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MySpace - little known twists to generate hordes of highly targeted leads

06 2008 Monday

By admin in Featured

MySpace is a social media that was established originally for people to interact and socialize with one another. Now, MySpace is partially filled with spammers and half clothed people. Whether one likes that or not is up for debate.

In the online business community the debate is whether or not one should use MySpace for promoting an online business. There is one extreme or the other. Some people believe that one should not promote an online business at all. In fact, they are of the mind frame that MySpace should be a social media and that is it. However, the other side argues that social media is a place where people should be able to share all aspects of their life, including business.

How the Right Shopping Cart Will Increase Productivity & Stop Your Online Business from Stalling

06 2008 Monday

By Dan Janal in Featured

Is your online business or home-based business stalling because you are drowning in administration details?You’re not the only one!
Many small businesses are one step away from phenomenal success, if only they could increase their productivity AND reduce repetitive tasks and paperwork.

After all, any time spent dealing with writing down orders or sending out emails one-by-one is time that you can’t spend selling to your prospects.

I’ve found that having a full-features shopping cart, like MyEasyOnlineStore.com can save me as much as two hours a day!

Here’s How to Choose an Online Shopping Cart That Will Increase Productivity & Save Time and Money Guaranteed

Make sure your online shopping cart has an easy-to-follow ordering system. For example, people can order my products and services directly from the shopping cart. They don’t have to call me on the phone to take down the details. Don’t get me wrong, I love taking orders, but it is time consuming and it takes me away from other tasks. And if a prospect calls when I’m on the phone, or away from my desk, then they get an answering machine and we begin that long task of phone tag. If you have an easy way for people to order online, you can take orders at any time of the day or night. Who staffs theirs phones at 2 a.m.?

A good shopping cart will automate such functions as sending receipts. Don’t you hate it when clients ask for a receipt? You can’t blame them. They need a receipt for their taxes and their accountants. But making a receipt by hand will take you at least 5-10 minutes even if you have a template and a system in place. Everything takes time! But a good shopping cart will automatically send a receipt to the new client - and to you, so you have one for your files.

If you send personalize messages to new clients, such as greetings, or training materials, you can automate this process with a good shopping cart. Thanks to the wonders of mail-merge, each message can print the person’s first name. If you want to get fancy, you can even automate other variables such as city, state and product purchased. It’s a great time saver and people will think your messages are truly personal.

A good shopping cart can create sales reports by any variable you can think of, such as total sales, daily sales, weekly sales, sales in a given period, as well as sales by product. You don’t have to depend on your part-time bookkeeper to create these reports for you any longer! You can get reports when you need them, not when the part-timer shows up for work.

A good shopping cart does NOT just take orders. It can send newsletters and other types of information you’d like to broadcast - such as invitations to teleseminars or special events. A good shopping cart can manage most client communications, so you save time and money by dealing with one vendor instead of two or three. Plus you will be working off of one database and not have to update two other databases hosted by a company that sends out newsletters or autoresponders. Why duplicate your efforts?

Make sure your shopping cart offers clients control of some aspect of their accounts. For example, if a client doesn’t want to get your newsletter any longer, they can unsubscribe by themselves without having to contact you by email. This way you don’t have to do the work yourself. Good shopping carts have information on how to unsubscribe contained in each message for your convenience.

If you use a good shopping cart, you can save yourself time and money if you know the hidden truth behind automating your business online. Luckily, I’m giving you the keys to the Mint with a free special report about how to select a shopping cart located only at www.prleads.com/meos.

About the Author:
Serial Internet business entrepreneur, Dan Janal has built multiple six-figure income businesses using MyEasyOnlineStore.com. Now, for the first time ever, he’s revealing the hidden truth behind automating your business, making more money online &enjoying the entrepreneur’s lifestyle. Get his free special report, “How to Choose an Online Shopping Cart” now at: http://www.prleads.com/meos

How Starting a Home Based-Business & Building it Online Just by Writing Articles is Easy

06 2008 Monday

By Eric Gruber in Featured

Stop the excuses! I’ve heard all the excuses for why you can’t start and build your business. So, don’t even tell me:

You can’t come up with any good ideas.
You don’t have time.
Getting noticed is nearly impossible.
You have little or no money.

You’re in for a lucrative awakening. It’s easier than you think to start and build your home business – if you know the system and I’m about to prove it right now!

4 Reasons to Take ACTION & Start Building Your Home Business Online:

1. It’s easy to come up with an idea for your home business

As Your Article Marketing Expert, I’ve helped people start and grow profitable businesses in just about every category you can think of including Internet dating, remote controlled cars, health and fitness, martial arts, Pilates for pregnant women, care giving, quilting, parenting, family business succession and much more.

Your market is out there waiting for you.

Start with your passions and interests

Think about…

What are you interested in?
What are you passionate about?
What subjects or topics are you knowledgeable about?
What are people asking you for advice about?

If you can create content on a subject you’re passionate about and at the same time solve a problem or fill a need then you can start your home business online.

2. It’s easy to find time to launch and build your home business online

Are you going to tell me that you don’t have 30 minutes a day to work on your home business?

That’s all it takes to write a simple “how-to” or “top tips” article that solves a problem your chosen niche market is looking for. These articles can then be easily turned into special reports, e-Books, A to Z systems, homes-study courses and many other products sold online using a shopping cart like MyEasyOnlineStore.com

So, starting today, designate yourself some article writing time. Do not allow yourself to get distracted. Do not watch TV for 30 minutes. Just start writing for 30 minutes per day.

3. It’s easy to get noticed

When you submit articles to the top websites, ezines and article directories, you will get noticed. Here’s proof by people just like you…

In just 2 months, marketing expert and President of Imperatives LLC. Scott Glatstein went from 6 listings on Google to more than 2000 listings.
With just one article Derek Gehl, CEO of the Internet Marketing Center reached more than 500,000 prospects. And that’s with just 1 placement in SiteProNews.com’s newsletter. That doesn’t count the hundreds of other websites his articles are published on.
Dating expert April Masini’s article “10 Lessons to Spice Up Your
Social Life” can be found on Self Growth and was featured in their newsletter. The site is Ranked # 1 for self improvement on Google and Yahoo. It gets 167,000 unique visitors a month to the website and sends newsletters to over 450,000 opt-in subscribers a week.
By writing and submitting articles, technology expert Dani Kaplan generated a surge of new business opportunities making ’07 the best year in 27 years in business.

4. It’s easy to start your home business online with little or no money

If you can write a “To-Do” list, then you can write a top tips article in little time once you learn the system. And, you won’t need to hire a copy writer. This way, you can start your business and start creating products without spending a penny.

Plus, other websites, ezines and article directories will publish your articles for free. This way you’re getting free publicity and free advertising.

If you want to start a home business and build it online, then do NOT let anything or anyone get in your way. You can launch your business online easily by just writing articles. So get started today!

About the Author:
Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for entrepreneurs who want more publicity, prospects and profits. Now, Eric is sharing the exact roadmap, broken into 5 easy-to-follow steps that thousands have used to launch and build their businesses online with articles. And, he’s giving this knowledge for FREE, with his new e-Book at: http://www.BroadcastYourArticles.com/freebook

How To Build Backlinks via Google Alerts

06 2008 Sunday

By Titus-Hoskins in Featured

Building backlinks is an essential, yet tedious
job for most webmasters. Here are a few tools
and tips to make that job just a little bit easier…

I am a member of many online forums. Most of these
forums have to do with online marketing and site
promotion. Recently, I came across a post on Ken
Evoy’s SBI forum that truly caught my attention.

It basically described how to use Google Alerts
to build your backlinks. Now for those not familiar
with Google Alerts a little explanation is probably
needed.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a free program run by Google
that allows you to keep track of any topic on
the web. You select your “keywords” or “urls”
and Google will alert you via email whenever
links/content containing your selected topics
appear anywhere on the web.

It is an excellent way to keep informed about
your own domain or name. It is also perfect for
keeping up-to-date on the latest information in
your market niche or niches. It’s also a great
way to find out what other people are saying
about you or your site.

For example: if you have a site on “antique cars”
then you would create a Google Alert for those
keywords. Google will alert you by email whenever
a new link/content related to those keywords
appears on the web.

This is a great way to stay informed in your niche,
but it is also a valuable source of potential
linking partners. Many of those links are blogs
that will allow comments with a link back to your
site.

Google Alerts will probably send you 10-20 links
each day, depending on the popularity of your
chosen keywords. Just go to these blogs/links
and see if you can leave a comment with some
valuable additional information on what’s been
discussed.

Don’t Spam

Please Note: Don’t spam; there are intelligent
people behind most of these blogs, and they will
recognize keyword spam when they see it. Your
main goal should be getting targeted traffic back
to your site and any link PR should be secondary.
Always put the reader or viewer first, especially
if it’s on someone else’s site. Don’t talk about
your site or your marketing - just join the conversation
and add your comments/opinions/suggestions…

Enhance their site and they will reward you with
traffic and a link. But you still have to keep
your own interests in the equation! You have to
make sure you get your targeted keywords in the
anchor text.

Keyword Market

First, if you’ve done your homework, your main
keywords should already be in your domain name
or url. Another way is to add your “keywords” +
“guide” to your sig or signature. Such as:
Name, Your Antique Cars Guide. If you’re an
expert in your particular niche, many webmasters
will kindly welcome your comments and links.

Since your main goal is the traffic, many
webmasters don’t worry if there is a “no follow”
attribute attached to the link. But if you are
concerned about this - one way is to look at
the source code to see if it has the “no follow”
tag. I usually copy the whole source code of
the page to my text editor and then do a simple
“no follow” search.

No Follow

There is also a great little free comment tool
called “Comment Kahuna” co-created by Jason
Potash which will search blogs and tell you if
they have the “no-follow” attribute or not, it
will also give you the PageRank of each blog post.
If you’re going to use blogs as a source of
your backlinks, I suggest you try Comment
Kahuna - it will make the task much easier
and it’s free.

Actually, while the “no-follow” issue may be
a concern for some webmasters, the savvy ones
will realize these are links/sites Google is
actively indexing and spidering, otherwise you
wouldn’t get the alert in the first place. You
must get your links into this whole mix of related,
relevant sites to help raise your own rankings.
Also remember the other search engines may not
even consider the “no-follow” tag.

Trackbacks

Likewise, creating trackbacks are another way
of linking relevant content. Keep in mind, a
trackback is simply an acknowledgement via a
ping signal that is sent from Site A (originator)
to Site B (receptor). Then the receptor often
places a link back to Site A showing its worthiness.

Again, I am mainly concerned with the quality
of the blog or link, rather than the linking
structure. I want the targeted traffic, and it
doesn’t really matter whether the link has
“no follow” because interested visitors only
see a link they can click for other helpful
information.

Other Linking Options

Since we are on the topic of link building,
another useful way to build backlinks is to
use Google Search or Google Blog search. Now
if you’re looking for niche-related blogs just
type in:

“(Keywords)” “powered by (blog scripts)”

For example, if you’re looking for some
“antique cars” related links on WordPress
blog, you would search for:

“antique cars” “powered by wordpress”

And Google would give you a whole list of sites
on antique cars.

Now if you want to find the links that will
allow comments, just repeat the Google search
with:

“antique cars” “powered by wordpress” “leave a comment”
-”no comments”

Remember the “-” means posts that have no
comments will not be displayed.

If you’re concerned with PageRank, Number of Backlinks,
Alexa Ranking… of particular posts you can download
and install the SEOQuake plugin. This handy SEO plugin
can be attached to your browser and will give you helpful
SEO information on the link or links you’re viewing.

Please Note: If you’re using SEOQuake in FireFox you have
the option in Preferences to tick a Line-through “nofollow”
and “noindex” links. Really handy tool to find those “nofollow”
links…

Used in conjunction with Google, it can sort thru all
these blog posts and give you the ones with the highest
PR? Highest traffic? Highest number of backlinks? The
more knowledge you have, the easier and more effective
your link building will become.

Just remember, finding quality backlinks is probably
the most tedious job for most webmasters. It takes
time and it takes patience. By using Google Alerts
you can have relevant keyword related links emailed
to you each day. Use this information to help build
your backlinks in relevant related niches. Do this
consistently over a period of time and your site will
get noticed and ranked higher.

MRPwebmedia Introduces Web Wise-Guy Cache Closed

06 2008 Sunday

By Jerry Bader in Featured

Jerry Bader, Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia announced the introduction of Cache Closed an entertaining marketing resource for medium sized businesses fed-up with ineffective Web advertising schemes and the never-ending pursuit of search engine optimization rankings. See http://www.CacheClosed.com

Ontario, Canada–June 20, 2008 - MRPwebmedia, a Canadian Web marketing video and audio production firm with clients in the USA, Australia, England, and Canada announced the introduction of Cache Closed, a entertaining character who stars in a new series of videos designed to inform businesses on how to deliver their marketing messages in the most memorable manner using the full arsenal of webmedia techniques.

Jerry Bader, Senior Partner at the firm says: “Cache Closed is a digital construct, fabricated from the binary remains of lost and discarded knowledge found in the ditch beside the information highway. Cache, a combination of Max Headroom and Jim Cary’s Mask character, has absorbed theses random bits of wisdom to create a guru of marketing and branding who freely spouts his expertise and knowledge to all who will listen.”

Josh Bader, Director of Visual Design and Video Production, adds: “We already have over fifty articles on our mrpwebmedia.com website that explain how to use audio and video on the Web to deliver clients’ marketing messages in the most effective way, but we wanted to create something where the medium was the message. Cache is the perfect vehicle to explain to business owners and marketing executives feed-up with chasing search engine optimization nirvana of how to convert browsers into an audience, and an audience into customers.”

Simon Bader, Director of Audio and Sound Design continues: “Any business truly interested in maximizing their Web presence needs to understand the Web environment beyond chasing random search traffic and learn how to present material so a relevant audience remembers who you are, what you do, and why they should care. And that’s what the Cache Closed website and video series are designed to teach people: How to get noticed and be remembered.”

MRPwebmedia’s thought-provoking marketing articles have a great following and Cache is one more Web-video vehicle that extends the motivational dialog the firm has with its International clients and followers. It illustrates the cutting edge techniques and offbeat point-of-view of a Web-marketing firm that understands how to get a message across, and it showcases the full complement of services that MRPwebmedia offers.

Jerry Bader goes on to say: “People ask us, ‘What do you do?’ You could say we inform, enlighten, innovate, and create; you could also say we deliver our clients’ marketing messages in memorable ways using video, audio, webmedia campaigns and websites; all created in-house from concept to implementation, from graphic and motion design to Web-design, from script writing to post-production, from music composition to signature sound design. What do we do? We motivate action by speaking to our clients’ audience’s real needs. We tell our clients’ stories so their brand and their message embeds in the minds of their clients. In short, we are corporate storytellers, and the Cache Closed videos and associated articles show how it’s done, and why.”

Jerry Bader, Senior Partner, MRPwebmedia
Tel: (905) 764-1246
info@mrpwebmedia.com

http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads
http://www.cacheclosed.com
http://www.sonicpersonality.com
http://www.136words.com

Is PageRank Decay A Hamster Wheel For Webmasters?

06 2008 Friday

By Andrew Jamaz in Featured

A recent Pagerank jiggle seemed to indicate that something interesting was happening. Could Google be using its Pagerank system to prevent low-quality sites getting free traffic?

Several of my own observations indicated that low-value Pagerank links may decay over time.

One webmaster reported a jump from Pagerank zero to Pagerank five, purely from a recent link-building campaign. During his link building efforts, he got a few links from a Pagerank 6 blog, and he expected those links “to fade as new posts come out”.

The way that blogs work is that new posts appear on the homepage which is usually the highest ranked page on the blog. Over time, those blog posts move off the homepage and into the archives, where they usually have less Pagerank.

What if the whole web worked in the same way? If new links were counted “in full”, but over time the Pagerank of the links “faded”?

If that were the case, a site that was receiving lots of traffic, but which stopped getting links would eventually lose its traffic. That’s what I experienced with one of my own websites which was chugging along at 2,000 visitors per day. After the PageRank jiggle, the traffic dropped.

Another indication of Pagerank decay came from an SEO expert who wrote that “You need fresh links today, and in the future”.

Are you starting to see a pattern? Pagerank from older blog posts fades, a site that didn’t get any recent links experienced falling traffic, and an SEO expert saying you need continual fresh links.

Here’s my Pagerank Decay theory…

1: Google loves quality sites.

2: Quality sites get links naturally over time.

3: Low value links decay over time.

“PageRank Decay” would benefit Google, because if a site only gets low-quality links, and the PageRank of those links decays over time, the webmaster either has to continually build more links, or give up.

Webmasters who try to manipulate Google will most likely be getting low-quality links. If they spend time building links, they’ll get traffic, but only for a while unless other sites start linking to them naturally. If they don’t get any new links for a while, their traffic will fall.

On the other hand, if a webmaster builds a quality website that other webmasters choose to link to, the site will maintain, or even improve, its search engine rankings naturally.

It’s possible that Google only applies Pagerank decay to low-value Pagerank links. Presumably, the age of a link from a top-quality website wouldn’t affect its value. Anyone who had a site good enough to get a link from a Pagerank 8 or higher website wouldn’t see the value of that link dwindle to nothing in over time. Sites with PageRank 8 or higher would thereby form a “backbone” of quality, trusted sites from which PageRank would flow to lesser sites.

The bottom line is that, if you accept PageRank Decay exists then anyone who works really hard to build “low value” links into their sites will have to keep working hard just to maintain their traffic.

PageRank Decay is like a hamster wheel for webmasters who build sites that don’t get natural links.

Andrew Jamaz - Getting links from blogs is a great way to boost your website’s traffic. Finding the best blogs to leave comments on is now easier than ever with this top-quality, free blog finding software.

How to Promote Your Business Using Classified Ads

06 2008 Friday

By Jay Gaulard in Featured

Classified ads can be very effective in online marketing. Free classified ads fit into every budget. It all comes down to how much time you are willing to spend creating, posting, updating and deleting ads. Depending on your particular product or service, it can be time-consuming to respond to interested parties, deliver goods or services and maintain a high level of customer service.

Selling through free classified ads can help you promote your business. Include your company’s name, product information and a website link in your ads to gain more attention. Include pictures whenever possible to give customers a better idea of what they can expect if they make a purchase from you.

The Benefits of Promoting on Classified Ad Sites

Aside from saving you money in advertising costs, placing ads on free classified sites has many other benefits. These include:

Targeted traffic directed to your website.
Instant posting.
Few rules regarding what can be posted.
The opportunity to test your ad copy at no cost before placing ads on websites that draw more traffic but charge a fee.
The ability to track your visitors and gauge how successful each ad is.
The ability to build your opt-in list and follow up with potential customers.

Tips for Promoting Your Business Using Free Classified Ads

Promoting your business with free classified ads is relatively easy. Still, there are some steps that can make your campaign more successful. Keep these tips in mind:

Familiarize yourself with the terms of the classified ad site before posting. This will help you avoid having your ads deleted.
Place ads frequently for better results. Update weekly to keep your posts at the top so you get more views.
Remain professional, both in your classified ads and in dealings with potential customers.
Make sure your ad shines and stands out from the crowd without being too loud or obnoxious.
Include keywords to help targeted customers find your ads.

Classified Ads and Niche Marketing

One particularly effective way to get more targeted traffic from your free classified ads is to choose sites that are very specific in nature. For example, if you own a company that sells creative and unique baskets, then you can place your ad on a site for gifts. If you own a used car dealership, however, the gift site is not going to work for you. You can advertise in the automobile section of a general site, but you can also search for classified ad sites that are specifically geared toward car enthusiasts. The key is that visitors to these sites will already be interested in what you have to offer.

Traditional Advertising Versus Online Marketing

The advertising world has changed a lot over the last decade. Traditional print ads are not as effective as they once were. They also can be costly. Online marketing is the most effective way to promote a business, whether it is an online business or actually has a storefront. Free classified ads should certainly be included in your marketing strategy. Carefully track your website traffic to gauge how effective each ad is, and then make adjustments as needed. Online marketing is here to stay. Avoiding this valuable tool is like shutting the door on potential customers.

This article was written by Jay Gaulard on behalf of FigLeeg Classifieds, a popular free classifieds website.

SEO - It’s All About the Cache!

06 2008 Friday

By Jeffrey Smith in Featured

With SEO it’s all about the cache. Crawl frequency determines how changes impact your site. Without an updated cache, there are no significant changes or rankings to report to search engines.

Do you see why getting the attention of spiders is important? They are the gatekeepers between your content and the world. RSS is one method to toggle spidering, social bookmarking is another, but the fastest way to increase your cache rate for content is to (1) increase posting through using consistent time periods to introduce new posts or pages and (2) build inbound links to internal pages to create spike in network activity necessary to attract the spiders (otherwise known as a ping). Pings from your site are a digital invitation to search engines update changes.

Use Social Marketing Sites To Give Your Internet Marketing Start-Up A Helping Hand

06 2008 Thursday

By David Hurley in Featured

While every Internet marketing start-up could benefit from social marketing sites, many newbie Internet marketers are still not sure how to utilize them.

Sure, social sites give you a lot of interactivity and allow users to personalize their sites, compile a list of favorite links, videos, music, photos, documents and share it all with friends and visitors, but how exactly does that help you develop your Internet marketing start-up business?

The first thing to understand is that there are two basic types of social networking sites, so you will need to be clear in your own mind about what it is you want to do - bookmark or network?

Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking sites allow you to build and organize your favourite links (i.e. bookmarks) AND you can choose to restrict them to selected friends or make them public and share them with everybody on the Internet.

The big advantage of social bookmarking is that your favourite links are no longer tied to one specific browser accessible from just one computer in one location.

Social bookmarking services enable users to save bookmarks on a remote web server which can be accessed anywhere where there is an online connection.

Social bookmarking sites usually categorize links with a “tagging” system which allows users to choose keywords with which to “tag” their bookmarks. Sites can then be retrieved via the tags.

You can encourage others to bookmark your articles, blogs or webpages by adding a Digg, Stumbleupon, TwitThis or other button on your page.

However, there are so many social bookmarking services, that if you added all their buttons you’d end up with more buttons than content on your page! Instead, use a service like addthis.com, which places one button on your site for a wide range of social bookmarking sites.

Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites offer a convenient method of connecting with people who share similar interests to you.

Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to post your advertisements and promote your products, as long as you do not simply (and stupidly) send out spam. A good site with regularly updated original content will attract traffic.

MySpace or Facebook?

It has recently been noised abroad that MySpace is no good for Internet marketing, but that is not so. It was simply a case of too many Internet marketers not knowing who their audience was.

The point is that MySpace tends to attract a younger age bracket with less money to spend than does Facebook. Get to know the sites and adapt your content to each one, don’t simply post the same stuff to both.

Another reason why some people don’t think social networking sites are good for business is that they do no more than set up a profile. Then they get stuck, don’t know what to do, do nothing. Merely being there is not enough! Find ways to communicate with the people who are there on their terms, not yours.

Go careful, though, that you don’t go overboard with the crazy applications and the “late night partying confessions” stuff if it is not the sort of thing you want your clients to see!

Whereas social bookmarking sites are simply sites for you to collect and organize your favorite links, social networking sites, being more sociable, require more time and regular fresh content updates. With social networking sites you have to work on your image!

Search Engines Love Web 2:0!

Another reason why Internet marketers should build a presence on both social bookmarking and social networking sites is because search engines LOVE them!

Search engine spiders regularly follow links posted on these sites. So, by building up your links on these sites, your website backlinks will grow, and so will your search engine rankings, which is what you need if your Internet marketing start-up is to survive, grow and thrive.

If you found this article helpful you might like to visit http://grasp-the-nettle.com for more free articles on Internet marketing to help you master the net. You might also like to sign up to my FREE Internet Marketing Start-Up newsletter, which comes complete with a library of Internet marketing ebooks (worth a total of $136.75) for you to download free of charge. David Hurley lives in Japan, where he works as an English language consultant, editor, and Internet marketer.

Summer time slow down?

06 2008 Thursday

By Jennifer Horowitz in Featured

A lot of people think summer is slow and not the time to focus on their websites.

So many people are out of town, some businesses slow down. Not to mention we all have concerns about the economy right now.

I want to propose a different perspective.

1. People are sticking closer to home because of high gas prices. You’ve all heard the term “Staycation” thrown around by the media. If you watch the Daily Show with Jon Stewart you heard John Hodgeman (the PC guy from the commercials) create his own new word for the “stick closer to home because gas is way too expensive” phenomenon: “Holistays”.

No matter what you call it, people are sticking closer to home. People are shopping online even more.

It’s a great time to offer a shipping special. With the cost of shipping going up, again due to the cost of gas, a shipping special is much appreciated right now.

You can tap into this situation by playing it up. Just as The Daily Show created a segment that was funny and garnered a lot of attention; you can find a way to make the current situation work in your favor.

2. If things are a little slow, it is actually the perfect time to devote some of your time to your website.

It is suggested that you review your website and refresh it at least once a year. Just a handful of suggestions for you:

Now is a good time to check the links and pages within your site and make sure everything is in working order. Get rid of those pesky 404 errors from broken links.
You could also come up with a summer special.
Jazz up the site.
Add some testimonials.
Look at your web stats and see if you can increase conversions.

3. Now is when you absolutely must start focusing on your upcoming holiday campaigns.

No one wants to think about the fall and then winter and the holiday season, while enjoying the sun and probably some time off. However as we all know, time passes quickly and I hate to be the one to say it, but holiday season will be upon us before we even know it.

Start planning your campaigns
Write your ad copy
Design your graphics

4. Top rankings don’t happen over night. It takes time for the engines to rank your site for your top keywords. It is not too soon to start your optimization in anticipation of the upcoming holiday season.

On the flip side; if summer is your busy time, you don’t want to ignore optimization now. When the busy time settles down a bit, you want optimization in place to help bring in traffic to boost what would normally be a slower time for you in the fall.

No matter which way you look at it, and no matter when your busy time is, the truth is putting off optimization is never a good idea. If you don’t need free targeted traffic from the search engines, then this won’t apply to you. I don’t really know of any website that isn’t looking to increase traffic and get more sales though.

So take a look at getting your site optimized and prepare for the upcoming change in seasons. You aren’t going to be happy if the holiday season approaches and you aren’t positioned to benefit from it.

For those reasons and more now is actually the perfect time to focus on your website’s growth and improvement.

Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com. Over the past 10 years Jennifer’s expertise in marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on SEO and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer is the editor of the popular Spotlight on Success: SEO and Marketing newsletter. Follow Jennifer and stay current on SEO, marketing, social media and more. http://twitter.com/EcomBuffet

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