When it comes to link building, frequently clients feel that “more is better”. They want to see results quickly. Everyone thinks that hundreds of quick directory submissions are what they want. It gives them a false feeling that they are getting the most for their money. Don’t get me wrong…submitting to directory listings is not a bad idea, as they can be a great foundation when beginning a link building strategy, but submitting to the directories that run automated software tools, that submit to over 1000 directories in about an hour is more damaging than you would think. Submissions should be done more naturally, manually inputted, and the directories listings you choose to consider your web site should be useful and selective to whom they include in their directories.

Getting a few appropriate relevant links, from the right places can be much more beneficial than getting 1000’s of links from the wrong places. The most valuable links are the ones that are relevant to your site, from the resources and sites that are the most suitable to yours. They don’t necessarily have to be about your “theme” of your website… they just have to be somewhat related. When searching for links, networking with trusted sites similar to yours can be very beneficial. Trusted sites may include those of friends, family, well known clients, video sites, blogs, reference sites, social media and more. You will want to link to these trusted sites, but to maintain your network you must work to be a well trusted site also. You have to remember that link building is most successful when you have a disproportionate amount of inbound to outbound links.

When you propose that another site add a link of yours to their site, you will need to provide them with something they feel is of value to them. If you have something tangible, your potential link host may like a sizeable sample sent to them, or you may try trading services. By exchanging products or services, you will attain more link juice than you would if you did reciprocal linking. The goal is to increase your site’s weight and thus it’s ranking, not to have the links wash each other out. Be as creative and ambitious as you can in your link building campaign and it will greatly improve your chances of being successful. Do remember the power of the few. Few links with greater relevance can be much more profitable to your site than hundreds or even thousands of weak or non relevance links.

From the early days of MySpace, to the newer cool apps of today like Facebook, Del.icio.us and Twitter, when it comes to social media, there are NUMEROUS applications, widgets, gadgets, and much more to choose from, abuse, and stay up all hours of the night reviewing your “friends” status updates, comments, various posts, and more. Today I want to spend a little time and talk about one of my favorite social media apps: Facebook.

In my previous days when I was heavily involved in real estate, I was always keeping on top of technology (I still do), and much of the research I found spoke highly of social media, and the infamous Facebook. I was aware of it”’’s existence, and knew it was popular among the teen generation, but little did I know of it”’’s huge following and awesome networking opportunities. So I jumped on board and created a profile, imported my email list and found many of my friends, family members, classmates, acquaintances already online. My younger sister teased me and “couldn””t believe I joined Facebook.” I think she just felt a bit awkward knowing that I would be able to see her comments, posts, and crazy pictures from that time forward.

Over time, I updated my profile, and I continued to update my status. I wanted to make sure that the people that I know, knew exactly what I did and why they should pick me. I also took advantage of the huge network, and searched out new connections to become a source of referrals and knowledge in the future. I found that Facebook was a fun and productive way to keep up with friends and family in my personal life, and a simple and easy solution to continue to meet new people for my professional career.

Facebook allows you to create different groups, and control what information is shared with the different groups. I currently have only two groups: personal and professional. People within my personal group can see my full profile, or at least the information that I have included. Contacts within my professional group can still see my basic contact information, status updates, posts, and more…but not necessarily have the ability to look at my photo albums, etc.

Facebook is definitely one of the leading social media applications available right now, and its fun and highly customizable. It even has somewhat of a professional look and feel to it, unlike the often funky and obnoxious MySpace and Hi5 like applications.

So how can a social media tool like Facebook benefit you, or your business? Jump online and give it a decent shot, update your information, search for new contacts, keep up with your friends, find and restablish contact with friends and aquaintances that you haven””t spoken to in ages, and much more. Use it to your advantage, post items about your job, what you do, offer your service…Create a page promoting your business. Facebook even offers PPC and Impression advertising with the opportunity to target your audience based on their likes, hobbies, age, status and more…all at a fraction of the cost of traditional PPC with the leading search providers.

So when you ask yourself, “Why?” or “What”’’s In It For Me?,” just take my suggestion and jump on board and give it a try. At a minimum you are bound to reconnect with old friends or family, and beyond that the opportunities for you and your business are limitless!

You’re scaling the ranks of Google at lightning speeds. More people are finding you every month. Your traffic is starting to increase exponentially. Why are people still not buying or calling?

I was given the quest this summer – and I say “quest” because I psuedo-purchased more pairs of men’s moccasins from L.L. Bean than I care to admit – to analyze the buying and checkout process of the top ten converting retail sites on the web from the past year. I sorted, clicked, searched, and eye-balled every pixel of these online retailer’s storefronts to see what they all had in common. Armed with Excel, I made notes of prominent things I noticed on each site and began to see patterns. I was intrigued by the outcome. Here are just a few of the things I discovered on almost every site I looked at:

• Clear calls-to-action and opportunities to make a purchase or receive more information. Even easy ways to delete or cancel an order! Who knew?
• There were “warm fuzzies” like pictures of helpful customer service associates, 800 numbers, and security locks all giving off the vibe that “We’ll take care of you.”
• Less really was more! Most people online are interested more in something visual like a nice product picture or brief description of your product or service with an opportunity to see more information if they want it. Don’t create a case of information overload.
• Clean, simple and organized seemed to be the design rule. This doesn’t mean you need to spend a fortune on a “beautiful” site. The former seemed to trump the latter in several scenarios. The more accessible your product or service information is the better chance you’ll have of getting someone to bite.

I hear it all the time. “I have X number of people coming to my site every month but nobody is buying or calling!” You might be surprised at some of the simple tweaks you can make to your site that can turn those “window shoppers” into some of your best customers/clients. What types of things are working on your website to convert prospects into clients?