In order to stand out from the crowd, you must be remarkable (as Seth Godin puts it). Demonstrate your knowledge of the industry and strive to improve the lives of your target audience. This could come in the form of detailed how-to guides (like this one), a resource list linking out to the top content in your industry, a great tool that helps users find what they need, or anything else that tickles your readers’ fancies. Market research is key here and social media is a great way to obtain that information (we’ll discuss this later).

Many tests have found including numbers - whether a price, percentage or otherwise makes your ad stand out and improves click through. If you offer low prices, it may make your ad more attractive than others. If you want to deter bargain shoppers, a higher price can save you money on clicks and improve your conversion rate.

There are two ways you can present yourself through your profile. You can either be yourself or take on a persona. When you choose to be yourself, you limit the freedom and anonymity you can have within any given social community. You have to watch what you say and what you submit, as it will have a bearing on your intentions and reputation. Additionally, you open the door for people to research you and possibly link you to any content or product you might be trying to promote.

General importance of customer reviews

Michael Jensen - For small businesses competing with national chains, online reviews can be one of the best ways to gain an advantage over multiple location national chains.

David Klein - I have found that reviews made directly to Google have a very positive benefit. They show up first!

43. Offer services or a product in exchange for a review. Don’t ask the bloggers or webmasters to link to you, they most often will do anyway.

44. Create something unique. Top 10s, top 250s, mash-ups, how-tos, best-ofs, surveys, studies, awards. Define the proper hook, create unique content and attract good links. The possibilities are infinite.

In my opinion, auto generating descriptions is a load of bull, most plugins pick the first sentence, which might be an introductory sentence which has hardly anything to do with the subject, or another sentence with a keyword in it, which might be completely wrong to pick as description. Thus, the only well written description is a hand written one, and if you’re thinking of auto generating the meta description, you might as well not do anything and let the search engine control the snippet.

We know that people who read Digg, Reddit, Propeller and the like tend to have higher viral reach and sharing frequency than those who do not, so make sure your content appears on these sites. The same applies to those who read blogs, and use Twitter. When it comes time to seed your content, be sure to put it in the path of these extra-contagious users.

People often ask me what data they should be paying attention to, but the answer really depends on your situation: What are your goals? What stage is your site in? From that mountain of data, you may only need a few pieces of actionable information to help you measure your current efforts and make adjustments for the future. A mature site embarking a new TV-based branding campaign will use very different measurements than a new site relying on grass roots efforts to get the word out.

If you’ve made just one screw-up, chances are you’ll be able to make amends with just one single action. However, if your company has built a reputation for one mistake after another, it will take a lot more to convince your detractors that you have changed your spots. Your sincerity and transparency will buy you a reprieve and some breathing-room, but it’s your consistency in your future actions that will change the ongoing perception of your critics.

In August of 2007, I shot a 90 second video of a friends 11 year old daughter speaking about his business, and I uploaded it to YouTube. I gave the video a link from one site and shared it with him and a few other friends, I then forgot about it. 6 months later he informed me his local small business was getting new clients as a result of the video.