Submit Articles For More Traffic

Need more, targeted, Website traffic? These days pay-per-click advertising has gotten prohibitively expensive. And competition for search engine rankings is tough.

While social networking can be a terrific way to drive traffic it requires a clear strategy and a whole lot of work. That’s why I love submitting articles to online databases (and social networking sites where possible!). It doesn’t take much time or cost a thing. And the people who read your articles and click through to your site have already decide they like what you have to say.

Plus, other people can republish your articles as long as they include your author attribution. That means more eyeballs on reading your work and more links back to your site. All good things for increasing Website traffic, both in terms of numbers and quality.

You can start with big, generalist sites like ezinearticles.com. But to find the best sites for you, Google “online article submission sites + your main topic”.

Take Advantage of Advertising Right Now!

Low-cost opportunities for small businesses

Advertising is expensive, especially for small businesses. However, advertising is at one of its most affordable points right now, thanks to the economic downturn. Both advertising and media companies have been forced to reduce their prices, which have opened many doors for small businesses.

More SmallBusinessNewz Videos

For this reason, these companies are now more willing to work with smaller businesses. As pointed out in the above video, the best part is that small businesses pay less for services. Many of these services include advertising opportunities that most small businesses could only dream of in the past.

For instance, most small businesses do not have budgets for televisions spots. Due to price decreases, it is a possibility. Before the recession, a 30-second television spot could run as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars. Fortunately today, this same ad could cost be as low as $500, according to TelevisionAdvertising.com.

Small businesses can also take advantage of billboards. This form of advertising is also seeing difficulty and has lowered its rates as well.

Fortunately, these low-cost opportunities exist online too. Advances in technology have helped businesses obtain more information regarding user demographics, habits, interests, and more. As a result, businesses can offer more customized ads, which helps them reach their target market.

Google AdWords and Facebook ad campaigns are both viable online opportunities. Each of these platforms allows users to set up their campaigns based on their budget. In addition, users can make adjustments on an as-needed basis.

Mobile advertising is another affordable area for small businesses. The Kelsey Group projects that the mobile advertising market will expand up to $3.1 billion dollars by 2013. With platforms such as Google’s AdMob and Apple’s iAd, it seems likely that this prediction will come true.

Lastly, social media provides many advertising opportunities for small businesses. Sites such as Twitter are giving some businesses better results than traditional platforms are. Foursquare and the newly introduced Facebook Places are also allow businesses reach their target through special discounts and giveaways. These location-based services have experiences tremendous growth over the last year.

So, it’s not so hopeless after all, is it? Can you think of any other areas of advertising that small businesses can take advantage of right now?

Submit Articles For More Traffic

Need more, targeted, Website traffic? These days pay-per-click advertising has gotten prohibitively expensive. And competition for search engine rankings is tough.

While social networking can be a terrific way to drive traffic it requires a clear strategy and a whole lot of work. That’s why I love submitting articles to online databases (and social networking sites where possible!). It doesn’t take much time or cost a thing. And the people who read your articles and click through to your site have already decide they like what you have to say.

Plus, other people can republish your articles as long as they include your author attribution. That means more eyeballs on reading your work and more links back to your site. All good things for increasing Website traffic, both in terms of numbers and quality.

You can start with big, generalist sites like ezinearticles.com. But to find the best sites for you, Google “online article submission sites + your main topic”.

How Social Trends Benefit Business
By Abby Johnson – Wed, 07/14/2010 – 11:38am.

4 current trends you should pay attention to

Although many businesses now realize the power of social media, they have a hard time discerning which social services are effective and which are not. To make matters worse, new social sites, services and applications are emerging almost daily.

More SmallBusinessNewz Videos

So, how can businesses keep up? It’s a challenging task, but a necessary one. As discussed in the above video, businesses should try to watch the most current social trends before deciding if they need to embrace them.

Currently, one of the most popular social trends is location. People are constantly “checking in” with applications such as Foursquare and Gowalla. Both Twitter and Facebook support location information support as well.

Since these location services are continuing to grow, businesses have the opportunity to leverage them through promotion, advertising, and more.

A second social trend that is growing that also involves location is group buying systems. These systems provide daily bargains for people within certain cities as long as a specified number of people participate. Two examples of these systems include GroupOn and LivingSocial.

By getting listed with these services, local businesses can use them to attract new and repeat customers.

Thirdly, businesses should pay attention to mobile ads, since mobile is growing in significance right along with social. According to a recent report from large mobile advertising network AdMob, smartphones have doubled their share of ad requests in the past 2 years.

Incidentally, Google acquired AdMob last year but was only recently granted regulatory approval. Apple is also investing in this space with its iAd platform announced last month. If both Google and Apple find the mobile ad space important, then it is probably something businesses should watch as well.

The last trend that also pertains to mobile and is quickly gaining momentum is mobile payment systems. Consumers are doing more and more from their mobile devices, so why not allow them to close the deal directly from their mobiles?

PayPal has payment apps for the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry mobile devices. Square is another mobile payment method that works with iPhones for credit card transactions. Interestingly enough, Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey is listed as one of the developers of Square.

Visa has stated that it plans on entering the mobile payment market as well.

As you can see, there are many ways that businesses can benefit from these social trends. Can you think of any other important trends that could provide opportunities for business?

Promoted Trends May Mean More Ad Revenue For Twitter

Another (possible) approach to making money found out

By Doug Caverly

Twitter’s preparing to take another step away from its revenue-less past, according to a new report.  Rumor has it that a fresh “Promoted Trends” feature will complement the system of Promoted Tweets the company’s already devised.

Peter Kafka wrote this afternoon, “Advertisers will be able to insert their own term into the list of trends that Twitter displays on users’ home pages and on its login page.  Clicking on that term would call up a Twitter search results page, which would feature that advertisers’ ‘Promoted Tweet’ at the top of the results.”

(Note: Ian McKellen’s announcement doesn’t have anything to do with the Promoted Trends concept.  It’s just kind of great in its own right, which is why we’ve left both the trending topics bar and his message undarkened.)

Kafka then added, “Advertisers who have heard Twitter talk about the product say the service imagines charging ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ a day for exclusive placement rights.”

Feel free to let us know what you think of the idea.  It could, of course, prove intrusive or annoying, as ads often do.  Or it might meet with some success (consider this: aren’t you more interested in Pepsi, Nike, and Netflix than Justin Bieber?)

Anyway, Twitter’s admitted that it will probably run an experiment, but if or when it will implemented Promoted Trends on a wide/permanent basis is hard to say for sure.