“Do this for this amount of money, and maybe – just maybe, there’ll be a bonus on the other end for above and beyond productivity“.

This works, right? Well, actually it doesn’t, not if you’re trying to influence beyond mopping floors. What seems like common sense at first glance now sounds so 1990s. Well, enough commentary, let’s get onto the feature film…

Last Monday on July 7th (7-11), 7-Eleven gave away around 5 million free Slurpees celebrating its 84 year unofficial birthday. Nancy Smith, 7-Eleven vice president of marketing, told USA Today that slurpee sales increased 38% last year due to the Slurpee giveaway promotion. Many customer’s purchased slurpees over and above the free 7.11-ounce Slurpees given away for the promotion.

What type of promotion can you come up with for your next company birthday celebration?

You don’t have to spend millions to benefit from a successful celebration campaign. In the right industry, tossing up a tent with free hotdogs on a nice summer weekend can bring your business closer to the community with a ton of potential clients.

Here’s the deal

If you have a useful and profitable idea for any of the domains below we can work out a partnership. You can create, build and maintain the site like it was your own. You run everything. I maintain domain ownership and you own the content. I can host the site on my dedicated server. You can generate, and keep, all the profit you can make.

We can work out some kind deal where I profit a little. For example, I might run an ad or links on the site. These are details that can be worked out one on one. I’m not afraid to share the pie; I want everyone involved to benefit and profit. Otherwise the partnership wouldn’t work.

1. HotHolidayOffers.com (Great product/Storefront site)
2. EmailSecretTips.com
3. GoodBusinessTips.com
4. LoveGab.com (I originally pictured this being a romance forum)
5. RatingHotties.com (I was going to setup a picture rating site but never did)
6. VeryNiceGifts.com
7. eFileSpace.com [can not host this one] (I used this as a file hosting site for a bit but the issues were overwhelming including bandwidth.)
8. CrazyBathrooms.com
9. LinkSorb.com / LinkZorb.com (My idea of a very cool “web 2.0′ name. Remember them?)
10. GoOutFree.com (An affiliate site?)
11. ExDrunk.com / Xdrunk.com
12. SafeSexFacts.com
13. CreativePhotoGuide.com (An ebook or how-to site might work here)
14. FlagAlert.MOBI / FlagAlerts.MOBI (I originally planned on setting up a mobile text alert service to notify flag owners when they should lower their flags half mast)
15. EzinePress.com
16. Do-Follow.ME (This was going to be a do-follow directory but I was a little behind the curve)
17. PowerSellingTips.com (EBay ebook maybe?)

Here’s a few AdSense domains that might do better as something else if anyone has a better idea:

1. MustReadeBooks.com (This was a great list builder for me a couple of years ago. It sucks as an AdSense site)
2. EatHealthyGuide.com
3. YourSpiceGarden.com

Any Ideas? Comment below or contact me via our HelpDesk if interested.

First of all, what exactly are we looking for with keyword research? I don’t just find a bunch of related keywords and hand that list off as the end product. That would be an almost useless list. Unfortunately that is exactly what many SEO (search engine optimization) and keyword research services do. Other factors must be researched. Without factoring in keyword popularity and keyword competition it’s just a crap shoot on what will work and what will be a waste of time. Effective keyword research requires digging down deep into the relevant keyword phrases.

To get started I need the basic main keywords and a short description of the subject. From there I find related keywords, check the competition as it relates to the number of potential monthly searches. Once completed, I use that data to recommend the best possible set of keywords for search engine results.

NOTE: If your keywords are is for AdSense sites, I can add that extra factor to the equation as well. With AdSense sites, we want the best possible CPC (cost per click) as it relates to competition and potential monthly searches.

Resources Used:
I use data from Google as well as competition from Google search. I am a long standing member of The Keyword Academy and use all resources available there as well. The end result is a very impressive and effective list of related keywords.

The Proper Keyword Research

Keep in mind, this is just a starting point in one of the most competitive online niches there is – finance. Even so, I was able to generate twenty keywords to focus on. For example, “save money tips” gets about 12,100 monthly searches on Google and the competition is relatively low. That’s pure gold in this business.

Because my project is a finance/money related site that includes AdSense ads, I began with these five simple keyword phrases:

1. debt management
2. finance
3. financial advice
4. money saving
5. money saving tips

I quickly generated 441 related keywords. Proper keyword research for AdSense required me to remove those phrases too high in competition and too low in income potential which relates to search volume and estimated CPC. Filtering the 441 words with those factors resulted in just 20 keyword phrases.

1. debtbuster
2. professional debt management
3. debt consolidation secured loan
4. ohio debt consolidation
5. debt management group
6. debt settlement attorney
7. california debt consolidation
8. debt consolidation firm
9. 401k rollover to ira
10. money saving market
11. commercial finance brokers
12. franchise financing
13. business finance brokers
14. best ways to save money
15. investing for dummies
16. financial advisor marketing
17. save money on electricity
18. ways to save money
19. best way to save money
20. save money tips

Download the final report. Notice the final keyword research report includes the following data:

• Potential income using AdSense
• Difficulty rating
• Estimated CPC
• Top 4 competitors (including the URLs, page titles and Google PageRank).

If you would like more information on our Keyword Research Service contact us via our HelpDesk

It should seem pretty straight forward and the answer should be a loud resounding Y.E.S! But… Yes, there is always a ’but’, there must be balance. Without the correct balance a Facebook page can do more harm than good. You can’t believe someone finally said that out loud, can you? It’s true, at least in my own experience.

As an example, I’ll talk about how having a Facebook page can effect blogging. I know, blogging is hardly the kind of business most of us are concerned with but it’s still business and any third grader will be able to relate the experience with other forms of business.

Ok, so we spend a solid year building a site/blog following. We now have a nice contact list built and every blog post generates dozens of comments. We finally have the reputation we strived for and the user interaction we’ve been looking for. Now it’s time to start converting this mild success into a revenue stream with a little monetization.

All of the sudden, social media has taken the net by storm. Hey, I’m not going to be one of those old dinosaur business models that miss the virtual boat. After all, I’m a blogger and I’m internet savvy and everything.

So with the help of Google search, YouTube videos and other bloggers, we start putting together a great looking Facebook page. Once refined and looking its best, we need people. Just like a blog, there’s nothing worse than an empty, inactive Facebook page. And also just like a blog it’s going to take effort to build that page up.

Ok, fast forward many sleepless nights of socializing and contact building. We now have a blog and a Facebook page, both fairly popular. Then we begin to notice an unexpected trend. Blog comments are down, only replaced with Facebook comments. I have plenty of ‘likes’ and a lot of people are commenting but not on my blog.

Wow, I need my following on my blog. No one’s being exposed to my clever ads and great offers. Facebook won’t let me put the ads on my page there and that’s where everyone seems to interact now. And, sure, why wouldn’t they? Facebook has made it about as easy as it can be to click that like button or even type a fast sentence or two and move on. And they don’t even have to worry about spelling or punctuation anymore. “kul hat, gonna git 1 of those soon” is just considered social savvy.

What we need is balance. If your brand isn’t already Nike®, you need to allow Facebook to compliment your business, not take it over and replace your client base with ‘friends’. Personally, I’m glad to see the dilemma. Social media has lent even more purpose to my business of consulting. Thank you Facebook, I owe you big.

One very important thing to keep in mind when trusting someone with any aspect of your site, especially SEO, is the harm potential goes way beyond just not working. If the service/company violates any of Google’s terms by using black hat methods YOU pay the ultimate price by being penalized, suspended or even banned from Google’s index. Something as simple as hiding keywords or submitting to link farms can severely hurt your sites SERPs (Search Engine Results).

There is a ton of information on the web about SEO and I’m certainly no expert. I know the basics and even the basics continually change. Google keeps everyone on their toes and most of us behind the eight ball by routinely changing the rules mid-stream. Do your research and ask question before trusting your site’s future on some fly by night SEO service. Places to start your research should include:

• http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
• http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
• http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/

1. LawnTipsPlus.com
2. GiftwareCards.com
3. CanineTips.com
4. AlmostFullPageAds.com
5. LoadedWithAds.com
6. WorldwideBackyard.com
7. HomeEquityFacts.com
8. RecessionSafe.com
9. BestGolfNow.com
10. BigDogAds.com
11. TrafficBag.com
12. AllProAds.com
13. AskHowHigh.com
14. CupOfFunny.com
15. GuestBookPro.com
16. Judo4U.com
17. PublicRecipe.com
18. ThatsFunnyStuff.com
19. BlogDownloads.com
20. ExpiredBlog.com

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/ / CC BY 2.0



Earlier this month (press release) Domino’s Pizza ran a very successful one-day promotion for Valentine’s Day to celebrate the billion-dollar achievement. To take advantage of the promotion customers simply had to enter a coupon code when ordering their pizzas online to receive a FREE 2-piece order of Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes. Obviously, Domino’s has mastered online marketing and is now enjoying big profits for their effort.

Domino’s Pizza has taken the bull by it’s horns and turned the net into one of it’s biggest assets. Recognizing the potential of an online ordering system, the pizza giant ran head-on to aggressively dominate the online market in it’s industry.

A lot can be learned from success stories such as this. Don’t sit on your hands while your competition is figuring it out.

• Yahoo! Local – If you have a Yahoo ID simply enter a location and the name of a business and click Write a Review
• Google Maps – If you have a Google Account simply enter the name of a business and where they are and click Write a Review
• MyLocalLookup – Simply search for any business and click Rate It. You don’t even need an account. Businesses can get a free MyLocalLookup listing.
• Yelp is a community oriented around specific locations. It is a great way to find out which businesses others in your geographic area prefer. Sign up for a Yelp account to read and leave reviews of local businesses and receive discounts and coupons. Businesses should strongly consider getting a Free Yelp business account and reviewing other businesses they use.
• Merchant Circle is another geo-targeted community where neighbors share their opinions of the businesses they use, see special offers, discounts and coupons. Businesses can get a free MerchantCircle listing and consumers can save time and money using the new MerchantCircle Neighbors and Q&A programs.

growmap.com, MEME: BizLuv in Support of Small Businesses, Feb 2010

You should read the whole article.

Our Facebook Fan Page: We have setup a fan page on Facebook. Please become a fan of our page and any reviews would be greatly appreciated.

Our Facebook Blog Page: Our Facebook blog page mirrors the posts published here. Don’t forget to follow us there too.

My Personal Facebook Page: My personal Facebook page is the most active. That’s where we connect with family, friends, clients and colleagues. I invite you to become my Facebook friend Let’s get to know each other and have a little fun.

Is your business setup on Facebook and other Social Networking sites? We can help you with that. Contact us for your initial consultation.