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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Business Listing Sites To Promote Your Biz

Local Search Engines & Popular Local Search Listings

Considered the most popular local search engines and local listing sites. Many merchants add their business location or list locally using these popular local search engines. Getting a business listed is easy, all you have to do is decide where you want to begin and follow the links from this page for instruction. We suggest adding your business to the FREE local search engines first to get an idea of how aggressive to be when launching your local listing campaign.
Google Local Business Center (Free)- Allows business owners to add their company address location, hours of operation, storefront or product photos and more to Google. Listings appear within Google Maps and Business searches. Free to list, comes with account listing and management tools, no website needed. Google account required. Local business listings update every few weeks.
Yahoo Local (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows merchants or business owners to add their business name, website, address, phone number, relevant categories, hours, payments accepted and more to Yahoo local. Free basic listing or paid enhanced listings available. Yahoo account required.
Windows Live Local (InfoUSA Affiliate) - Allows local business owners to list their company name, phone number, address and line of business within Windows Live Local. Free to list and update information. Submit listing through InfoUSA affiliate. Listing may take several months to update after changes have been made.
AOL Local (InfoUSA Affiliate) - Allows merchant business owners to add their company information including name, phone, address and line of business within AOL Local. Free to list and/or update business information. Submit through InfoUSA affiliate. Listing may take several months to update.
TrueLocal (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Get your local business information listed including company description, website, specialties, hours, payments and more within TrueLocal search. Accepts both free and paid enhanced submissions. Ability to update listings or information. May take several weeks for listings to update. No account required to submit.
Local.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local business owners to list company name, address, phone, email, website and relevant categories. Listings appear within the Local.com search results and participating affiliate sites. Both free and paid enhanced listings available. Listing may take several weeks to update within results.
Citysearch (Paid Programs) - Get your local business listed within Citysearch including the company name, photos, address, map, website, coupons, personal messages, offer types and more. Citysearch listing look like recommendations or reviews but work like advertisements. Only paid programs are available at this time. Listings are updated within a few days from the time businesses update information.


Local Yellow Pages & Online Yellow Page Listings

Local yellow pages and Online yellow page listing sites have been in existence for years, but are quickly gaining more attention as technologies and data delivery methods are constantly improving. The following local yellow pages are for merchants who wish to list and maintain a number of IYP listing over many yellow page portals or other inclusion programs offered by the site. We recommend using Online yellow page selling as a part of your eCommerce strategy rather than focus primarily on these listings. Use local search engines and yellow page sites to help saturate search results with your business brand and product information. Having many paid yellow page programs can get expensive so be sure to monitor your budget and consider listing in the most popular Online yellow page sites rather than each and every one you find.
SuperPages (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows business owners to list relevant information including location, hours, contacts, categories, optional enhancements and more. Free listing option along with paid enhanced listing options. Listings appear within SuperPages and affiliate sites. Listing may take several weeks to update.
BigBook (SuperPages Affiliate) - Allows local business owners to include relevant information such as name, location, phone, website and more. Free basic listing options along with paid listing enhancements. Listings appear within BookBook and other SuperPages affiliates. Submit through SuperPages.
InfoSpace YP (SuperPages Affiliate) - Get local business information listed within InfoSPace YP and affiliate sites. Include the business name, address, phone, email, site and other optional information. Listings appear within InfoSpace affiliates and SuperPages affiliates. Listing updates may take several weeks to display. Offers both free and paid enhanced listing options. Submit through SuperPages.
411.com (SuperPages Affiliate) - Allows merchants or local business owners to include relevant company information including name, contacts, location, website and more. Listings appear within 411.com and other SuperPages affiliates. Listing may take several weeks to update within SuperPages and affiliate sites. Both free and paid enhanced listing options available. Submit through SuperPages.
Switchboard.com (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Allows business owners to list relevant information about their company including names, locations, contacts and other optional information about the company being listed. Listing appear within Switchboard.com, InfoSpace and SuperPages. Listing may take several weeks to update or list for the first time. Free listing and paid enhanced options available. Submit through SuperPages.
Yahoo Yellow Pages (InfoUSA Affiliate) - Allows business owners to list and display company information including name, phone number, address and line of business or services offered. Listings appear within Yahoo Yellow Pages and other InfoUSA affiliates. Free to list and update business information. Submit through InfoUSA affiliate.
YellowPages.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local business owners to list relevant information about their company including names, locations, contact information and more. Listings appear within YellowPages.com and affiliate sites. Once updated, listings may take several weeks to display. Both free basic and paid enhanced listing options available. Free account required to list.
AnyWho (YellowPages.com Affiliate) - Get listed within AnyWho search services and YellowPages.com by listing your information including business name, location, phone, site and more. Offers both free and paid listing options. Free account required to list a business. Submit through YellowPages.com affiliate.
Yellowbook.com (Paid Programs) - Allows merchants or local business owners to list company information for display within Yellowbook.com and affiliates. Business may include name, location, contacts, website and additional optional information. Paid listing program options only. Free account required to list a business.
MagicYellow (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows business owners to list phone numbers, type of company, contacts, location, website, description and keywords. Listing appear within MagicYellow search and yellow pages. Listing management options and tools available, may take several weeks to update or list. Both free basic and paid enhanced listing options available.
Dex (Paid Programs) - Allows merchants to feature local business within Dex Online and other Dex affiliates. Featured, business, starter, enhanced, sponsorship and even video options are available. Listings appear right away and update in real time. Only paid listing options are accepted. Allows purchasing of ad services via the Web and shopping cart.
YP.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local businesses to expand presence online, display relevant business information, including maps and listing management tools. Business listings appear within YP and their network. Listings update within a few days. Offers both free basic and paid enhanced listing options.


Local Meta Search Engines & Special Local Listings

Local meta search engines and special local data listings are often times overlooked by merchants, physical business owners and Online sellers, however it's a great, easy way to spread data about your local business around the Web. Meta search engines automatically scour the Web using crawlers in search of specific data about a site, company or whatever the intended purpose of the crawler is. Some of the special local listing sites, including MapQuest are great places to gain additional exposure for any business, online or off. Many of the special local sites will get your business listed in prominent areas across the Web that many marketers traditionally have to pay for. Because these meta crawlers and special local listing sites share data with so many places, your chances of getting listed within hundreds of authoritative sites increases depending on how many meta cralwers or special listing sites can access your data. We recommend using these sites as part of your overall marketing strategy rather than focusing on just meta crawlers or special local listings. As with any other paid marketing, be sure you can track ROI and always monitor your spending/profit to be assured you are getting a return.
MapQuest (InfoUSA Affiliate) - Allows local business owners or merchants to list company information such as name, location, contacts, site and more within MapQuest search results and map results pages for MapQUest and affiliates. Free to list, comes with management tools. Listings may take several months to update. Submit through InfoUSA affiliate.
Dogpile YP (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Gives local business owners the chance to be discovered within Dogpile yellow page listings and local Dogpile search results. Business submit useful information including their company, address, phone, email, contacts and more. Offers both free basic listing or paid enhanced listing options. Submit through SuperPages affiliate.
WebCrawler (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Allows business owners to include data about the company like name, location, phone or contact information, website and more. Listing appear within WebCrawler search results and affiliate partner sites. Both free basic and paid enhanced listing options are available. Submit through SuperPages affiliate.
MetaCrawler (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Gets merchant or business information included within MetaCrawler search results and appears on other MetaCrawler affiliate or partner site results. Businesses can list their name, address, contact information and other useful information about the company. Free basic and paid enhanced listing options. Submit through SuperPages affiliate.
WebFetch (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Allows local businesses to list information about themselves including name, location, site, references or contacts. Listings appear within WebFetch search results and other affiliate sites. Offers both free basic and paid enhanced listing options. Submit through SuperPages affiliate.
Metrobot (Free) - Allows local businesses to include data about themselves including website links or business name, address, zip, business type, events, polls, maps and more. Update and management tools available. Listings appear within Metrobot and affilaite sites. May take several days for listings to update. Free to list, free to update.
Tyloon (Paid Programs) - Allows local business owners to upload a company profile and mange it within an easy to use platform. Listings are distributed across a network of at least 30 local/YP listing sites. Unlimited products, categories or business content. Includes ability to interact with prospects. Only paid programs are available. Listings update rather quickly.
ZoomInfo (Paid Programs) - Allows businesses to list useful data about the company, people, jobs and more. Create a local business profile and get relevant business data displayed on ZoomInfo, a free business information search engine. Listings include company profile, history, education, affiliations, Web references and contact information. Listing update often, only paid listing options are available.


Local Business Data Providers & Data Listing Services

Local business data providers mantain enormous databases of information about small businesses, companies and merchants all over the world. Data proviers work in conjuncture with data listing services to collect and display local business results. Common ways to list these companies include by category, service market, service offering, name, phone, geography, zip and more. Many of the largest data providers share their content with hundreds of other sites and even other data listing services. By including your company information within the popular local data providers you can be ensured that your business name, address and site will appear within the majority of local/business listing services available to Web consumers. Once you have listed with traditional local search engines and internet yelow pages, consider adding your items to local business data providers and data listing service sites.
InfoUSA (Free) - Provides data to thousands of the most popular listing service companies. Allows local business owners to include relevant information about themselves within a database that is shared with many of the best local listing sites and IYP listing sites. Listings may take some time to get included or update. Free to list and update business information. Submit here and show up in multiple sites with only one submission.
MacRAE's Blue Book (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows companies to list detailed product or service headings, live links to sites, company email links, contact information, description and other inportant corporate information. Listings update often. Offers both free basic and paid enhanced listing options. Also offers ads to highlight business logos or products.
Localeze (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local business owners to include their corporate information within over 40 of the largest search engines that provide local results. Offers a merchant profile manager with the ability to add, edit or delete listings easily. Manage multiple listings and enhance them at any time. May take up to 30 days to process listing requests or updates. Free basic and paid enhanced listing options available.
Experian (Paid Programs) - Allows businesses to list their corporate information within Experian's national database along with over 16 milion other companies. Listings may take several weeks to process or update. Only paid programs available at this time.
DeepData (Paid Programs) - Allows local businesses to list and include data within severa local yellow page listing services. Listings include company, phone, localtion, lat/long, country, site, hours, products, brands and more. Listings are updated no less than monthly. Only paid listing programs available.
Wcities (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows businesses to list name, address, location, site and more within Wcities, data provider for many of the most popular local search engines and IYP listing sites. Listings may take several weeks to update. Offers both free paid and basic enhanced listing options. Provides data for several authoritative sites inlcuding Yahoo Local.
iBegin (Free) - Provides both U.S. and Canadian listings for millioins of businesses. Listings inlcude name, address, phone and category, in addition to closest intersections. Listings appear within many popular local search engines and IYP listing sites. May take several weeks for listings to update. Free to list and update local business information.
UniversalBusinessListing.org (Paid Programs) - Allows local businesses to include name, address, location, phone, site, hours, payments, logo, products and more. Listing appear in a variety of locations including yellow pages, search engines, business portals, city guides, 411 and more. Listings may take several weeks to update. Offers only paid listing options. Data provider for several large, authoritative third-party sites.


Local Social Networks & Online Business Networks

A large part of selling Online and getting others to know about your product line is by using peer to peer networks and word of mouth tactics to increase business or brand recognition. Having others who share or recommend the products you offer is a great way to increase sales, increase brand awareness and inform others about the location of your local business. The sites listed below are ideal for merchants who want to leverage and use local social networks, product or service communities and online business networks to help spread the word about the items they offer or where to find those items. Local social sites are quickly becoming one of the best places to include your corporate, company or business information. Once you have listed with local search engines, yellow page sites, business meta searches and data providers consider adding your corporate or company information to these local social communities and business networks.
Yelp (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local bussinesses to gain exposure and brand awreness through business or company reviews. Business owners can manage or enhance reviews listed within Yelp pages and can even join their word of mouth program. Listing update in real time. Free to review, paid enhancement and word of mouth program options available.
Judy's Book (Free) - Allows local business owners to bring more customers, gain exposure online and increase word of mouth awareness about their brand. Listings include reviews, ratings, business email notifications and the ability to add comments to reviews. Free for businesses to list. Free account required.
MojoPages (Free) - Allows business owners to review and get reviewed in MojoPages' people powered yellow pages. Using intuitive search, helpful features and tools for users or businesses, anyone can find nearly any business and write a review. Helps to increase awareness and word of mouth hype about a company. Free to review or get reviewed. Free account required.
Tupalo (Free) - Allows users to add spots in their local area, rate and review those spots and receive feedback from the social community of users. Allows local businesses to increase word of mouth hype, exposure and brand awareness. Useful features available inlcuding recent reviews, photos, maps, popular stuff, recently added and recent users. Free to add spots. Free account required.
Insider Pages (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows users to find popular local businesses through friend recommendations. Allows local businesses to gain exposure, increase brand awareness and word of mouth within their niches. reviews include business name, city, state and zip. Cose matches are presented to choose from or list a new business. Listings feature ratings and reviews which are then shared with friends and the entire Insider Pages network. Offers both free basic and paid advertising options. Free account required.
YellowBot (Free) - Allows users to find, rate and review local business they admire within a local region. In addition, patrons and business owners can then share or exchange tips and experiences within one another. Allows local businesses to gain exposure, word of mouth, additional credibility and more. Includes popular tags, users and cites. Free to list and update reviews. Free account required.
Citysquares.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Local search site designed to connect people with businesses. Allows users to find, rate and review businesses in local regions. Allows business owners to increase brand awareness, word of mouth exposure and overall online exposure. Offers both free basic and paid advertising options. Free account required to add or review.
LittleEngine.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - A local social community around small business for both patrons and business owners who want to support, connect, and communicate in a human-to-human manner. Allows business owners to include relevant information to be displayed in the LittleEngine community. Offers both free basic and multiple paid enhanced listing options. Free account required.
Yokld (Free) - A local business social ranking platform allows merchants to list their business and have it voted on by other local socilal community members (sort of like Digg for local businesses). Listings appear within Yokld for community members to vote on and rank. Free to list favorite businesses, free to participate in the community. Free account required.
Lopico (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - A local social business directory that allows local business owners to add related information about their company into Lopico. Community users can then rate and review businesses they have visited and know of near or around their location. offers both free basic and paid enhanced listing options. Free account required to list or review local businesses.


Need Help Listing Businesses & Picking Portals?

Sifting through the various places to add your local business can sometimes be an exhaustive task which requires much spare time and planning. We have done our best to list as many of the most used and authoratative local business search engines, yellowpage listings, meta crawlers, data providers and local social network sites as we possibly could. If you are having issues getting your company included in one or more of the local portals or business listing sites we may be able to assist you in getting the answers you need. If you are looking to get listed within ONLY the popular or most used business portals you may find that listing with InfoUSA and SuperPages is the best way to go as they provide data to many of the major local business portals. I recommend adding your items to as many of the places listed on this page as possible for the most exposure, the most traffic and the best chance of early success. Keep in mind, not all companies or businesses will fit well within each and every local listing portal, so find the ones that fit best around the items you sell, the services you offer or the physical location of your business.
If you find misspellings or typos, try to ignore them, but let me know so I can fix those too!

Get Indexed in less than 24 hrs

 Get Indexed in less than 24 hrs

You created a web site over a month ago and expected Google to index it pretty quickly. Much to your dismay, however, the site hasn’t been indexed yet. When you type the name of your site into the Google search engine, nothing comes up. This is quite frustrating to you because it means that your site cannot be found by internet users. Your site is, essentially, missing. What if, however, you could get indexed by Google not in a week, not in a few days, but in 24 hrs? Seem unlikely? Well, it might be to some, but to others, it’s something that is expected and achieved regularly.
What Can I Do to Get Indexed Quickly?
A lot of people suggest to submit your site to Google by using the add link form. However, this never results in a quick listing. The reason is because the submission isn’t review for weeks and weeks due to how busy Google is. So you might as well forget about link submission because it’s not going to do any good.
What, then, can you do to get indexed by Google quickly? There are actually a few things you can do, each of which are pretty effective and can lead to getting your site listed in as little as 24 hours. Try all of them and see the positive results it brings.
Method #1: A link on an existing site
In some of our other lessons, we touched on the fact that incoming links are of great importance to being listed in Google. They can increase the likelihood of a spider going to your site, thereby getting your site listed and ranked in the search engine. When you’re first starting out, it can be difficult to get such links because your site is unestablished. Thus, you must try other ways of doing this.
One of the easiest ways is to join a forum for a relevant site and to begin posting. You don’t have to make a lot of posts, just a few quality ones will do. Put a link to your site in your signature. Search engine spiders will pick up on this quickly.
Another easy way of doing this is to go to a relevant blog and post a comment there. Now, when doing this, you should be careful to not make your comment seem as though it is spam. Write an intelligent comment and sign your name as “name here of www.mywebsite.com”. This lets blog owners know you’re not a bot, just a regular person who cares about the subject at hand.
Method #2: Create an External Blog
Blogs are well liked by Google. So well liked, in fact, that they are very quickly listed. A blog posting might be up in Google within 24 hours. You can go to any free site like blogspot.com and create a blog on there. You can then write a few posts and casually slip in a link to your site. With some luck, you site will be listed in the Google search engine quite quickly.
Method #3: Add a Blog to Your Site.
Adding a blog to your site can be a lot more effective than creating an external blog or even posting on forums. Free software like Wordpress allows you to quickly and easily add a blog section to your site. You can then add a couple quality postings (be sure to use some keywords) to the blog. Because Google loves blogs and indexes them quickly, you can expect them to take notice of your blog and your site very quickly. This is the most effective way of getting indexed quickly so do not ignore it.
Method #4
Here is how to get indexed within 24 hours using this proven system:
Step 1 - Create Keyword Rich Web Pages : If your web pages are keyword rich and targeted to specific keyword phrases, they are more likely to be indexed faster. And you're likely to get much better search engine rankings too.
Step 2 - Submit A Story On Digg: Submit a story about your website on Digg. This is one of the key steps in the system. Usually doing this alone can get you indexed, but we don't want to take any chances.
Step 3 - Use OnlyWire To Submit To More Social Bookmarking Sites: Submit your site to even more social bookmarking sites like reddit and del.icio.us by using OnlyWire. OnlyWire will submit your site automatically to about a dozen social bookmarking authority sites. This will give you a deluge of instant backlinks.
Step 4 - Submit Your Website craigslist.com : This is a given - you need to submit your website to craigslist if you want it to be indexed faster! So take this simple step now.
Step 5 - Create A Site Map: Google loves site maps, so if you have one, it will be a competitive advantage for you. Search engine spiders like to index site maps, so it will get your site indexed far quicker than 'normal'.
Well, now you might say, Adams, you missed out Dmoz. Yes you are right. But Dmoz takes lot of days to get your link approved and we are talking here about getting indexed quickly. But you should always get listed in Dmoz for further benefits.
Why Do These Methods Work?
In the case of the first and second methods, you are getting inbound links to your site. That means that when Google visits the site and sees a link to your site on it, they’ll go to yours and then list it. Links, as you know, practically always increase rankings in search engines because there are more chances for the spiders to visit your site. So don’t ignore links and how they play a role in getting listed quickly.
With the third method, you are taking advantage of the fact that Google lists blogs quicker than normal sites. By adding a blog to your site, you are opening your site up to Google listing much quicker than they normally would. This is perhaps the most important method, so be sure you use it.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

50 Social Sites That Every BIZ Needs a Presence on

50 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence on

Social-Media/Social-Bookmarking Sites Share your favorite sites on the Web with potential clients and business partners by commenting on, uploading and ranking different newsworthy articles. You can also create a member profile that directs traffic back to your company's Web site.
  1. Reddit: Upload stories and articles on reddit to drive traffic to your site or blog. Submit items often so that you'll gain a more loyal following and increase your presence on the site.
  2. Digg: Digg has a huge following online because of its optimum usability. Visitors can submit and browse articles in categories like technology, business, entertainment, sports and more.
  3. Del.icio.us: Social bookmark your way to better business with sites like del.icio.us, which invite users to organize and publicize interesting items through tagging and networking.
  4. StumbleUpon: You'll open your online presence up to a whole new audience just by adding the StumbleUpon toolbar to your browser and "channel surf[ing] the Web. You'll "connect with friends and share your discoveries," as well as "meet people that have similar interests."
  5. Technorati: If you want to increase your blog's readership, consider registering it with Technorati, a network of blogs and writers that lists top stories in categories like Business, Entertainment and Technology.
  6. Ning: After hanging around the same social networks for a while, you may feel inspired to create your own, where you can bring together clients, vendors, customers and co-workers in a confidential, secure corner of the Web. Ning lets users design free social networks that they can share with anyone.
  7. Squidoo: According to Squidoo, "everyone's an expert on something. Share your knowledge!" Share your industry's secrets by answering questions and designing a profile page to help other members.
  8. Furl: Make Furl "your personal Web file" by bookmarking great sites and sharing them with other users by recommending links, commenting on articles and utilizing other fantastic features.
  9. Tubearoo: This video network works like other social-bookmarking sites, except that it focuses on uploaded videos. Businesses can create and upload tutorials, commentaries and interviews with industry insiders to promote their own services.
  10. WikiHow: Create a how-to guide or tutorial on wikiHow to share your company's services with the public for free.
  11. YouTube: From the fashion industry to Capitol Hill, everyone has a video floating around on YouTube. Shoot a behind-the-scenes video from your company's latest commercial or event to give customers and clients an idea of what you do each day.
  12. Ma.gnolia: Share your favorite sites with friends, colleagues and clients by organizing your bookmarks with Ma.gnolia. Clients will appreciate both your Internet-savviness and your ability to stay current and organized.
Professional-Networking Sites Sign up with these online networking communities as a company or as an individual to take advantage of recruiting opportunities, cross-promotional events and more.
  1. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a popular networking site where alumni, business associates, recent graduates and other professionals connect online.
  2. Ecademy: Ecademy prides itself on "connecting business people" through its online network, blog and message-board chats, as well as its premier BlackStar membership program, which awards exclusive benefits.
  3. Ryze: Ryze lets members organize contacts and friends; upcoming events; and even job, real-estate and roommate classifieds.
  4. YorZ: This networking site doubles as a job site. Members can post openings for free to attract quality candidates.
  5. Xing: An account with networking site Xing can "open doors to thousands of companies." Use the professional contact manager to organize your new friends and colleagues, and take advantage of the Business Accelerator application to "find experts at the click of a button, market yourself in a professional context [and] open up new sales channels."
  6. Facebook: Facebook is no longer just for college kids who want to post their party pics. Businesses vie for advertising opportunities, event promotion and more on this social-networking site.
  7. Care2: Care2 isn't just a networking community for professionals: It's touted as "the global network for organizations and people who Care2 make a difference." If your business is making efforts to go green, let others know by becoming a presence on this site.
  8. Gather: This networking community is made up of members who think. Browse categories concerning books, health, money, news and more to ignite discussions on politics, business and entertainment. This will help your company tap into its target audience and find out what they want.
  9. MEETin.org: Once you've acquired a group of contacts in your city by networking on MEETin.org, organize an event so that you can meet face-to-face.
  10. Tribe: Cities like Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, New York and Chicago have unique online communities on tribe. Users can search for favorite restaurants, events, clubs and more.
  11. Ziggs: Ziggs is "organizing and connecting people in a professional way." Join groups and make contacts through your Ziggs account to increase your company's presence online and further your own personal career.
  12. Plaxo: Join Plaxo to organize your contacts and stay updated with feeds from Digg, Amazon.com, del.icio.us and more.
  13. NetParty: If you want to attract young professionals in cities like Boston, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Orlando Fla., create an account with the networking site NetParty. You'll be able to connect with qualified, up-and-coming professionals online, then meet them at a real-life happy-hour event where you can pass out business cards, pitch new job openings and more.
  14. Networking For Professionals: Networking For Professionals is another online community that combines the Internet with special events in the real world. Post photos, videos, résumés and clips on your online profile while you meet new business contacts.
Niche Social-Media Sites Consider linking up with one of these social-media sites to narrow down your business's target audience. You'll find other professionals, enthusiasts and consumers who are most likely already interested in what your company has to offer.
  1. Pixel Groovy: Web workers will love Pixel Groovy, an open-source site that lets members submit and rate tutorials for Web 2.0, email and online-marketing issues.
  2. Mixx: Mixx prides itself on being "your link to the Web content that really matters." Submit and rate stories, photos and news to drive traffic to your own site. You'll also meet others with similar interests.
  3. Tweako: Gadget-minded computer geeks can network with each other on Tweako, a site that promotes information sharing for the technologically savvy.
  4. Small Business Brief: When members post entrepreneur-related articles, a photo and a link to their profile appear, gaining you valuable exposure and legitimacy online.
  5. Sphinn: Sphinn is an online forum and networking site for the Internet marketing crowd. Upload articles and guides from your blog to create interest in your own company or connect with other professionals for form new contacts.
  6. BuzzFlash.net: This one-stop news resource is great for businesses that want to contribute articles on a variety of subjects, from the environment to politics to health.
  7. HubSpot: HubSpot is another news site aimed at connecting business professionals.
  8. SEO TAGG: Stay on top of news from the Web marketing and SEO (search-engine optimization) industries by becoming an active member of this online community.
General Social-Media Sites The following social-media sites provide excellent opportunities for businesses to advertise; promote specials, events or services; and feature published, knowledgeable employees.
  1. Wikipedia: Besides creating your own business reference page on Wikipedia, you can connect with other users on Wikipedia's Community Portal and at the village pump, where you'll find conscientious professionals enthusiastic about news, business, research and more.
  2. Newsvine: Feature top employees by uploading their articles, studies or other news-related items to this site. A free account will also get you your own column and access to the Newsvine community.
  3. 43 Things: This site bills itself as "the world's most popular online goal setting community." By publicizing your company's goals and ambitions, you'll gain a following of customers, investors and promoters who cheer you on as you achieve success.
  4. Wetpaint: If you're tired of blogs and generic Web sites, create your own wiki with Wetpaint to reach your audience and increase your company's presence online. You can easily organize articles, contact information, photos and other information to promote your business.
  5. Frappr: Embed a Frappr map and guestbook into your company's Web page so that you can pinpoint exactly how users find your site, discover in real-time what they have to say about your company profile and services, and create an "interactive, fun and engaging" spot for visitors.
  6. Yahoo! Answers: Start fielding Yahoo! users' questions with this social-media Q&A service. Search for questions in your particular areas of expertise by clicking categories like Business & Finance, Health, News & Events and more. If you continue to dole out useful advice and link your answer to your company's Web page, you'll quickly gain a new following of curious customers.
Job Sites If you want to secure high-quality talent during your company's next hiring spree, you'll need to maintain a strong presence on popular job sites like the ones listed below.
  1. CareerBuilder.com: Reach millions of candidates by posting jobs on this must-visit site.
  2. The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal: The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal attracts well-educated professionals who are at the top of their game. Post a job or search résumés here.
  3. CollegeRecruiter.com: If your firm wants to hire promising entry-level employees, check CollegeRecuriter.com for candidates with college degrees.
  4. Monster: Post often to separate your business from all the other big companies that use this site to advertise job openings.
  5. Sologig: Top freelancers and contractors post résumés and look for work on this popular site.
  6. AllFreelance.com: This site "offers self-employed small business owners links to freelance & work at home job boards, self-promotion tips" and more.
  7. Freelance Switch Job Listings: Freelance Switch is the freelancer's online mecca and boasts articles, resource toolboxes, valuable tips and a job board.
  8. GoFreelance: Employers looking to boost their vendor base should check GoFreelance for professionals in the writing, design, editing and Web industries.
  9. Yahoo! Hot Jobs: This site is often one of the first places that job seekers visit. Post open opportunities and check out informative articles and guides to gain insight on the hiring and interviewing process.
  10. Guru.com: Build your company's repertoire with top freelancing professionals by advertising projects on this site, otherwise known as "the world's largest online service marketplace."

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Facebook Advertising Guidelines

Advertising philosophy


At Facebook, we believe that every part of our site, including the adverts, should contribute to and be consistent with the overall user experience. Thus, we are committed to protecting our user experience by keeping the site clean, consistent and free from misleading advertising. We believe that we can help transform existing advertising into messages that are tailored to the individual user based on how their friends interact and affiliate with the brands, music artists and businesses they care about.

Advertising Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to all adverts appearing on Facebook, including adverts within canvas pages of Facebook Platform applications. In addition, all advertising on Facebook must comply with the Privacy policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Advertising appearing within applications on Facebook Platform must comply with all additional Facebook Platform policies. Facebook reserves the right to reject or remove advertising that we deem contrary to our advert philosophy. These guidelines are subject to change at any time and Facebook may waive any of these guidelines at its discretion.
1. Accounts
1. Advertisers cannot create or manage multiple Facebook accounts for advertising purposes unless given permission by Facebook to do so.
2. Advertisers cannot programmatically automate the creation of accounts or ads unless given permission by Facebook to do so.
2. Landing pages/destination URLs
1. Adverts that contain a URL or domain in the body must link to that same URL or domain.
2. Adverts must send users to the same landing page when the advert is clicked.
3. Landing pages cannot generate a pop-up (including "pop-overs" and "pop-unders") when a user enters or leaves the page.
4. Landing pages cannot use "fake" close behaviour (ie. when a user clicks the 'close' icon on the page, the page should close down and no other behaviour should result).
5. Landing pages cannot utilize "mouse trapping" whereby the advertiser does not allow users to use their browser "back button" and traps them on their site and/or present any other unexpected behaviour (for example, navigation to another advert or page).
6. Adverts cannot require viewers to click on the advert to submit Personally Identifiable Information (such as name, date of birth, phone numbers, social security number, physical addresses or email addresses) on the landing page or in the advert, except to enable an ecommerce transaction and where the advert and landing page clearly indicate that a product is being sold.

3. Facebook references

1. The following conditions apply to all ads that have a Facebook Page, application, event, group or Connect site as its destination, except as otherwise specifically permitted to those subject to the Branding and promotion policy section of the Platform policies:
1. Adverts may make limited references to "Facebook" in its title, body or image for the purposes of clarifying the destination of the advert;
2. Adverts cannot imply any endorsement of the product, service or ad destination by Facebook.
2. All other adverts, destination adverts and landing pages must adhere to the following restrictions:
1. Adverts cannot mention or refer to Facebook, its site or its brand in any manner, including in the title, body, image or destination URLs;
2. Adverts cannot use Facebook logos, trademarks or site terminology (including but not limited to Facebook, The Facebook, FacebookHigh, FBook, FB, Poke, Wall and other company graphics, logos, designs or icons);
3. Facebook site features cannot be emulated.

4. Advert copy and image content

1. Adverts must directly relate to the content on the landing page.
2. Adverts must clearly represent the company, product or brand that is being advertised. Products or services promoted in the advert must be directly available on the landing page.
3. Adverts must not include unsubstantiated claims, including but not limited to prices, discounts or product availability.
4. Adverts cannot insult, harass or threaten a user.
5. Adverts must not contain audio that plays automatically, without a user's interaction. Any automated animation must cease after 15 seconds and must not replay.

5. Prohibited content

1. Adverts must not be false, misleading, fraudulent or deceptive.
2. Adverts will not be permitted in cases where a business model or practice is deemed unacceptable or contrary to Facebook's overall advertising philosophy.
3. Adverts, or categories of adverts, which receive a significant amount of negative user feedback or are otherwise deemed in violation of community standards will not be permitted.
4. Adverts cannot contain, facilitate, promote or reference the following:
1. Offensive, profane, vulgar, obscene or inappropriate language;
2. Obscene, defamatory, libelous, slanderous and/or unlawful content;
3. Tobacco products;
4. Ammunition, firearms, paintball guns, bb guns or weapons of any kind;
5. Gambling, including without limitation, any online casino, sports books, bingo or poker without authorisation from Facebook;
6. Scams, illegal activity or chain letters;
7. Contests and sweepstakes unless given permission by Facebook to do so; if permission is given, you are subject to Facebook's Promotions guidelines;
8. Get-rich-quick and other money-making opportunities that offer compensation for little or no investment, including "work from home" opportunities positioned as alternatives to part-time or full-time employment or promises of monetary gain with no strings attached;
9. Adult content, including nudity, sexual terms and/or images of people in positions or activities that are excessively suggestive or sexual or provocative images in violation of community standards;
10. Adult friend finders or dating sites with a sexual emphasis;
11. Adult toys, videos or other adult products;
12. Uncertified pharmaceutical products;
13. Spy cams or surveillance equipment;
14. Web-based non-accredited colleges that offer degrees;
15. Inflammatory religious content;
16. Politically religious agendas and/or any known associations with hate, criminal and/or terrorist activities;
17. Content that exploits political agendas or uses "hot button" issues for commercial use regardless of whether the advertiser has a political agenda;
18. Hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or language of such individual or group;
19. Content that advocates against any organisation, person or group of people, with the exception of candidates running for public office;
20. Content that depicts a health condition in a derogatory or inflammatory way or misrepresents a health condition in any way.
6. Data and privacy

1. You may not give data you receive from us to any third party, including advertising networks.
2. Unless authorised by us, your adverts may not display user data -- such as users' names or profile photos -- whether that data was obtained from Facebook or otherwise.
3. You may not use user data you receive from us or collect through running an advert, including information you derive from your targeting criteria, for any purpose off of Facebook, without user consent.

7. Targeting

1. Any targeting of adverts based on a user attribute such as age, gender, location or interest, must be directly relevant to the offer and cannot be done by a method inconsistent with privacy and data policies.
2. Adverts with adult themes, including contraception, sex education and health conditions must be targeted to individuals at least 18 years old. Platform Adverts should do this via Demographic Restrictions, not by obtaining user data.
3. Adverts for dating sites, services or related content must follow these targeting criteria (does not apply to Adverts on Facebook Platform):
1. the Relationship Status targeting parameter must be utilised and set to Single;
2. the Sex targeting parameter must be utilised and a single value of Male or Female must be selected;
3. The age targeting parameter must be utilised and the age range selected must start at least at 18 years old;
4. the Interested In targeting parameter must be utilised and a single value of either Men or Women must be selected.

8. Prices, discounts and free offers

1. Adverts cannot be deceptive or fraudulent about any offer made.
2. If an ad includes a price, discount, or 'free' offer,
1. the destination URL for the advert must link to a page that clearly and accurately offers the exact deal the advert has displayed;
2. The advert must clearly state what action or set of actions is required to qualify for the offer.

9. Subscription services

1. The advertisement of Subscription Services must comply with the conditions noted below and as determined by Facebook in its sole discretion. "Subscription Services" may include sites that promote downloading ringtones, games or other entertainment services or any site that induces a user to sign up for recurring billing of a product or service.
1. The advert must clearly state what action or set of actions is required to qualify for the offer. If the user must subscribe to a service, the service and offer requirements must both be stated in the advert.
2. The recurring subscription must be consistent with what is promoted in the advert copy.
3. At a minimum, the promoted website must clearly and accurately display the price and billing interval (such as per week or once per month) on the landing page as well as any page that prompts a user for Personally Identifiable Information (such as name, date of birth, phone number, National Insurance number, physical addresses or email addresses) or billing information (including, but not limited to, mobile phone number or credit card number).
4. If users sign up for the service by transmitting a code by text message, the price and billing interval must be clearly and prominently displayed beside the code.
5. If the service is a subscription, the website must provide a prominent opt-in checkbox or other clear mechanism indicating that the user knowingly accepts the price and subscription service. This should be on the first page where the user enters personal data, and the user should not be able to proceed without opting in.
6. All of the foregoing items should be located in a prominent place on your webpage, as determined by Facebook in its sole discretion, and should be easy to find, read and understand.


10. Adverts for alcoholic beverages

1. Adverts must be targeted to people 21 years old or older in the US, 19 years old or older in Canada, 18 years old or older in the UK and Ireland, and 21 years old or older everywhere else. All Facebook Pages viewer restrictions must be set at 21+ regardless of the country they are in or targeted to. In the case where a user's age cannot be determined, the advert cannot be displayed to the user in question. (Does not apply to applications on Facebook Platform.)
2. Adverts cannot include content that might appeal to (or mislead) minors by implying that the consumption of alcoholic beverages is fashionable or the accepted course of behaviour for those who are underage.
3. Adverts cannot include or target any person under the legal drinking age in the region the advert appears, or be suggestive of the presence of those who are underaged. Additionally, adverts appearing in applications on Facebook Platform must adhere to the Platform policies Alcohol content policy.
4. Adverts cannot portray or promote intoxication.
5. Adverts cannot induce people to consume alcohol in excess, make references to the intoxicating effects of alcohol, depict activities that encourage excessive consumption or that encourage drinking at a rapid rate or suggest the strength of the alcoholic beverage being advertised.
6. Adverts cannot promote any giveaways as a reward for purchasing the alcoholic product.
7. It is recommended that the ad creative contain text that promotes drinking responsibly, eg. "Drink Responsibly" or "Drink Smart".


11. Copyrights and trademarks


1. Adverts cannot include any content that infringes upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other personal or proprietary right.
2. The advertiser must have intellectual property rights to the creative and be permitted to display such creative as advertising on the Facebook Site.

12. Spam

1. Adverts cannot contain, facilitate or promote 'spam' or other advertising or marketing content that violates applicable laws, regulations or industry standards.

13. Incentives

1. Adverts cannot offer incentives to viewers for clicking on the ad, for submitting Personally Identifiable Information (such as name, date of birth, phone number, social security number, physical addresses or email addresses), or for performing any other tasks.

14. Downloads

1. Adverts must not contain or link directly or indirectly to a site that contains spyware/malware downloads, whether initiated automatically or manually by the user, or other auto-initiated downloads.
2. Adverts cannot contain or link to a site that facilitates or promotes:
1. Collection of demographic and usage information from a user's computer without the user's express consent;
2. Collection or request of Facebook usernames or passwords from any user;
3. Proxying Facebook usernames or passwords for the purpose of automating logins to the Facebook site;
4. Any software that results in an unexpected user experience, including but not limited to software which (i) "sneaks" onto a user's system and performs activities hidden to the user, (ii) may alter, harm, disable or replace any hardware or software installed on user's computer without express permission from the user, (iii) is bundled as a hidden component of other software whether free or for a fee, (iv) automatically downloads without Facebook's express prior approval, (v) presents any download dialogue boxes without a user's express action, or (vi) may violate or infringe upon the intellectual property rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, patent or any other proprietary right.
The following sections do not apply to adverts on Facebook Platform


15. Grammar, sentence structure, spelling and spacing

1. Advert text must be grammatically correct and contain proper sentence structure.
2. Advert text must be in complete sentences.
3. Adverts cannot include excessive repetition (such as "buy, buy, buy").
4. Adverts must use correct spelling.
5. Advert text must include grammatically correct spacing.

16. Capitalisation

1. Adverts must use proper, grammatically correct capitalisation (such as capitalising the first letter of all proper nouns and capitalising the title of the advert).
2. Adverts cannot include excessive capitalisation (such as "FREE") or incorrect capitalisation (such as capitalising the first letter of every word in a sentence).
3. Acronyms may be capitalised.

17. Punctuation

1. Adverts must include logical, correct punctuation.
2. Adverts cannot contain repeated and unnecessary punctuation (such as "Buy now!!!").
3. All complete sentences (including if the advert title is a complete sentence) must end with a single punctuation mark. Sentences cannot end with ellipses, dashes, etc.
4. Exclamation points cannot be used in the title of any advert.


18. Symbols

1. The use of all symbols, numbers or letters must adhere to the true meaning of the symbol.
2. Adverts cannot contain repeated and unnecessary symbols.
3. Symbols cannot be used for the following:
1. To substitute for letters (e.g. "$ave" instead of "save");
2. To substitute for entire words (e.g. "&" instead of "and" or "$" instead of "cash/dollars/money");
3. As unnecessary abbreviations to shorten character count (e.g. "w/" instead of "with" or "@" instead of "at").
4. Symbols may be used for the following:
1. If the symbol is part of the product or brand name;
2. If the $ symbol is paired with a dollar amount (e.g. "Save $100 today");
3. If the # symbol is used for comparative phrases (e.g. "Voted the #1 site by The Guardian").

Important SEO Facts

73% of customers use search engines to find new Web sites. A web business that is offering products or services would be an ideal candidate for a solid and comprehensive search engine marketing campaign. Source: Forrester.

Only 16% of all Web pages registered to search engines are actually indexed – meaning that billions of Web pages are invisible to search engines. Source: Web Developer’s Journal.

93% of customers do not look past the first two pages of search engine results. Source: Jupiter - Media Matrix.

Search engines account for 85% of new visitors to most sites. Source: Georgia Institute of Technology.

According to Piper Jaffray, the cost to acquire a customer is about $8.50 for search, $20 for Yellow Pages, $50 for online display ads, $60 for e-mail and $70 for direct mail. Source: Reuters.

97% of Fortune 1000 Companies have some type of site architect problem that will give them problems being found by search engines. Source: Intelliteam.