To hear the complete series, follow these links:

• Marketing your Website #1 of 5: Focus on Content and Code
• Marketing Your Website #2 of 5: Participate and Network
• Marketing Your Website #3 of 5: Build Your Word of Mouth and Viral Marketing
• Marketing Your Website #4 of 5: Create Press and Write Articles
• Marketing Your Website #5 of 5: Sync Up with Search Engines and Online Tools

If you would like to download the podcast series directly, you can control-click (or right-click on a PC) these links and save them to your hard drive:

• Marketing your Website #1 of 5: Focus on Content and Code (mp3)
• Marketing Your Website #2 of 5: Participate and Network (mp3)
• Marketing Your Website #3 of 5: Build Your Word of Mouth and Viral Marketing (mp3)
• Marketing Your Website #4 of 5: Create Press and Write Articles (mp3)
• Marketing Your Website #5 of 5: Sync Up with Search Engines and Online Tools (mp3)

This week’s Carnival of the Capitalists for January 29, 2008 is up at Bizosphere. This week’s host is cehwiedel from One Man Band. Of note in this week’s CotC:

Sharing the Wealth

Top Experts Dish with their Best Kept Marketing Secrets

The article some great insider tricks from 25 top marketing experts. As a bonus, you can also read and share your own secrets in the comments. I think the most important take-home lesson is the inferred secret, though: let 25 top people talk about themselves and they will link back to you! (I actually saw this piece the first time on Guy Kawasaki’s twitter feed, before seeing it here.)

Worms in my Apple

Apple’s Achilles Heel

I shared a lot of the author’s thoughts while I was listening to Steve Jobs’ keynote speech this year. As a long-time Apple user (I’m writing this on my MacBook right now), I have often thought "HUH?!?" when hearing some of the things Apple has announced. I mean, come on, Apple TV? I’m still upset that Apple blocked the development of instant-view movies by us Mac-based Netflix subscribers to pave the way for their own movie download service. I curse Steve Jobs every time I see the error message telling me to visit from a Windows machine in the Netflix instant viewing section.

If you would like to download the podcast directly, you can control-click (or right-click on a PC) this link and save it to your hard drive.

Stay tuned to Small Business Essentials (perhaps by using the convenient subscribe buttons to your right, if you are viewing this at the website!) and I will update you weekly as each one is released.

Recession? What Recession?

Selling In A Recession – Why Some People Are Going To Crash And Others Are Going To Fly

This one started out a bit weak in the "keeping my interest" department, but finished with 5 solid sales tips.

That StubHub Clashes with your New StumbleUpon

Complete List of 2007 Web / Technology Acquisitions

2007 certainly was a big year for buyouts! I was surprised to see some of the items on this very extensive list.

How to Lose a Few Extra Pounds this Year

How to Manage a Deadbeat Employee

This article was great on motivating people, but I probably would have fired a person who exhibited the kind of behavior described in the article long before I tried to develop them as a person.

Not the Mention You Thought it Would Be

The Most And Least Profitable Businesses To Start

The top 10 and bottom 10 lists cracked me up. When I think, "I’d really like to start up a business", I don’t think of a doctor’s office or chiropractic center. What was the point in including so many results that were simply professions that required an advanced degree? No one goes to school to be a doctor, lawyer, dentist or accountant to open up a Subway sandwich shop. Most of the listed "businesses" were simply extensions of the schooling these people already obtained before opening their own business.

Future CotC

Remember, future carnivals will now stay exclusively at Bizosphere, although the format will continue to change as it evolves.

If you would like to download the podcast directly, you can control-click (or right-click on a PC) this link and save it to your hard drive.

Stay tuned to Small Business Essentials (perhaps by using the convenient subscribe buttons to your right, if you are viewing this at the website!) and I will update you weekly as each one is released.

Greener Bleach?

Battle of the Bees

I was as unaware of the sale of Burt’s Bees to the Clorox company, just as the author of this entry was. It seems an odd branding choice to take a high-end product like Burt’s Bees, which is sold in places like Whole Foods, and express a desire to sell it at Walmart. I’m really not sure how that is going to work out for the Burt’s Bees brand, but I do wish Clorox luck on greening up their company.

Churning the Sale Cycle

7 tips to boost profits before you close the box

If there was one sure thing small businesses could do to increase their sales, it would be to create additional sales from the customers they already have. They already know you, like you, and are willing to purchase from you—why not use that to your advantage to increase your sales?

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!

As I have written before, there are many reasons why some people should not have a blog. To elaborate on this with the gas station owner:

Writing skills are important.

Many gas station owners, especially in this area, either don’t speak English, speak English as a second language, or lack the writing skills of a professional writer. Running a gas station requires good management skills, but not necessarily good written and oral skills. If you do not speak English fluently or do not write well, your blog is not going to be a strong marketing piece for your company.

Blogging is not cost-effective in this niche.

Which of these takes less time and costs a gas station owner less:

• Setting up and maintaining a blog, or
• Putting out a sign on the corner with prices and specials?

I’m going to make an educated guess in saying the sign is also more effective as well.

This niche has already been done.

Do you think the local gas station will have more internet marketing power than Yahoo! Answers, AAA, or About.com? There is just no way my local gas station is going to surpass the power of a search engine or a social media site.

Conversions and traffic are not guaranteed.

After composing his posts, the gas station owner would then have to spend time building traffic to his site … so now he is spending time marketing both his blog online and his company offline. All of this effort does not mean any of his stumbling-in readers will convert to regulars to build trust, nor does it mean his blog readers will convert to sales at the pump. In fact, I’d guess that the conversion rate from first-timers to regulars, and from readers to gas-purchasers, is pretty low in this scenario.

Gas stations are local businesses.

Very few people will drive more than a mile or 2 out of their way to fill up their gas tank, and it usually has to be quite a deal to be worth it. Having a blog will not attract customers to your station from 3 cities over. What are the odds that people living in your immediate area will find your blog through Google, become a regular reader, and then start using your station instead of their regular one?

Gas stations don’t require experts.

It’s gas, not rocket science—the station provides it and you put it in your car. Many people don’t even know who works there or owns the station because they just pay at the pump and drive off.

The proposed questions can be found on Yahoo! Answers.

Most single-topic quick-answer types of sites don’t have long-term readers or regulars.

Running a gas station is time-consuming.

When the owner is not running his business, do you think he’d rather be home blogging or spending time with his family? My husband works long hours, and I know that thinking about work is the last thing he wants to do when he gets home.

Your Opinion?

What do you think? Do gas stations need blogs? Can every business benefit from having a blog?

Update

The discussion has been continued over at Business and Blogging and the StartupNation Community. Follow the links for direct access.

A Touchier-Feelier Business Model

Employee Engagement, Fog Sculpting, and Measuring Love

I’m really glad to see someone like Charles H Green, someone who I’d consider to be at the top of his game, discussing the feelings in business that you can’t measure on a pie chart or model in a graph. Having employees that are invested in your business is important, and it seems like a concept that is totally forgotten in today’s world of measuring employee value in terms of sales to payroll ratios.

Get ‘Em Going!

16 Ways To Motivate Employees

Proper motivation is a key to employee engagement, so this entry from Business Opportunities and Ideas is a good read.

Making Money from Content

When Should You Monetize Your Website?

This is a discussion I’ve had with many clients when trying to determine their business model. I really like the arguments the author presents here.

Press Releases

How to Issue a Press Release

Additional resources:

• 5 Steps to Marketing Your Website Step 4: Create Press and Write Articles
• 7 Steps to Successful Public Relations

I liked the article, but it was a little light on information so I included some additional links here. I think all of the link titles are pretty self-explanatory.

Working from Home doesn’t mean Working Alone

Welcome to the 21st century workforce

I really like this article from Dawn Rivers Baker, because it breaks through some of the stereotypes of working from home. I don’t think you have to live those stereotypes as long as you can think outside the box a bit—which is the same kind of thinking that lead you to be an entrepreneur in the first place!

If you would like to download the podcast directly, you can control-click (or right-click on a PC) this link and save it to your hard drive.

Stay tuned to Small Business Essentials (perhaps by using the convenient subscribe buttons to your right, if you are viewing this at the website!) and I will update you weekly as each one is released.