I read a post today on how a corner gas station owner could benefit from having a blog.

Challenge: Can You Stump Business and Blogging?

I know you’re going to read it and then tell me it was not about gas stations needing blogs, but about the benefits of blogging for any and every business. My argument is that this post is absurd and misleading in its self-serving logic. (Of course a site that generates ad revenue based on content for business blogging would say every business needs a blog!) I know the piece was meant to be fun and attract traffic, but this was just over the top. I would also not take such offense if I didn’t see this same sentiment echoed by 95% of the web developers and marketing professionals out there. To combat this problem, and to help the non-tech people just looking for advice on marketing their business and their website, I offer this:

Every business does not need a blog!

Continue reading this article »

I have been getting a lot of traffic in the past few weeks from StumbleUpon. I was discussing this with a colleague of mine, and he asked me how I attract traffic from StumbleUpon. The answer is: I don’t. I do my best to write good content, and the links will follow.

It’s not about writing for search engines or links or anything else. You write for people.

If you’d like to learn more about what I mean by that, check out the recently released podcast I did on using content and code to market your website. You can also read the discussion that came out of it.

There’s a really great article on the empire of LeBron James, the NBA star, at Fortune / CNN Money: LeBron Inc. The building of a billion-dollar athlete. (Thanks to BusinessPundit for the tip-off.) What interested me the most was the "summit" that LeBron and his marketing team held at the end of the NBA season, and how LeBron’s team aligned themselves with the top consultants. Even though LeBron is just a baby in the business world, as he’ll be turning 23 this month, he is already demonstrating many fine examples of good business strategy and execution. These include:

Continue reading this article »

If blogging is a business itself, much like publishing or content production, then it only makes sense that the rules of good blogging would be the a variation on the foundations of running a business. As I was reading a guest post by Skellie on Problogger entitled "5 Powerful Techniques to Help Your Posts Stand Out", I was thinking about how her points could be applied to the small business owner. I thought I would reframe her examples to look at the larger view of the entrepreneur, bloggers included.

Continue reading this article »

As Craigslist does not provide information on page views or clicks, I have devised a few methods to determine how many clicks come from a particular ad. Some of these require programming knowledge and some do not, but all are good for tracking your campaigns.

Continue reading this article »

There has been a lot of talk lately about Behavioral Targeting in online marketing. According to many sources, it is the most effective method for online marketing, and the spending on this type of advertising is growing quickly. But is this type of advertising right for the small business owner? We’ll examine some reasons of why it may not be.

Continue reading this article »

For a complete guide to marketing your website, please check out my updated special feature on StartupNation: 5 Steps to Marketing your Website.

This is the third installment of our three-part series on building your traffic after your website launch. In case you missed it, you can go back and review Part 1 on using forums to boost your PageRank, and Part 2 on using e-mail to build traffic.

Continue reading this article »

For a complete guide to marketing your website, please check out my updated special feature on StartupNation: 5 Steps to Marketing your Website.

Part 1 in this series discussed using forums and online communities to give yourself a traffic boost. In this installment, I will give you some ideas on how to use your e-mail and personal network to get your PageRank off the ground when you launch a new website.

Continue reading this article »

For a complete guide to marketing your website, please check out my updated special feature on StartupNation: 5 Steps to Marketing your Website.

Now that your site is done and live, what is your next step? TRAFFIC! This article is the start of a 3-article series on kickstarting your site’s marketing - for free! Part one focuses on ideas to get customers knocking at your door once you are open for business by using forums. Part 2 is about networking and using your e-mail. Part 3 will discuss press releases and how to make one.

Continue reading this article »

NHG: This article is a compilation of articles written by a friend of NHG on the subject of copywriting. The information is edited and reprinted with permission of the original author, Mike, the CEO of Scenomics.

Continue reading this article »