Social bookmarking allows you to store, organize, search, and manage links to web pages on the Internet. Social Bookmarking sites use metadata “tags” to organize links which lends to search engine optimization of the content. The social bookmarking sites offer web feeds of the bookmarked links which enables users to find new bookmarks that are shared by others.

Tips:

• Bookmark articles relevant to your customers or business using one or more of these sites.
• When you see relevant articles to your business, write a comment and link back to your site.

Resource List:

• Digg – Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users..
• AddThis – AddThis is the #1 bookmarking and sharing button on the Internet. We help website publishers and bloggers spread their content across the web by making it easy for visitors to bookmark and share content to their favorite social destinations.
• Delicious – Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages from a centralized source. With emphasis on the power of the community, Delicious greatly improves how people discover, remember and share on the Internet.
• StumbleUpon – StumbleUpon uses ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality. When you stumble, you will only see pages that friends and like-minded stumblers have recommended..
• Facebook – Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet..
• reddit – reddit is a source for what’s new and popular online. vote on links that you like or dislike and help decide what’s popular, or submit your own!
• Mixx.com – Use YourMixx to tailor the content categories, tags, specific users and groups, and we’ll deliver the top-rated content as chosen by you and people who share your passions. Lists user-recommendations for stories, photos and videos. Customize the start page, join private groups, and rate content.

A survey is a means of collecting quantitative information about a group. It can be used to collect opinions or quantitative data. Surveys can be used in several ways.

Tips:

• Ask questions of your customers to engage them and start a dialog.
• Gather information on what your customers want.
• Identify the demographic you want to be talking with.
• Quantify feedback from your customers.
• Collect the opinion of your customer.

Resources: Surveys

• Zoomerang – The Leader in Online Surveys with Over 1 Million Satisfied Customers. Quickly and easily create online surveys to get the insights you need. You can build a survey in minutes with free access to over 100 professionally-designed online survey templates. Then, analyze and share your results by creating customized charts, posting them to your blog or website or just exporting your data to Excel, PowerPoint or a PDF.
• SurveyMonkey – Using just your web browser, create your survey with our intuitive survey editor.  Select from over a dozen types of questions (multiple choice, rating scales, drop-down menus, and more…).  Powerful options allow you to require answers to any question, control the flow with custom skip logic, and even randomize answer choices to eliminate bias.
• QuestionPro – QuestionPro is web based software for creating and distributing surveys. It consists of an intuitive wizard interface for creating survey questions, tools for distributing your survey via email or your website, and tools for analyzing and viewing your results. You simply build your survey and email it to a list of potential respondents. QuestionPro will take care collecting and recording the responses. Results are available in real time.
• PollDaddy – With your free account from PollDaddy you can create online surveys and polls for your website, blog and social network. Find out what your visitors are thinking today. Create your surveys and polls using our custom templates or create your own. Use our in-depth reporting engine to aggregate, print and export your results.
• Snap Surveys – With 27 years survey experience and thousands of users, Snap Surveys can supply survey software and research services for your specific market sector. Snap 9 is our user-friendly survey software for market research. Snap provides the tools you need to get your research done. Professional IT and research services for survey management and data processing from our in-house SurveyShop division.

Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a way to exchanging messages between people. It can be used to send an ezine (an online magazine in which editorial content is controlled) or newsletter. This is a tool most people are used to using as a means to communicate with one another. But how do we use it to effectively market our business?

Tips:

Here are some suggestions for how to use email as a marketing tool to grow your business.

• Author your own ezine or newsletter
• Submit content to leading ezines.
• Create a joint venture with leaders in field to cross promote your ezines.
• Sell ad space in your ezine.
• Set up auto responders which are messages that are automatically sent to your customer when they perform an action such as signing up for your list.
• Use email to communicate with your customers about upcoming opportunities, activities, news and events.
• Set up a separate email address for sales or services issues.

Resources: Email

Here are some free ways to get an email account.

• Hotmail – owned by Microsoft MSN
• Gmail – owned by Google
• Yahoo Mail – owner by Yahoo

Resources: ezine publishing services (NOT Free!)

For a small number of subscribers you can send out the email from your email provider. As the quantity of subscribers grows, you will need a more sophisticated tool.

• Awebber – Whether you’re looking to get your first email campaign off the ground, or you’re a seasoned veteran who wants to dig into advanced tools like detailed email web analytics, activity based segmentation, geo-targeting and broadcast split-testing, we’ve got just what you need to make email marketing work for you.
• iContact – iContact allows businesses, non-profit organizations, and associations to easily create, send, and track email newsletters, surveys, and autoresponders.
• Constant Contact – Email Marketing and Online Surveys from Constant Contact make it easy and affordable for you to connect with your customers or members.

Do you have other favorites tips or resources that you’d like to share?

(For more tips and resources such as this, download the Free Report, “187 Free Ways to Explode Your Business”.)

• PRWeb – When you submit your news releases to PRWeb, they will be indexed by search engines like Google, sent to top news sites like Yahoo! News and placed into RSS feeds with more than 250,000 subscribers which include bloggers, journalists and consumers. PRWeb also helps you build backlinks and inbound links from other premium sites, one of the most important assets to build your website’s credibility in search engines. All of this helps drive traffic by empowering more people to find you online and click through to your website.
• 1888pressrelease.com – Our unique services allow you to distribute releases to search engines, newswires and websites to help increase awareness of your product, company, or self for free.
• ClickPress – Once news submitted to ClickPress has been approved it is available not only to visitors to our site, but also to major web and news search engines. All submissions are free and news releases will remain in our searchable archives indefinitely. While ClickPress is aimed at PR and IR professionals, others are invited to submit their news, providing their news releases are presented in an acceptable format..
• free-press-release-center.info – An online news and press release distribution service for small and medium-sized businesses and corporate communications. Our aim is to raise the standard for online news distribution. The power of FPRC is in the keyword linking. With each press release you can choose a keyword and a URL (different to your main site URL) which will appear as a link (using the keyword as the anchor text) in your press release. This gives you free links to your site using the anchor text of your choice. Plus it is in a natural context, i.e. the text of their release.
• i-Newswire.com – Our mission is to help you announce newsworthy events / happenings. We have teamed up with many leading news sources that display our submissions on their web sites / search engines. We won’t tell you where and when your news item will appear as we want to offer a “fair service” – meaning it doesn’t matter if you submit your release free or featured: “We distribute every press release to all our partners”, no matter if you run a small/new company with low funds or a huge multi-million dollar business..
• NewswireToday – NewswireToday Newswire Today is a press release newswire distribution service, a directory of businesses, products and services, and online publication of articles. Achieving big results for companies of all sizes has made Limelon one of the largest Advertising firm in the industry.
• PR LEAP – PR LEAP offers an SEO and Social Media press release distribution service that is more affordable than the top 3 wires. Our member’s press releases can be found on Google News, Google Search, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com News, Ask.com, Topix.net and many more.
• PR.com – PR.com is a directory of businesses, products and services, a press release distribution service, job search website, and online publication of articles, reviews and celebrity interviews.  With a full company profile, each business listed on PR.com has a powerful means by which to generate quality leads as well as gain worldwide and local exposure for all of their products, services and other business information.
• 24-7pressrelease.com – 24-7 Press Release is an effective press release distribution service offering an affordable alternative to expensive PR and press release promotion services. Since the company’s inception, 24-7 Press Release has serviced over 20,000 clients and distributed more than 33,000 press releases. Submitting press releases with 24-7 Press Release is always FREE but we offer enhanced distribution packages for clients who have additional requirements for targeted, geographic or industry specific distribution.
• PressReleasePoint – PressReleasePoint.com is a free press release distribution website to connect PR professionals with journalist. Online marketers can generate media visibility and maximize online presence by distributing press release through PressReleasePoint. You can use our service to post to 50+ free press release submission sites in this list.
• PRFree.com – PR Free is the only press release distribution service backed by a true wire service, Eworldwire. Eworldwire has rapidly grown to become one of the most respected and technologically advanced wire services. Eworldwire now has employees in three continents, and affiliates and representatives in six (know anyone in Antarctica.
• PRWeb Direct™ – PRWeb Direct is the service bureau for the PRWeb® newswire.  This unique service allows users to maximize their online distribution through PRWeb by taking advantage of the expertise of the PRWeb staff in submitting, scheduling and optimizing distribution.  Several additional services are available to PRWeb Direct customers that are not available through the standard PRWeb site. These services include a simplified insertion process (our professionals do most of this for you).   In addition, with the integration of Business Wire into our distribution network you can now leverage the best of the top two press release newswires (additional fees apply).
• PRZOOM – PRZOOM is a free news & press release distribution service to companies, PR agencies, business journalists, freelance writers, news content providers.

To get more free resources lists such as this, download our FREE REPORT: 187 Free Ways to Explode Your Business.

My favorite feature is that you can record the call and reuse it over and over. For example, I used FreeConferencePro to record a call that I posted to the home page of my web site Expert Marketing Coach. I’ve reproduced it here for you…

Listen to this recording from a FreeConferencePro conference call…

Resources: Internet Teleconferencing

• Powwownow – we offer you immediate conference calls, available 24/7, with as many people as you want speaking at an affordable price – we don’t even need to know your name
• FreeConference.com – simple, convenient, and reliable service at little or no cost. high quality at low cost,
• InstantConference – is a free reservationless, on-demand telephone conferencing service that can be used instantly, reliably and securely. Record your conference call for free!
• FreeConferencePro – is a completely automated and secure system that allows you to sign up for the service and immediately receive a Conference Access Number and your own personal Passcode, ready for use immediately. Free recording, playback and statistics.
• TeleseminarLive – Seminar teachers, list your teleseminar, webinar, or online training class in the calendar free of charge. It is a great way to get more exposure to your class. We have partnerships with other sites that will promote your class if you are looking to give your teleseminar more exposure.
• Teleseminar Nation – is the first Web 2.0 community for people who teach and learn business and personal development secrets through Teleseminars.

What are you favorite ways to teleconference? What do you use to hold teleseminars? Why do you like it best? What else have you tried?

For more resources like this, please request our free report: “187 Free Ways to Explode Your Business”.

Web conferencing is when you conduct a LIVE meeting or presentation using the Internet (many to many interaction). In a web conference, you sit at your computer and are connected to others in the meeting via the internet.

A webinar is a one-way web conference (speaker to audience) but can include questions & answer sessions.

A webcast is the transmission of non-interactive audio or video content over the internet (speaker to audience).

A podcast is a series of audio or video files that are downloadable from the web. It is an acronym for Portable On-Demand Broadcast.

A teleconference or teleseminar is the live exchange of information among many remote people via a telecommunications system.

Tips for Web Conferencing:

• Hold a live webinar.
• Record your webinar and make available as a webcast or podcast.
• Record your webinar and post the audio or slideshow to share with customers or potential customers.

Resources: Web Conferencing (most of these are fee based)

• Vyew – FREE! With Vyew you can conduct meetings in real time using a shared workspace, webcam, voice over IP (VoIP), free teleconferencing, text chat and desktop sharing. In addition to uploading, sharing and presenting content you can invite participants to annotate and collaborate on content during the meeting. Participants can be allowed to navigate the workspace independently to collaborate on different portions of the content. You can also record the meeting for playback.
• Glance – up to 100 guests see your screen…you can share your mouse and keyboard with guests, or even see and control their screens!  Inviting a guest is as easy as a phone call, email or IM.  There’s even free Glance phone conferencing available with every account.
• Adobe Acrobat Connect – With Adobe® Acrobat® Connect™ Pro software, you can create instant, collaborative meetings with just a web browser and the Adobe Flash® Player.
• InterCall – InterCall, the world’s largest conferencing provider,. Our integrated web, audio and video conferencing makes web meetings, webinars, audio conferencing, online training seminars and multi-point video conferencing easier and more productive.
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting – Office Live Meeting is a conferencing solution that you can use to engage audiences in online meetings, training, and events. Learn how you can schedule, join, or present a Live Meeting by using newly available features, including audio, video conferencing, and uploading handouts for distribution.
• WebEx Communications – WebEx is an easy way to share ideas with anyone, anywhere. It combines real-time desktop sharing with phone conferencing so everyone sees the same thing while you talk.
• GoToMeeting – Easy Online Meetings – Anytime, Anywhere. Use GoToMeeting to present, demonstrate and meet all you want – for one low flat fee.

Resources: Webinars

• Dimdim – Display your presentations to anyone remotely with Dimdim, a challenger to Webex. Has a free version.
• SlideRocket – SlideRocket is the leader in online presentation software. With SlideRocket you quickly make stunning presentations, manage a library of slides and assets, share them securely with colleagues, and measure how they’re used. It has some web conferencing capabilities.
• ON24 Inc. – Global Provider of Webcasting and Virtual Events Solutions

Resources: Podcasts

• Apple iTunes – post your webcast to the iTunes store and make your content available to all iPod users.
• Podcast.com – Podcast.com is the premier podcast destination that provides access to a growing list of over 60,000 curated and constantly updated podcast feeds representing more than 1 million episodes of audio and video content.
• Podcast Alley – Podcast Alley is the podcast lovers portal. Featuring the best Podcast Directory and the Top 10 podcasts, as voted on by the listeners. Has forums covering how to make a podcast, podcast software, podcast directories, music for podcasts, etc.

For more resource lists like this, please request our FREE REPORT: “187 Free Ways to Explode Your Business” available from the right sidebar.

Video sharing is the distribution of your video clips on a web site. Video sharing services can host user generated videos, white label (private label) providers and web based video editing.

Resources: Video Creation & Editing

• Toufee.com – Create gorgeous flash movies & slideshows for your website quickly and easily – without any programming – with Toufee’s flash maker.
• Screen Toaster – A free online screen recorder. Capture video of onscreen action and share it instantly.
• StashSpace – Upload videos to your private online StashSpace to easily access, share, protect from disaster and loss, edit video online, and convert video to DVD. Works with full-length video.

Resources: Video Index

• Google Videos – The Google Video is an index and is the most comprehensive on the Web, containing millions of videos indexed and available for viewing.

Resources: Video Hosting & Sharing

• YouTube – Owned by Google and the largest on the web. With a simple one-time log-in, you can have your YouTube account automatically update your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and Google Reader shared items when you upload a video.
• Vimeo – Vimeo is a respectful community of creative people who are passionate about sharing the videos they make. We offer advanced privacy options, sharing tools, and high quality video encoding.
• Revver – We support the free and unlimited sharing of media. Our unique technology pairs videos with targeted ads and tracks them as they spread across the web. So no matter where your video travels, you benefit because we share the advertising revenue with you.
• MySpace Video – Share videos with your MySpace community.
• Yahoo Videos – upload your videos, watch and rate the videos of others, save your favorites, build playlists, and leave comments.
• MSN Soapbox Videos – User generated video content on MSN Video.
• Motionbox – Quick, easy, and reliable, Motionbox is a secure place to share, edit, and store personal videos. Make DVD’s and Flipbooks from your videos.
• TinyPic – A photo and video sharing service that lets you easily upload, link, and share your images and videos on MySpace®, eBay®, Orkut Scrapbooks, blogs, and message boards. A Photobucket company.
• Facebook Video – Lots of traffic. Share your video with your Facebook community.

Do you have more favorites? Please share them in the comments below.

If you would like more resources such as this, please order your FREE REPORT: “187 Free Ways to Explode Your Business” in the right column of this page.

Tips for using presentations for online marketing:

• Create an online presentation to share with your customers or prospective customers. Educate, inform or inspire them about your products and services. Create excitement.
• Use an online presentation creation and posting service and embed it on your website and share it with other sites. This is a way to drive traffic and increase links back to your site.

6 Online Presentation/Slideshow Sites:

• SlideShare – Upload and share your PowerPoint presentations and Word documents on SlideShare. Share publicly or privately. Add audio to make a webinar.
• Zoho – Zoho.com is a comprehensive suite of award-winning on-line business applications. Customers use Zoho to run their business processes, manage their information and be more productive while at the office or on the go, without having to worry about expensive or outdated hardware or software. To date, Zoho.com has launched 19 different applications.
• SlideRocket – SlideRocket is the leader in online presentation software. With SlideRocket you quickly make stunning presentations, manage a library of slides and assets, share them securely with colleagues, and measure how they’re used. Has some web conferencing capabilities.
• 280slides.com – You can download to PowerPoint or share at SlideShare. Create beautiful presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with the world. With 280 Slides, there’s no software to download and nothing to pay for. 280slides.com
• Myplick – Upload your slides, sync with audio, and share with friends.
• Google Presentations – part of Google docs.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share? What’s worked for you?

You can get more lists like this by downloading my FREE REPORT: “187 Free Ways to Explode Your Business”.

A social networking website facilitates community building among people who have something in common. They provide a means to connect with people you know through school, work, or activities. They also aid in the creation of new friendships.

Ways to using Social Networking to Grow Your Small Business:

• Find directories related to your specific industry and add your company profile or link. You can do this by going to Google and typing “my industry directory”.
• Post and comment in Yahoo and Google Groups with a link to your site in your signature.
• Yahoo Answers - Answer questions in your niche. Only answer questions related to your product. Include a direct link between the question and your link in the source box if you don’t want to get banned.
• Create a Google Notebook and include your site’s link.
• Create a presence on the leading free social networks. It’s another way for potential customers to find you, it’s free, and it can drive more customers to your website. The links back to your website help to give you a higher page rank in the search engines. Popular social Networks include:
  • LinkedIn – LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals.
  • Ning – Ning lets you create and join new social networks for your interests and passions.
  • Bebo – Bebo is a popular social networking site, owned by AOL/Time Warner, which connects you to everyone and everything you care about. It is your life online – a social experience that helps you discover what’s going on with your world and helps the world discover what’s going on with you.
  • Facebook – A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos.
  • Myspace – Young demographic and with strong interest in music.
  • Ecademy – A Business Network. Create new contacts and find friends, Market your business and get found on Google, Share knowledge, opportunities and do more business
  • Biznik – Biznik is an award-winning community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to helping each other succeed.
  • Nexopia – Canada’s largest social networking site for youth. With over 1.2 million members, and hundreds of new accounts created every day, Nexopia is quickly solidifying its reputation as the online place for teens to connect and express themselves.
  • StudiVZ – Germany language social networking site that is popular in Germany.
  • orkut (popular in Brazil) – orkut is an online community designed to make your social life more active and stimulating. orkut’s social network can help you maintain existing relationships with pictures and messages, and establish new ones by reaching out to people you’ve never met before.
  • Hi5 – hi5 is the most globally diverse social networking site in the world, with over 80% of our users from outside the US. The hi5.com site was designed for this global audience from the beginning, and was the first in-language social networking site in many countries around the world. The site has been translated to over 40 languages and dialects (with more than 60 planned by the end of 2008).
  • Xiaonei – Chinese – The most real effective Social networking platforms, in-depth to meet your social, entertainment, information, and many other needs.

Note: To get more marketing lists such as this, go to the sidebar and download our Free Report: “187 FREE Ways to Explode Your Business!”

As a business, a website is a necessary marketing tool for creating a face to your customer. When you meet people at networking events, they will go to your website to learn more about you before conducting business with you. It is important that your website be your best marketing face for your customer. Your website is a prime example of Push Marketing.

Get a Free Web Site!

Nowadays it is quite easy to get a free website for your business. There is really no good excuse for not having one. Here are some suggestions as where to go to get a professional-looking website for free.

• Apple® iWeb for Mac – Build a website with Apple iWeb & customize with photos & widgets.
• Homestead – Build a website in minutes and get your business on the web. Try free.
• Webs - Space for individuals, groups, or small businesses to share photos and videos, open a store, and build a member community.
• Weebly - Enables you to create a free website or blog by using a simple drag-and-drop interface.
• Bravenet Web Services - Free websites, hosting and domain names, free guestbooks, free forums, free hit counters, free web polls, free classifieds, and many other free webmaster tools.
• Yola.com – Yola brings website building to the rest of us. Small businesses. Our website builder lets you easily take what’s in your head and turn it into WebPages in front of your eyes. We do it without imposing banner ads or throwing up pop-up ad windows everywhere.

Tips for getting the most from your website: Optimize your website for keywords Make sure you have an XML sitemap Submit your site to search engines Have it reflect your branding

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Do you have any other favorites you’d like to share?

Note: To get more marketing lists such as this, go to the sidebar and download our Free Report: “187 FREE Ways to Explode Your Business!”