When you are marketing for your company, you probably believe that you are trying to get people to know more about your products and services and trying to get those people to try those services. While this is what’s happening, you also have to realize that your offline and online marketing are reflections of your company. As such, you have to be very careful about what your marketing is saying about your company. Here are some things that you are going to want to consider with your online marketing strategies.

Does Your Marketing Provide Adequate Information?

If your marketing tactics are vague, the customers who see them are not going to know what to think. This is true for all types of marketing. How many times have you sat down and watched a television commercial and come away confused? If the ad is vague, you probably have no idea of what they were trying to sell. Many commercials sacrifice clarity in an attempt to be cute, funny, clever, or edgy and often that is a mistake. In your advertising efforts, it is often going to be a much better solution to make sure that everyone knows what you are offering and has a perfect idea of what your products can do for them.

Does Your Online Marketing Copy Others?

Are you original when it comes to your marketing, or are you using the same types of content and ads that all of the other companies in your niche are using? While you can’t get away from the need to write content and ads, you do have the power to be original in your approach. While there will be some similarities, naturally, you want to make sure that your company is able to stand out in every aspect, from the product down to the advertising that you do.

Is Your Marketing Too Aggressive?

With your marketing, you want to show what you are able to offer a quality product or service that is going to make life better or easier for the user. Some marketing tactics resort to fear over what could happen if someone does not use a certain product, but those tactics no longer work. In fact, they can put a bad taste in the consumer’s mouth. For your offline and online marketing, you are going to want to steer clear of fear tactics in an attempt to sell.

Something else that you want to avoid is spamming, which is unfortunately easy when it comes to online marketing. Just because you have someone’s email address and you are connected through social networking sites, you do not have the right to spam them with your advertising message. If you keep trying to sell to people who are not at a place to buy currently, you can be sure that if they ever do want to buy, they are going to visit one of your competitors.

Does Your Online Marketing Program Have These Problems?

If you find that you have any of the above issues, consider how people are going to view your company. If someone was spamming your inbox with ads, or not providing you with enough information about a product or service in the marketing materials, would you trust that company? Whenever you are developing a marketing plan, whether for a VPN service or a recipe book, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the customer. If you have issues, change your marketing tactics so that you can have a better chance of succeeding and showing your customers what your company is able to offer. Create marketing materials that are going to reflect well on your company.

Know Your Guest Author:

Melissa Tyler is a dedicated writer at VPNTEN – a place to find reviews about the best VPN providers. She is fond of sharing advice about online security, safety connections and VPN technology.

Landing pages play a very critical role in the success of the website of any company or, online business.

When a viewer clicks on a certain ad related to your company or a search engine result or any other link which leads to your company, you need to make sure that the person is led to your landing page. Since this is the first page that you prospect sees it also becomes important that your landing page provides value and sells your business in the correct way.

So basically you have to be careful and intricate about what you put on your landing page.  Your landing page needs to have all the necessary information related to your company and its services.

Quotes or pricing should also be mentioned. If you are launching a new product or are giving off a new deal or discount, mentioning that is also necessary.

As a whole, the viewer must be aware of what all you offer and how your company will be beneficial to them. Try and portray your company in such a way through your landing page, that your prospect is inclined to make use of your services rather than going elsewhere.

Another important aspect you need to bear in mind when creating your landing page is the kind of landing page you want.

For example, you can go for a Reference Landing Page which would lead viewers directly to the informational page or you can select to make a Transactional Landing Page where the viewer has to like a page or fill a form or answer a few questions before he or she is taken to your pain page where all the information of your company and its work is provided.

There are a lot of aspects that you need to bear in mind when you decide the kind of landing page for your company. One of the most important of that is how to want your visitors to react to the information.

Making use of a landing page generator is a must to have an efficient and smooth running landing page.

When you hear of Google+ Hangouts, you probably think of a bunch of loud and annoying teenagers on their laptops having a large group video chat. But Google+ Hangouts is so much more than that, and it can actually be used as a powerful tool to improve the efficiency of your business. As many businesses utilize employees that work remotely, and as much as the “Bring Your Own Device” BYOD movement has taken hold in businesses everywhere, the need for remote communication among business employees has never been higher. This is why we are offering the top 5 tips on using Google+ Hangouts for your business.

Google+ Hangouts can be created and joined from nearly all devices – desktop computers, laptops, smartphones and tablets. This makes it a snap to create or join a Google+ Hangout from anywhere you have internet access, and this can be a huge advantage for a business that has employees on the go.

Here are the top 5 tips on using Google+ Hangouts for your business

Business meetings:

Google+ Hangout can be used to handle all business meetings which can cut down on space needed for meetings and make it easier for employees or high-ranking management officials to join the meeting from wherever they are at that time. It also allows collaboration with clients and customers, as they can join meetings to learn valuable information about the business or to offer their input on products and services.

Employee or group announcements:

Announcements are important, and while they can be sent by email or other communication methods, a Google+ Hangout can be used for important announcements when you want to make sure that all employees or members of a certain group, get the announcement and it’s not accidentally deleted or overlooked.

Customer service:

Customer service is usually handled on the phone but video customer service help is catching on at businesses everywhere. Google+ Hangout has built-in support for desktop screen sharing which opens the door for an on-hands look at what the user is experiencing. This is the perfect way to offer an open forum to specific groups of users and offer them help.

Remote employee chats:

Many businesses have employees that are constantly on the go. The effort to get all of your employees together at one time may be more effort than is actually required. Just send out a memo of the time of an employee meeting, and employees can login from wherever they are to catch the meeting on their laptop, tablet or smartphone.

Media – press release:

A Google+ Hangout can be used to release your press release or statements to the media concerning business practices, new products, improvements to existing products or services, and more. By using a Google+ Hangout, these statements can be made by video directly to members of the press that are interested in covering the release.

These are only a few of the top uses for Google+ Hangouts in a business setting. The possibilities are endless whether you’re a lawyer collaborating with other lawyers, clients or sources, or perhaps a journalist collaborating with news sources, other journalists or conducting interviews on stories to be reported on. Google+ Hangouts can greatly improve the efficiency of your business as it eliminates the need to have all members of a group in a certain area in order to have a discussion, meeting or announcement.

I believe as the business world moves more towards the BYOD and cloud movements, that remote communication will be in demand more than ever. A Google+ Hangout can handle the communication and meetings aspect of these movements by allowing employees to spend more time on their projects instead of traveling back and forth from a centralized workplace.

For small businesses or startups, a marketing campaign is essential.  It’s the backbone of setting up a successful business. After all, as an entrepreneur hacking it out it on your own, you want as many people to know about your services or products as possible.

The real hurdle to contend with though is how to build up an efficient campaign.  How do you reach out to as many people as possible with the least amount of effort? Looking to drive people to your website? With many marketing avenues to explore, there are many things to consider.

If you’re thinking of pursuing both offline and online marketing, there is, literally, no limit to what you can do. Using a few general tech tools, you can integrate your offline audience with your online marketing to solidify your client base.  Consider the following strategies:

Use QR Codes On Marketing Material

Without doubt, you’re thinking about marketing material. Using billboards, posters, leaflets, and business cards is a great idea to reach potential clients.  But remember that the real estate on physical publications is precious. So a QR code will become the most powerful thing you’ll want on each publication format.

Instead of wasting ad space on information, promotional details and the like, use a QR code. It will do it for you in one neat square inch of space. Everyone has a mobile device these days, and QR codes can connect them directly to your digital sources online.

Get creative with these. there’s a lot you can do with them: contact details, product information, web pages, send email messages, text messages, link to demo videos, get people to sign up for early bird deals. The list goes on.

Connect Your Startup And Users With Foursquare

With the power of mobile devices, you can get social networks working for you. Connect people and services. Foursquare, the geo-location mapping network, is known for its ability to let users digitally share where they’ve been physically.

Why not have people check in with Foursquare to your business’ physical location?  Not only that, but Foursquare members can review, share, rate, comment, take pictures, and favourite those locations. You can easily put yourself on the map here. You can even give people an incentive to check in with contests or giveaways. This is definitely an easy way to get online testimonials for your budding business.

Get Hooked Up With Groupon

Who doesn’t love a discount? Depending on your service and products, you can easily set up a Groupon people can redeem in person or online.  If you’re looking to get in touch with other relevant companies to help boost your credibility, try partnering up with notable or relevant establishments or stores to offer gift certificates, marked down purchases or 2 for 1 deals. This works great to help celebrate grand openings, releases and product launches.

It’s a great way to get people into your store and an even greater way to reach more than one person. The Groupon discount only works if a certain number of people sign up for it. Word of mouth for discounts and deals is always a sure fire way to catch people’s attention. You really can’t afford to miss an opportunity as easy as that!

Set Up Contests For Convention Attendees

Get your business seen at world renown conferences and conventions. It’s perhaps one of the best ways to get a foothold in your niche. You can reach targeted clients for your business and gain potential leads. The best part about this is that you can shift your interaction easily online and give them a way to stay connected after they walk away.

For this strategy, a simple contest could do very well. Encourage attendees to enter while they visit your booth in person. Invite them to follow, add or check in with your online networks where you’ll be announcing the lucky winners.  It’s a quick incentive to get people following you and your chance to ensure that your online marketing efforts with tweets, social media posts and community engagement, are seen.

Create A Mobile App

Your website is more than likely going to be homebase for any news or updates you have for your clients.  Having some great content and resources will help round out your site.  For highly frequent updates and content, creating a mobile app might be a great way to get those offline users plugged into your online marketing.

Major tech sites like MakeUseOf.com, for instance, have their own RSS feed app for keeping faithful followers updated with the latest posts on their site, their Facebook page and their Twitter network. The app gears their content to mobile viewing, providing a friendly user experience that encourages people to check in.

Bonus Tip:  Share A Bit About Yourself

One easy way to get offline users interested in your online campaign is to be more personable. These days it’s a growing trend for companies to come out from behind their website and show that there are real people running the company. So should you. Get personal (yet keep it professional!)  with your clientele.

Share a bit about yourselves. Record a promotional video, upload photos of the office, and take pictures of your organization at conferences. Showing how your company culture relates to the people you want using your service can reassure prospective users online that your business is real and credible. The last thing you want is to have users thinking that your online presence is a scam.

As you can see, mainstream technology has made it extremely easy to be creative with your marketing campaign. All it takes is the right target with the right combination of tools to ensure your success.  These are just a few ideas to put you on the right track. What strategies have you tried?

Know Your Guest Author:

Reena Cruz  writes for the Investintech.com blog, where she shares tips about PDF converter technology and software in general. As a tech-geek, she enjoys learning about new tech trends and sharing productivity tool tips online. 

If you own a business, you literally can’t afford to overlook social media in your marketing strategy. Having a business page on Facebook helps, but to keep up with the trends, it’s a good idea to have a presence on Pinterest, too.

The Internet is a vast resource where you can find plenty of things that strike your fancy. Now, Pinterest lets you share those interests with the world. See why it could play an integral role in your marketing efforts? Read on to learn some things to do now, even if you’re a Pinterest newbie.

Be Visible

Just like the now-iconic blue and white Facebook logo graphic, Pinterest’s scripted P against a vivid solid red background is equally easy to spot. It’s simple to add the Pinterest logo to your own website HTML along with a “Follow Me On Pinterest” tagline.

Make It Interactive

Letting your target audience know that your business is on Pinterest is one thing, but you can make things even more fun by adding “Pin It” links to any of your product pages. This simplifies the user experience, and potentially drives interest for your products in just one click. Before long, your customers can add any of your items to their personal pinboards, and increase your web presence in the process.

Work With Widgets

Fortunately, being a computer whiz isn’t a prerequisite for building a brand via Pinterest. To attract corporations that might want to take advantage of this social media hub, Pinterest staff members give a step-by-step process of how to add buttons and widgets to websites. These additions create simple integrations between Pinterest and your company’s home on the Web. If you do things carefully, customers will navigate between the two websites in a nearly seamless way, enhancing their web browsing experience.

Keep It Legal

Brand recognition is one of the driving factors behind Pinterest’s quick and global success. Understandably then, there are a few guidelines to follow when you add their logo to your website. These apply whether you’re a business that sells kitchen gadgets or Mustang accessories, but aren’t too difficult to follow, especially if you get graphics directly from Pinterest.

For example, your business is not allowed to alter the colors of any Pinterest graphics, or apply any special effects. Rotating the graphics is also not permitted.

Give The Right Impression

When used properly, Pinterest works in conjunction with other promotional efforts. In almost every industry, marketing is an all-encompassing process which incorporates several types of media simultaneously. Although it’s certainly worth trying to reach broader portions of your audience through websites like Pinterest, never give visitors the idea that you’re being directly endorsed by a social media giant.

Look Beyond The Surface

Once you learn all the ins and outs of social media, you’ll discover it often holds the key to what makes your target audience tick. By evaluating what customers are displaying on their Pinterest boards, you’ll get insight into what they enjoy. This information is similar to what you’d gain by polling your customers through an in-person focus group. Although they’re not communicating with spoken voices, you’ll get a visual representation of their personal passions, and you can use that information to your advantage.

The six suggestions above use a combination of website additions, brand usage principles and a keen eye for what your customers deem most important. Furthermore, all these tips are free and can be implemented in minutes. Huffington Post recently called the Pinterest website one of the fastest growing of its kind in history, and they’re right. Millions of users visit it daily, and you can start using it to make your business more profitable today.

Know Your Guest Author:

Adrienne is a blogger and aspiring writer. When she’s not blogging about tech and social media, you might find her practicing her French, whipping up some recipes she found on Pinterest, or obsessing over vintage postcards and stamps.

With the economy showing no signs of imminent recovery, it’s no surprise that eBay remains an appealing way to make as an at home business option or to just make some extra cash! Selling on eBay is a preferred form of online income for 3 good reasons:

It requires very little start up capital

Unlike many other businesses that require $10,000 (or in many cases much more) to get started, with an eBay business, you can get started for as little as $50. However, if you do have some money to invest, you will get the benefits of being able to get good wholesale discounts which will come back at you as profits.

If you are short on cash, consider using the drop ship method of product sourcing. When you drop ship, you only buy items from a wholesaler after you sell the item. This is a huge advantage because you can pay the wholesaler using the money you get from your buyer. The risk of buying stock that won’t sell is eliminated!

It requires little skill or experience

Unlike some other online business options which require you to be skilled in article writing, SEO, web design and more, with eBay, all you really need is a good intuition and some dedication.

If you do have any SEO or web design skills though (I’m talking to all you affiliate marketers out there!), you’ll have a huge advantage over other online retailers.

The potential gains are huge

It’s not hard to find eBay success stories and the majority of the time, they are people who dived into eBay on a shoestring budget and who had little or no experience in owning a business prior.

What to sell on eBay in 2013

If I had a dollar for every time I was asked “what should I sell?” I would double my income! It’s not surprising that so many sellers, even more experienced ones, get a little stumped when it comes to deciding what to sell.One of the biggest mistakes you can make is trying to sell popular items such as iPads, mp3 players, designer handbags and computers. While these markets are popular on eBay, they are also saturated and making sales within these markets isn’t easy.If you decide to sell these items, you probably won’t be making the profit margins you would expect. More likely you will be making $2-$15 dollars per item in order to remain in the same price range as your competitors.
Furthermore, you will be up against sellers who have huge wholesale purchasing budgets (think $50,000 – $100,000 or more per month) and who have developed business relationships with wholesalers over a number of years. This makes it very difficult to compete so instead of attempting to take on these markets, opt for niche products which are far easier to sell and can actually earn you more profits!

What is a niche product?

Niche products are items that appeal to a smaller ‘niche’ market. You know you have found a niche when you ask yourself who would want the product. For example, if you ask yourself, who would want a laptop, the answer is that just about everyone wants a laptop! However, if you asked yourself who would want a Disney themed laptop bag, the answer might be school-aged children who have to use laptops in school.

See how the niche market appeals to a smaller potential market?

Another example is left handed guitars. Who’s interested in left handed guitars? Musically-inclined left handed people!
Try to use this test when you are deciding what to sell on eBay. It might go against your instincts to sell products that only appeal to a smaller market, but on eBay it can give you a significant advantage. Remember, eBay is the largest marketplace in the world and it’s the first place most people go when they want to buy something.

Hot products for 2013

According to trend setters and market experts, these are the products that will be on the rise in 2013 (organised by category for your  convenience).

Health and beauty

If it’s makeup you want to sell, look out for the hottest colors for 2013. These include plum and deep reds for lips and emerald shades or green for eyes. Funky nail art is still a huge trend and BB cream (alternative to foundation) is here to stay and still growing. Bee venom products will also continue to dominate skin care.There are also whispers among fashionistas about hair crimping coming back. While this makes me cringe a little, it could be a good opportunity to sell crimping irons.

On the diet front, back-to-basics diets such as the Paleo diet or the cave man diet are gaining a lot of momentum. Books and DVDs on any form of ‘clean eating’ (as opposed to eating processed foods) will be big hits.

Sports and outdoors

At home workouts will continue to be popular, as everyone cuts gym memberships in order to same cash. This means that home gym equipment and exercise DVDs are going to sell well.

Home ware

Perhaps it’s a turn toward healthier living, but yoghurt parlours are becoming very popular around the world. Retailers can expect this trend to follow through into kitchenware and you might see a rise in yoghurt making machines! Eco friendly products will continue to dominate the niche markets within the home ware category, as will allergen-friendly products such as wooden furniture and BPA free baby items.
Another emerging trend thanks to Pinterest.com, the web’s latest phenomenon, is DIY projects and home cooking. What does this mean to you? Craft supplies, renovating supplies, baking and cooking supplies will blossom this year.

If you want to get clever about it, consider selling starter packs to ambitious newbies who are taking on new hobbies such as crafting or DIY renovations. You could put together a craft start pack with fabric scraps, a hot glue gun, scissors, plaster and more. A start pack for DIY renovations could contain basic tools, a measuring tap, a jotter pad for ideas and inspiration and other essentials.

Technology

Selling gadgets or other tech-related paraphernalia should be approached with caution: Remember what I said earlier about mp3 players and computers and watch for over saturated markets that won’t earn you any money.

Here’s a quick list of gadgets that are set to sell well this year:
• 3D printers
• High quality ear buds that deliver the high quality sound
• Computer eyewear – eyewear especially for use in front of a computer and saves eyes from straining
• USB hubs
• Geeky or quirky USB drives (with lots of memory!)
• Camera lenses for top brands Canon and Nikon. (beware; selling photography gear requires a good knowledge of the products. If you’re not an   active user of cameras and photography equipment, skip this.)
Are you considering selling on eBay this year? If you have any questions, leave a comment below. I would love to help!

Know Your Guest Author:

Alice is an education specialist for SaleHoo.com. SaleHoo connects over 92,000 eBay sellers and online retailers with wholesale suppliers all over the world. Their product range includes a wholesale supplier directory, market research software and eCommerce software.

As more and more new technologies compete for consumers’ attention in the marketplace, consumers are often choosing to use multiple sources of input to make a single purchasing decision. For instance, a consumer may initially see a product she likes in your store’s catalog, further research the purchase using the store’s mobile app, then read reviews online on her computer, then go to the store’s brick-and-mortar location to make the actual purchase.

When the consumer is able to transition seamlessly from one channel to another, being available on so many fronts is a great boost to business for retail stores and can do a lot toward increasing customer loyalty. However, cross-channel marketing has a downside, as well: If your store is inconsistent in price, customer rating or any other aspect of the customer experience, customers will get frustrated and will often take their money elsewhere.

For an improved cross-channel marketing experience, follow these tips:

Pay attention to how customers are using your marketing materials.

Are customers spending most of their time on your mobile site looking at photos of products, but most of their time spent on your website reading reviews? Make reviews more prominent on the website and increase the size of photos on the mobile site, or make them easier to find or enlarge.

Look at what customers are buying through various channels.

Pay attention to whether customers tend to make certain types of purchases in one medium or another. For example, if you own a housewares store and customers are three times as likely to purchase bedding through your catalog but tend to purchase kitchen equipment online, put bedding at the front of the catalog, but kitchen equipment on the front page of your website.

Offer the same information through different channels.

Customers who are unable to access customer reviews through your mobile app, for example, may be frustrated not be able to find that information. Even if you’ve determined that most customers do not use the app to read customer reviews, make sure customers still have the option — just don’t put them front and center. Use expandable menus to show customers that they have the option to view any information they need, without making them do a lot of scrolling through areas of the page they don’t care about.

Sync prices across all platforms.

If you’re offering a sale on women’s jackets on your mobile site, make sure to offer it through other mediums as well, and at the same time. If you have problems syncing up prices, at least warn customers that prices may be different in the store versus online, and consider offering them the lower of the two prices if they find a discrepancy. Most customers will have their smart phones with them while in your store, so it shouldn’t be too hard to prove if there’s a price difference.

Offer the option of creating an account.

If a customer creates an online account with your company, the specifics of that account can move between a computer and a smart phone. For instance, if a customer adds an item to his wishlist on the computer, next time he signs in on his mobile phone, that item will be waiting for him.

Test out marketing methods to see what works.

Cross-channel promotion sometimes reaps great benefits, and other times it falls flat. Take careful note of how one channel impacts another so that you can decide which methods to retain and which to toss. For example, some stores print a website on their receipt where customers can go to fill out a satisfaction survey and receive a coupon for their next visit. Some engage in email marketing for online or in-store sales. Some promote sales through social media. Test out a few methods and see what works.

Know Your Guest Author:

Valerie Cecil is a research coordinator, marketing specialist and writer for Outbounding.com. Her work allows her to investigate many topics, ranging from online consumer relations to effective communication in the workplace. When she is not working, she enjoys kayaking, watercolor, and scouting out the best Retail Packaging Tissue Paper out there.

Consumers spend millions of dollars each year shopping online and the trend isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon. In fact, online shopping is predicted to triple in the next decade. Corporations aren’t the only ones taking advantage of this phenomenon. Individuals all over the country are opening online storefronts and reaping the benefits of online shopping. Running a successful business online isn’t a pipe dream. It’s easier than ever to do with all of the online resources available.

Once you’ve decided on a product (or products) to sell and you’ve researched the competition, the hardest part to opening an online storefront is knowing where to begin.  Luckily, there are tons of resources available to facilitate the process.

The Domain Name

Purchasing a domain name is the first step in opening an online storefront. Your website will become a staple in your marketing so choose a name that will describe your product, appeal to consumers, and be unique all at the same time. It’s not as hard as it sounds. You are no longer limited to the .com. When choosing a domain name consider the use of it. For instance, .org implies you are a non-profit and .biz implies you are a for-profit. Others are: .info (used for sites strictly providing information), .me (useful for bio sites) and .us imply you are a U.S. based company.

Storefront Designing

Next, hire a webmaster to create an ecommerce website using the domain name you have purchased. Designing a bold and graphic website isn’t the only thing your webmaster should be concerned with. Choosing the correct ecommerce platform is just as important. It will not only make your life easier but will give your customers the payment options they seek so keep that in mind. You will be limited in sales if you limit the options consumers have to pay, so make it easy for people to pay in as many ways as possible.

Marketing Your Products on Social Media

While you are waiting for your site to be built, it is a great idea to begin selling your product(s) through social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter or Fiverr.com; or online platforms such as Etsy, EBay or Craigslist. Tracking trends for your product will be easier to do because you’ll see where traffic is coming from and which online resource is benefiting your sales. Once you have your store opened, you will be that much ahead of the game.

Promoting Your Online Store

Once your website is complete, now it’s time to promote your online store. This will be a little easier to do since you’ve already begin to sell your products through social networking sites and online platforms. Include your website address on these sites to draw traffic to it. Don’t rely on the search engines to promote your site for you and don’t expect traffic to boom overnight. Nothing will happen if you aren’t promoting your online storefront.

The Brand – Build It

Build your brand. New products are introduced online by the thousands every single day. You will have a harder time competing if you don’t build your brand to set you apart from the rest. Your brand should be an attention getter and can be something as simple as a catchy logo or a simple character that can be associated with your product.

Mobile Marketing – Success Mantra

Finally, expand your online storefront a mobile app if applicable. Believe it or not, consumers are finding it even easier to shop online from their cell phones or tablets. In fact, it is becoming more and more common for people to do all of their online business from their cell phone. Some analysts have even posited that the heyday of laptops and desktop computers are is slowly waning. Creating a mobile app so that shoppers can access from these devices is a win-win for everyone.

Know Your Guest Author:

Ryan Franklin is a marketer, writer, and small business owner who writes on behalf of Ordoro. Click here to learn more about Ordoro’s helpful order management software.

When it comes to internet marketing, the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, Google’s been extra strict nowadays that people are finding it hard to put their business in front of Google’s famous “first page” list. Now, if you’ve been a very diligent internet marketer, you’d know exactly what is going on.

The Penguin and the Panda

Since Google’s released the infamous “Penguin Update”, more and more businesses have fallen down from the first page.  If your website happens to be one of the many sites pulled down from the rankings, it is imperative that you understand the strategy that you have been using and the strategy that you are going to use in order to get back up, in terms of ranking.

Let’s face it; Google’s the king of search engines and if your business is not on its first page, you already lost half the business and profits you should be making from competitors. I actually understand why a lot of business owners spent thousands of dollars buying all kinds of programs, codes, and hiring outsource work in order to get good quality content and to spread his/her website’s links all over the information superhighway.

When things got a bit out of control, Google started to notice and released the “Panda” Update, the supposedly “gentle”version of the Penguin Update. It was aimed at sites who feature plagiarised, low quality articles; once you got caught, your site will be penalized and stripped of its rankings. Unfortunately, site owners dismissed the Panda Update, thus pushing Google web spam administrators to finally release Penguin way back in May 2012.

Post Penguin and Panda Era

Of course, you already know what happened next. Sites fell down in rankings and SEO analysts were scrambling to find a solution in order to stop their client’s sites from falling down. It got so bad that a dozen angry SEO analysts in India even staged a rally in front of Google Mumbai months ago.

In my opinion, these guys who rallied right in front of Google Mumbai must be the ones who have been using underhanded SEO techniques rather than the good ones. The sites that I have been working on are actually fine when the Google updates came in. Well, they may have fallen down in rankings, but the damage wasn’t that bad.

And just a few weeks ago, Google’s released an update with the Penguin. Experts began calling it “Penguin 3″. Matt Cutts, Google’s Webspam admin, have informed netizens that the new Penguin update will penalize dubious sites even more by rapidly and silently checking a site’s page ranking, since there have been a bunch of reports that some website admins have been tampering with their website’s page ranking. A website’s page ranking is just one of the many metrics used in placing websites to their designated page within Google.

So, my question to you is, have you been checking your internet marketing strategy? If you’ve been checking it, then you’d know that the only way to get a spot on Google’s first page is through a bunch of high quality articles, good link building practices and to avoid using webspam. If not, then you are in big trouble. Google will continue to release new Penguin updates until the Internet is wiped clean from any websites employing underhanded or black hat SEO techniques. In a way, In a way, it’s quite good that these updates have completely leveled the playing field for all internet marketers. Now is a good time for new internet marketers to come up with good and decent strategies for getting into Google’s top page!

About the Author:

Jessica Greenberg is an avid blogger/internet marketing expert from San Diego, California. When she is not busy working on a new online marketing strategy for United Furniture Industries, she’s usually hanging out with her friends in Starbucks.

The stupendous growth of Internet has created a plethora of jobs, and the best part is, most of these jobs are doable from home, so we have seen a significant increase in the number of full time freelancers earning more than decent income while working from homes.

Every day, we see hundreds of different websites getting launched, and each new website brings more work for the freelancers. An average website will require work from at least three to four types of professionals, namely web designer/developer, content writer, and an SEO professional. If you are to choose any of these careers, you will surely be getting more than enough opportunities in near future, given that you are willing to do the needful.

Following is a step by step guide for those who are looking to choose web designing as a fulltime career.

Step One – Aptitude

• Like any other job, web designing also requires a certain aptitude or mindset. You can learn the basics, and you can create reasonably good looking websites with Photoshop but having such run-of-the-mill skill-set is not going to take you very far.

• You need to be at home with everything about colors, for instance the color combinations, contrast, color theory, different colors for different moods, the importance of white space in web designs, and the likes.

• In the same way, you need to have the eye and imagination to come up with stellar “designs”. You should also be able to play with figures and images inventively.

• Remember that even as a designer, you will have to learn a fair bit of coding like HTML or CSS. So, you should be ready for a steep learning curve because in the world of freelancing, your job is never secure.

Step Two – Learning

• I know many professional designers or developers who’ve learnt the “art” solely with the help of online tutorials and manuals, and there’s no reason why you cannot do the same. The best part is most of these tutorials and lessons are available for free. Following are just some resources that you can use. For example w3schools.com, developphp.com, teamtreehouse.com, webdesign.tutsplus.com, etc.

• But that’s just the tip of iceberg; there are literally hundreds of wonderful resources with all sorts of illustrations and videos to help you comprehend the ins and outs of web designing. While self-learning, you are bound to have some problems or queries; luckily you will get many forums and communities where veteran designers and other professionals will be more than happy to help you out.

• Be realistic during your learning phase, start from the basics and take your time. Once you’ve picked up a tutorial, languages, or a program to become skilled at, don’t move to another one unless you have digested all the information comprehensively.

• Don’t stop at just reading the tutorials, or going through some videos, practicing is the key to self-learning. For practicing, you should install a local server or purchase a domain name along with a cheap hosting package to hone your skills.

Step Three – Finding Work

• No matter how skilled you are, getting your first few projects is going to be an uphill battle, because you don’t have some sample work or portfolio to boast. So, you shouldn’t mind accepting some projects at minimal rates just to get something on your portfolio. For quick response, you should try bidding at unrealistically low rate at freelance jobs portals like odesk.com or elance.com.

• Many small businesses are looking to get a presence at World Wide Web but they don’t know from where they should be starting. Don’t rely solely on the job openings posted on web; use some inexpensive advertising mediums to reach out to local businesses like referrals, business cards, SMS marketing, etc.

• Once you have got some projects that you can claim, you are ready to launch your own website and ideally a blog. Optimize it for the localized keywords instead of the generic ones. In addition to that, you need to be active on social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.

About the Author:

Saba Mushtaq is a web designer writing for treehouse, an online resource offering html5 tutorial, JavaScript tutorial, and invaluable tips related to web designing or development.