Companies interested in doing SEO find themselves in an interesting conundrum. Do they:

1. Contract out their SEO to a reputable internet marketing agency?

2. Hire an SEO expert to work in-house? Or

3. Dump the job on someone already working in the IT department and let him be in charge of his own on-the-job training?

The most important thing these companies need to determine is whether or not they can get in-house results that will match those provided by experts in from outside internet marketing agency. If you are in this conundrum now, you will likely find that it is possible…

Here are 3 keys to saving yourself an enormous amount of time and expense as you prepare to start your own business.

1-Don’t Spend a Lot on Marketing…at First. This may sound like a crazy notion, but don’t spend a lot on marketing until you’re clear about your business. This sounds crazy because, if you’re starting your own business, then you should know exactly what your business is about. But part of starting your own business is running into brick walls and changing directions when necessary. What this amounts to is the fact that your business will look very different one year out than it did on your first day. So don’t spend a ridiculous amount of money on marketing until you’ve hit those brick walls and are very clear about the direction you’re heading.

There are some things you can spend money on at first. These things are critical items that…

It seems that some business owners are reluctant to start business blogs for a variety of reasons. Some are afraid that they’ll burn out and lose followers after working hard to get them. Others are afraid that they won’t have anything to say. Still others are afraid that the time commitment will be too much to manage. If you’re one of these people, stop making excuses and start blogging! Here are 9 keys for successful business blogging.

Have a Conversation. The point of a blog is not to lecture, nor is it to push your products and services. Instead, the point of a blog is informal, informational communication in which your readers can learn more about you, your products, and all that your business has to offer them. By engaging potential customers in conversation, you give them the opportunity to learn to trust you, which increases the likelihood…

One of the most difficult things to learn as a small business owner using the internet for inbound marketing is how to create good content. Business blog content has to walk the fine line between being the same old advertising spiel and still being useful for marketing purposes. Here are 5 ways to ensure that your business blog will enhance your business.

Optimize Your Content. Every post you write needs to be optimized. That’s right…every post. Start off by determining how successful your content is. How many people read your post and how long did they stay on your page? How did they get to your post? Did they comment on it? Use this data as you create future posts. It can help you…

If you own a small business, you may have already given up on the notion of branding yourself. After all, that’s something that only big companies with big budgets can afford, right? Not so fast. Here are 5 ways to brand yourself for free, and maybe even make a little bit of money in the process:

1. Develop for Display. If you can create visual brand that stands out from the crowd and looks hip and edgy, you can actually get people to pay you for the privilege of displaying it. Extreme sports companies like surfing, skating, and snowboarding companies have been doing this for years. The challenge is…

If you are the owner of a small business, it’s not news to you that you simply can’t put the same amount of money in your marketing budget as can large, multinational corporations. The good news is, however, that you can level the marketing playing field by embracing word-of-mouth marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing works to your advantage because nothing is more compelling to a potential customer that hearing rave reviews from a current customer. Social networking has taught us that most people make their buying decisions based on what they’ve heard from people they trust.

When you embrace a word-of-mouth strategy for marketing your product, you’re investing in…

Owning your own business is difficult enough without having to worry about finding the perfect balance of marketing strategies. Stick solely to traditional marketing strategies and you’ll find yourself potentially missing an enormous demographic. Try to milk the internet for all it’s worth and you’ll find yourself completely overwhelmed by the number of tools and application available for internet marketing. But what if you used social networking sites as a happy medium between traditional and hard-core internet marketing strategies? Using this one tool could make a huge difference in your business without overwhelming you altogether. Here are 5 ways to get started using social media in your marketing strategy.

1. Create a Strategy. Your competitors have already created a strategy for using social media, so chances are you’re already behind. This means thinking intentionally about how to use social media instead of randomly opening an account here and joining a group there. Spend some time determining the kinds of sites available and evaluating what role they might have in your marketing strategy. Then make a plan to…

If you’re a small business owner, then you know the importance of hiring great employees with the least amount of expense. Not only do you want to hire qualified employees who will work for a wage that you can afford, but you don’t want to break the bank in the process of recruiting. Here are 7 steps to hiring the right person for the job.

1. Clear Job Description. The first thing you need to do is to create a clear and concise job description with as much detail as necessary. This is only way to make your expectations clear and to measure an employee’s job performance. Don’t do anything else until…

Every entrepreneur dreams of making it big! Here are 8 keys to making it happen.

1. Don’t Do It if You Don’t Love it. You’re only going to succeed if you love what you’re doing. Your love for your business is what keeps you going even when things look bleak or, worse yet, boring. Your passion it what gets you out of bed everyday to face what it sometimes thankless work. If you don’t really love what you’re doing then you’re not going to see it through to the finish. Never make money your primary goal. Your primary goal should be to have fun doing what you love.

2. Be Relentless. Persistence is often the only difference between wild success and abysmal failure. If you’re challenged, stand up to the challenge, whether it’s another person or a business setback. If you back down, you’re going to lose respect for yourself and doubt your ability to make your business succeed. If you truly believe in what you’re doing, then…

You can’t go anywhere right now without hearing about the economy. Food and gas prices are increasing, and although most of us aren’t running huge banks or trying to balance the federal budget, the stress of the current economic downturn is certainly trickling down to the point that we can feel it. But one of the last things that we want to do in the middle of a rotten economy is slam on the brakes of our own businesses, you know, just in case things get worse. Instead, one of the best things we can do, for our business, for our own sanity, and for the economy, is to step on the gas. Continue your inbound marketing efforts, publish articles that others will find relevant and helpful, and keep networking. Here are 6 reasons why you shouldn’t let the current economy keep you from focusing on your inbound marketing efforts.

1. Time Over Money. The good thing about inbound marketing is that it requires you to invest far more time than money. So take the time to…