Tools
Any mechanic worth their salt has a well equipped tool box, the same can be said for other professions such as a carpenter or welder. They wouldn’t dare to tackle their jobs without the proper tools and neither should you. As an internet marketer or website owner it’s important to view yourself as a professional. This means you need your own set of tools for various tasks. I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite tools that I use for my own Internet marketing needs. You’ll be happy to know that because I’m a cheap bastard many of my recommendations are free.
Search Engine Optimization
Have you just spent a few hundred or thousands dollars on launching a new website for your business? Are you now wondering why no one is visiting that shinny new site? Have you "Googled" your website name and it’s no where to be found like that elusive sweat sock you lost in the laundry? Are you curious why your competitors are outranking you for all your terms and keywords? If you can vaguely relate to any of these questions you should get your hands on the SEO Book and get up to speed asap!
Keyword Research
Discover what keywords to use for your content creation or for a possible domain name purchase. Writing content without being aware of keywords is like playing darts blind folded. Sure you may hit the target once or twice. But you are more likely to miss it or worst still, take some one’s eye out! Avoid this fate by using one or more of the following tools:
Free PR Exposure
Being featured in a magazine, newspaper or website article can give you tons of credibility instantly. This can help build your brand or establish you or your organization as subject matter experts. Let’s face it, people are like sheep. They follow the leader. Leaders are established by the media. Chances are you don’t have reporters in your Rolodex or address book. PR Leads can change this. Reporters will literally email you everyday with new stories where they are looking for people like you to provide some insight. This service is a great way to get exposure but more importantly free traffic to your website and back links. For more details, click on the following link:
Remote PC Access
Stay connected where ever you are. Balance your work life and personal life better.
Online Meeting
Tired of trying to set up face to face meetings with your web designer to discuss some new ideas you have for your website? Or has it been almost impossible to catch up with your tech savvy nephew to help you figure out why your PC is moving as slow a senior citizen 3 legged race? Or quite simply, how would you like to share your computer screen with another person miles away without leaving the comfort of your home? If that’s what you’re looking for and don’t want to pay the fees associated with Webex. You may want to consider the option below.
Website Usability
Ever wanted to know what your website visitors are doing without staring at boring numbers and charts? Are you like me, where books with pictures have always been much easier to read? Don’t be embarrassed! There is now a solution for folks like us which allows you to view your website visitors clicks and behavior in a nice and easy to read color picture known as a heatmap. Ever heard the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. Well the following tool will really help you see your website traffic’s bigger picture! (Pun intended.)
Content Development
Are you suffering from writers block and running out of content ideas for your blog or website? Trying to get higher rankings in the search engines? Well now you can discover what keywords you should write about that will help you easily rank in the top 10 of various search engines. Stop guessing and start knowing what to focus on using the following tool.
Newsletter (Auto-responder) Management:
Now that you have visitors how are you going to stay in touch with them to keep them coming back? You can hope that they bookmarked your website and will come back. Or maybe your website is a big and important as AOL where they feel compelled to come back because they need you to read their email or check the news. If by some miracle you’re not that big, you may really want to consider keeping in contact with your visitors by emailing them from time to time. If that makes sense for your business then check out the resource below.
Website Analytics
So you’ve spent all this time writing content and optimizing your site but how do you know if your efforts are paying off? You can invest in one of those eight ball toys and ask it how you are doing. Or you can discover exactly how many unique visitors and page views your site is receiving by using one or more of the following tools.
HTML Editor
Don’t have $400 or an extra limb to sell so you can afford to buy Dreamweaver? No worries. Is free more you cup of tea or rather coffee? Well check out the HTML editors below.
Online Video Creation/Screen Capture
Take your content to the next level and create videos in minutes. Who knows you can end up as the next YouTube super star!
Business Cards
Not everything should be online. Sometimes you need to leave part of you with someone. That’s where a good old fashion business card comes into play!
