everything good that will come from your Seach Engine Optimization work will start here:  RESEARCH.

1.  Use this Google Keyword Tool here

2.  Start typing in what you think people search on for SEO and type them in (one word at a time)

3.  Next step, look at the local monthly searches.  The larger the number the more possible competition between others

4.  Now open a new web browser and type in that exact keyword into Google.  Who is competing with you here?  Are the people paying to be here the same or similar to your business?  Is this where you want to show up?

5.  Repeat this process until you have narrowed it down to a nice three keyword target with reasonably low search volume (less than 12K a month) to start working on

More to come!

Alison Elliott is a Marketing Expert and founder of CYM Global Marketing.  To get these tips along with tips on SEO for Small Business, Social Media Marketing for Small Business, Unique, Interesting and Great Marketing Ideas for Small Business ,  and Help Creating Online Marketing Plans for Small Businesses, Businesses and Software to help Market your Small Business online ,