I recently had the pleasure to present to the Denver Entrepreneurs Meetup group at the Englewood Library.  Thank you to every who attended.  Here is a copy of the slide presentation.

Optimization your online video is just as important as optimizing your home page and interior pages on your website.  Recently comScore reported in their September 2009 U.S. Search Engine Rankings report, that YouTube is the second-largest search engine, higher than Yahoo or Bing accounting for 3466 mm searches in  September 2009, so creating online videos and having them available on YouTube should be part of your online marketing strategy.

I get asked a number of times about adding video to a site, many clients want to stream directly on their own site.  This is possible with WordPress and can look really nice and will increase the ’stickiness’ of your site, keeping people engaged longer.  However, to gain any kind of recognition for your video in the search engines they should be on YouTube. Read more

These upcoming events are a great way to meet people and learn something at the same time.
Wednesday, October 14, 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.
Perkins Restaurant, 1459 Simms Street, Golden 80401

Sales Expert Marty Wolff of the Posidyne Group will speak on the topic of “Selling for the Non-Sales Person”. Support Perkins Restaurant by purchasing coffee and or breakfast before coming into the meeting.
$5.00 advance online registration or $7.00 cash or check only at the door RSVP required.
Contact:  Sharon Gibson- sharon@make-it-fly.com or (720) 514-0623
Wednesday, October 21, 8:00 am to 9:00 am.
The Egg and I, 8025 Sheridan Blvd., Arvada 80003 Read more

Grow Your Business on Google with Pay-Per-Click

Join me for a class on beginner Pay Per Click.

Small businesses can’t afford to wait for folks to wind their way to the website. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads can bring customers to your site immediately. An effective campaign can cost as little as $25 per month. Learn what it takes to have a successful PPC campaign and how to measure success. Learn how to find the right keywords, how to set up your tracking code, and get step-by-step instructions to create your ad. Leave class with practical knowledge to use Pay-per-click and a list of free keyword research tools that will help you get you started with your local and regional targeting campaigns.

Price: $57 Non-Member $45 Member $10 materials fee payable in class

Class # Class Dates Area of town
3222D One Sat., 2-5 p.m. 10/31 EAST DENVER: Near 1st & Quebec
3222E One Sun., 2-5 p.m. 11/22 EAST DENVER: Near 1st & Quebec
3222F One Sat., 2-5 p.m. 12/19 EAST DENVER: Near 1st & Quebec

To sign up go to Colorado Free University and click on Find a Class and enter the class number in the search.

Join me for a class on Local Search at Colorado Free University.  Pick one of the dates listed below that will work for you, the class is 3 hours and covers a bunch of material for you to go home and start working on your site promotion.  The class is held once a month.

Class Description: Business owners know the value of getting to the top in Internet searches, but many don’t understand the ins and outs of local search. Over thirty percent of all searches are made with local intent and the reality is that most businesses really only need to reach potential customers in a defined geographic area. The local search ecosystem has become a bustling place bringing more visitors to the small business website than ever before. Every business should understand how it works. Learn about local search directories and which will work for your business. Figure out where to list your business and what information you need for an effective listing.

Price: $57 Non-Member $45 Member $10 materials fee payable in class

Class # Class Dates Area of town
3221D One Sat., 9 a.m.-noon 10/31 EAST DENVER: Near 1st & Quebec
3221E One Sun., 9 a.m.-noon 11/22 EAST DENVER: Near 1st & Quebec
3221F One Sat., 9 a.m.-noon 12/19 EAST DENVER: Near 1st & Quebec

To sign up go to Colorado Free University and click on Find a Class and enter the class number in the search.

There have been recent reports of worms doing the rounds.  The lastest on is on Twitter.

From Ben Parr on the Website http://mashable.com

“We have received multiple reports that a new, convincing, and dangerous worm and phishing scam is making the rounds on Twitter. Hacked accounts are sending DMs to users and stealing their login information. In fact, one of our own has received one of these direct messages.

Unsuspecting users are receiving DMs with the following text:

If you get this DM, DO NOT VISIT THE LINK. It takes you to a replica of the Twitter login page where the hackers will steal your account and use it to send out more infected DMs to your friends.”

For more information go to:  http://mashable.com/2009/09/23/twitter-worm-dms/

If you have wanted to get a little more informaiton on what Local Search or Pay Per Click is all about then sign up for a class as CFU.  Upcoming classes include

1.  A Crash Course in Local Search: Don’t Let Your Business Be Left Behind (https://www.colofreeu-registrar.com/sdc/regclass.html?class=252932)

2.  Grow Your Business on Google with Pay-Per-Click  (https://www.colofreeu-registrar.com/sdc/regclass.html?class=252936 )

Both these classes will help you make sure that people find you when searching the Internet.   Saturday 9/26.

A recent question from Fairminder on the Tweetworks – All Things WordPress group said; “Looking for WordPress sidebar widget that will allow unique content in sidebar on each page. Don’t want same content in every sidebar.” -  inspired me to put together a short tutorial on how to create multiple sidebars in your WordPress blog.  While I don’t suggest that my writing skills will win me any awards I quickly put together this pdf to help people that have a little bit of knowledge of how templates work in WordPress to help show how to add multiple widget enabled sidebars to a blog.

Creating Multiple Sidebars In WordPress (pdf)

I have used multiple sidebars on a few sites and they work really well to display different content on different pages.

A couple of example are on the following sites:

• http://www.coactivetech.net
• http://www.thrivingspaces.com

Just let me know if you run into problems, or leave a comment if you have found an easier way.

Today David Mihm posted the results from his research into Local Search with many of the experts in the field.

The report “Local Search Ranking Factors” points many factors that can help your cause in the Local Search area.  The report also highlights negative factors that can affect your listing.

The top three factors

1. General Importance of claiming local business listing – all agreed that claiming a business listing is very important to your online Local Search success.  Everyone had a comment and the consensus was that your must start here!  Claim your listing in Google/
2. Local Business Listing Address in City of Search – another high importance factor.  Google maps are becoming accurate in listing local businesses and as such if you are in a suburb of a large city then you are probably not going to be listed in that major city but rather the suburb.
3. Associating Local Business Listing with Proper Categories – another important factor and many say one of the most effective and a well kept secret.

Negative things included:

1. 800 numbers
2. Multiple locations with one phone number
3. Negative Customer ratings.

Read the whole report at Local Search Ranking Factors

Email marketing is a great way to get information to your clients without spending a lot of money to get the message out. It takes some time to write a good e-newsletter but it is a lot less expensive than purchasing postcards and mailing them to clients. If you have a good list of email addresses then sending out an e-newsletter is a great idea.

If your email list is lacking in names then here are some ideas you can add to your site to build out your email address list.

1. Add a “Sign up for our Newsletter” box to your sidebar or home page.
2. Create a white paper (informational document) and ask for an email address and name before the user gets to a page to download the link
3. If you have a office location, collect email addresses on a sign up form at the office or when people register for your service.
4. Add a box for email address to contracts.
5. Collect business cards and ask if it is OK to add the email to your e-news mail list, tell them the reason why it would be a benefit to them.
6. Add a “Forward This Email” to your newsletter to get your message out to a wider audience.  I have signed up for a number of newsletters after someone has forwarded one to me with information that I find useful and interesting.
7. Add past clients to your list, maybe you can reconnect with them for future purchases.
8. Archive newsletters on your website so they come up in the Search Engines and help attract more readers.
9. Include an opt in message on your shopping cart, so when people purchase a product they can opt into getting your email.
10. Add a “Sign Up for Our Newsletter” to your signature files on your emails that you send out.  The link should send the reader directly to the sign up box so they do not have to search your site to sign up.

Taking a few steps to build your list will result in a long list of emails, but remember to always give your newsletter members an easy option to opt out if they don’t want to get your newsletter anymore.  There is nothing more annoying that will get your clients to never do business with you again if they cannot opt out.

Let us know if you have any other ideas to build your list that have worked for you, in these economic times it is always nice to have ways to reach clients that does not cost a lot of money.