Competitive analysis is considered common sense for anyone running a business in the online environment. However, in order to run precision tests in this regard, you need to have access to some very strong tools. The AdWords tool powered by Google is a good start, but it is not comprehensive enough to present you with the much needed information on what kind of competition you are actually facing. The following tools are considered some of the best analysis tools in SEO at the moment.

Traffic Travis

This SEO analysis tool is used by over 250,000 webmasters and it is favored by many, because it is capable of analyzing the competition for a particular keyword, including the rank of a page, as well as how well it is doing in search queries.

Instead of you doing all the work, by trying to pinpoint the performance of your direct competitor, through tools such as Alexa Traffic Rank, and the most important search engines, Traffic Travis is doing all the work. Besides Alexa Traffic Rank, it includes the Number of Indexed Pages in the most important search engines: Google, Bing and Yahoo. Its secondary role is to analyze the quality of backlinks on a web page, something that may come in handy.

WebCEO

This competitor analysis tool for SEO is one of the most complex tools that you can find right now. Because of its many features, it can present users with a thorough analysis on how competition is doing on a certain keyword. It also offers plenty of support for users, in order to increase the quality of the service. While there is a paid version that is quite expensive, the free version is powerful enough to provide small business with a powerful tool for SEO analysis.

SEOToolSet

This tool set, as the name indicates, is a collection of smaller programs that allow users to increase SEO efforts for making their pages rank higher, as well as to analyze the activity of the most important competitors in the same field. Among the tools put at users’ disposal, you will find: a toolbar that explains web statistics, a SEO tool, a page analyzer and a server response checker.

SEOCockpit

This particular competitor analysis tool for SEO uses cloud servers in order to identify the information you need. Its main advantage is that it is capable of suggesting certain keywords, and it shows which keywords are the best choice in order to rank better and without having to face such a tough competition. On the not so bright side, this tool is quite expensive to use, since it uses monthly subscriptions only.

Open Site Explorer

Quite a reliable free competitor analysis tool for SEO, Open Site Explorer allows you to compare your website with up to 5 competitors, making it easier for you to understand where you are standing. Its role is to analyze incoming links, anchor texts, the authority of a website and many other aspects related to SEO.

About the Author:

Kady Babs is a Certified Professional and freelance writer. At present attached with Test 4 Prep.com. This is Best Source for itil v3 certification exam. You can try free demos itil v3 foundation training with 100% Risk Free and Money Back Guaranteed. Babs has creative writing skills and helping people to get certified on first try. 

With social media becoming the newest form of marketing in the small business scene, it can be a tricky one to figure out what is best. Social Media Managers are hired to strictly run your business on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Yelp and Blogs.

Before you hire your social media manager take the following in to consideration:

Decide if you need one

There are going to be several telltale signs that you need to help. First is that you don’t know what a social media manager is. Chances are if you don’t know what one is, you know little about social media. Second sign that you need to hire a social media manager is that you just don’t have the time to update your sites. A good Twitter feed should be tweeting almost hourly and Facebook once a day. If you aren’t meeting these goals, it’s time to hire someone to help you.

Decide what you want

There are a lot of things to consider before you hire a social media manager, you need to decide just exactly you want from them. Depending on how small or large your business is will help you determine if you need a part time or full time employee. If you are unsure, start of by hiring a part time social media manager. The purpose of a social media manager is to maintain, interact, promote and appease all your social media followers and fans needs.

How to hire

Anyone can call themselves a social media manager, so beware of craigslist posts and other questionable ‘professionals’. A tip is to hire someone with marketing, journalism, media, public relations etc. degree and that has a strong portfolio. You want to be able to log on and see the work they have done or are currently doing. If you are looking for a part timer, consider heading to your local college and speaking with the marketing/journalism/media department. Upper level college students are well versed in online media and can do a great job of managing the sites for you. Not only can they get the job done but they will cost you less.

What to expect from a Social Media Manager

Your social media manager should be able to show you where and how you need to be as far as your online presence. Train them in your business and what you do and let them work their magic. Most social media managers work as freelance and from home, which can save you money in the long run. Their hours will differ from yours, because social media is constantly ‘on’. They should spend a day or two coming up with a promotion strategy and present you with what they can do for you. Questions you need to have answered is: How can they increase your followers, will everything have a consistent voice, what ideas do they have for promotional ideas etc.

What the Social Media Manager expects from you

A social media manager will expect several things. First of all, they will require training and information on your business. They want to know all the rules and regulations, what is acceptable and what is not. They need to know small things like where to send an angry customer and different sales promotions going on. They will need 1-2 days to really research and come up and plan for your business. Pay them for this work, depending on your budget, have a set price for that proposal. If you accept it, you will move on to regular payments. Depending on what you expect and what they produce and your budget you can pay anywhere from 1,000-3,000 a month.

If you have the need, the budget and patience to hire a social media manager, do it. Always ask for a portfolio, search for true professionals and set them reasonable goals. You will be happy with your results and don’t be surprised to see business increase after you find the right social media manager for you.

About the Author:

Nancy Parker was a professional nannies and she loves to write about wide range of subjects like health, Parenting, Child Care, Babysitting, nanny background check tips etc. You can reach her @ nancy.parker015 @ gmail.com

Online reputation management is doing big business these days, delivering vital brand-enhancing services to small businesses and Fortune 500 companies alike. That businesses should be interested in shaping and controlling how they are portrayed on the Web is totally understandable; in an age of instant news access, to say nothing of Yelp reviews and online BBB complaints, online reputation management provides an invaluable wall of protection to brands of all kinds. If you think it’s just for corporations, though, you couldn’t be more wrong.

The truth is that even individuals need to watch out for how they are portrayed on the Web. Consider the ramifications of allowing your online reputation to go unchecked. You might walk into a job interview totally unprepared to field questions about a negative online listing, or an embarrassing photo turned up on Facebook or Google. It could cost you the job, to say nothing of your dignity! And if you think dates and new neighbors aren’t checking up on you online, think again.

Unfortunately, managing your reputation is tougher today than it’s ever been. There was a time when avoiding arrests or DUI mug shots was really all it took. Now, thanks to Google, a single, fifteen-year-old frat party photo can surface at any time and ruin your image.

The good news is, there is such a thing as DIY reputation management for individuals. Here are a few tricks of the trade.

Monitoring is Everything

The most obvious starting point is with reputation monitoring. Knowing what’s out there about you in Google-land can help you respond appropriately — and it can give you time to prepare a reasonable explanation for that job interview, keeping unsavory surprises to a minimum!

Start by conducting online searches for yourself, and for any nicknames or online handles you go by. Setting up a Google or Yahoo alert can also be beneficial. Additionally, make sure you log out of your Google account before searching — otherwise, you’ll get “personalized” results that may not tell you the whole story about your online reputation.

Building Your Brand

Even if you’re only worried about your individual reputation — not the reputation of a company — it’s still, basically, a matter of brand management. It’s about branding yourself online, and making sure that your personal brand is only presented in the best light possible.

That means you’ve got to start building your name. Maintaining plenty of strong, positive online assets is a good start. At the bare minimum, a personal website or blog, plus active social media accounts, are important. By populating the Web with content, you are essentially filling the first page of Google and Bing with good, non-embarrassing information about yourself — so that potential employer or would-be date will see only the good stuff, not the negatives!

Coming up with content can be a little tricky, of course, but you can always make an online resume site — a great way to create a strong online portrayal of yourself, and appeal to hiring managers, as well!

Making sure you have control of all pertinent domains is also essential, even if you don’t plan to use them all. For example, if you have a unique name, like Maynard Sanchez, you’ll want to make sure that you own the rights to MaynardSanchez.com, .org, and so on. Remember that if you own then, nobody else can use them against you — so even if you leave those domains basically empty, just having them to yourself can go a long way.

Social Media Secrets

Of course, social networking is a big part of building your personal brand — but for all of the advantages that social networks offer, there are also a few words of caution to keep in mind. The first, and perhaps the biggest, is to make sure you know and understand your privacy settings. If your account is hacked and unfavorable or unwelcome content is published, in your name, it can prove utterly ruinous. And of course, you don’t want to have to spend precious minutes of your job interview explaining that your account was hacked because you don’t know what privacy settings are!

With this caution noted, however, it’s important to also think about of the box when it comes to social interaction. Facebook and Twitter are obvious ways to build your online brand, but there are also more industry-oriented, niche sites and directories where you can establish an online presence. Google around for a bit and see if there are professional or academic listings in which you might start a profile.

The Bottom Line

Of course, it would be easy to say that reputation management is as simple as this: Don’t do anything stupid that could one day lead to Google embarrassment! Life isn’t that simple, of course, which is why it’s important to keep an eye on how your name is used on the Internet — and to do everything you can to protect it!

About the Author:

A serial internet entrepreneur with an extensive background in direct marketing, affiliate marketing, and online reputation management. In addition, Rich manages the Direct Response industry’s official blog where he shares his thoughts on Direct Response Marketing. Currently, Rich leads the team at www.reputationchanger.com.

Being an outstanding Internet Marketer is not an easy thing to do. In most of the cases people are working from their home, which is why others can easily get all the help they actually require. When you are considering network marketing or Internet Marketing top earners, you will be able to figure out different things that they actually practice to earn big and become successful. On the other hand, one vital thing you need to be abundantly clear, that the top earners find their ways to distinguish themselves from the rest of the lot.

This article will outline the 5 different ways to become an outstanding Internet marketer.

Create Your Own Identity

As there are millions of users over the world wised web, all of them are vying for the same kind of attention, but the point is how can you get your own share? Outstanding Internet marketers are aware of the fact that to attain the accurate kind of exposure they are required to figure out a way to set themselves apart in a special way. This is how they come up with their own identity. It simply means that they find approaches to brand or market themselves in a certain way, to a particular target market. This promotion is normally done through a specific domain or a personal blog. This makes them set their own brand which is apart from everyone else.

Content and Success

You need to be aware of the fact that content is the king! This is yet another distinctive approach utilized by the outstanding Internet marketers. Content or article marketing is actually creating and then strategically planning appropriate content in front of your target audience. An informative and interesting content has been defined as a content that is unique, useful and relevant and problem focused.

Video Marketing

We all know that an image is worth thousand words, but a video is certainly worth a million dollars! At least this is how it is in the online marketing industry. Videos have a magic in them and are useful in creating an instant connection. People over the Internet can easily relate to them or it is just as the personality of an individual shines through it, whichever it is, outstanding Internet marketers have discovered the fact that making use of videos is a great way of strengthening their expertise, identity as well as leadership within their industry.

Training Others

There are people all around the globe who expertise in one or another field yet there are very few who ever consider teaching others what they actually know. Again, leaders and expert are the ones that make big profits in both network as well as Internet marketing. Therefore, these exceptional earners wisely position themselves as the experts by simply teaching and training others.

Creating Informative and Interesting Products

It is yet another common denominator within outstanding Internet marketers and it includes training videos, creating audios, writing books and a lot more. it does not matter if these products are in physical or digital form. What really makes a difference here is if these can provide you with a boost and useful information to the target audience.

About the Author:

I am John S Lam from Pass Certification; it gives 100% guaranteed success in your FileMaker 11 Certification exam. Let’s take benefit of Security+ Certification Training Exams material efficiently and get guaranteed success. Check out free demo of all certifications Exam.

First and foremost, I will ask you a question here, please tell me why should anyone be visiting or reading your blog?

Do you have any idea about it? Well, let me clarify your ambiguities as why someone should be reading your blog.

The primary reason why people read through a blog is to get through their problems and not to listen to anyone’s bragging at all! Yes! This is true!

Blogging has not only turned out to be the best approaches to make money over the Internet but also it has been an extremely useful platform to share your ideas, opinions as well as building your brand.Isn’t it so?

However, only a few bloggers get to succeed. Most of them normally quit blogging with the a time span of 6 months, isn’t that terrible?

4 Vital Reasons To Know Why Your Blog Will Never Grow!

Ordinary Content

If you are considering publishing posts with poor writing style and pathetic content, then none would be interested to read your posts. You should come up with something unique, interesting and exceptional here!

This does not mean that you copy posts from other blogs on yours, but should spend some time and come up with superior quality posts. However, it can be a little tough to come up with a great content specially when you are just commencing.

Awful Design

Here you need to spend some of your time as well as money to buy some premium these such as Genesis or Thesis, their codes are extremely easy and simple which can certainly be useful in taking your blog to a higher level.

You need to make sure that you are making your reader comfortable to read your content. If you have a complex design, they will go away! Being precise, your blog’s design should be easy to read, simple and user-friendly.

Networking is Imperative

Creating valuable and informative content is not enough here, you need to network with others too that operate within your niche. You should spend some time to email your posts to your readers, respond to comments, be in touch with them.

Blogging happens to be much easier specially when you find like minded people within your network. if you can come up with a unique content and exceptional tone, you can certainly make yourself stand out and make a difference.

Networking does not require you to be a creative writer, you only need to follow the win-win approach, as it works as a give and take approach.

Spending Time On The Wrong Things!

Instead of spending too much time on commenting, you must try to take out some quality time to write great posts. Trust me, it can do wonders for your blog!

It does not mean that you stop responding to the comments. But, if you will have less time to blog, it is recommended to make use of it in a productive and efficient manner. Moreover, it is one of the best approach to build your blog fast.

About the Author:

I am John S Lam from Pass Certification; it gives 100% guaranteed success in your FileMaker 10 Certification exam. Let’s take benefit of CCNA Certification Training Exams material efficiently and get guaranteed success. Check out free demo of all certifications Exam.

In recent times, company marketers are trying to make the most of limited resources and marketing budgets to increase performance. This has resulted in shifting the focus to digital marketing tactics like SEO and social-media from traditional ones. The combination of both these tactics can benefit you in the form of increased social network discovery via search and attracting relevant links for improved SEO.

Combining social-media tactics with SEO insights can be helpful if you have a blue-print that identifies the target audience, measurable goals, and a strategy that sets the stage for you to execute your game plan. This article will attempt to show you how social media and SEO go hand-in-hand in marketing as well as showing you a road-map for its effective use.

Advantages of SEO and social-media

The advantages of social-media and SEO can be seen in two different ways from a marketing perspective.

Firstly, implementing a social-media marketing tactic without optimizing content would be a sheer wastage of the tactic. Relevant social content that can’t be located through searches is a wasted opportunity for an audience that would be looking for it. A content optimization effort would lead to generous amounts of cross linking in a post. However, a basic blog template optimization through keyword leveraging and other minor adjustments would increase traffic to your site substantially.

Secondly, social network interactions and media sharing (like profiles, videos, blog posts etc.) amongst social media users lead to creating web content that improves a brand’s visibility within search results.

Social-media and SEO sync strategy

SEO and social-media work well together as long as you have the proper strategy of implementation. The following steps will give you an overview about how the combination can help you-

• Targeting the audience - It is important to understand the consumer’s behavior, preferences and methods of publishing, and sharing opinions. You need to be on the social-network channels where your audience spends time. To stay ahead of the game, you need to track your audience via social-media monitoring software that tracks keywords, conversations and influencers.

• Defining objectives – SEO is directly responsible for improving web traffic while social-media can’t really be classified as direct-marketing. SEO in a social-media awareness effort is to increase discoverability of communities or content via search. Social content can boost web traffic and sales in an indirect manner.

• Establishing a game plan – In a combined SEO and social-media strategy, focus will mostly be on content and interaction. This is because the people look for and share content amongst them. In a key-word optimization strategy, whether generating relevant content or encouraging consumer generated content; pro-active and easy sharing amongst members of community is a must.

• Creating tactical mix - This involves knowing where the potential audience spends most of it’s time sharing and interacting. It’s not just about creating a links-glossary for optimized link-baiting; it’s about investing time to create ‘relationships’ with the consumers.

• Measuring goals – This should roll up to specific objectives, both direct and indirect. Using social media monitoring services along with web analytics will give you an insight to improve results. You can use specific web tools to monitor the effects of social-media participation and search engine performance of SEO efforts.
  

About the Author:

Penny Cooper is a writer by profession and likes to blog about her varied interests which include social media, SEO and technology trends. She works as a SEO copywriterfor Godot Media which provides copywriting service.

Pinterest has been a point of constant discussion these days due the kind of traffic it is generating. Every second IM product that is launched today targets Pinterest and how to make money from Pinterest.

While all this hype around Pinterest was on, there was another news of some Spammer who claimed to have made a lot of money on Pinterest using Amazon and a lot of Pinterest accounts. How far was this true is still a point of discussion and contention.

But what this did was that thousands of make money online aspirants flocked to Pinterest and started posting Amazon products onto their pinboards with their affiliate links embedded into it, thinking it will make them a lot of money. This was basically the strategy that this so-called Spammer discussed.

In about a month there was news that Pinterest has started blocking affiliate links.

But Is Pinterest Really stealing your profits?

Pinterest is an interesting platform and since sharing a picture is easier than sharing anything else, it adds to the simplicity of the entire process.

Pictures have always been a reason for better conversions, primarily because of the sticky nature. Pictures and attractive and tend to catch the attention of the viewer, thus making it a option than textual content, to share.

It is here that the the viral nature of Pinterest kicks in. People are more likely to share a picture and that is what people do on Pinterest. That explains all about the sudden fame that Pinterets is getting.

An extremely easy way to monetize this viral nature of Pinterest is by pinning an attractive picture and then linking it to a product that you wish to sell. This is precisely what most people are doing.

My statistics over the last 2 months tell me that Pinterest is not stealing your profits. My affiliate links were very much there and they have been generating money for the last 2 months as well.

An alternate solution

If you still feel that Pinterest is stealing your profits, then the best way to get over it is by url cloaking. Use a cloaked url to link to your affiliate products. If you wish you could use bit.ly or, you can even use any other url shortner. I would not recommends tinyurl, though.

A cloaked link is difficult to be stripped off your affiliate ids and hence you can get away with it. While I say this, I once again want to emphasize on the fact that Pinterest is not stealing your profits.

A good tool to use for Pinterest Marketing and posting your pins is Pinranker. With Pinranker you can schedule your pins to be published and you can also use a cloaked url to link to your pins.

Get your copy of Pinranker today while the prices are still low.

Learning to Market on Pinterest

Pinterest Marketing can be extremely profitable if done correctly. Getting picture to pin onto Pinterest is extremely easy and your could make a ton of money just by linking it to a CPA offer or, some Amazon products.

Peter Garety has a very informative video course that teaches you step by step how to set up your Pinterest account and how to monetize it.

Join Peter Garety’s Pinterest Marketing Blueprint here.

As the complex world of mobile, web marketing continues to expand and evolve, those who utilize it must also constantly grow and learn. With new discoveries, advances and changes daily, it’s imperative that marketers take the time to stay informed and abreast of the latest information.

A great way for web marketers to gain some great knowledge is through attending industry events like conferences and seminars.

Boasting knowledgeable speakers, great workshops and more, these events can be a valuable educational experience. Even if you went to college and not only earned an undergraduate degree but also an MBA, you might consider attending one of these conferences. Learning hardly stops when you leave the classroom—especially when in the world of internet marketing.

4G World Conference

A big component of web marketing is what we use to access it. From the technology behind it all to the gadgets we use, there is a lot that goes into making internet marketing as convenient and available as it is. Thankfully, the 4G World Conference recognizes the importance of this component and takes time each year to emphasize it. Obviously placing an emphasis on all things 4G, this conference highlights advances, potential obstacles and more through a series of speakers, discussions and demonstrations.

Lasting four days, this event also features a wide array of exhibitors from throughout the mobile industry. The representatives offer conference-goers insight into the latest technology and features they have to look forward to. With no shortage of topics covered, this is one event that deserves a second-look.

Internet World Conference

Passing the 20-year mark in 2012, this conference has been around long enough to establish itself as a reputable, worthwhile event. Divided into seven specific “worlds” Internet World offers information on digital marketing, content management social media and more. In addition to interesting and informative exhibits, the conference also offers engaging keynote speeches delivered by industry leaders from Google, LinkedIn, and HP just to name a few.  Spanning three days, the event offers attendees numerous seminars and informational sessions from which to choose.

Specific topics from this year included SEO strategy, email marketing techniques, the science of social media shares, among others. Usually spanning only 30 minutes, each session focuses on the meat of a topic and doesn’t bore people with fluff and filler. So, if you are looking to expand your knowledge of web marketing and how it all works, the Internet World conference might be worth your time.

Mobile Marketing Association Forums

Held in various cities across the globe, this event gives attendees the opportunity to interact with and learn from savvy industry-leading experts. Covering everything from branding to strategy, the event analyzes every aspect of mobile marketing campaigns. Featuring high-profile speakers that control the marketing plans and direction of some of the biggest corporations in the world, there is a wealth of information for attendees to gain and absorb.

By openly discussing what did and didn’t work for various campaigns, event-goers are able to learn from each other’s mistakes and successes. It creates a discussion more about WHY or HOW something failed rather than limiting it to the cut and dry regurgitation of what happened. For anybody interested in utilizing mobile or web marketing to advance their brand, mission or business, the MMA Forums are a worthwhile consideration.

These are just some of the many conferences and events available for those dabbling in web and internet marketing. In a world that is increasing online and digital, it’s important to not forget the value in human, face-to-face interaction. Not only does it provide the opportunity to network and mingle with like-minded individuals, it is also a great way to learn and grow.

About the Author:

Amanda Watson is an experienced freelancer blogger who covers web-based businesses and higher education. She writes about the latest online mba news and current trends among online entrepreneurs. You can reach Amanda at [email protected].

What are some of the latest SEO strategies in the market today? After the release of Google Panda, somehow everything we knew about SEO changed. Whereas there are a number of SEO strategies available which you can utilize to optimize your blog or site if you are just starting out, it is important to point out that there is nothing like one-size-fits all when it comes to search engine optimization.

This is because not all websites are similar in terms of audience and goals. Consequently, if you would like to increase your ranking in search engines, it is important that you apply different SEO strategies.

Illustrated herein, are some of the SEO strategies that you can utilize to increase your ranking in search engines:

Site Structure

The first thing that you need to do if you want to enhance your SEO strategy is to assess your present status. Prior to making changes to your blog or e-commerce site, it is crucial that you understand every step that you are going to take. For example, are intending on moving your blog or e-commerce site in the near future? How many links are you planning to include in your page? Are you thinking of altering your URL since it is not resonating with the target keywords you are utilizing?

Prior to embarking on your SEO strategies, you need to have a plan which you will follow. Your plan ought to incorporate keyword research. Begin by creating a list of products or services you are planning to make available to your consumers. This will allow you to discover what online consumers are searching for in regards to your products or services. Google Keyword Tool can assist you in finding out which keywords to use when optimizing your blog or e-commerce site.

Optimize Site Content

Your next course of action should be to optimize the content of your blog or e-commerce site. Content optimization entails including distinct keywords to your blog or web address, header tags, titles, H1 tag and descriptions. These are the first things that visitors to your blog or e-commerce site see. Therefore optimization of these contents is crucial to increasing the ranking of your blog or e-commerce site.

Optimizing on-page elements

In regards to search engine optimization, on-page elements denote on-page elements. These simply means that you need to put more focus on some of the places on your page where visitors to your page are most likely to see before browsing through the entire page. It is a well-known fact that search engine bots look at these key places when ranking web pages. Therefore, you need to place a lot of focus on the on-page elements.

Regular Updates

The secret to accumulating quality inbound links is having contents that generate buzz on the web. One of the reasons why a majority of blogs and e-commerce sites were affected by Google Panda updates is because they lacked fresh contents. One of the basic SEO lessons that blog owners are taught is regularly updating their blogs. Therefore, you need to make certain that your blog contains fresh contents at all times. You can choose to update your blog at least 3 times in a week.

About the Author:

Kady Babs is a Certified Professional and freelance writer. At present attached with Test 4 Prep.com. This is Best Source for Project Management Professional Certification Preparation. You can try free demos of VCP Certification Preparation with 100% Risk Free and Money Back Guaranteed. Babs has creative writing skills and helping people to get certified on first try. 

The internet has changed a lot since it was first launched in the early 50s or, something. With Google becoming prominent, the internet changed. It further took a new turn when Social Media became popular. When we look back at the journey that the www took over the last 6-7 decades, we find that we are so far and that the distance is much more than 60-70 years.

Internet is slowly transformed into ecommerce and with iPads and Smartphones focusing more on the use of internet, the coverage has also grown by leaps and bounds.

This infographic is a beautiful representation of the unknown facts of the internet.