Larry's Sales and Marketing Tools

Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/17/2008

2008-12-17T17:01:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/17/2008

Ad Women: How They Impact What We Need, Want, and Buy by Juliann Sivulka

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Most of the workers in advertising, the media, retail, and fashion are women. Holding key marketing and advertising positions, women shape the basic promotional appeal of almost every consumer product in America.

How did the advertising business go from a handful of women in a man's world to women working in virtually every mass consumer goods industry in America in the space of the twentieth century? Ad Women tells the story of how women have risen to the top of the advertising profession.

Juliann Sivulka, a former marketing communications manager and now an advertising educator, describes how, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the recognition of women as primary consumers resulted in the hiring of more women to promote products aimed at the women's market. At that time manufacturers began to emphasize color, fashion, and style, while advertising embraced a new language of persuasion aimed at women consumers. Soon agencies were recruiting an ensemble of businesswomen--copywriters, product designers, merchandisers, fashion and beauty experts, home economists, editors, and publicists. Through close collaboration with manufacturers, mass media, and retailers, they participated in developing strategies to convince women to buy goods and wove their selling messages into women's reading, shopping, housework, and leisure activities.

Sivulka follows three key periods in the history of American advertising, which represent eras of major social change for women (1880-1920, the 1920s, and the 1970s). She discusses the effect on advertising of such controversial issues as the women's movement, minorities, and consumer activism, and devotes an entire chapter to the contributions to advertising of African American, Hispanic, and Asian American women in the twentieth century.

Copiously illustrated with portraits of early ad women and examples of their work, this thoroughly researched and engagingly written survey of women in advertising will fascinate marketing students, women's studies scholars, and everyday consumers.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/16/2008

2008-12-16T17:01:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/16/2008

Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online by Warren Whitlock | Deborah Micek

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

NO RULES

The revolution is underway. The power of social media lies with the people who use tools like Twitter.com. You decide how to use your power.

Our goal is not to create rules to follow on Twitter. We simply want to give you the best tips, resources and strategies to guide your success on Twitter at an accelerated pace.

Our mission is to help you avoid trial and error as early adopters were forced to endure, and help you participate in one of the greatest communication revolution of our time.

This book was designed to help show everyone from the small business owner to the CEO of a large corporation; from work at home moms to politicians in Washington, DC how they can participate in the fastest growing social network and micro-blogging revolution taking place right now.

Join us on Twitter!

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/15/2008

2008-12-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/15/2008

Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World HC by Don Tapscott

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SELECTED AS A 2008 BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST. .

The Net Generation Has Arrived. .
Are you ready for it?

. .

Chances are you know a person between the ages of 11 and 30. You've seen them doing five things at once: texting friends, downloading music, uploading videos, watching a movie on a two-inch screen, and doing who-knows-what on Facebook or MySpace. They're the first generation to have literally grown up digital--and they're part of a global cultural phenomenon that's here to stay.

. .

The bottom line is this: If you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future.

. .

If you're a Baby Boomer or Gen-Xer: This is your field guide.

. .

A fascinating inside look at the Net Generation, Grown Up Digital is inspired by a $4 million private research study. New York Times bestselling author Don Tapscott has surveyed more than 11,000 young people. Instead of a bunch of spoiled �screenagers� with short attention spans and zero social skills, he discovered a remarkably bright community which has developed revolutionary new ways of thinking, interacting, working, and socializing.

. .

Grown Up Digital reveals:

How the brain of the Net Generation processes information .
Seven ways to attract and engage young talent in the workforce.
Seven guidelines for educators to tap the Net Gen potential.
Parenting 2.0: There's no place like the new home .
Citizen Net: How young people and the Internet are transforming democracy.

Today's young people are using technology in ways you could never imagine. Instead of passively watching television, the �Net Geners� are actively participating in the distribution of entertainment and information. For the first time in history, youth are the authorities on something really important. And they're changing every aspect of our society-from the workplace to the marketplace, from the classroom to the living room, from the voting booth to the Oval Office.

. .

The Digital Age is here. The Net Generation has arrived. Meet the future.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/13/2008

2008-12-13T17:01:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/13/2008

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping--Updated and Revised for the Internet, the Global Consumer, and Beyond by Paco Underhill

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Revolutionary retail guru Paco Underhill is back with a completely revised edition of his classic, witty bestselling book on our ever-evolving consumer culture -- full of fresh observations and important lessons from the cutting edge of retail, which is taking place in the world's emerging markets. New material includes:

• The latest trends in online retail -- what retailers are doing right and what they're doing wrong -- and how nearly every Internet retailer from iTunes to Amazon can drastically improve how it serves its customers.

• A guided tour of the most innovative stores, malls and retail environments around the world -- almost all of which are springing up in countries where prosperity is new. An enormous indoor ski slope attracts shoppers to a mall in Dubai; an uber luxurious Sao Paolo department store provides its customers with personal shoppers; a mall in South Africa has a wave pool for surfing.

The new Why We Buy is an essential guide -- it offers advice on how to keep your changing customers and entice new and eager ones.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/12/2008

2008-12-12T17:01:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/12/2008

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

For marketers, The New Rules of Marketing and PR shows you how to leverage the potential that Web-based communication offers your business. Finally, you can speak directly to customers and buyers, establishing a personal link with the people who make your business work. This one-of-a-kind guide includes a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of the Internet to create compelling messages, get them in front of customers, and lead those customers into the buying process.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/11/2008

2008-12-11T17:01:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/11/2008

Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business by David Edery | Ethan Mollick

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

"Executives who still insist on all work and no game play won't just be running dull workplaces; they will also be running less profitable ones too." --The Economist on Changing the Game "Video games are now far from a mere diversion to kill time being amused. This book amply illustrates how we can get mental, social, and business benefits from new ways to play." --Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate "Mollick and Edery have provided leading-edge analysis of the interaction between gamers, hackers, and the world of business. A must-read for anyone in the gaming business, those considering entering it, and those who want to understand what games have to teach us about engagement, learning, and innovation." --Karim Lakhani, Assistant Professor and Richard Hodgson Fellow at Harvard Business School, Faculty Fellow at the Berkman Center of Harvard Law School "Changing the Game is a fun read, but more than that, it gives HR professionals like myself the tools to understand how to recruit, train, and retain a new generation of workers using a wide range of new techniques drawn from the world of video games."--Lindsay Nadler, Director, Human Resources, Miramax Films "You will be more 'ready to play' after you read this game-changing book, which explores how computer and video games are transforming business and marketing practices. David Edery and Ethan Mollick offer a far-reaching and richly detailed account which touches on everything from product placements and advergaming to the use of games for corporate training and harvesting user innovation." --Henry Jenkins, Codirector of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, author ofConvergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide Use Video Games to Drive Innovation, Customer Engagement, Productivity, and Profit! Companies of all shapes and sizes have begun to use games to revolutionize the way they interact with customers and employees, becoming more competitive and more profitable as a result. Microsoft has used games to painlessly and cost-effectively quadruple voluntary employee participation in important tasks. Medical schools have used game-like simulators to train surgeons, reducing their error rate in practice by a factor of six. A recruiting game developed by the U.S. Army, for just 0.25% of the Army's total advertising budget, has had more impact on new recruits than all other forms of Army advertising combined. And Google is using video games to turn its visitors into a giant, voluntary labor force--encouraging them to manually label the millions of images found on the Web that Google's computers cannot identify on their own. Changing the Game reveals how leading-edge organizations are using video games to reach new customers more cost-effectively; to build brands; to recruit, develop, and retain great employees; to drive more effective experimentation and innovation; to supercharge productivity!in short, to make it fun to do business. This book is packed with case studies, best practices, and pitfalls to avoid. It is essential reading for any forward-thinking executive, marketer, strategist, and entrepreneur, as well as anyone interested in video games in general.* In-game advertising, advergames, adverworlds, and beyond Choose your best marketing opportunities--and avoid the pitfalls *Use gaming to recruit and develop better employees Learn practical lessons from America's Army and other innovative case studies *Channel the passion of your user communities Help your customers improve your products and services--and have fun doing it *What gamers do better than computers, scientists, or governments Use games to solve problems that can't be solved any other way

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/10/2008

2008-12-10T17:01:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/10/2008

SugarCRM For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) by Karen S. Fredricks

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

SugarCRM is an innovative customer relationship management software solution that enhances your company’s marketing effectiveness, drives sales performance, improves customer satisfaction, and provides executive insight into business performance. SugarCRM For Dummies will show you to take advantage of this free, open source CRM application to boost your sales and please your customers.

This guide helps you choose the flavor of Sugar you need, acquire and deploy it, set up accounts and contacts, and organize your day. You’ll first learn how to install SugarCRM, customize user preferences, create databases, and import contacts from other software. Next, you’ll discover how to extend SugarCRM’s capabilities to meet needs unique to your business. You’ll also find out how to:

Schedule appointments, link them to records and notes, and organize your sales opportunities
Build campaigns, track their success, and grow your contact list with Web-to-lead forms
Manage customer issues and forums to exterminate software bugs
Send e-newsletters and automate customer e-mail communication with templates
Take advantage of a complete recipe book for SugarCRM administrators
Improve sales performance with SugarCRM
Provide great service to your customers
Develop searchable libraries and FAQs
Create and share documents

SugarCRM For Dummies will get you quickly up to speed on this customer relationship management software so you can enhance your business.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/9/2008

2008-12-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

What do the runaway success of E.T., Oprah, and the Cabbage Patch Kids have in common? How come Scrabble was a flop when first introduced, but became an instant hit when re-introduced just three years later? According to extensive research, the secret to who gets heard, what gets our attention, and who and what has staying power lies in deeply ingrained biological and anthropological codes we all subconsciously share.

Filled with fascinating examples and explanations of the phenomena associated with "stickiness,” Instant Appeal reveals the often surprising (and proven) reasons behind why we vote for certain people, listen to the same songs over and over again, and favor one brand over another. The book illuminates the human universals that cause positive and negative chemical reactions in our brains, and shows how anyone can use them to advance their career, cause, company, or product.

Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/8/2008

2008-12-08T17:00:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/8/2008

Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business! by Paul Gillin

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Secrets of Social Media Marketing is a handbook for marketers and business owners to use in deciding how to employ the new social media for online marketing. Social media has quickly moved from the periphery of marketing into the forefront, but this is a new and quickly-evolving field and there are few established formulas for success. Building on the lessons set out in Gillin’s acclaimed and oft-reviewed The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media, this book provides practical advice on strategy, tools, and tactics. It is a hands-on manual that will educate marketers on how to extend their brands, generate leads, and engage customer communities using online tools.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/7/2008

2008-12-07T17:00:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/7/2008

Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business by Steve Holzner

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Profit from Facebook!

High-Impact, Low-Cost Social Marketing That Works!

With more than 80,000,000 affluent, savvy members, Facebook is today’s fastest-growing marketing opportunity! But traditional marketing methods won’t work here. In Facebook Marketing, best-selling author Steven Holzner reveals new social marketing techniques that do work, and shows you exactly how to make the most of them. Using true case studies, Holzner introduces powerful new techniques from today’s smartest Facebook marketers...and helps you avoid pitfalls that can cost you money and credibility. No matter what business you’re in, you’ll learn how to create bottom-up, “viral” Facebook marketing programs that achieve maximum results at minimum cost!

Crafting your Facebook profile for maximum impact
Getting into the Facebook community: crucial dos and don’ts
Joining the right Facebook Groups—or starting your own
Creating a Facebook blog that attracts paying customers
Promoting products and services with free Facebook Marketplace classifieds
Hosting your own Facebook events: from company picnics to concerts
Successfully advertising on Facebook, without overspending
Promoting your business within today’s most popular Facebook applications
Tracking the results of your advertising
Using brand-new viral video marketing techniques
Driving even more Web traffic to your Facebook pages
Building your own Facebook applications

Introduction 1

1 Targeting Your Profile 5

Welcome to Facebook Marketing 5

Welcome to Facebook 7

Getting Started with Facebook 8

The Profile Tab 12

Across the Top 13

The Search Bar 15

Name, Photo, Networks, and Status 18

The Mini-Feed Section 19

The Friends and Friends in Other Networks Sections 19

The Photos Section 21

The Groups Section 23

The Information Section 24

The Education and Work Section 24

The Gifts Section 25

The Wall Section 25

Editing Your Profile 25

Setting Profile Privacy 27

The Friends Tab 31

Searching for Friends 31

Managing Your Friends 33

Creating Friend Lists 35

The Inbox Tab 37

Reading Messages 38

Avoiding Spam 39

Reading Notifications 39

Composing Messages 40

Getting Help 41

2 Facebook Groups 45

Welcome to Facebook Groups 45

Messaging Your Members 46

A Word About Spam 46

Joining Facebook Groups 47

What Groups Are Available? 47

Taking a Look at a Group 51

How Do I Join a Group? 54

Which Groups Can I Join? 54

Creating Your Own Facebook Groups 55

Creating Your Group 57

Customizing Your Group 58

Inviting Friends to Join Your Group 61

Seeing Your New Group 65

Managing Your New Group 67

Deleting a Group 70

3 Creating Your Own Pages 71

Welcome to Facebook Pages 71

Pages from a Marketing Perspective 72

Viral Marketing with Pages 73

Page Authenticity 74

Finding Pages 75

Searching for Pages 76

Browsing Pages by Type 78

Browsing All Pages 79

Becoming a Fan of a Page 80

Examining a Page 83

Sharing a Page 85

Creating Your Own Page 88

Examining Your New Page 92

Editing Your Page 94

Updating Your Fans 98

Promoting Your Page 99

4 Hosting Your Own Facebook Events 101

Welcome to Facebook Events 101

All About Facebook Events 102

Checking Out Your Friends’ Events 103

Taking a Look at an Event 104

The Information Section 106

The Description Section 107

The Other Information Section 109

The Photos,Video, and Posted Items Section 109

The Confirmed Guests Section 109

The Other Invites Section 109

The Wall 110

The Event Type and Admins Section 110

Adding an Event to Your Event List 110

Browsing for Events 113

Searching for Events 113

Creating an Event 115

Customizing an Event 117

Uploading the Image for the Event 118

Setting Event Options 118

Setting Event Access 119

Inviting People to Your Event 119

Seeing Your Event 122

Managing and Publicizing Your Event 124

Message All Guests 1...

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/6/2008

2008-12-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/6/2008

The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock’s drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million?

Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored.

This book is the first to look at the economics and the marketing strategies that enable the modern art market to generate such astronomical prices. Drawing on interviews with both past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the reader on a journey of discovery through the peculiar world of modern art. Surprising, passionate, gossipy, revelatory, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark reveals a great deal that even experienced auction purchasers do not know.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/5/2008

2008-12-05T17:00:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/5/2008

eMillions: Behind-the-Scenes Stories of 14 Successful Internet Millionaires by Stanley Tang

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

These People Are Silently Making Millions of Dollars Online. Now, Hear Their Stories and Learn How They Did It. Look behind every breakthrough success and you'll find motivating stories of individuals who made it happen. They had a vision, took a path and persevered against monumental odds. eMillions is a collection of interviews with 14 of the world's most successful Internet marketers about their rags-to-riches stories. Get inside their brains and walk through the journeys they took to become Internet millionaires. * How a college filmmaker from Florida turned an "experiment" into a $248 million blockbuster through the power of viral marketing * How a former U.S. Army Officer turned a one-man operation into a multi-million dollar international corporation with customers in every Internet-connected country on the planet * How a 17 year-old kid with $70 in hand built a $3 million Internet company from the ground up teaching people how to play piano by ear.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/3/2008

2008-12-03T17:00:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/3/2008

The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions by Gurbaksh Chahal

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Gurbaksh Chahal started the Internet advertising company ClickAgents from his bedroom at the age of 16, having emigrated to the United States with his Sikh family from the small town of Tarn Taran, India. He dropped out of high school to pursue the venture full-time, and two years later sold ClickAgents for $40 million, making him one of the youngest self-made millionaires in history and allowing him and his entire family to realize their dreams. Chahal went on to become the youngest executive of a multi-billion dollar NASDAQ-listed company, and then sold his second company, BlueLithium, to Yahoo! for $300 million, turning many of his employees into multi-millionaires as well.

In The Dream, Chahal’s refreshing advice for entrepreneurs encourages them to embrace risk and to carve out new niches in the marketplace. He emphasizes the value of good business timing: how to execute an idea and get it to the marketplace, how to create and maintain solid business relationships, how to stay grounded, and—most importantly—how to teach yourself that failure is not an option. Chahal’s story not only shows how a 16-year-old immigrant overcame discrimination and adversity to fulfill his highest ambitions, but also provides aspiring entrepreneurs with valuable hands-on advice on how to achieve success.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/2/2008

2008-12-02T16:59:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/2/2008

Making Waves: Radio on the Verge by Mark Ramsey

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Radio is on the verge all right, but on the verge of what? Are we on the cusp of a new renaissance, a time of unprecedented excitement and opportunity? Or are we headed, as some naysayers argue, towards an industry-wide twilight? Making Waves argues that it's the former, not the latter. This book can help any broadcaster navigate a digital wonderland of infinite choice and endless competition. Dive in. The water's fine. Let's make some waves.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 12/1/2008

2008-12-01T16:59:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 12/1/2008

Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions take place below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds, we’re barely aware of them?

In BUYOLOGY, Lindstrom presents the astonishing findings from his groundbreaking, three-year, seven-million-dollar neuromarketing study, a cutting-edge experiment that peered inside the brains of 2,000 volunteers from all around the world as they encountered various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products. His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what seduces our interest and drives us to buy. Among his finding:

Gruesome health warnings on cigarette packages not only fail to discourage smoking, they actually make smokers want to light up.

Despite government bans, subliminal advertising still surrounds us – from bars to highway billboards to supermarket shelves.

"Cool” brands, like iPods trigger our mating instincts.

Other senses – smell, touch, and sound - are so powerful, they physically arouse us when we see a product.

Sex doesn't sell. In many cases, people in skimpy clothing and suggestive poses not only fail to persuade us to buy products - they often turn us away .

Companies routinetly copy from the world of religion and create rituals – like drinking a Corona with a lime – to capture our hard-earned dollars.

Filled with entertaining inside stories about how we respond to such well-known brands as Marlboro, Nokia, Calvin Klein, Ford, and American Idol, BUYOLOGY is a fascinating and shocking journey into the mind of today’s consumer that will captivate anyone who’s been seduced – or turned off – by marketers’ relentless attempts to win our loyalty, our money, and our minds. Includes a foreword by Paco Underhill.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 11/29/2008

2008-11-29T17:01:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 11/29/2008

The Orange Code: How ING Direct Succeeded by Being a Rebel with a Cause by Arkadi Kuhlmann | Bruce Philp

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

How championing consumers led to ING Direct's revolutionary rise in the banking industry

Since 1996, ING Direct has grown from a mere concept to an ocean-spanning global enterprise, with over 20 million customers and more than $300 billion in assets. From the time this Internet-based direct bank first launched in Canada, it focused on serving ordinary people who felt abandoned by today's money hungry financial institutions and provided its customers with products they actually wanted--like savings accounts with high interest rates. This revolutionary idea was startling in its simplicity. The Orange Code recounts ING Direct's intriguing story, explaining the philosophy of its founder, Arkadi Kuhlmann, the "bad boy of banking," who fervently believes in the power of individuals to control their financial destiny, and his 12-year partnership with Bruce Philp, the branding consultant who helped Kuhlmann make ING Direct a cause to its own people and a household name across North America. In entertaining and inspiring style, Kuhlmann and Philp discuss the unconventional approach to business strategy, leadership, and management that built ING Direct. From refusing to promote credit cards to college students to pointing out frivolous expenses, Kuhlmann and Philp not only address the practical principles that have propelled ING Direct to the top, but they also help readers understand how making a cause of personal financial empowerment made everyone a winner in the ING Direct story. Engaging and informative, The Orange Code offers readers a rare look at this company and provides them with invaluable insights into making more inspired leadership decisions.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 11/26/2008

2008-11-26T17:00:00.001-08:00

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The Orange Code: How ING Direct Succeeded by Being a Rebel with a Cause by Arkadi Kuhlmann | Bruce Philp

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

How championing consumers led to ING Direct's revolutionary rise in the banking industry

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 11/25/2008

2008-11-25T17:00:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 11/25/2008

Fast Track Photographer: The Definitive New Approach to Successful Wedding Photography by Dane Sanders

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

When photographers try to make the jump to the professional ranks, it is tempting to believe that a good approach is to mimic existing photographers who are perceived as successful. It turns out this approach is short sighted and can lead to some really bad habits that ultimately stunt the growth of enthusiast photographers.
In Fast Track Photographer, author Dane Sanders makes the case that a far more effective approach is to get clear on the gifts and talents you as an particular individual bring to the table and build a vision from that starting plot point. The trajectory of that vision needs to be informed by the evolving landscape of service based businesses globally and wedding photography in particular but the starting point remains consistent.
Start with your most powerful resource: You.
To help identify your talents and strengths, Dane provides a powerful self assessment tool called the Photographer DNA (pDNA) that both describes your gifts and prescribes a road map to individual success around your personality, raw abilities and circumstances.
By the end of the book, the reader is empowered to not only navigate the exciting waters of the wedding photography industry, but do so with grace and dramatic speed.
In sum, Fast Track Photographer gives you powerful tools for discovering your core strengths and a foolproof plan for maximizing them in the flat new world we live in. If you want to build a recession-proof, competition-proof photo business in the 21st Century, you need to throw out the old rule book. You need to get on the Fast Track.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 11/24/2008

2008-11-24T17:00:00.001-08:00

Featured SmallBusinessTools.com Marketing & Sales Book for 11/24/2008

Los Logos 4 by R. Klanten | H. Hellige

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Los Logos 4 is the latest addition to Gestalten s line of books on contemporary
logo design. This compendium provides an authoritative overview of current
developments and advances in logo design, one of the most prestigious of creative
disciplines which represent the essential visual identity of brands, companies
and their philosophies.
At over 500 pages, Los Logos 4 is the largest volume to date, showcasing
a collection of contemporary logo design by bourgeoning design talent and
once again offering an essential resource for all designers. This state-of-the-art
visual encyclopaedia provides a quality selection of over 5,000 examples of stylistic
approaches by designers from around the globe. Fully indexed and structured
thematically, the book draws connections between the applications and
the fields for which they were intended.
Los Logos 4 is the perfect companion to the Logos series and an unparalleled
publication on contemporary logo design. The series has proved to be a precursor
to styles and trends in logo design and highlighted the increased relevance and
importance of the logo in the 21st Century.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 11/22/2008

2008-11-22T17:01:00.001-08:00

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Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day by Dave Evans

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

If the idea of starting a social media marketing campaign overwhelms you, the author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day will introduce you to the basics, demonstrate how to manage details and describe how you can track results. Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists, quizzes and hands-on tutorials will help you execute a social media marketing campaign in just one hour a day. In addition, learn how to integrate social media metrics with traditional media measurements and how to leverage blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, and user-generated content sharing sites like YouTube.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 11/21/2008

2008-11-21T17:01:00.001-08:00

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Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site (2nd Edition) by Mike Moran | Bill Hunt

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

The #1 Step-by-Step Guide to Search Marketing Success...Now Completely Updated with New Techniques, Tools, Best Practices, and Value-Packed Bonus DVD!

“My copy of the first edition of Search Engine Marketing, Inc. is ratty and dog-eared from extensive use. It’s full of coffee stains and my own scribbled notes. Because it so effectively demystifies search engine marketing and provides such practical advice for success, I turn to it again and again and recommend it to audiences worldwide. This book is not academic blather or geeky techno-speak; it’s an approachable and digestible guide chock-full of real-life examples.”
—David Meerman Scott, Bestselling Author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR

“Keeping pace with the rapidly changing search marketing landscape, the latest edition of Bill Hunt and Mike Moran’s search industry bible, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., incorporates informative and enlightening sections on optimizing multimedia, improving Web site search, and the emergence of social media and what it really means to the search marketer. There is valuable information in this book to help inform at every level from the beginner who is curious about search to the advanced enterprise search marketer. Taking a very complicated, technical, and data-driven industry and making it easily understandable and actionable is no small task, and Search Engine Marketing, Inc. succeeds on every level. If you only read one book on search marketing principles and best practices, this is the one.”

—Jay Middleton Senior Manager, WW Search Marketing, Adobe Systems, Inc.

“With Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Bill Hunt and Mike Moran have successfully updated what is already known in the industry as “The Search Marketing Bible.” With new content, examples, and insight including social media and Web site search, this is a must read book for marketers at companies of all sizes from startups to the Fortune 100.”

—Lee Odden CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and Author of Online Marketing Blog

In this book, two world-class experts present today’s best practices, step-by-step techniques, and hard-won tips for using search engine marketing to achieve your sales and marketing goals, whatever they are. Mike Moran and Bill Hunt thoroughly cover both the business and technical aspects of contemporary search engine marketing, walking beginners through all the basics while providing reliable, up-to-the-minute insights for experienced professionals.

Thoroughly updated to fully reflect today’s latest search engine marketing opportunities, this book guides you through profiting from social media marketing, site search, advanced keyword tools, hybrid paid search auctions, and much more. You’ll walk step-by-step through every facet of creating an effective program: projecting business value, selling stakeholders and executives, building teams, choosing strategy, implementing metrics, and above all, execution.

BONUS DVD Packed with Tools and Resources

DVD includes over 2 hours of exclusive how-to video presentations, plus audio interviews and white papers on cutting-edge search engine marketing topics

The authors systematically address every issue you’re likely to encounter, while helping you implement timeless strategies for delivering superior long-term results. You’ll learn how to

Identify and leverage new search engine marketing opportunities arising from social media
Align search engine marketing with your company’s evolving strategic and tactical goals
Implement programs that drive sustainable improvements— not counterproductive quick fixes
Systematically optimize your existing Web site search programs
Manage the unique marketing challenges associated with large sites
Create monthly scorecards and use them to drive improvement
Provide effective guidance to content developers and designers in language they’ll understand
Automate checking and reporting for every page on your site
Choose effective target keywords, optimize your content, and attract links
Make the most of Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, and the latest specialized and local search tools
Measure site-wide success rates across multiple systems and technologies
Hire the right SEO consultant—and avoid the wrong ones

Whether you’re a marketing, Web, or IT professional, product manager, or content specialist, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Second Edition will help you define your SEO/SEM goals, craft a best-practices program for achieving them, and implement it flawlessly.

Foreword xxv

Preface xxvii

Acknowledgments xxi

Part 1: The Basics of Search Marketing 1

Chapter 1: Why Search Marketing Is Important…and Difficult 3

Chapter 2: How Search Engines Work 31

Chapter 3: How Search Marketing Works 57

Chapter 4: How Searchers Work 81

Part 2: Develop Your Search Marketing Program 101

Chapter 5: Identify Your Web Site’s Goals 103

Chapter 6: Measure Your Web Site’s Success 119

Chapter 7: Measure Your Search Marketing Success 143

Chapter 8: Define Your Search Marketing Strategy 171

Chapter 9: Sell Your Search Marketing Proposal 199

Part 3: Execute Your Search Marketing Program 227

Chapter 10: Get Your Site Indexed 229

Chapter 11: Choose Your Target Keywords 267

Chapter 12: Optimize Your Content 293

Chapter 13: Attract Links to Your Site 337

Chapter 14: Optimize Your Paid Search Program 383

Chapter 15: Make Search Marketing Operational 447

Part 4: Beyond Search Marketing 477

Chapter 16: Explore New Media and Social Media 479

Chapter 17: Optimize Your Web Site Search 505

Chapter 18: What’s Next? 533

Glossary 551

Index 583

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Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business! by Paul Gillin

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 11/19/2008

2008-11-19T17:01:00.001-08:00

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The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It by John Gerzema | Edward Lebar

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

How to use brands to gain and sustain competitive advantage

Companies today face a dilemma in marketing. The tried-and-true formulas to create sales and market share behind brands are becoming irrelevant and losing traction with consumers. In this book, Gerzema and LeBar offer credible evidence--drawn from a detailed analysis of a decade's worth of brand and financial data using Y&R's Brand Asset Valuator (BAV), the largest database of brands in the world--that business is riding on yet another bubble that is ready to burst--a brand bubble. While most managers still see metrics like trust and awareness as the backbone of how brands are built, Gerzema asserts they're dead wrong--these metrics do not add to increased asset value. In fact, by following them, they actually hasten the declining value of their brands.

Using a five-stage model, The Brand Bubble reveals how today's successful brands--and tomorrow's--have an insatiable appetite for creativity and change. These brands offer consumers a palpable sense of movement and direction thanks to a powerful "energized differentiation." Gerzema reveals how brands with energized differentiation achieve better financial performance than traditional brands have. Plus, Gerzema helps readers develop energized differentiation in their own brands, creating consumer-centric and sustainable organizations.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 11/18/2008

2008-11-18T17:00:00.001-08:00

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The 29% Solution: 52 Weekly Networking Success Strategies by Ivan Misner | Michelle R. Donovan

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

In many ways, success at networking is the uncommon application of common knowledge. Most people understand that networking is important to their success--they just lack a step-by-step process to get the results they want. Almost no one really implements a comprehensive methodology that will build a business through networking. Thus, the need to network is 'common knowledge,' and the development of the methodology required to be successful at it is the 'uncommon application.'

By reading this book, you will experience the true essence and meaning of networking. The 29% Solution gives you the answers to two conflicting questions that a business owner or salesperson faces every day: How can I tend to my existing clients while at the same time network for new business? and, Should I place higher value on my current clients or on new clients?

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Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business (Agora Series) by Michael Masterson | MaryEllen Tribby

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

An all-encompassing guide to creating, maintaining, and profiting from multi-channel marketing campaigns that accelerate your business growth

Given the multitude of avenues that a business owner or marketer can use to access today's customers, the days when one could rely on a single channel to bring in great results and big profits are gone. Today's most successful campaigns take advantage of multi-channel marketing by offering customers multiple ways to buy. In Changing the Channel, authors Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby provide readers with a detailed overview of multi-channel marketing and explain its benefits, pitfalls, and great potential for profits. They also offer advice on how readers can launch their own campaigns and make the best use of the results that each channel brings in. Multi-channel marketing is the most effective way to reach and retain customers. In targeting the same customers via direct mail, e-mail, Web banners, pay-per-click advertising, print ads, TV, radio, and more, business owners and marketers can both increase their number of sales and create more loyal customers. With this book as their guide, readers will quickly discover the power and profit potential of multi-channel marketing.

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Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business by Steve Holzner

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Profit from Facebook!

High-Impact, Low-Cost Social Marketing That Works!

Crafting your Facebook profile for maximum impact
Getting into the Facebook community: crucial dos and don’ts
Joining the right Facebook Groups—or starting your own
Creating a Facebook blog that attracts paying customers
Promoting products and services with free Facebook Marketplace classifieds
Hosting your own Facebook events: from company picnics to concerts
Successfully advertising on Facebook, without overspending
Promoting your business within today’s most popular Facebook applications
Tracking the results of your advertising
Using brand-new viral video marketing techniques
Driving even more Web traffic to your Facebook pages
Building your own Facebook applications

Introduction 1

1 Targeting Your Profile 5

Welcome to Facebook Marketing 5

Welcome to Facebook 7

Getting Started with Facebook 8

The Profile Tab 12

Across the Top 13

The Search Bar 15

Name, Photo, Networks, and Status 18

The Mini-Feed Section 19

The Friends and Friends in Other Networks Sections 19

The Photos Section 21

The Groups Section 23

The Information Section 24

The Education and Work Section 24

The Gifts Section 25

The Wall Section 25

Editing Your Profile 25

Setting Profile Privacy 27

The Friends Tab 31

Searching for Friends 31

Managing Your Friends 33

Creating Friend Lists 35

The Inbox Tab 37

Reading Messages 38

Avoiding Spam 39

Reading Notifications 39

Composing Messages 40

Getting Help 41

2 Facebook Groups 45

Welcome to Facebook Groups 45

Messaging Your Members 46

A Word About Spam 46

Joining Facebook Groups 47

What Groups Are Available? 47

Taking a Look at a Group 51

How Do I Join a Group? 54

Which Groups Can I Join? 54

Creating Your Own Facebook Groups 55

Creating Your Group 57

Customizing Your Group 58

Inviting Friends to Join Your Group 61

Seeing Your New Group 65

Managing Your New Group 67

Deleting a Group 70

3 Creating Your Own Pages 71

Welcome to Facebook Pages 71

Pages from a Marketing Perspective 72

Viral Marketing with Pages 73

Page Authenticity 74

Finding Pages 75

Searching for Pages 76

Browsing Pages by Type 78

Browsing All Pages 79

Becoming a Fan of a Page 80

Examining a Page 83

Sharing a Page 85

Creating Your Own Page 88

Examining Your New Page 92

Editing Your Page 94

Updating Your Fans 98

Promoting Your Page 99

4 Hosting Your Own Facebook Events 101

Welcome to Facebook Events 101

All About Facebook Events 102

Checking Out Your Friends’ Events 103

Taking a Look at an Event 104

The Information Section 106

The Description Section 107

The Other Information Section 109

The Photos,Video, and Posted Items Section 109

The Confirmed Guests Section 109

The Other Invites Section 109

The Wall 110

The Event Type and Admins Section 110

Adding an Event to Your Event List 110

Browsing for Events 113

Searching for Events 113

Creating an Event 115

Customizing an Event 117

Uploading the Image for the Event 118

Setting Event Options 118

Setting Event Access 119

Inviting People to Your Event 119

Seeing Your Event 122

Managing and Publicizing Your Event 124

Message All Guests 1...

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Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World HC by Don Tapscott

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

The Net Generation Has Arrived. .
Are you ready for it?

. .

The bottom line is this: If you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future.

. .

If you're a Baby Boomer or Gen-Xer: This is your field guide.

. .

Grown Up Digital reveals:

How the brain of the Net Generation processes information .
Seven ways to attract and engage young talent in the workforce.
Seven guidelines for educators to tap the Net Gen potential.
Parenting 2.0: There's no place like the new home .
Citizen Net: How young people and the Internet are transforming democracy.

. .

The Digital Age is here. The Net Generation has arrived. Meet the future.

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Making the Number: How to Use Sales Benchmarking to Drive Performance by Greg Alexander | Aaron Bartels | Mike Drapeau

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

The essential tool kit to achieve breakthrough sales performance improvements.

Numbers don?t lie: 40 percent of all salespeople miss their targets each year. How can sales managers ensure their teams are doing everything possible? The key lies in benchmarking, which is not new for finance or manufacturing but rarely gets applied to sales. Making the Number will teach executives to embrace data-driven decision making and rely less on gut instinct.

Comparing a sales force to those of relevant peers leads to many opportunities to improve performance. The authors take readers through their five-step methodology for sales benchmarking, showing how to select metrics; gather, compute, and compare internal and external data; and then actually use the data.

Making the Number includes case studies of sales benchmarking in action. For example, find out how Discover Financial Services plays David to the Goliaths of MasterCard and Visa.

Whether you?re a sales rep, a manager, or a CEO, this book will show you a better way to make your number.

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2008-11-11T17:00:00.001-08:00

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Silver Bullet Selling: Six Critical Steps to Opening More Relationships and Closing More Sales by G.A. Bartick | Paul Bartick

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Based on ten years of extensive research and interviews with thousands of top sales performers in a variety of industries, Silver Bullet Selling reveals the secrets all great sales professionals have in common. Evidence proves it's not only what sales professionals say that determines their success, but how they execute the sales process to create a unique and world-class buying experience for their customers.

This book shows you how to apply consultative selling theory during every interaction to produce more sales. Beyond presenting theory, Silver Bullet Selling provides step-by-step training with practical examples, call-planning worksheets, exercises, tips, and templates. Read it -- and fire away at the competition.

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2008-11-10T17:00:00.001-08:00

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The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock’s drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million?

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2008-11-08T17:00:00.001-08:00

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Smart Networking: Attract a Following In Person and Online by Liz Lynch

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

New Contacts, Greater Success, and Bigger Business

. .

The key to unlimited opportunities for your business starts with . Smart Networking. This is the essential guidebook for building business relationships in a wired world. Business strategist Liz Lynch demystifies the process and puts strategic systems in place that build connections worldwide and attract opportunities 24/7.

. .

Packed with powerful strategies tested by years of experience, as well as real-life stories from the field, Smart Networking describes how to integrate face-to-face techniques with a strong online presence. You'll get low-cost marketing tools that are designed to expand your professional circle exponentially. Lynch will also help you to:

Identify the gaps in your network and develop a plan to fill them.
Tap into existing contacts and master the art of the ask.
Increase visibility through speaking, e-zine publishing, and blogs.
Expand your reach with social networking tools.
Develop a winning mindset to guide all your networking activities.

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2008-11-06T17:01:00.001-08:00

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The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

The Internet has profoundly changed the way people communicate and interact with each other. But it has also changed the way businesses communicate with their customers (and those who they want to be customers). In the old days, companies could only communicate through the filter of expensive advertising or media ink placed by a PR firm. Today the rules have changed entirely.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR shows you how to leverage the potential that Web-based communication offers your business. Finally, you can speak directly to customers and buyers, establishing a personal link with the those who make your business work. You can reach niche buyers with targeted messages that cost a fraction of your big-budget ad campaign. Rather than bombard them with advertising they’ll likely ignore, you can focus on getting the right message to the right people at the right time.

When people visit your company’s Web site, they aren’t there to hear your slogan or see your logo again. They want information, interaction, and choice—and you’d be a fool not to give it to them. This one-of-a-kind guide to the future of marketing includes a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of the Internet, showing you how to identify audiences, create compelling messages, get those messages to the right people, and lead those consumers into the buying process. Including a wealth of compelling case studies and real-world examples, this is a practical guide to the new reality of PR and marketing.

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2008-11-05T17:01:00.001-08:00

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Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters by Bill Tancer

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

What time of year do teenage girls search for prom dresses online? How does the quick adoption of technology affect business success (and how is that related to corn farmers in Iowa)? How do time and money affect the gender of visitors to online dating sites? And how is the Internet itself affecting the way we experience the world? In Click, Bill Tancer takes us behind the scenes into the massive database of online intelligence to reveal the naked truth about how we use the Web, navigate to sites, and search for information--and what all of that says about who we are.

As online directories replace the yellow pages, search engines replace traditional research, and news sites replace newsprint, we are in an age in which we've come to rely tremendously on the Internet--leaving behind a trail of information about ourselves as a culture and the direction in which we are headed. With surprising and practical insight, Tancer demonstrates how the Internet is changing the way we absorb information and how understanding that change can be used to our advantage in business and in life. Click analyzes the new generation of consumerism in a way no other book has before, showing how we use the Internet, and how those trends provide a wealth of market research nearly as vast as the Internet itself. Understanding how we change is integral to our success. After all, we are what we click.

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2008-11-04T17:01:00.001-08:00

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The Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (Big) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite by Michael Port | Elizabeth Marshall

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Take the traditional sales model, which is outdated and needs a serious makeover, and turn it on its head by applying the advice in The Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays (Big) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite. Find an entirely sound approach to building better client relationships and closing more sales by doing the exact opposite that conventional sales advice dictates. Re-examine the most well-worn sales tactics in the business and discover specific and actionable strategies and principles that will help you close more sales today.

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2008-11-03T17:00:00.001-08:00

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Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World HC by Don Tapscott

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

The Net Generation Has Arrived.
Are you ready for it?

The bottom line is this: If you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future.

If you're a Baby Boomer or Gen-Xer: This is your field guide.

A fascinating inside look at the Net Generation, Grown Up Digital is inspired by a $4 million private research study. New York Times bestselling author Don Tapscott has surveyed more than 11,000 young people. Instead of a bunch of spoiled “screenagers” with short attention spans and zero social skills, he discovered a remarkably bright community which has developed revolutionary new ways of thinking, interacting, working, and socializing.

Grown Up Digital reveals:

How the brain of the Net Generation processes information
Seven ways to attract and engage young talent in the workforce
Seven guidelines for educators to tap the Net Gen potential
Parenting 2.0: There's no place like the new home
Citizen Net: How young people and the Internet are transforming democracy

Today's young people are using technology in ways you could never imagine. Instead of passively watching television, the “Net Geners” are actively participating in the distribution of entertainment and information. For the first time in history, youth are the authorities on something really important. And they're changing every aspect of our society-from the workplace to the marketplace, from the classroom to the living room, from the voting booth to the Oval Office.

The Digital Age is here. The Net Generation has arrived. Meet the future.

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2008-11-01T17:01:00.001-07:00

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Influence: Science and Practice (5th Edition) by Robert B. Cialdini

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Influence: Science and Practiceis an examination of the psychology of compliance (i.e. uncovering which factors cause a person to say "yes" to another's request). Written in a narrative style combined with scholarly research, Cialdini combines evidence from experimental work with the techniques and strategies he gathered while working as a salesperson, fundraiser, advertiser, and in other positions inside organizations that commonly use compliance tactics to get us to say "yes." Widely used in classes, as well as sold to people operating successfully in the business world, the eagerly awaited revision of Influence reminds the reader of the power of persuasion. Cialdini organizes compliance techniques into six categories based on psychological principles that direct human behavior: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity.

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2008-10-31T17:01:00.001-07:00

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Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 10/30/2008

2008-10-30T17:01:00.001-07:00

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Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web by Jon Wuebben

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web is the definitive search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting guide for search engine rankings and sales conversion. As the first book to cover the entire spectrum of web copy, it introduces new ways of looking at online content and provides key illustrations that show how copy influences search engine rankings and sales conversion in unique ways.

"If you want to know the real secrets to online traffic and a non-stop turbo boost in sales, it's right here in this content-rich book. Packed with tips and techniques, insights and practical advice, this is one of those rare books that truly delivers. I loved it!" --Dr. Joe Vitale, author, Hypnotic Writing

If you are a small to medium sized business looking for a way to maximize online marketing activities, Content Rich will show you how it can be performed for a fraction of the traditional cost and in ways most companies never consider.

Content Rich also discusses the future of online content and examines ways to leverage the combined power of all types of web copy including site, landing page, blog, article, email, newsletter, PPC ad and press releases to give your business a clear competitive advantage.

"This book will help you make more sales and more money on the Internet than you ever thought possible!" --Brian Tracy, author, Getting Rich Your Own Way

Overwhelmingly acclaimed by business leaders, Internet gurus, best selling marketing authors, top copywriters and the search marketing industry, Content Rich redefines the importance and use of copywriting for the web in a time of shrinking corporate budgets. Using simple examples, case studies and documented research, it gives you all the tools you need to start improving your online presence--today.

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2008-10-29T17:01:00.001-07:00

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Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site (2nd Edition) by Mike Moran | Bill Hunt

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

The #1 Step-by-Step Guide to Search Marketing Success...Now Completely Updated with New Techniques, Tools, Best Practices, and Value-Packed Bonus DVD!

“My copy of the first edition of Search Engine Marketing, Inc. is ratty and dog-eared from extensive use. It’s full of coffee stains and my own scribbled notes. Because it so effectively demystifies search engine marketing and provides such practical advice for success, I turn to it again and again and recommend it to audiences worldwide. This book is not academic blather or geeky techno-speak; it’s an approachable and digestible guide chock-full of real-life examples.”
—David Meerman Scott, Bestselling Author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR

“Keeping pace with the rapidly changing search marketing landscape, the latest edition of Bill Hunt and Mike Moran’s search industry bible, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., incorporates informative and enlightening sections on optimizing multimedia, improving Web site search, and the emergence of social media and what it really means to the search marketer. There is valuable information in this book to help inform at every level from the beginner who is curious about search to the advanced enterprise search marketer. Taking a very complicated, technical, and data-driven industry and making it easily understandable and actionable is no small task, and Search Engine Marketing, Inc. succeeds on every level. If you only read one book on search marketing principles and best practices, this is the one.”

—Jay Middleton Senior Manager, WW Search Marketing, Adobe Systems, Inc.

“With Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Bill Hunt and Mike Moran have successfully updated what is already known in the industry as “The Search Marketing Bible.” With new content, examples, and insight including social media and Web site search, this is a must read book for marketers at companies of all sizes from startups to the Fortune 100.”

—Lee Odden CEO of TopRank Online Marketing and Author of Online Marketing Blog

In this book, two world-class experts present today’s best practices, step-by-step techniques, and hard-won tips for using search engine marketing to achieve your sales and marketing goals, whatever they are. Mike Moran and Bill Hunt thoroughly cover both the business and technical aspects of contemporary search engine marketing, walking beginners through all the basics while providing reliable, up-to-the-minute insights for experienced professionals.

Thoroughly updated to fully reflect today’s latest search engine marketing opportunities, this book guides you through profiting from social media marketing, site search, advanced keyword tools, hybrid paid search auctions, and much more. You’ll walk step-by-step through every facet of creating an effective program: projecting business value, selling stakeholders and executives, building teams, choosing strategy, implementing metrics, and above all, execution.

BONUS DVD Packed with Tools and Resources

DVD includes over 2 hours of exclusive how-to video presentations, plus audio interviews and white papers on cutting-edge search engine marketing topics

The authors systematically address every issue you’re likely to encounter, while helping you implement timeless strategies for delivering superior long-term results. You’ll learn how to

Identify and leverage new search engine marketing opportunities arising from social media

Align search engine marketing with your company’s evolving strategic and tactical goals

Implement programs that drive sustainable improvements— not counterproductive quick fixes

Systematically optimize your existing Web site search programs

Manage the unique marketing challenges associated with large sites

Create monthly scorecards and use them to drive improvement

Provide effective guidance to content developers and designers in language they’ll understand

Automate checking and reporting for every page on your site

Choose effective target keywords, optimize your content, and attract links

Make the most of Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, and the latest specialized and local search tools

Measure site-wide success rates across multiple systems and technologies

Hire the right SEO consultant—and avoid the wrong ones

Whether you’re a marketing, Web, or IT professional, product manager, or content specialist, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., Second Edition will help you define your SEO/SEM goals, craft a best-practices program for achieving them, and implement it flawlessly.

Foreword xxv

Preface xxvii

Acknowledgments xxi

Part 1: The Basics of Search Marketing 1

Chapter 1: Why Search Marketing Is Important…and Difficult 3

Chapter 2: How Search Engines Work 31

Chapter 3: How Search Marketing Works 57

Chapter 4: How Searchers Work 81

Part 2: Develop Your Search Marketing Program 101

Chapter 5: Identify Your Web Site’s Goals 103

Chapter 6: Measure Your Web Site’s Success 119

Chapter 7: Measure Your Search Marketing Success 143

Chapter 8: Define Your Search Marketing Strategy 171

Chapter 9: Sell Your Search Marketing Proposal 199

Part 3: Execute Your Search Marketing Program 227

Chapter 10: Get Your Site Indexed 229

Chapter 11: Choose Your Target Keywords 267

Chapter 12: Optimize Your Content 293

Chapter 13: Attract Links to Your Site 337

Chapter 14: Optimize Your Paid Search Program 383

Chapter 15: Make Search Marketing Operational 447

Part 4: Beyond Search Marketing 477

Chapter 16: Explore New Media and Social Media 479

Chapter 17: Optimize Your Web Site Search 505

Chapter 18: What’s Next? 533

Glossary 551

Index 583

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 10/28/2008

2008-10-28T17:00:00.001-07:00

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Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business (Agora Series) by Michael Masterson | MaryEllen Tribby

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

An all-encompassing guide to creating, maintaining, and profiting from multi-channel marketing campaigns that accelerate your business growth
Given the multitude of avenues that a business owner or marketer can use to access today's customers, the days when one could rely on a single channel to bring in great results and big profits are gone. Today's most successful campaigns take advantage of multi-channel marketing by offering customers multiple ways to buy. In Changing the Channel, authors Michael Masterson and MaryEllen Tribby provide readers with a detailed overview of multi-channel marketing and explain its benefits, pitfalls, and great potential for profits. They also offer advice on how readers can launch their own campaigns and make the best use of the results that each channel brings in. Multi-channel marketing is the most effective way to reach and retain customers. In targeting the same customers via direct mail, e-mail, Web banners, pay-per-click advertising, print ads, TV, radio, and more, business owners and marketers can both increase their number of sales and create more loyal customers. With this book as their guide, readers will quickly discover the power and profit potential of multi-channel marketing.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 10/26/2008

2008-10-26T17:47:00.001-07:00

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Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business by Jeff Howe

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

“The amount of knowledge and talent dispersed among the human race has always outstripped our capacity to harness it. Crowdsourcing corrects that—but in doing so, it also unleashes the forces of creative destruction.”
—From Crowdsourcing

First identified by journalist Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired article, “crowdsourcing” describes the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of the specialized few. Howe reveals that the crowd is more than wise—it’s talented, creative, and stunningly productive. Crowdsourcing activates the transformative power of today’s technology, liberating the latent potential within us all. It’s a perfect meritocracy, where age, gender, race, education, and job history no longer matter; the quality of work is all that counts; and every field is open to people of every imaginable background. If you can perform the service, design the product, or solve the problem, you’ve got the job.

But crowdsourcing has also triggered a dramatic shift in the way work is organized, talent is employed, research is conducted, and products are made and marketed. As the crowd comes to supplant traditional forms of labor, pain and disruption are inevitable.

Jeff Howe delves into both the positive and negative consequences of this intriguing phenomenon. Through extensive reporting from the front lines of this revolution, he employs a brilliant array of stories to look at the economic, cultural, business, and political implications of crowdsourcing. How were a bunch of part-time dabblers in finance able to help an investment company consistently beat the market? Why does Procter & Gamble repeatedly call on enthusiastic amateurs to solve scientific and technical challenges? How can companies as diverse as iStockphoto and Threadless employ just a handful of people, yet generate millions of dollars in revenue every year? The answers lie within these pages.

The blueprint for crowdsourcing originated from a handful of computer programmers who showed that a community of like-minded peers could create better products than a corporate behemoth like Microsoft. Jeff Howe tracks the amazing migration of this new model of production, showing the potential of the Internet to create human networks that can divvy up and make quick work of otherwise overwhelming tasks. One of the most intriguing ideas of Crowdsourcing is that the knowledge to solve intractable problems—a cure for cancer, for instance—may already exist within the warp and weave of this infinite and, as yet, largely untapped resource. But first, Howe proposes, we need to banish preconceived notions of how such problems are solved.

The very concept of crowdsourcing stands at odds with centuries of practice. Yet, for the digital natives soon to enter the workforce, the technologies and principles behind crowdsourcing are perfectly intuitive. This generation collaborates, shares, remixes, and creates with a fluency and ease the rest of us can hardly understand. Crowdsourcing, just now starting to emerge, will in a short time simply be the way things are done.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 10/24/2008

2008-10-24T17:01:00.001-07:00

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Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day by Dave Evans

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

If the idea of starting a social media marketing campaign overwhelms you, the author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day will introduce you to the basics, demonstrate how to manage details and describe how you can track results. Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists, quizzes and hands-on tutorials will help you execute a social media marketing campaign in just one hour a day. In addition, learn how to integrate social media metrics with traditional media measurements and how to leverage blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, and user-generated content sharing sites like YouTube.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 10/23/2008

2008-10-23T17:01:00.001-07:00

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Five Minutes With VITO by David Mattson | Anthony Parinello

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

VITOtm is the Very Important Top Officer, the person with the ultimate veto power. VITOs control every decision that s made in ever enterprise in your sales territory. If you want to sell and live large, you must get to VITO and launch the proven Sandler Selling System® that will turn VITO into one of your business partners forever.
Sandler Trainingsm and VITO Selling have combined over 80 years of sales know-how, 1,200 hours of audio and video programs, 5,000 pages of training materials, and direct experience in training over 15,000,000 sales people...and distilled it all into one concise, power selling resource. Five Minutes With VITO is the definitive guide for sales people who want to start where they belong at the top.
In this book you ll learn how to use the Sandler Selling System in all of your interactions with VITO including:
How to land an appointment, bond and build rapport with VITO
How to establish up-front contracts with VITO
How to create allies in VITO s rank and file, including their Gatekeepers
How to leave voice mail messages that get call-backs...from VITO
How to make powerful presentations to VITO
How to control your sales process...and influence VITO s buying process
How to compress your sales cycle...and increase your average deal size.

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2008-10-22T09:14:00.001-07:00

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 10/20/2008

2008-10-20T17:00:00.001-07:00

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Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions take place below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds, we’re barely aware of them?

In BUYOLOGY, Lindstrom presents the astonishing findings from his groundbreaking, three-year, seven-million-dollar neuromarketing study, a cutting-edge experiment that peered inside the brains of 2,000 volunteers from all around the world as they encountered various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products. His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what seduces our interest and drives us to buy. Among the questions he explores:

Does sex actually sell? To what extent do people in skimpy clothing and suggestive poses persuade us to buy products?
Despite government bans, does subliminal advertising still surround us – from bars to highway billboards to supermarket shelves?
Can “Cool” brands, like iPods, trigger our mating instincts?
Can other senses – smell, touch, and sound - be so powerful as to physically arouse us when we see a product?
Do companies copy from the world of religion and create rituals – like drinking a Corona with a lime – to capture our hard-earned dollars?

Filled with entertaining inside stories about how we respond to such well-known brands as Marlboro, Nokia, Calvin Klein, Ford, and American Idol, BUYOLOGY is a fascinating and shocking journey into the mind of today’s consumer that will captivate anyone who’s been seduced – or turned off – by marketers’ relentless attempts to win our loyalty, our money, and our minds. Includes a foreword by Paco Underhill.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 10/19/2008

2008-10-19T17:00:00.001-07:00

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Influence: Science and Practice (5th Edition) by Robert B. Cialdini

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

Influence: Science and Practice is an examination of the psychology of compliance (i.e. uncovering which factors cause a person to say ?yes? to another's request).
Written in a narrative style combined with scholarly research, Cialdini combines evidence from experimental work with the techniques and strategies he gathered while working as a salesperson, fundraiser, advertiser, and in other positions inside organizations that commonly use compliance tactics to get us to say ?yes.? Widely used in classes, as well as sold to people operating successfully in the business world, the eagerly awaited revision of Influence reminds the reader of the power of persuasion.
Cialdini organizes compliance techniques into six categories based on psychological principles that direct human behavior: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity.

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Featured Small Business Tools Marketing & Sales Book for 10/18/2008

2008-10-18T16:38:00.001-07:00

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The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott

The review below was found the most useful by the most people.

The Internet has profoundly changed the way people communicate and interact with each other. But it has also changed the way businesses communicate with their customers (and those who they want to be customers). In the old days, companies could only communicate through the filter of expensive advertising or media ink placed by a PR firm. Today the rules have changed entirely.
The New Rules of Marketing and PR shows you how to leverage the potential that Web-based communication offers your business. Finally, you can speak directly to customers and buyers, establishing a personal link with the those who make your business work. You can reach niche buyers with targeted messages that cost a fraction of your big-budget ad campaign. Rather than bombard them with advertising they’ll likely ignore, you can focus on getting the right message to the right people at the right time.
When people visit your company’s Web site, they aren’t there to hear your slogan or see your logo again. They want information, interaction, and choice—and you’d be a fool not to give it to them. This one-of-a-kind guide to the future of marketing includes a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of the Internet, showing you how to identify audiences, create compelling messages, get those messages to the right people, and lead those consumers into the buying process. Including a wealth of compelling case studies and real-world examples, this is a practical guide to the new reality of PR and marketing.

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