1 google.com,

2 facebook.com,

3 yahoo.com,

4 youtube.com,

5 bing.com,

6 wikipedia.org,

7 amazon.com,

8 live.com,

9 msn.com,

10 blogspot.com

Google remains the most popular search engine. The full impact of search on Google's market share of true search with respect to Facebook is something to consider though. It's difficult to measure the Facebook impact on Google's basic income stream, which of course is paid search revenue from its AdWords product.

To get the results you expect from your marketing efforts online, you absolutely need to be tracking what you are doing and measuring the results of your actions. Only by carefully monitoring to determine what is working and what is not working, and then making the corrections needed to improve your marketing actions, can you ever hope to optimize your potential for success.

If your investing in advertising and want to get the most bang for your buck, or you want to measure changes you make to your site to see if changes you made improve things, you need to be tracking. The old adage to "inspect what you expect" applies online too. You need to know what keywords are working, if your creatives are optimized, and you certainly need to be rotating offers to always be looking for ways to improve the performance of your ad campaigns.

AdTrackzPro

One tool we've found very useful for tracking results, conducting split-tests, and measuring performance of our ad campaigns is a relatively inexpensive piece of software called AdTrackzPro. There are other ways to do some of what AdTrackzPro does, such as the free software - Prosper202, and various scripts that you can install, but AdTrackzPro is a much more complete and better documented solution. The available video installation and user guides make learning to use the software a good experience.

AdTrackzPro is a PHP-MySQL based product that installs on your hosting server - we like HostGator if you're looking for a reliable and inexpensive shared hosting account. If your business has more robust needs, HostGator also has VPS accounts available with various power levels, and they can also provide co-location facilities if that is what you need.

Click here to learn more from the AdTrackzPro sales page. This will provide you with a complete run down on what AdTrackzPro can do for your business. Since it's sold through ClickBank you're assured of a 60 day, no hassle, money back guarantee. The software purchase even includes one free installation on your hosting account if you'd rather not do it yourself.

The obvious answer is a resounding YES. That's the easy answer, but if you think about it, it's not just more traffic that you want. One of the keys to a successful business is attracting TARGETED traffic.

Understanding Your Traffic

What is TARGETED traffic anyway? Targeted website traffic is made up of customers or potential customers coming to your website specifically in search of something you sell, or a service that you offer. If you're a dentist, you don't want people coming to your website looking for legal advice. You would like to insure, as much as possible, that the people coming to your site have been targeted or preselected to be in a position to use your product or service; either now or in the future.

If your testimonials or endorsement result in some form of remuneration or the intent of same, you need to disclose that you have a relationship with the product or service provider you are promoting that could result in financial gain.

]]> webmaster@sboguide.com (Webmaster) frontpage Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:58:58 +0000 http://sboguide.com/business-strategy/6-technical-decisions/51-domain-name-registration-what-you-need-to-know http://sboguide.com/business-strategy/6-technical-decisions/51-domain-name-registration-what-you-need-to-know Domain Name Registration - Helpful advice.

One the things you need to consider when planning to develop an Internet presence for your small business, is the selection of a domain name and the registration of that name. The selection of the name is important and needs to be thought out carefully. It may seem obvious that your domain name, if available, should be the same as your business name.

This seems logical, but it may not be the wisest choice. If your name easily conveys the purpose of your business, then registering that name will work to your advantage with the search engines. If it doesn't convey a purpose, then registering a different name that does convey its purpose will improve the chance that your business will be found among the search results of a prospective customer.

Another consideration is where to register your domain name. The registration process assures you that the name you have selected is officially recognized as belonging to your business. Think of it as a piece of Internet real estate. By having your name officially registered, you have basically staked your claim, and in old west gold rush parlance, your claim can't be "jumped" by any other party.

The Mino HD from Flip makes creating web video fast and easy. Not much bigger than a deck of cards, but able to shoot up to one hour of high resolution HD 1280 x 720p video, the Flip Mino HD displays in a 16:9 cinematic wide-screen format, and shoots at 30 frames per second with a progressive scan. With the Flip Mino you can easily shoot video marketing messages, do product demos, record customer testimonials, and create video tutorials that will help you both sell and support your product line. To record sound and video, all you need to do is point the camera at your subject and press the red button below the 1.5 inch LCD viewing screen. It couldn't be simpler, or more accessible.

As anyone in small buinsess can attest, especially if you have less than ten or so employees, it's that finding acceptable insurance at a price your business can afford is truly difficult. In fact, lack of affordable health care options cripples small business and creates an undue burden on the ability of small business to provide reasonable health care benefits to its workforce. Regardless if how you weigh in on this issue, the current system can not be sustained. As health insurance costs continue to rise, eventually no one but the very wealthy will be able to afford it.

Health vare misinformation seems to be the name of the game. Powerful forces are at play to continue the status quo. But any thinking person knows the status quo isn't going to work for very many in the long term. Once again, special interest groups, driven by short term thinking, and this quarter's executive bonuses seem to be having a major impact on the current stalemate.

OK, I'll admit I was skeptical about Skype. It sounds cool, but is it really something your business can use as an effective communications and marketing tool? Can you rely on it? Does it offer features that your business truly needs to be successful?

After working with Skype over the last few weeks, I can honestly say the answer to all these questions is a resounding yes! Even Oprah Winfrey has embraced the technology for its video conferencing capabilities, and businesses around the globe are using it to communicate their marketing message more effectively and with a dramatic savings in time, travel cost, and communication expense. Check out Skype for Business today.