West Coast SEO And Social Media Specialist With A proven Track Record

"Social Media Coaching Website"Free video Training - Social Media Coaching Site

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 19:29:00 -0800

"Social Media Coaching Website"Free video Training - Social Media Coaching Site

"Do you feel frustrated, overwhelmed and just plain uninformed online? Don’t be intimidated anymore! Each training session is about what is most important to you"

West Coast Social Media Coaching Site offers private social media coaching sessions via Google Hangouts. We like using hangouts because we can show and share different screens on our computers. That way it's like looking over my shoulder so you can understand each detail, giving you the knowledge, information and resources to successfully use and understand social networking websites. This gives both parties a clear understanding of your social media needs.

Social media coaching and training is ideal for any individual, business owner, or job seeker that needs to understand how to use social networking websites for their personal knowledge, to market a product / service or launch and manage a successful social media marketing campaign. Along with what's working today with SEO, let us show you a side by side comparison.

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noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 12:03:00 -0700

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Definitive Guide to Engaging Email Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 15:54:00 -0700

Not all email is created equal. Customers and prospects have learned to filter out noise, so your email needs to be more trusted, more relevant, and more conversational.

Download our new Definitive Guide to Engaging Email, a jam packed 150+ guide, to move beyond basic batch and blast email to a whole new level of engagement.

With all of the guides out there on email, why read this one? You'll learn:

How to keep email relevant in a multi-channel world

5 key ways to make your emails engaging
How to create conversations and not campaigns
The latest research and tips on subject lines, mobile optimization, avoiding spam filters, and more
The new metrics of email marketing
What capabilities are critical in a modern email marketing service provider
Download the Definitive Guide to Engaging Email Marketing and take your email marketing to the next level.

Every business needs a coach. We are the most affordable to bring you to the forefront of social media and SEO
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5 Effective SEO Tactics That Will Bring You More Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 15:54:00 -0700

5 Effective SEO Tactics That Will Bring You More Traffic
Sep 18
Make a Website, Start a Business 15 Comments

Search engine optimization, or SEO, has been around long enough for people to understand that it’s an effective acquisition channel. The only problem is that there has been a lot of bad press regarding SEO because of people claiming to deliver on promises and then failing. The truth is SEO isn’t that hard once you start to get a hang of it. And once you get a hang of it, you’ll start to see your traffic start to grow.

Here are 5 tips to increase your organic (SEO) traffic:

1. Internal Linking
Sure, everyone talks about how external back links are better than internal back links, and they’re right. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore internal links.

Internal links help guide the search engines through your site. Without internal links, search engines have a harder time figuring out where they should go next. It’s your job to make it easier on them to find your important pages. The harder you make it for the search engines, the more likely it is that important pages will be missed by the spiders. And that means lost traffic.

You don’t want lost traffic right?

Here are 3 examples of how Zappos kills it with internal linking. Also note that Zappos does a great job with SEO, but the site isn’t being ‘SEO’ed’ or ‘manipulated’ in any way.

a. Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs funnel link juice to the home page, categories, and sub categories. By adding breadcrumbs you’re adding a layer of internal links across your site. In short, your site becomes a little more accessible to search engines.

Think of your site as an ant hill. Your homepage is the top of the funnel and your categories/sub-categories are the little sections in the middle of the ant hill. Internal links are what will help build more tunnels.

b. Content + internal links
Here’s a snippet of content on the ‘Shoes’ category for Zappos:

This does two things. The first sets the foundation for internal linking and also brings more relevance to the page: content. This section tells the search engine that this page is about different shoes and makes it easier for this page to rank for ‘shoes’ related keywords. The second part is internal linking with rich anchor text. These are the types of keywords that Zappos wants to rank higher for.

Ranking higher usually means more traffic and more traffic for an e-commerce means more conversions. Careful that you don’t overdo this though. You could get penalized.

c. Related links
Here’s a look at a Zappos product page:

These related product links do quite a few things for Zappos. As you know by now, links are part of the equation when a search engine determines how important a page is. With e-commerce SEO, there are thousands of products and it’s hard to give each product some link love. Linking to related products spreads the link juice around relevant products so they all get a small boost. Let’s also not forget about the increased chances of getting an extra conversion by linking to related products.

If you don’t have an e-commerce site, no problem. Blogs can take advantage of great related internal linking by doing something like this:

2. Great content
I know, I know. They say everywhere that content is king and content marketing has been a growing trend in online marketing. For example, BufferApp grew its their customer base from 0 to 100,000 with content marketing. Another good example is Fraiser Cain growing his monthly traffic from 0 to 3 million visitors with content marketing.

The truth is, great content is extremely powerful and separates the wheat from the chaffe. Let’s look at some benefits of great content:

Establishes you as a thought leader – this can lead to unforeseen opportunities (such as speaking or consulting gigs)
Attracts links – if your post is really good, you can expect to get links from high quality sources. It sure beats having to manually prospect for links.
Attracts social shares – social shares are now part of the SEO equation and will bring in more traffic. This can even result in more links.
Brings traffic to your site – if your content is evergreen, then expect that traffic to last for awhile.
Builds trust with your audience – the blog is an excellent point in your sales funnel because people tend to remember people that helped them. Let’s say you sold toilets and you had a blog about home improvement and someone has gone to your blog for tips on multiple occasions. Who do you think they will turn to when they need a new toilet? It’s all about helping others.
Keep one thing in mind though, creating great content is not only really hard, but it also takes a long time.

Content marketing can be one of your biggest competitive advantages if you can execute. Some of the most successful bloggers on the internet took years to build up their blog. Slow and steady wins the race so be patient!

3. Great relationships
Link building is still one of the most important aspects of SEO. Assuming you have your on-site/technical SEO taken care of, links can really be a traffic driver if used correctly. The problem here is links are really hard to acquire. Good links are even tougher to acquire. And with the recent Google Penguin update, you don’t want to be messing around with too many dirty links. You want the good stuff.

So what’s a good way to acquire links? Relationships.

Seems like an underwhelming answer huh? But I assure you that building great relationships with people will yield you some of the highest quality links you’ve ever seen. It’ll take you some time to develop these but they’ll be worth it. And you’ll get a lot more than a few links if you play your cards right.

If you want to start building these relationships, you can look for influencers online or go to offline events. After that, it’s a matter of following up and helping people before you expect anything back.

I guarantee you’ll feel much more satisfied from building a relationship versus building a few links.

4. Transcriptions
First, an example of a transcription done right:

If you ever wonder how certain websites rank for so many long tail keywords, it’s because they have a lot of content and a lot of links. The links tell the search engines that a particular site is authoritative so it tells the search engines that they should be placed higher in the search result pages because the site has pretty much earned it. Conversely, a newer site with no links and a lot of content wouldn’t do that well because it’s still relatively new and unestablished.

If you post video content, it’s smart to make use of transcriptions. Search engines can’t exactly crawl everything that’s being said in a video so it’s your job to make this content visible in text format. If you do that, you open yourself to ranking for more long tail keywords.

5. User Generated Content
Giving your users the option to produce content for you creates a sense of community and can even help with decision making. For example, just look at how Amazon’s product reviews:

Besides helping with a purchase decision, the content generated here is great for SEO. Search engine spiders like unique, helpful content and they get plenty of it from product reviews. This is also a big win for Amazon because they don’t have to spend more money to produce content – their customers are doing it for them!

Conclusion
If used correctly, SEO can be a very powerful weapon. Like anything else though, there are no shortcuts. And if you try to take shortcuts, you’ll eventually end up falling short because you’re competing against some of the smartest engineers in the world at Google. It’s best to invest in a long term strategy that adds value to your audience.

Try using one or two of the tactics above and see how it works out for you.

What are some other SEO tactics that have been effective for you?

Then she made...: Feedburner Hiccup!

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 08:54:00 -0700

Then she made...: Feedburner Hiccup!

Recipe For Elephant Stew

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 09:22:00 -0700

Posted on July 10 2013

by Simon Barrett in Book Reviews, Reviews

Tails And Misadventures In The San Diego Zoo

I have lived in many places over the years, and there is no question in my mind that San Diego is my favorite city. It offers perfect weather, friendly people, and more tourist attractions than you can shake a fist at. One of the biggest tourist attractions is the San Diego Zoo. In physical size it is not the largest Zoo in the world, but, it does hold the record for number of different animals. Better still it is a Zoo that prides itself on removing the bars. Watching animals in a cage turns my blood cold, I would not want to be behind bars, and neither do animals.

Author Bill Seaton worked as the PR guy for the zoo in the 1960′s, and My Seven Years In Captivity is a very personal look at the San Diego zoo. This is by no means a serious book, it is very much humor, yet there is an undertone that reveals the love that Bill has for this wonderful establishment and the love that those working at the zoo have for the animals.

For 10 years I was a season pass holder to the zoo. I have no idea how many hours we spent there, the kids knew their way around the zoo better than they knew the area that we lived in! The San Diego zoo, and the Animal Park some miles out of the city should be on everyone's ‘must do’ list.

Bill Seaton takes us behind the scenes of the San Diego zoo during the 1960′s. This is a delightfully written book that permits the reader to become part of a wonderful organization. High on humor, we see that that old saying ‘life is a zoo’ is indeed true!

Few people understand just how difficult it is to run a zoo, animals it turns out are just as cantankerous as human beings. They have unique personalities, some are friendly, some are grumpy, and some are off the wall. Bill tells a wonderful story about a duck. This cranky bird got along fine with women but not men, if you were male you risked a serious pecking if you got near this duck.

Bill also manages to sneak in a recipe. I like this one so much, I have to share it with you:

Recipe For Elephant Stew

1 elephant (med size)
2 rabbits (optional)
Salt & pepper to taste
Brown gravy (lots)

Cut elephant into small, bite sized pieces. This will take about two months. Add brown gravy to cover. Cook over kerosene fire for about 4 weeks at 462 degrees.
This will serve 3,800 people. If more are expected, the two rabbits may be added, but do this only if necessary most people do not like to find hare in their stew.

Although the book contains much humor it also reflects the dedication of the people working at the zoo. For many this is not a job, this is a lifestyle. Work and home life blur together. These men and women make great sacrifices so that we, the members of the public can enjoy seeing the animals.

My Seven Years In Captivity should be on everyones ‘to read’ list, This is the ideal book for people that just want to read a few pages at a time. It is not one story, it is a series of stand alone vignettes of life.

You can pick up your copy from Amazon.

Very funny, great read

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Whats It Take To Be a Modern Marketer

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:52:00 -0700

According to a new study by Eloqua, Modern Marketing, modern marketers understand the competencies that are required in their jobs, but admit that they fall short compared to how “ideal” marketers would blend these competencies together. The report presents respondents views of where they stand in relation to the best-of-breed professional, and how far they have to go to improve.

The study found that the modern marketer persona is ideally three-fold: a hybrid of content marketer, brand marketer and web marketer. These three “marketer types” were chosen by survey participants when asked about the current modern marketer role.

Successful marketing, however, includes more than three roles and should factor in the use of marketing technology, analytics, targeting, conversion, and engagement. The ideal modern marketer has the optimal percentage of all five skill areas - adding up to 100%. When it came time for survey respondents to rate themselves based on the five core skills, their current performance was barely passable, adding up to only 65%.

Marketers rated the relative mix and importance of five essential competencies impacting their work, both as realized by the “ideal” modern marketer and by themselves.

Ideal vs. Actual Modern Marketer
*Important Characteristics*	*Ideal Marketer*	*Actual Modern Marketer*
Marketing technogy (workflow automation, marketing automation, integrated CRM, social monitoring, business intelligence)	14%	9%
Analytics (leveraging Big Data, understand mktg ROI, measuring contribution to revenue)	13	8
Conversion (prospect-to-customer strategy, collaboration with sales, delivering high quality leads)	19	12
Engagement (the right content delivered at right time, appropriate PR, web, social, blogging, events, demand generation)	24	16
Targeting (knowing involvement in buying process, roles & responsibilities defined, dynamic profiling aligned with changing market & business needs)	30	21
Source: Eloqua, March 2013

Modern marketers face massive and accelerating change in their profession, a change that shows little signs of slowing down, says the report. Much of what is transforming marketing actually opens up new doors, but also bring with them a demand for new skills and added resources.

The ability to track marketing ROI via technology is seen as the most transformative factor marketers face today, followed closely by the rise of social media marketing, the shift of power away from brands and toward customers and prospects. Importantly, every single one of these disruptive changes are due to new technologies that were largely or completely nonexistent just five years ago.

Changes Contributing to Formation of Modern Marketer
*Change*	*% of Respondents Say Most Important*
Ability to track marketing ROI w/technology	60%
Use of social media in marketing	58%
Shift power from brand to consumer	42
Maturation of demand generation & lead nurturing	42
Emergence of mobile marketing	33
Fragmentation of media	30
Improvement in data cleansing	19
Source: Eloqua, March 2013

Acknowledging that the most significant change marketers must address is tracking marketing ROI, it is significant that other key metrics are heavily sales-oriented. Marketers are saying that, amid all the changes that are impacting their own profession, many also are driving them towards sales enablement. Second in importance only to measuring marketing ROI is marketers ability to influence sales.

Most Important Measures For Marketing Success
*Measure*	*% of Respondents Agree*
Marketing ROI	35%
Marketing influenced sales	24
Conversion rate	16
Customer retention	9
Customer experience	9
Revenue per customer	7
Social media metrics	1
Source: Eloqua, March 2013

Marketers said their company’s adoption of improved go-to-market practices were lagging as recently as 2011, with 44% citing “no” or “some” adoption of more effective techniques, and just 26% experiencing “strong” or “full” adoption. This year, 68% of marketers said their companies would be experiencing strong or full adoption and integration of modern concepts into their sales and marketing initiatives.

Much of this improvement has come with the adoption of digital marketing techniques. Email is the key digital channel embraced by modern marketers, and it retains its preeminence after several years of adoption.

Most Important Types of Digital Marketing Used in Previous Year
*Digital Marketing*	*% of Respondents*
Email	64%
Social media	42
PR, blogging, customer case studies	31
Search	28
Webinar/virtual events	28
E-newsletters	24
Microsites	17
White paper	15
Banner	14
Mobile	10
Video portals	9
Custom publishing	6
Source: Eloqua, March 2013

The rise of social media to the No. 2 spot is the most striking addition to this list of marketing tools and channels, a phenomenon hardly anticipated a handful of years ago. Webinars and the relatively new phenomenon of virtual events also have risen to become essential marketing activities.

The subtext, says the report, is that while there are many types of digital marketing activities modern marketers are deploying, much of that is informed by powerful marketing content.

The report concludes by noting these key take-aways:

The modern marketer balances equally the creative skills required for traditional campaigns, along with knowledge of marketing technology
The modern marketer is financially savvy
Data increasingly is driving modern marketing, and defining the role of the ideal modern marketer.
Prospects are hungry for content and marketers know it. Among the most important approaches marketers use to inform their lead-gen efforts, content-intensive tactics like white papers and webcasts are prominent.
Marketers generally want to improve in their use of technology, and better leverage the resources they have at hand. This may indicate that relying on outside vendors

Craig Seaton A Coach With Solutions: How to Create Buzz on Your Facebook Page

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:34:00 -0700

Craig Seaton A Coach With Solutions: How to Create Buzz on Your Facebook Page: If you have an Official Facebook Page (formerly called a “fan page” and sometimes referred to as a “like page”), I don’t have to...

How to Create Buzz on Your Facebook Page

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:26:00 -0700

If you have an Official Facebook Page (formerly called a “fan page” and sometimes referred to as a “like page”), I don’t have to sell you on the benefits. If you don't yet have one, consider that while you can only have 5,000 friends on your personal profile, an official page allows you to have unlimited “likes”.

Obviously that gives you more chances to interact with people, because whatever you publish on your page appears in the home page news feeds of everyone who “likes” you.

Now, you’ll often hear people complaining that most people never return to your page after clicking “like”. That may not be a bad thing, because they’ll continue to see your posts show up when they click on “Home”. And the more interaction you get on those posts — their “likes,” comments and new posts on your wall — the more visible your content will be.

So it’s a Catch 22 of sorts. You need more interaction to become more visibility, but you need to be more visible to elicit more interaction. Which means the big question is, how do you stand out from the visual clutter, and engage your followers in ways that will create more interaction?

Denise Wakeman, a business blogging and online marketing adviser, suggests several ways to do this, most of which she has done personally. The top six, paraphrased, are:

1. Post quotes which are related to your subject, area of expertise, or personal life. Ask readers for similar quotes, or to comment about what it means to them.

2. Post links to other peoples articles that you think your audience will enjoy or benefit from. In other words, don’t make it all about you or your company.

3. Ask questions to engage, but also as research. Denise has written several blog posts based on the information shared by her community. You could also turn it into an e-book, free report, or regular feature of your newsletter.

4. Answer questions about your topic, niche, or products/services. Of course, you need to let your readers know that you’re available to answer questions… or you can host a Q&A day, like the Social Media Examiner does each week featuring a different expert.

5. Invite people to share links to their website, blog, Twitter account, Facebook page, etc. Denise does this with her popular monthly Brag About Your Blog Day, while Mari Smith hosts a Fan Page Friday and Adam Urbanski runs Marketing Monday. It’s a great way to get sticktivity from your followers while you learn about what people are doing, and maybe even find potential JV partners.

6. Host a video chat or live text chat. There are several Facebook apps for doing this, such as vChatter, ChatVibes, BandooChat, TinyChat, 360Mate and FriendCameo, for video, or Clobby for text.

Mari Smith adds, in an article for the Social Media Examiner, that you need to share quality, relevant content every day. She says if you’re just starting out, once a day is fine so you don’t overwhelm your followers. Later, you should aim for several posts a day, which are “a mix of your own thoughts, breaking news, useful tips, tools, resources and links from other sites in your industry and related industries.” And switch it up between text, video and photos, with the latter being the most popular among Facebook users.

If you’re not sure where to find all this content to share, Mari suggests creating an Alltop page and Twitter lists you can review each morning, or subscribe to the top blogs in your industry and scan them in your Google Reader. Then import your blog feed or Twitter Favorites feed through the Notes app or Networked Blogs app.

When you get people interacting on your page, don’t forget to interact back. That means liking their comments, replying with your own comments, and even taking a conversation to someone else’s page.

If you choose to do a regular event where people can share links, be consistent about when it’s going to be. Think about getting a graphic made that you can use to promote your event by posting it on your blog, website, Facebook page and Twitter. Then, the day of your event, post about it in the morning, and keep coming back all day to keep tabs on what’s going on, and leave your own feedback for participants. Click the “like” button on all your updates so that your friends will see it too. And don’t forget to tweet about it, post it on LinkedIn, write a blog post, send an email to your subscriber list, and share it in any related forums you frequent.

After it’s all over, follow up with a report about what happened, and highlight some of your participants. Get people intrigued about what they missed so they’ll look forward to the next event.

The key is to make your page fun, interesting, and rewarding for your fans to visit, and let them know that you care about them and their opinion. As the buzz you create snowballs, and you help keep the momentum going by giving that snowball a daily push, you’ll find more and more people joining in your conversation and liking what you do — both in the traditional sense, and in the Facebook button-pushing sense.

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Viral Genie A New Massive Traffic Builder - Viral Genie

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:16:00 -0800

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What is Social Media Coaching?

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Wed, 6 Feb 2013 16:14:00 -0800

Social Media Coaching

What is Social Media Coaching?

Wikipedia Definition: “Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings.”

In other words, it’s a way to communicate to your customers about your business and expertise. Social media is about getting your customers to sell for you and tell others about you! We help you navigate the waters and customize a social media solution that works for your business which is unlike any other.

At XSitePro Web Design, we offer the following Social Media Coaching Package ($1,500) in which our CEO, Craig Seaton, will give you private lessons on the following:

Social Media Consultation and Business Plan: We look at your current forms of communication and help you zero in on the best ways to build on them using Social Media. We present you with a scalable Social Media Business Plan personalized for your company. We start where you are, with the basics or taking what you know and growing upon it.

LinkedIn Set-Up/Coaching: We can set up a profile for you if you aren't already LinkedIn and teach you how to use this platform to gain customers and network with colleagues, business partners and businesses in general. This helps you reach thousands of business partners and potential customers on a platform that’s meant for business.

Twitter Set-Up/Coaching: Learn how to use this remarkable tool to keep in touch and attract new clients, do research on a topic, get help and advice from the online community. Includes a custom Twitter background for your business profile. Don’t think it can help you? We promise you’ll be a believer once we’re done.

Facebook Set-Up: We can assist you in setting up your Facebook company page with custom FBML design and sending out invites to your business associates and friends. We will also teach you the best usage methods for this site and how to keep people coming back. This is the best and easiest way to help your customers share your company with others.

YouTube Channel Set-Up: Let us help you set up a video channel for your company where you can push your company videos to the rest of the world and go viral! If you’re not ready for prime-time yet, that’s OK. We have people who can help you wade into the waters slowly, at your own speed.
Personal one-on-one training with someone in your company to learn how to use these tools most effectively. We take it slowly and don’t push you. You learn at your own speed but we make sure what you've learned stays with you and becomes an effective tool in your toolbox you’ll want to use again and again.

You’ll learn the secrets of how we built our own company from the ground up using social media every single day. Our CEO has the largest following on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn than any other web design company in Atlanta–over 55,000 followers! Bottom line, Desiree walks the walk and is a sought after social and online marketing leader.

The Best Blogging Techniques for your business. Blogging is a HUGE part of a social media strategy that tends to be overlooked. We’ll teach you the most effective ways to blog. We’ll even point you to a Master Class (affiliate link) from one of the best bloggers out there, Chris Brogan.
P.S. In case you’re wondering, blogging and social media involve creating and publishing engaging content that connects directly with customers and prospects via your own website. The result: you’ll increase your business exposure, improve customer satisfaction, build strong brand advocates, generate quality leads and achieve sales growth. Who doesn't want that?

P.P.S. Studies show that consumers prefer to work with businesses that have a strong social media presence. It’s not too late to get your business engaged with customers (and prospects) through a blog and social media. If you wait, you’ll be giving your blogging competitors a significant advantage that will be hard to overcome.

SEO Mistakes Experts Miss Today: Six Principles Great Content Brands.

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:53:00 -0800

SEO Mistakes Experts Miss Today: Six Principles Great Content Brands.: Six Principles Great Content Brands. 1. Be the buyer Everything starts with the buyer's challenges, needs, prejudices, and concerns. ...

Craig Seaton A Coach With Solutions: You Can Afford Our SEO Service

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 19:10:00 -0800

Craig Seaton A Coach With Solutions: You Can Afford Our SEO Service: Widget: today date A few weeks ago I was talking with a small travel website ...

www.craigwseaton.com

You Can Afford Our SEO Service

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:39:00 -0800

Meet Our New Team

A few weeks ago I was talking with a small travel website owner that was interested
in The Website Builder Pro's new SEO service for small businesses. His challenge, like
most small business owners, was that he had a little bit of budget set aside for
SEO but he didn’t know what to do with it. He knew he needed SEO help but was also
well aware that he couldn’t afford a year long contract with a big SEO company. He
was pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place—it was either take time he
didn’t have to learn SEO or risk going with a cheap (and probably black hat) SEO
firm in India. Website owners like him are exactly why we created the small
business SEO solution.
There are a lot of small business owners that need SEO help, and I applaud them for
trying to go about it in the best way possible. I know what it’s like to be a small
business owner, strapped for cash and time at every turn. When every penny has to
be accounted for (and producing quick ROI), going with a cheap SEO provider seems
like a win-win. The site will get the SEO help it needs to succeed in the search
engines and the site owner doesn’t have to shell out a lot of money to get it
done—the whole process gets managed by someone else.
Here’s the problem though, when it comes to SEO you get what you pay for. Low costs
usually mean low quality SEO. When I outline the whole process of building an SEO
campaign from scratch to a site owner, many are surprised at just how much time
goes into it. SEO may be “free” in that the tools don’t cost anything, but there
is a lot of man-time going into a well-rounded SEO campaign that site owners don’t
always expect. How hard do you expect someone to work when they are only getting
$200 a month for their efforts? Would you expect your employees to work 40 hour
weeks for $50? Why should an SEO firm be any different?
I firmly believe that a small business site owner needs to understand at least the
foundation of a good SEO program, even if they don’t want to become an expert. Many
site owners that I’ve spoken with over the years say they don’t have the time to
learn SEO and my response is always the same—“You don’t have the time to invest in
your long term success?” A business’s website is what brings in revenue, which in
turns pays mortgage bills and college tuition, buys groceries and braces—how can you
not afford to learn the basics of SEO?
For small business owners that are looking to invest in SEO, I think it’s just a
matter of changing your mindset. You may not have the budget of a big brand but
that doesn’t mean you can be successful with your SEO. If you can’t afford a full
service SEO solution, than divide and conquer. Hire a reputable white hat SEO firm
to optimize your site and develop a link building strategy and then implement the
strategy on your own. The strategy will clearly outline what you should do every
step of the way, so even though you’re “going it alone” you won’t be stranded.
Call www.craigwseaton.com @ 760.586-0552

Alleviating this Troubles involving Business SEO

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Sun, 9 Dec 2012 05:50:00 -0800

"The smart move is going with The Web Site Builder Pro, They work with you"

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How to Use LinkedIn for Business

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 06:28:00 -0800

How to Use LinkedIn for Business

More Sharing ServicesShare on twittShare on twitterShare on facebookShare on myspaceShare on googleShare on diggShare on email

Since its launch in 2003, LinkedIn has become an invaluable resource for those on the job hunt, from recent graduates to professionals of any age. However, if you think that this social media platform is nothing more than a job board, you’re missing out on the largest professional network on the Internet (a pretty big space to dominate, if you ask us). With 187 million members around the world, including executives from all 2012 Fortune 500 companies, and 2.6 million companies with Company Pages, LinkedIn is no longer riding on the social media bandwagon. It’s driving the car. Read on to find out how your company can capitalize on its momentum.

Create a Company Page. If you already have a personal profile on LinkedIn, you know how useful the platform can be for networking. When you create a Company Page, it not only allows you to connect with existing colleagues, but it also allows you to promote your business to potential customers. To best leverage your Company Page, write compelling, keyword optimized copy for the “Overview” and “Services” tabs, which are opportunities to “sell” your brand and its service lines to potential customers. And don’t forget to include a call-to-action, such as directing customers to your company website for more information.

Participate in Group Discussions. Through your personal profile, you can join Groups and participate in discussions. This is the perfect opportunity to get involved in conversations about your industry – and to direct other participants to your company’s white papers, blog posts or articles related to the topic at hand. This “thought leadership” will reinforce your brand’s credibility as an industry expert.

Respond to Questions in LinkedIn “Answers.” Another way that you can build credibility for your brand on LinkedIn is by answering questions posted by other LinkedIn users. For example, if someone is thinking about switching auto insurance companies, and you work for an auto insurance agency, it’s the perfect opportunity to jump in and let them know about the auto insurance rate comparison tool on your company’s homepage or to offer to email them a quote directly.

Drive traffic to your website. This past July, LinkedIn released its new design, which, not surprisingly, looks strikingly similar to that of Facebook and Google+. There is also a lot of overlap in regard to the available features, such as wall posts that users can “Like,” “Comment” on or “Share.” These posts allow you to address timely news and events, promote a product or service line you offer or ask an engaging question to your audience.

Bird Food, Bird Cages, Bird Toys, At The Best Prices - Prevue Hendryx 485 Pet Products Feisty Ferret Home with Stand, Black Hammertone

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Mon, 5 Nov 2012 19:57:00 -0800

Bird Food, Bird Cages, Bird Toys, At The Best Prices - Prevue Hendryx 485 Pet Products Feisty Ferret Home with Stand, Black Hammertone
The Prevue Hendryx 485 Bird Cage comes complete with ramps, shelves, and even a hammock to keep your fuzzy friend entertained and content. All the reviews bring this up!

This Prevue bird cage is featuring two large doors, you are able to easily access your petwhile ferrets can't open these "escape-proof" doors.

Platforms, grille and bottom tray are all easilyremoved for convenient cleaning. Castered stand provides portability from room to room while the space saver shelf holds toys, treats and supplies.

Our Feisty Ferret Home will complement any room in its black hammertone finish and measures 31-inch long, 20-inch wide, 41-1/2-inch high ( 54-inch high on stand) with 7/8-inch wire spacing.

This by far is the BEST deal out there!!! I've been cage shopping for my rats for 2 years & this is the best cage. There is no rubbery paint, or cruddy wires that bend & rust, but a very nice steel wiring & hammer-tone finish instead. It's easy to clean (pullout pan) & it's roomy; I'm 5'6", so you get the idea. It's a cage that you won't be embarrassed to put in your living room, that's for sure. Go ahead -look around in the stores, I'm SURE you won't find a better quality or price tag!

Prevue Pet Products Wrought Iron Select Bird Cage Black Hammertone 3151BLK

The Prevue Hendryx 485 has great size for the low bird cage price with tons of room for other bird toys, hammocks, dishes and anything else.

What really makes this Prevue 485 easy to love is the two front facing doors which makes everything easy to clean and access unlike some of the cheap bird cages we have bought in the past

It is so easy to put together with the PDF form from Prevue bird cage home page and once it's assembled it has a very sturdy feel to it and does not look or feel cheap

Another nice feature is the cage is lifted off the ground so the animal is never at ground level and the storage shelf is very handy.

wheels for easy moving and cleaning, even on carpet! so there is no heavy lifting at all, this was a feature we like about this prevue product for our Parrakeet and Lory.

The ramps and hammock included are actually pretty nice, not too slippery and just the right size.I highly recommend the Prevue Hendryx 485 because of al the above reasons. Cheap price helps too.

Prevue Hendryx 485 Pet Products Feisty Ferret Home with Stand, Black Hammertone (Misc.)

This cage is AWESOME for my two male chinchillas! They just love this cage so much. There is so much room for them to jump around, play, and eat.

The building part was awful. It seemed like none of the screws would fit. The instructions were horrible! I had to call my dad to come help put this thing together.

Despite of the horrible instructions and building, I rate this 5 stars. The happiness of my chinchillas make up for the frustration of trying to get it together.

I ordered this on a Friday evening and was on my doorstep 11:00 the next day. INCREDIBLE.

I highly recommend!!! I just hope you're mechanically inclined if you're putting it together yourself.

This review is from: Prevue Hendryx 485 Pet Products Feisty Ferret Home with Stand, Black Hammertone (Misc.)

This cage is great for my two ferrets, it gives them the space to be alone when they want to be, but still enough room to play when they want to play. My issue with this product was the instructions for putting the cage together. It took me two hours to put together because I had to figure it out on my own. Sure, it comes with directions, but you need a magnifying glass to see the pictures and the print is so light I could not see the instructions. Overall, it is a great cage though. My ferrets have not figured out how to escape from the cage which is GREAT. They seem much happier.

10 Reasons Why People Don't Visit Your Web Site

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Sat, 3 Nov 2012 14:10:00 -0700

Craig Seaton at The Website Builder Pro is offering a free link Builder

today http://www.thewebsitebuilderpro.com Plus a free SEO book


1. You don't offer free original content. It's important
to give your visitors information they can't find any-
where else. If you're the only source for a certain type
of information, people will flock to your web site.

2. You don't offer free software. Most people like
to find good deals on software for their computers. If
the software is free, that is even better.

3. You don't offer a free contest or sweepstakes. It's
a fact, people like to win things. If you can fulfill that
need, people will stop by to visit.

4. You don't offer a free directory. Create a directory
of web sites on a particular topic that is related to your
target audience. People will visit because they will find
what they're looking for, all in one place.

5. You don't offer a free e-zine. Most people love to
get free information that they're interested in emailed
to them on a regular basis. This saves them time and
money.

6. You don't offer a free community. People like to
have a place were they can have discussions with
others on a particular subject. You could add a chat
room or message board to your web site.

7. You don't offer a free affiliate program. One of
people's basic needs to survive is money. When you
offer them a free opportunity to make money they'll
line up to visit your web site.

8. You don't offer a free online utility. When you offer
a utility that can solve a problem, people will visit your
web site. The utility could be a free autoresponder,
e-mail account, search engine submission, etc.

9. You don't offer free current information. Supply
news stories related to your web site. People want
up-to-date news on the topics they are interested in.
They will also be interested in visiting your web site.

10. You don't offer free samples of your product
or service. Have you ever been to a store and you
jumped at the chance to get a free sample of food?
This same concept will also attract people to visit
your web site

Bird Food, Bird Cages, Bird Toys, At The Best Prices - Birdfoodbirdcages.com

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 17:16:00 -0700

Bird Food, Bird Cages, Bird Toys, At The Best Prices - Birdfoodbirdcages.com

Acne Treatments Top Cures in 2012 - Acne treatment cure

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 17:10:00 -0700

Acne Treatments Top Cures in 2012 - Acne treatment cure

Reasons Why You Need To Blog

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 07:57:00 -0700

Blogs aren’t exactly the new kid on the digital marketing block, but boy, they sure do get the job done. Here’s why I think you should seriously consider adding a blog to your company’s website.

1. A blog shows visitors you know your stuff
Whatever your industry, potential customers probably want to know you understand it before they hand over their credit card number, or even call. If they can easily find some articles written by you and/or your staff that show your company’s expertise, they’re going to feel a lot more confident about spending their time or money (or both) with you.

2. A blog helps you get more traffic
Sounds good – maybe even a little too good to be true, right? Nevertheless, if you’re blogging regularly and well – or even kind of well – you’re bound to get some social media attention that will bring more visitors to your website. You may earn links from other sites, too. And then there are the SEO benefits inherent in any decent blog…

3. Blog = SEO, baby
The more content on your website, the better your odds of ranking highly in Google search results for the keyword phrases Google finds in your posts.
Search engines really look for each page of a website to be about one specific thing. Every blog post is a page, so if you want to rank for 50 different keyword phrases, you really need to have close to 50 different pages (such as blog posts) with each page dedicated primarily to a single keyword phrase.
You can’t hope to rank well in search engines for many keywords that matter for your business if your site has just a few pages such as Contact, About Us, Meet Our Team, and a home page that talks about all the various things you offer.

4. Blog posts are link bait
We’re sure you know that links from other sites to yours – also known as backlinks or inbound links – are an important factor for helping your site appear higher in SERPs (search engine results pages). And as you probably also know, it isn’t easy to get someone to link from their site to yours. (Unless you pay them, and we don’t recommend that.)
It’s unlikely that someone will want to link to your home page, or to a page about your product or services. But how about an interesting and insightful blog post about your industry? That might do the trick.
If you regularly put out interesting or helpful content on your blog, you will have a much easier time getting backlinks. Be a good example: When you see interesting or helpful content on someone else’s blog that’s relevant to one of your posts, do include a link to that blog. (They may return the favor!)

5. A blog is food for social media
Just like it’s hard to rank well without blog posts, it’s hard to get anyone to share a link to your website on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ if you don’t regularly blog about interesting topics.
If you can blog well enough that people start sharing links to your blog posts from their social media accounts, there’s nothing better. People like to share valuable articles with their networks, and these social media links will help your SEO. Social media mentions and links are a signal to Google and Bing that people consider a site valuable – and the search engines use that signal to help them rank websites in search results. Plus, you’ll get more direct visitors from the people who actually click those social media links.
For tips on creating blog posts more people will want to share in social media, read our post You Deserve More Blog Comments & Shares.
One more great thing about blog posts – they give you something to mention in your own social media accounts. Some days even the cleverest person runs out of new things to say.

6. Behold the CTR power of Google Authorship
Have you seen a search result like this? That’s called a rich snippet – a Google search result that isn’t just the plain ‘ol link with a little text below. When the author of a blog post is hooked up with Google Authorship, their blog posts will look like this in Google SERPs.
So what? Well, search results like this have a much higher CTR (click-through rate). MarketingTechBlog.com found that their posts with a Google+ portrait in search results were almost 5 times as likely to be clicked on in search results than links without it.
Read more about the importance of Google Authorship and how to set it up for your blog.

7. Unlike social media posts, you really do own your blog content – and you’re the one benefiting from it
For many business owners, the idea of giving up control is scary. But that’s exactly what you’re doing when you post content on a social network.
Facebook could decide that you’re violating their terms of service and delete your page. LinkedIn gets to decide which ads to place around your content. Twitter sometimes goes down and makes your tweets temporarily inaccessible. Pinterest could get bought by some company that doesn’t care about keeping the site working. The list of risks goes on.
When you put out great content on social networks, you get some benefits for sure – and so do the social networks. They get more pages in Google’s index, they can sell more advertising, and their valuation or stock prices could go up – all thanks to you and a few million others.
Now don’t get us wrong. Here at AboutUs, we definitely think social media is something businesses should be using. But we hate to see blogging overlooked when it has some serious advantages for almost any business.

8. Getting and keeping people on your site probably helps your business goals.
Do you want people to buy your product, call you about your services, fill out a lead generation form, or do something similar? If someone is reading a blog post on your website, the odds are much better that they will.

9. Blog posts have a longer shelf life
Email newsletters, tweets and Facebook posts are fleeting, and will likely be forgotten and hard to find a few days after they’re sent or posted. Your blog is a great place for more evergreen topics that will stay relevant and helpful weeks or months after they’re first published.
It’s certainly fine to blog about timely and current things, and we encourage you to do so. But make sure the important things you want people to see now and later are published on your blog.

10. Help with customer support
Do you keep getting the same questions from your customers? Why not turn each question and answer into a blog post? It will lessen the load on your customer support people, and make it easier for them to give more detailed answers quicker. It can also show prospective clients that you are serious about helping your customers.

11. Cred for author
Do you want your CEO to be seen as a thought leader in your space? Do you want to give your employees some publicity? Writing for the company blog and getting a byline can give employees (including the CEO) some street cred, and probably a warm, fuzzy feeling. Bonus points for having each author create or enhance their Google+ profile, and for assuring they have Google Authorship status (more about that here). (Do NOT post everyone’s blog posts as Admin…we’re begging you.)

12. Blog comments – and commentors – are gold
One of the great features of blog posts is that they allow readers to leave a comment. This conversation is invaluable. It can give you ideas for your new product, next blog post, a better customer service process, or something else important to your business.
Because it takes time and effort to comment on a blog post, anyone who does is probably worth taking a look at. Are they a prospective client or business partner someone should follow up with? Is the commenter someone you should follow on Twitter? Is he or she a customer you should reach out to, maybe to offer support or ask for a testimonial?

Yes, Your Company Needs a Blog – 13 Reasons Why - AboutUs

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 07:52:00 -0700

Yes, Your Company Needs a Blog – 13 Reasons Why - AboutUs

How do I get people to my site?

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 17:50:00 -0700

Here is, by far, one of the most common questions I get:Short of me saying "Just hire Me"

"I just started a new business. How do I get people to my site?"

Another great question from our community... because it's true -- the hardest part about traffic building is getting to your first 1,000 visitors and keeping the momentum going after that.

Today you get your answer. If I started a new site, here's exactly what I would do to get my first 1,000 visitors:

The first thing to understand is there's an easy way and a hard way to jump-start your traffic.

In the old days, your only choice was to take the slow route: build links to get search rankings, grow your prominence on forums, and other things like that. These were and still are good, but they take time.

And I find that, when you're just starting, the key to keeping motivated is to see quick results. And today that is much easier because you've got sites like Facebook and Twitter with millions and MILLIONs of users on them every day.

(Plus, as an added bonus, it is easy to find people in your target market on them, too. Jackpot.)

So the easiest way to 1,000 visitors is by focusing time and energy into building your Twitter and Facebook profile.

With Twitter do the following:

========================

1. After you create your profile start following other people and companies in your industry.

2. Perform keyword searches on Twitter for keywords related to what you do. Also start following 100 to 200 of those people each day.

3. Start tweeting about topics related to your industry (don't just tweet about things on your website).

4. You'll notice that after a few days 20 to 30% of the people you follow will follow you back. You can start manually unfollowing the people who don't follow you back or if you don't have the time you can use a service like Tweet Adder which can do this for you in an automated fashion.

5. Start participating on Twitter by tweeting at people in your industry and retweeting some of their tweets.

6. At this point you should have been on Twitter for more than 5 days and now you can start tweeting about your company and content. Make sure you aren't doing a hard sell and that 80% of the time you are still tweeting about stuff that isn't related to your company.

FaceBook

The Website Builder Pro

=============

1. Friend thought leaders in your industry. Although a large percentage of the people will not accept your friend request, at least 10% of the thought leaders should.

2. Start engaging with your audience by posting stuff on your wall. The stuff shouldn't be about your company, but more so about industry news and events related to your sector.

3. To create the most engagement post things that are short and during times you think your "target friends" are online.

4. Start commenting on your friends' wall and like messages that you like within your feed.

5. Start asking questions on your wall. These questions should be related to your industry. By asking questions you'll start to see more engagement from your "target friends".

6. After a week of engaging more heavily on Facebook you should start seeing more friend requests. Instead of turning away people you don't know, accept them as they could be a reader or your website or a potential customer of your product/service.

7. At this point you should be posting information about your company 30% of the time. But, again, don't hard sell your product... only do soft pitches.

8. After you spend a month or so building up your Facebook and Twitter presence it shouldn't be hard to get at least a few thousand visitors to your website just from these 2 traffic sources.

And that's all there is to it. It's not rocket science (anyone telling you otherwise is trying real hard to sell you something).

Building on that, the REAL key is to understand how social media fits into your overall traffic strategy.

And that's what I will explain tomorrow.

And let's not forget, If you'd like to be considered to hire me to help you with your online marketing, apply at http://wordofmouyhmarketting.com I'll be selecting a company shortly.

CraigWSeaton@yahoo.com

Why Content Marketing is the New SEO

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 22:12:00 -0700

Why Content Marketing is the New SEO

82
inShare

SEO isn’t the same as what it used to be. You can’t just popup an ugly website, throw up mediocre content, and build a few links and expect to rank well. These days you actually have to build a good website, write high quality content that solves peoples’ problems, build thousands of links, and get thousands of social shares.

But there is one big issue, it’s hard to scale all of this. Building thousands of high quality links manually is really expensive and even if you have the money, it will take months if not years to build those links. And if you don’t have anything worth sharing on the social web, you won’t get social shares unless you buy them from spammy accounts.

So how do you build thousands of links naturally and get thousands of social shares? Through content marketing.

Content marketing is the cheapest and most effective way to do SEO these days. Not only does writing highly quality content produce links at a quicker pace than building them manually, but it’s also cheaper. Plus your content will naturally get shared on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and Pinterest.

My content marketing experience

I’ve always built my organic search traffic through content marketing.Why you may ask? It’s cheaper and it provides faster results.

We were able to launch The WebsiteBuilderPro and get over 100,000 monthly organic visitors in less than a year, just through blogging and creating infographics. We didn’t build 1 link manually… we just spent our time and money on content marketing.

Google drives around 90,000 visitors a month to the blog, and I didn’t have to manually build 1 link. I just wrote a lot of high quality content.

If you don’t think content marketing is the new SEO, lets take a look at the numbers:

Content marketing by the numbers

An infographic on average costs us $600, which means we have spent $25,200 on infographics in the last 2 years.

Within a 2-year period, we’ve generated 2,512,596 visitors, and 41,142 backlinks from 3741 unique domains all from those 47 infographics.

And from a social perspective in the last 2 years the infographics have driven 41,359 tweets and 20,859 likes.

If you decided that you want to buy 2,512,596 visitors, it would cost you $125,629.80 if you paid 5 cents a visitor. If you bought 41,142 links from a service like Sponsored Reviews at a rate of $20 a link, you would have spent $822,840. And that wouldn’t even give you high quality links. We naturally got from sites like Huffington Post and Forbes.

If you want to buy 41,359 tweets, it would cost you $82,718 assuming you paid 2 dollars a tweet. It would also cost you an additional $41,718 if you paid 2 dollars a like.

In total, if you were trying to game Google and get the same results we did at KISSmetrics, you would have spent a total of $1,072,905.80. Now that’s a lot of money… especially if you compare that to the $25,200 we spent to create the infographics.

The big difference between content marketing and paid SEO

There is one huge difference between paying to do all of the things above versus spending the money on content marketing. Can you guess what it is?

Nope, it isn’t the price difference of $1,047,705.80. Guess again…

Content marketing doesn’t get affected by algorithm updates, while paid SEO does. Search engines can tell when you provide value, and in the long run that’s the kind of stuff that they want to make sure that stays high in the rankings.

So instead of investing in short term solutions that may increase your overall rankings and traffic, invest in the long term solution of content marketing.

Conclusion

Now that you know content marketing is the new SEO, spending money on it doesn’t guarantee results. Over the last few years I’ve tested a lot of different types of content and certain types produce better results than others.

Detailed content – short blog posts tend to get less links than detailed content that is thorough. Don’t try to replicate what Huffington post does by producing hundreds of new pieces of content each day… focus on quality.
Digestible infographics – if you can make complex data easy to understand in a visual format, you can get millions of visitors to your website.
Social profiles – a key requirement to a successful content marketing strategy is owning powerful social profiles. Make sure youbuild up your Twitter and Facebook profiles. You’ll need them to spread your content.
Collect emails – make sure you have email opt-in forms in your sidebar and potentially leverage popups to collect even more emails. If you have a solid email list you can always email them every time you publish a new blog post or content piece. This is an easy way to kick start the virality process.
Be consistent – if you can’t publish content on a regular basis, no matter how good your content is, it will be tough to get a good ROI out of your content marketing. Make sure you publish content on a regular basis.
Headlines matter – no matter how good your content is, if you can’t write attractive headlines, no one will read your content. Learn how to write good headlines.

So what do you think about content marketing? Do you think it is the new SEO?

6 Branding Approaches They Forgot to Teach You in Business School

noreply@blogger.com (West Coast Social Media and SEO) — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 16:57:00 -0700

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Do you have all the basics of branding in place, but you are still struggling to create even a dent in your competitor’s market share?

Most companies don’t get branding… and for the ones that do, it’s often not enough. But if you don’t figure out how to climb out of the clutter and ahead of your competition, your company will fail.

So what can you do? Study the following six companies and the branding lessons they learned as they overcame the obstacles in their markets.

Lesson #1: Start with why

Too often companies start their branding journey by building a product they hope will change people’s lives. They've spent thousands of hours in research and development on an idea, but when they ship, the product flops.

Let’s look at Apple to learn why that is. Instead of the typical what-how-why advertising message, Apple has always promoted the why first. They've promoted the reason behind why they exist. You can imagine them saying this: “Apple exists to challenge the status quo. We emphasize beautiful design. And we make computer devices.”

That’s totally different than if they said, “Apple makes computer devices. They are beautifully designed. We exist to challenge the status quo.”

One starts with the why…the other one ends with the why. This is one of the reasons that Apple is innovative year-after-year and is one of the biggest companies in the world.

In fact, they've been trading places as “world’s biggest company” with Exxon for the last several months.

Apple established a movement based on their why and created a following. They enhance the deal by creating beautiful and useful products… so sales rush in year after year.

The lesson is that when everyone involved… from the founder all the way down to the customer… knows exactly why your company exists, then you create a meaningful way for people to see your brand, instead of just another company wanting to make millions.

So, what is your company’s why?

Lesson #2: Never forget the past

In today’s startup economy, most companies don’t have a lot of history since they are younger than four years or so. But if you’re company is only ten years old, it’s dangerous to forget your past when you are planning for the future.

Let me show you what I mean.

The company Blinds.com tries to stay rooted to their history in a number of ways:

They hung streets signs from the ceiling with the names of the city/street of all their offices. This even includes the addresses of companies they’ve bought.
They named one of their meeting rooms “Laura” since the business started as a brick-and-mortar business called “Laura’s.”
They named another meeting room after their first website they started back in 1996: NoBrainerBlinds.com.
They named yet another meeting room after their first real location. That meeting room is called “The Alley.”
They displayed all of the articles written about the company during it’s 16 years of being in business.

If you are part of a company with history it’s important you understand that history and communicate it to all of your employees.

And don’t forget, that foundation includes the why behind your history—it reflects who you are. Neglect to communicate your history and you threaten to weaken a powerful tool to strengthen your brand.

Lesson #3: Create your own market

Jumping into an existing market can be near-impossible. If it’s a competitive or shrinking market you may never succeed. If you truly want to succeed, you need to create your own market.

Way back when e-readers were nothing but a fuzzy concept, Amazon jumped into the market giving early adopters something to play with:

A lot of people felt like they were stupid for taking such a risky move, but they aren’t saying that now with the rise of the e-reader.

And even though the Kindle Fire didn’t turn out to be as great as people hoped and publishers and libraries continue to give Amazon trouble about their privacy and pricing policies, there is no doubt that Amazon… because they created their own market… will dominate it.

What’s the lesson for you? Look for markets like you were a value investor… find markets that are under-valued but have promising growth.

Lesson #4: Rebrand to avoid confusion

When some companies branch out into two or more business lines instead of one, they often run into problems. The problem arises when their name doesn't fit the new line of business.

This is kind of what happened to Formspring, a company that launched a popular social media product that attracted a different user base than its form-building product that is more geared to businesses.

It was easy to cause confusion between the two products so the company decided to re-brand itself. That’s not an easy task since the former name was pretty popular among the costumers.

What the company decided to do was create an infographics that taught users how to create the perfect landing page with their new brand.

The key to success was that they made something that educated their customer. In the end, more than 100,000 people shared the infographics through StumbleUpon in the last year.

What can you learn from this lesson? Try to make your products as distinct from each other as possible. And if you do end up with brand confusion, don’t be afraid to re-brand.

Lesson #5: Create an awesome user experience

Most products will be so similar to each other that you need to figure out a way to make them very different. And one of the easiest and less-expensive ways to do that is by creating an awesome user experience. It doesn’t matter if you are selling mopeds or haircuts, you need to make your customers feel like every interaction with you is what makes youdifferent.

Look at the iPhone and how it entered into a crowded market. Cell phones were all basically the same before Apple entered the market. Because Apple’s why is built around “challenging the status quo” they created a user experience that absolutely blew away the competition.

This all started with the iPod. Apple floated a minimum viable productout into the market to see how it would be responded to. People went crazy over the iPod so Apple figured that the iPhone, which would cost more to create, wouldn’t be such a gamble. They were right.

How can you create an awesome user experience? Start by looking at the customers of your competitor and see what they are missing from their experience. And the nice thing about user experience is you can go after big competitors without having their deep pockets.

Lesson #6: Stay edgy

You would never think that a 216-year old whiskey company would try to go after the women’s market, but that’s exactly what Jim Beam did.

The company wants to get more nimble and act like a start-up rather than a huge company. The key to making that change was looking into a market that most of their competitors were neglecting.

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What was that market? It was women. Most of the big spirits companies did not give any attention to women, even with products like vodka where women made up half of the market. The thinking was to advertise to the men and the women will follow. In order to stay edgy, Jim Beam decided to treat them as a profitable market.

What the company ended up doing was adding more brands to their product lines, including a margarita variety called Bethenny Click Here! that’s a number one selling brand.