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RSS Google Maps and Local Search

  • Basic Places Practices Update: How do you claim an owner-verified listing? May 17, 2012
    A common issue that arises in the forums is the business owner that is unable to change or enhance their listing because they no longer have access to the account that it is in, perhaps because they lost the password , the employee that had claimed the listing is no longer employed or they had [...] No related posts. […]
    Mike Blumenthal

RSS Direct Creative

  • The Importance of Being Trivial May 2, 2012
    Do you like the title of this article? I stole it from chapter 3 of The Art of Readable Writing by Rudolf Flesch. Back in the 40s and 50s, Flesch was hailed as the guru of clear, direct writing. His advice remains powerful and relevant today. When Flesch recommended being “trivial,” he meant you should […]
    Dean Rieck

A Basic Traffic Strategy For Your Website

July 30, 2010
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Given enough money a specialist medical professional could do blood tests sufficient to tell you exactly which vitamins and minerals you should be taking and in what quantities you should be consuming each of them. A highly optimized vitamin regimen is preferred but in the absence of the necessary funds or time or both, a good multi-vitamin is far better than nothing at all. Such is the case with your website value developement. A costly, well-tuned plan to improve your site’s placement in the SERPS would be great but if you lack the time or money then here’s a good multi-tactic plan to feed your website. Target Market Needs The first thing to do is find out what your target market needs. Makes no...
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Sales Coaching 101: Cost-Effective vs. Cash-Flow

July 30, 2010
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We can justify just about anything, can’t we? A good salesman knows that people  make decisions with emotion (and salesmen are the worst!) and justify those decisions with reason or logic. It’s the emotional angle that drives our want and the logical argument for it fuels the need. We’re a sorry lot, aren’t we? But there have to be boundaries as when Clint Eastwood says, “a man’s gotta know his limits.” So, when someone tells you that a solution is cost-effective it may very well be cost-effective. All that means is that something that costs you a dollar will return more than  it cost in a pre-determined timeframe. (Cost-effective doesn’t have anything to do with “price”, or “cheap”. That’s another post.) Cost-effective doesn’t mean...
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Local Search Q&A

July 24, 2010
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“We’ve always done it this way”. The procrastinator’s creed. 10 years ago the internet was still in it’s infancy and local search wasn’t a must-have on anyone’s list. It is now. Q: Do I have to submit my business listing to the hundreds of local directories that are out there? A: No. You can skip this step and continue to hope people drive by and see your store. Not many of your competitors are doing this either; just the successful ones.  Go ahead and skip this step and have fun with the kids at the soccer game. Q: Is it really necessary to claim my business listings in Google, Yahoo, and Bing? A: Of course not! Your basic information is probably already in there...
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