Videos, properly submitted, are 53 times more likely to generate a first page Google ranking than traditional SEO techniques, according to a recent study by Forrester Research. However, many companies are ignoring video SEO altogether, only submitting the pages on which videos reside and not the videos themselves, or worst of all, submitting their video assets to YouTube under the misunderstanding that this will generate SEO benefits.

The Unfair Advantages of Video SEO

Although video SEO isn’t dissimilar to traditional SEO, it has two distinct advantages.

First, Google and other search engines work to have a mix of content types displayed in search results (a.k.a., blended search results). For this reason, they give a higher ranking to video content than other forms of Web content in order to make sure that searches consistently display mixed search results.

Second, there’s a relative dearth of video content available today, and only a small fraction of the content available is properly submitted to search engines for inclusion in the search indexes. This combination of disproportionate bias towards video content and the small pool of indexed video content available is a gold mine for publishers.

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• The Business of Media Distribution: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World
• YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (The New Rules of Social Media)
• How to Make Money with YouTube: Earn Cash, Market Yourself, Reach Your Customers, and Grow Your Business on the World’s Most Popular Video-Sharing Site
• YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts

Several months ago when Twitter introduced its lists feature, social media consultant Allen Mireles checked to see which lists included her.

“I wanted to see if the lists I was on were a reflection of how I wanted to be viewed on Twitter,” she says.

She found two surprises: A porn star had included her on a list and another user listed her under “people I’ve seen naked” — a surprise, she says, because she had never met the person.

Mireles responded immediately.

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• Starting an Online Business All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies
• Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time
• Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly
• ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

Looking for a simple, inexpensive way to attract attention to a business?

Adding video to the Internet just might be the ticket to engage a larger following in this age of social media.

“Online video is one of the best ways to get your message out,” said Patrick Allmond, president of Oklahoma City-based Focus, “especially if you’re in the service business.”

By assembling a “mini TV station” for less than $200, amateurs can create their own advertising in a casual, fun way, he told a Bartlesville Marketing and Communications Association audience.

Continue reading . . .

• The Business of Media Distribution: Monetizing Film, TV and Video Content in an Online World
• YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (The New Rules of Social Media)
• How to Make Money with YouTube: Earn Cash, Market Yourself, Reach Your Customers, and Grow Your Business on the World’s Most Popular Video-Sharing Site
• YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts

As millions of people gather around television sets to watch the 44th Super Bowl on Feb. 7, one thing will be missing: Pepsi commercials.

This year marks the first time in 24 years that the soft drink company will not have a Super Bowl presence. Instead of producing multiple, 30-second Super Bowl commercials—at $3 million a pop—this year Pepsi will be investing that money in a community service initiative marketed mostly online. And while no small business in Central Massachusetts can compete with Pepsi’s advertising budget or the size of its audience, it can look for new online opportunities just the same. The general consensus among local advertising experts is that new online advertising opportunities do exist; businesses just need to know where to look.

Within the last year and a half, businesses of all sizes have created corporate profiles on social networking web sites like Facebook, but that hardly qualifies as breaking news.

Social networking sites are still at the forefront when it comes to online appeal, with Facebook leading the charge, and there are significant opportunities to cash in on the market.

Continue reading . . .

• Starting an Online Business All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies
• Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time
• Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day

Krista Bennett first learned of this thing called Foursquare not quite a month ago, when Smokey Row coffeehouse started receiving a lot more electronic notices about where people were eating and drinking.

In a nutshell, it looked odd. But possibly important.

“It was showing up on our Twitter feeds a lot, and I figured I’d better try to understand this,” Bennett said last week. “It almost seems like a treasure hunt.”

Welcome, Des Moines, to Foursquare – an electronic and still-incomplete (in Iowa) land where people with smart phones leave menu tips for their friends and compete with each other to see who has the best social life. It’s a land where everyone has a shot at claiming dominion over their favorite meeting places. And it could be one of the more promising corners of cyberspace for businesses hoping to make money off the latest Internet trends.

Foursquare, founded a year ago, until this month was only available in a few dozen cities. But developers opened the doors wide, for the first time allowing Iowans with iPhone, Android, BlackBerry or Palm Pre smart phones the chance to score points for eating lunch.

Foursquare – one of a group of geography-based phone apps, including Gowalla, Brightkite and MyTown – has announced the company now reaches a worldwide average of one “check-in” per second.

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• Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity
• Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media)
• The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly

Watch out for those cookie crumbs. They might be costing money.

Cookies aren’t just treats tasty with milk. They are little bits of text served to computers by Web sites that leave a sort of footprint, a crumb trail, which can tell retailers a consumer’s IP [Internet Protocol] address, ZIP code and browsing and shopping habits.

And many use them to offer dynamic or flexible pricing, which means consumers might be paying more for those books, that cool jacket or a concert ticket than the same item sold to a neighbor on a different computer.

Most customers are accustomed to finding different prices in the bricks-and-mortar world, based on where a store is and how popular an item is. Sometimes, prices are different for the same product in a rural or urban setting or in a rich or poor ZIP code. Sometimes seniors and kids pay less for movie tickets.

But many consumers don’t realize tailored pricing has hit a new level in cyberspace. Retailers are finding stealthier ways — through cookies that track ZIP codes, shopping habits and even how long we take to buy — to profile who can pay more, or less, for their products.

Continue reading . . .

• Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity
• Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media)
• The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly

As jobless workers — or workers who are worried about their futures — decide by the hundreds to launch their own businesses, groups that provide counsel to startups scramble to keep up with demand.

Judith Hepburn, area manager for the Small Business Administration in Reno, says anywhere from a third to a half of the calls she fields these days come from people looking for guidance in launching a business.

“They need someone to help them with the business plan, and they need someone to see if the idea is feasible,” says Hepburn, who refers entrepreneurs to SCORE and other counseling groups.

SCORE, a cadre of retired business executives who volunteer to counsel small businesses, draws a full house to each of the orientation workshops it offers to potential small business owners in the area.

Continue reading . . .

• If You’re Clueless about Starting Your Own Business
• Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible
• Home Business Magazine
• Getting Business To Come To You
• Start & Run a Real Home-Based Business

It’s 10 o’clock at night and Mindy Miller is carefully measuring sugar, Karo syrup and water into a large pot in the kitchen of an Arby’s restaurant in Minden.

Miller’s negotiated a deal to use the kitchen during off hours to make her toffee, cookies and other goodies.

She lost her job at a local glass shop this past summer and a few months later her husband lost his job selling cars. They turned to her locally famous toffee as a way to pay the bills. Tahoe Toffee is already in more than two-dozen retail outlets in the state and it’s proving itself a sweet success.

Miller is one of scores of Nevadans who are seeing unexpected unemployment as the perfect impetus to take the leap into entrepreneurship.

Continue reading . . .

• If You’re Clueless about Starting Your Own Business
• Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible
• Home Business Magazine
• Getting Business To Come To You
• Start & Run a Real Home-Based Business

Nintendo, maker of the hit Wii game console, said profit for April through December fell 9 percent after price cuts and the rising yen tarnished strong holiday sales.

Nintendo Co. reported Thursday a 192.6 billion yen ($2.1 billion) profit for the nine months through Dec. 31, down from 212.5 billion yen a year earlier. Sales retreated 23 percent to 1.18 trillion yen.

Kyoto-based Nintendo blamed a lackluster first half and a strong yen for overshadowing robust holiday sales. A 20 percent price cut of the Wii also eroded profitability.

Since Nintendo launched its Wii console in 2006, it has consistently outsold rivals by targeting casual gamers. Rival systems from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have begun to catch up, but Nintendo showed over Christmas that it was still the one to beat.

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Amazon Inc. has removed all e-book titles published by Macmillan from Amazon and its Kindle e-reader site in a battle over pricing, according to a statement issued by Macmillan late Saturday.

The move follows this week’s launch of Apple Inc.’s new iPad device, which is expected to shake up the publishing industry by competing directly with Amazon’s Kindle reader and by enabling publishers to set their own retail prices on their books.

Macmillan CEO John Sargent said he visited Amazon on Thursday in Seattle to discuss “new terms of sales for e-books” and that by the time he returned to New York, he’d been informed that Macmillan’s e-books would only be for sale on Amazon.com “through third parties,” according to the statement, which appeared as an advertisement on publishing industry Web site PublishersMarketplace.com.

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Before you begin selling information products on the Internet, you want to make sure you’re targeting a niche that will be profitable for you in the short and long-term. A niche just means your target audience.

Some niches, as you’ll discover, aren’t as profitable as others. You need to look at your audience and see if they’re willing (and able) to spend money for the solutions they’re seeking.

For instance, golfers have deep pockets because the game of golf in itself is expensive. They’re also rabid fans of the game who would do anything to improve their score or beat their competitors on the links.

But another niche, such as single moms on a budget may not be willing to pay $67 for an information product showing them how to get organized. Sometimes it depends on the solution itself. Targeting this same niche of single moms, you may find some are willing to pay $47 for an eBook that shows them how to make more money working from home than they do in their regular 9-5 jobs.

One good place to start is with online groups and forums. You can go to iVillage or Yahoo and see what kind of groups garner the most posts. Men’s groups such as AskMen might give you insight into what kind of information products this portion of the population might need that help you generate a handsome profit.

You’re not just looking for a broad group of people to cater to – you’re looking for those with a lot of problems. When you start creating your information products, you’ll want to build an empire of products that all focus on the same niche, allowing you to market to existing, loyal customers who buy from you time and time again.

Sometimes, you’ll find one large niche and then realize you need to build your information product line around a more targeted, narrow niche of people. For instance, parents in general have many problems you could address, such as raising smart kids, dealing with discipline, and saving money.

But you can then narrow that niche to moms or dad and dig deeper by focusing on parents of multiples or parents raising kids with physical ailments. Just remember that an information product is not really a product at all – it’s a solution, so it needs to be marketed as something that will improve lives.

• ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
• Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media)
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly
• The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success

On a daily basis, mom bloggers spend a fair amount of time researching and writing new blog posts. But did you know that a mom can also make some money online as freelance writer? It’s true! Here are three tips that virtually any mom who is already active as a blogger can use to make money as a freelancer:

1) Leverage Your Experience As A Blogger To Attract Clients

Try to think about things from the perspective of a potential client for a moment. Wouldn’t you feel significantly more comfortable dealing with someone who was an experienced writer? Probably. Anyone who maintains a frequently updated blog is going to be viewed in a different light than someone who merely claims to be a writer but who lacks any meaningful platform through which their writing can be seen. Leverage your experience as a blogger to attract clients — it will help you stand out.

2) Provide Links To Your Various Blogs As Social Proof Of Your Writing Skills

Potential clients are usually going to want to see samples of your writing. Impress your prospective clients by providing them with links to your various blogs. This will trigger a subconscious belief in the mind of the potential client that you’re a highly respected “published” author with an active audience. It’s incredible social proof of your writing skills.

3) Focus On Accepting Freelance Writing Assignments That Compliment Your Schedule

As a mother and a blogger, you already have a lot to deal with. The last thing you want to do is create a freelance writing business that diminishes the focus you have on your core responsibilities of motherhood and blogging. That’s why it’s so important to only accept freelance writing assignments that compliment your schedule. You may have someone approach you to do a project that will require 20 hours per week of your time. That’s not likely to be compatible with your existing schedule, and accepting a writing assignment of that nature will do nothing but stress you out.

In short, the secret to making money as a freelance writer is to leverage your blogging activities to help you find writing assignments that compliment what you’re already doing. Don’t be surprised if you increase your income by 20% to 30% as a result of becoming a freelance writer!

• Work At Home Mom Tips

According to a recent study by comScore, the number of people in the U.S. using multipurpose smartphones such as iPhones, Blackberries, and Droids more than doubled last year. Of those who used mobile devices to access news and information on the Internet, 22.5 million–or 35 percent of the total–did so on a daily basis.

And this year, that number is expected to skyrocket even further as more companies–T-mobile, AT&T, Spring, Garmin, and even Google–gear up to release their own Android-supported mobile devices. In fact, experts predict that mobile Web usage will overtake PC usage in five years.

The online tools people are using to find and share information with their mobile devices are changing, too. The comScore study shows that the number of people who used smartphones to access a social networking site or blog increased by 427 percent last year, more than any other category.

Continue reading . . .

• Entrepreneur Magazine

Since men tend to procrastinate when shopping, Valentine’s Day poses a challenge for chocolate companies trying to anticipate crowds and stack stores with supplies and employees.

Richard Van Doren, vice president of marketing for See’s Candies, said Feb. 13 and 14 are the South San Francisco-based company’s biggest sales days because it is men typically shopping for their significant others.

“Men procrastinate,” he said “But we give them free samples to keep them happy while they wait.”

Van Doren estimates an increase in sales this year but noted it is too hard to predict. Valentine’s Day — Feb. 14 — falls on a Sunday this year, he said, and men might do their shopping on Feb. 11 or 12.

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In computing, the vision always precedes the reality by a decade or more. The pattern has held true from the personal computer to the Internet, as it takes time, brainpower and investment to conquer the scientific and economic obstacles to nudging a game-changing technology toward the mainstream.

The same pattern, according to scientists in universities and corporate laboratories, is unfolding in the field of sensor-based computing. Years ago, enthusiasts predicted the coming of “smart dust” — tiny digital sensors, strewn around the globe, gathering all sorts of information and communicating with powerful computer networks to monitor, measure and understand the physical world in new ways. But this intriguing vision seemed plucked from the realm of science fiction.

Smart dust, to be sure, remains a ways off. But technology’s virtuous cycle of smaller, faster and cheaper has reached the point that experts say sensors may soon be powerful enough to be the equivalent of tiny computers. Some ambitious sensor research projects provide a glimpse of where things are headed.

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The band KISS has come a long way from selling t-shirts and albums. Now, when you go to one of their concerts, you can leave with a recording of the show on a thumb drive. This kind of marketing has become a necessity, not an option, for a lot of acts. With record sales on the decline, musicians are searching for more creative ways to peddle their tunes.

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Trends appear and disappear. Here are some of web development trends that will dominate during the 2010. I’m covering 5 trends regarding the web development. From real-time web and collaboration to geo-tagging and RIA frameworks… See what is new and coming in 2010 and stay ahead of the curve!

I will make two articles covering design trends for 2010 – in the first part (one you are reading right now) I’m covering what I think will be main web development trends for 2010 regarding the web technology itself. Second part is covering web design trends and approaches that will shape the 2010.

Some of my picks from both categories have already emerged in 2009 but some of them will go mainstream and shape our experiences and interactions with web. So here they are, with no special order…

1. Real time web and collaboration

When Twitter appeared, people were skeptical about it. Hell, what’s the deal with 140 chars? I have Facebook and I can share my status updates with others. Then Twitter started to grow, and grow… and it’s growing as you are reading this. Why? Answer is simple – real-time web. When Michael Jackson died – news spread through the Twitter like wildfire causing it even to collapse (Twitter-famous “fail whale”). And a bit more local example – when Croatian ex Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has cowardly left the nation without providing the answer why is he leaving – Twitter was fist to buzz about it and openly discussed the reasons for why is he leaving. Need more? Iranian elections – government has shut media, but many Iranians have used the Twitter to communicate and spread the word about repression and killing the freedom of speech.

And it all happened in the real time. No newspapers, no media stories – Twitter was the first. Today I’ve learned about major TweetDeck (Twitter client application) deployment within news corps.

This all was so huge and important that even major search engines like Google and Bing have introduced real-time Twitter content in their search results.

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Dallas software developers play a big role in making sure there’s an app for that.

Whether it’s scanning bar codes at a store, ordering pizza on the go or getting a pep talk from God, local app developers are helping feed the demand for mobile applications.

Big in Japan Inc., for example, created the popular ShopSavvy app, which lets users price-shop just by scanning the bar code on a product in a store.

Dallas-based Pizza Hut Inc. collaborated with imc{+2} LLC, also Dallas-based, to let iPhone owners order pizza, pasta and wings.

And local freelance developers are helping companies all over the world launch a variety of mobile apps.

The demand for apps shows no signs of slowing.

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Small business owners oftentimes feel like they are a chicken running around without a head. They spend 24+ hours a day trying to make their business a success. In today’s tough economic climate and with the “new” consumer prototype, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to keep ahead of the game.

What can the small business owner do? First and foremost, stop and breathe or you will just be chasing your tail. There are so many options available on the Internet, too many social networking sites, forums, blog sites, groups, etc. – that as you try to stay on-top of your competition and current with your industry, you might end up forgetting what your original plan is – if you have one.

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The more, the better. That’s the fashionable recipe for nurturing new ideas these days. It emphasizes a kind of Internet-era egalitarianism that celebrates the “wisdom of the crowd” and “open innovation.” Assemble all the contributions in the digital suggestion box, we’re told in books and academic research, and the result will be collective intelligence.

Yet Apple, a creativity factory meticulously built by Steven P. Jobs since he returned to the company in 1997, suggests another innovation formula — one more elitist and individual.

This approach is reflected in the company’s latest potentially game-changing gadget, the iPad tablet, unveiled last week. It may succeed or stumble but it clearly carries the taste and perspective of Mr. Jobs and seems stamped by the company’s earlier marketing motto: Think Different.

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