by Stoney deGeyter Marketing a website isn't particularly difficult. Its usually just a matter of knowing what to do, how to do it and having the skills and time to get it done. With that said, marketing a website isn't particularly easy either. There are so many factors and variables in play that at any given time that the job can be quite overwhelming. Obviously I can't address the issue of whether or not you have the skills or time,

by Ross Dunn Last week I was fortunate to enjoy the company and tutelage of some talented web marketers at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. An annual occurrence, the San Jose conference is one of those particularly special events that I aim never to miss. On top of the incredible networking and party events such as the Google Dance and the Search Bash there were a great number of exceptional seminars on all facets of web marketing.

by Diane Aull Lots of businesses use email as a marketing tool. One of the big issues they have to overcome is how to get the customer to actually open and read the email. There's an art to it, and even the best can't get recipients to read every email they send. The one commercial email almost everyone reads But you know, there's one kind of business email that almost always gets read, and almost never gets reported as spam.

by Jennifer Laycock I scan hundreds of feeds and read dozens of articles each day so you don't have to. From hyperlocal blogging to Google AdWords "Automatic Match" to new ways to use Twitter and LinkedIn, find out the six articles I dubbed as must-read for the small business crowd today. If you enjoyed Matt McGee's post on Hyperlocal Blogging earlier this week, you'll be pleased to hear he's back with more. Part Two focuses on choosing a domain and setting up your blog.

by Jennifer Laycock Everyone wants to celebrate a viral success at some point in their marketing life. After all, who wouldn't be thrilled to have their message take off like a streak around the web? The problem comes when you get so focused on the spreadability of an idea you miss the marketing ability of an idea. In this four part series I'll dig beyond the hype of Viral Marketing and look at four key lessons companies need to learn before diving into this style of outreach.

by Sage Lewis The government is finally on the social media bandwagon. The U.S. Dept. of State not only has a blog with comments but it also has YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and Facebook accounts, plus RSS feeds. Also in the news, Yahoo launches their Buzz.com site, emulating other social bookmarking sites like Digg.

by Jennifer Laycock My mother always said "nothing worth doing is easy." Generally good words to live by, but especially practical when it comes to viral marketing. While some of the most talked about viral marketing successes appear to have happened effortlessly, chances are high you'll need to put a lot of time and effort into yours. That's why it's absolutely essential to understand the adage "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

by Stoney deGeyter This week I've been looking at the speakers from Search Engine Strategies in San Jose. I first covered a handful of featured speakers and then moved on to the search marketers themselves. I've found that that many of us in the industry are good at teaching things that need to be done but often overlook those very things when it comes to our own stuff. I'm no exception, of course, as Jackie pointed out in the comments yesterday. Jordan Kasteler Overstock.

by Jennifer Laycock I scan hundreds of feeds and read dozens of articles each day so you don't have to. From changes to Google AdWords' Quality Score to hyperlocal search to back to school viral videos, find out the six articles I dubbed as must-read for the small business crowd today. Carrie Hill puts together a nice post called "SEM Success in 10 Minutes a Day" over at Search Engine Watch.

by Sage Lewis Sage unleashes his endorsement for Search Engine Guide's Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference that is coming to Columbus, OH this September 22-23. Day one if full of general sessions to get your feet wet in everything from site architecture to blogging for business and link building; day two dives you down deep into hands-on workshops such as viral marketing, copywriting and usability. Sage's favorite aspect about SBMU is how intimate the environment is.

by Jennifer Laycock We all know the viral campaigns that travel the furthest and carry the most impact tend to be the ones that leave the greatest impressions. Viral campaigns are, by their very nature, remarkable. Otherwise they wouldn't carry the emotional impact required to make us pass them on. With that known, the challenge becomes whether or not you should build a remarkable campaign or a remarkable company.

by Stoney deGeyter Monday I discussed several of the featured speakers from search engine strategies and looked at their search results branding for their names and businesses. It turned out not to be as enjoyable as I had hoped as all of them have very high visibility. Not that I wanted to point out anybody's faults, but hey, that's kinda the fun. Today I want to look at several of the search marketers themselves.

by Jennifer Laycock Perhaps the biggest misconception about viral marketing is that it's a style of pushing your message. Companies convince themselves it's like launching a blog or running a paid search campaign...it's simply something you decide to do. With that in mind, companies set out to create a viral campaign, set it loose and then sit back and ask themselves why nothing seems to be happening.

by Mack Collier For many businesses, social media can seem to be this mysterious black box that they don't really understand. But a recent conversation with my friend Tim Jackson reminded me that social media really isn't as mysterious as many companies think. Tim is the Brand Manager for the Masi bicycle brand. When he was hired 4 years ago, he found himself in a situation that many small business owners can relate to.

by Stoney deGeyter Since it seems everybody does their own recaps of the sessions they attended at Search Engine Strategies , I like to take a different approach. Last year I ran a two - part series covering just a handful of the session speakers. I looked at how well each branded themselves in the search results of Google. First of all, I hope nobody takes these as an attack. I don't know your personal story, whether your dog died recently or if your business is two days old.

by Simon Heseltine In early 2007 the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research ran a study on the adoption and usage of various types of social media by the 2006 Inc. 500 list of companies )the 500 fastest growing private US companies for that year(. The numbers were interesting, but not necessarily astounding. However,

by Bill Hartzer It seems as though everyone wants something done quickly, or nearly instantly. We want success quickly. We want to be successful online and we want to get links to our web sites quickly. We want traffic to our web sites quickly. There are many reasons why you would want to get an "influx" of links to one particular article on your web site. Perhaps it's a blog post.

by Manoj Jasra Lots of big news coming from Yodle this past week including a report of a 700% year over year increase in revenue and the addition of some experienced veterans Yodle's leadership. I got a chance to catch up with Yodle CEO, Court Cunningham to get his insight on some of the latest news. [Manoj]: What does Paolo Narciso )ex CEO of Open Integrity( bring to Yodle and Yodle's client services department?

by Jackie Baker Blogging for business is huge these days. When done well, it's a great tactic for engaging your visitors, facilitating conversation with your audience, attracting links, and getting more pages to rank in the search engines for relevant terms. But there are some key functioanlity areas you need to address when incorporating a blog with your main website. Premiere Martial Arts of Austin has been successful in the search engine rankings,

by Stoney deGeyter I don't need another t-shirt, pen, or breath mint. I don't want to "win" more telemarketing calls upon my return. I don't want another key chain, sticky pad, or knick knack. It's the same company's, same booths and same people that I talked to last year. I really don't need another squishy doll, lanyard or bouncy ball. I don't have room for extra luggage to carry it all home. I don't need another beer cozy, toy, or note pad. Last year's video still rocks.