What is the Google Dance? Must know for SEO and SEO Tools

What is the Google Dance? It’s nothing more than the different clusters of servers that provide search results. It’s very important to your SEO, as your search rankings very day to day. And, if you have a powerful SEO tools, or use a free seo tools like ours you can check it easily. I am writing about this, as on this Saturday, I am not seeing the main Google server updates with big changes. Google’s 2nd cluster seems to be off, and lately on Friday’s I see Google’s 2nd server cluster go in to effect, while the main servers go do their database updates. On Saturdays, you see the big updates, or a glimpse of it. We see the major updates show up on Wednesday mornings too.

A little bit of surprising thing happened to me today, I found out that our SEO tools at LinkMint.com are ranked #37 for keywords “SEO Tools” and #52 for “Free SEO tools“. We have not been focused on them at all, as our developers who worked on them are not on our team any more, and there is broken feature. We left the links to the site, and I blame my self for not even using it. Our keyword searches are based on Yahoo’s search tool, which I don’t like either. If it used Google’s I would love it. But, I still find it to be one of the best SEO Tools on the market, the best thing about it is the fact that it’s a Free SEO Tool. I just used our Google Dance feature, to check all of our rankings on Google for all of our keywords. It was more accurate than the SEOBook - free SEO Tools, meaning it was more accurate. Sorry, Aaron Wall I was very disappointed this week, when I wanted to use your SEO tools and I could not find our sites in it. We were clearly in Google for search results. Accuracy in ranking results is key for any SEO Tools, I don’t care if it’s Free SEO Tools, they need to be accurate. We still support Aaron Wall’s SEObook as probably the best SEO book on the market. We have not been SEOing the LinkMint.com site either, not for months any way. So natural links do work, but I am sure the links from this page won’t hurt:-).

Our SEO Tools do have issues, they are not 100% accurate, but closer than most, but most importantly, it’s an immediate results are from Google. We will improve on them some day. But we are ranked #1 for Wordpress SEO for this Blog Templates site, so we keep this going too. Our Free SEO Tools business model did not make much sense, we don’t think people pay for SEO Tools, maybe they do, but we see so many free SEO Tools, why bother to charge right? We do need to make money for our online businesses, but we never really wanted to be a SEO Tools vendor. We might rethink this strategy, but for now we are focused on our b2b marketplace, and online marketplace in concert with our Barter company ITEX. By the way, we have been SEOing their website for the keywords of Barter and Bartering and we got them in the top 10 in Google within 30 days. I guess we are good at SEO, even though we never really wanted to be a SEO tools provider or SEO consultants.

As far as my Online Marketplace blog of yesterday, Some of you know that I am not a fan of the Amazon Web Store tool, I do want to say that I do know a lot of people there, and I do support the company. I use to love the company, It’s just that last fall, I had some bad experiences, and too many disappointments with them. I don’t want to rip on a company, and I think if there are bad experiences I had, I do want to share with people about alternatives. I think it’s best to provide positive solutions. So I want to say to all of my friends who work at Amazon I do like you, but I think people should have their online businesses on Yahoo, eBay or our online marketplace when it’s fully launched at MyTypes.com/marketplace.

I do ask that some of you please check out our SEO tools, they are one of the best free seo tools on the market, and it’s an easy signup, with just your email. Would any of you pay for any SEO Tools? If yes, how much, only a monthly basis? If we get enough of a response, we might work on making them better and help provide you all 24 features. They really are worth while and good for SEO consultants too!

Marketplace

I wanted to write this post to start listing the features of our online marketplace that we have started to build within our MyTypes.com/Marketplace area. The list of features is too long, so I am shortening it. We actually are using an application suite from one of our favorite Open Source CMS’s, Joomla.org. We started to build the online marketplace, as the Barter system ITEX that we are working with, because their marketplace is the second most visited area of their website. ITEX also has more than 24,000 small businesses in the system with thousands of barter items that people search for. While this online marketplace is setup to promote the ITEX Barter site and Barter ITEMS, we also wanted to promote this marketplace within non-barter clients. Yes, we are opening this online marketplace to be a listings for any businesses trying to buy or sell services. So think of this marketplace as a directory of b2b, a list of online businesses, or businesses of any kind that want to sell products or services, not just barter.

The businesses directory tool was used to create this Marketplace, and it shows entries of companies, clubs, persons, shops, products. The entries are divided into categories, which can contain subcategories. One entry can be entered in several categories. The companies/clubs/persons enter themselves in the index. Registered users can modify or delete their entries. Entries can be renewed by the user if they expire.

Using the integrated Category & Entry Manager in the back-end, all categories and entries can be managed comfortably. Entries and categories can be deleted, unpublished and moved. This is not a common but great flexibility of our Marketplace.

A Fields Manager can be used to configure each field entirely. This concerns the ordering, obligatory fields, fees, field length (width of field and number of characters), field type (textfield, textarea, checkbox, checkbox group, select list, text code or calendar), search methods, in which view a field should be shown (Category View and/or Details View), and much more. An unlimited number of new custom fields can be added.

For each entry two images can be uploaded (besides the linked images in the description). The images will be resized to a predefined size. With the URL field “image” it is possible to add fields for linked images.

An alpha index is available to show only entries starting with a specified letter. Also only the most popular entries and categories, the recently updated entries, the new entries or entries by tags (mata keywords) can be shown.

In a menu module all categories within the Marketplace can be shown in tree view or all main categories in a flat view. An extended search function gives the possibility to search within the existing values of one or more fields or within a specific category.

Detailed Features:

• Multi-Level Categories to show full depth of Marketplace
• Adding Multiple Subcategories at once
• User definable fields (textarea/inputbox/checkbox/checkbox group/select list/calendar)
• Wide possibilities of configuration
• Dynamic Page Titles (SEO -Search Engine Optimization), to rank the specific marketplace items high on Google, this is probably the Best Feature of our system
• RSS Feeds (configurable to show latest, random, etc. entries)
• Integrated Google Maps connection
• Security Image for spam protection
• Extended Search Function
• Category Search, most online marketplaces don’t have this.
• Edit and delete functions for the user (via front-end)
• Quick Edit/Edit in Place function
• Show all entries of one user
• Integrated Wysiwyg-Editor (front-end)
• Meta Keywords & Description (SEO)
• Show entries by tags (meta keys)
• Image Upload
• Supports field URLs http, email, linked image and linked media file (video/audio)
• Text code field for Add/Edit Entry form to show individual information
• Connection to Paypal
• Category & Entry Manager
• CSS file editable within back-end
• Templates for Details View and V-Card, editable within back-end
• Template for Add/Edit Entry form, editable within back-end
• Template Parser with Syntax Checking
• Language Manager to install new languages
• Confirmation emails for author and/or system operator
• Alphabetical index for category and entry selection
• Show most popular entries and categories
• Show new & recently updated entries

Marketplace Category function

• Multi-Level Categories. That is, each sub-category may have sub-categories. Unlimited nesting depth.
• One entry can be entered in several categories (by default 5 categories, extensible by configuration file).
• All Marketplace categories are individually promoted on our network of sites, and are SEO’ed for maximum exposure.

Entries

• Adding an image/logo, which will be shown in the V-Card and/or in the Details View.
• Adding an icon/symbol, which will be shown by default in the upper right corner of the V-Card and/or in the Details View.
• Meta-Keywords and Meta-Description can be set up by the user. Used for the Tags feature.
• This is exactly the main advantage of our Marketplace, that ebay and Amazon provide. Have you noticed their items ranking high on Google, this is how they/we do it.

Front-End-View

Marketplace is divided into three views: the General View ( Marketplace main page), the Category View and the Details View. A category view shows all subcategories and entries of a category. A Details View shows only one entry.
The views are almost entirely configurable within the back-end and additionally by changing the view templates.

• In the General View all main categories can be shown together with an image and a short description.
• Already in the general view all entries can be shown as V-Cards.
• A Category View shows the corresponding sub categories and the entries within the category as V-Card.
• For each entry two images can be added. One small picture (icon/symbol), which will be shown by default in the V-Cards and the logo image, which will be shown by default in the Details View.
• CSS file, editable within the back-end, for changing the layout easily.
• Connection to Google Maps possible and routing function.

User Edit Function

• Edit and delete functions for the user.
  If a user is logged in, he can edit and delete his own entries. Also he is able to move his entry to another category.
• The user is able to add his entry afterwards to additional categories.
• It is adjustable within the back-end, if the delete function really deletes an entry or sets it only to un-publish.
• User IP addresses of set up and changing will be saved.

Search

• Extended search function using one single search field.
• Drop Down Lists with all already entered values for all fields possible.
• Separate drop down lists also for user defined custom fields.
• Searching within a specific category possible
• Search parameters are saved within a cookie.
• Auto search with parameters given in the URL.

Other Features Coming soon!

• Photo Gallery - a plugin to show an “unlimited” number of uploaded images in Details View (horizontally or vertically) with Lightbox effect.
• Review & Rating - a plugin to vote and comment an entry.
• Video/Audio - a plugin to show audio or video files (YouTube support).
• Radius Search - a plugin to search within a radius of cities.
• Download - a plugin to upload and download files.
• Featured Listings - a Pay option to show entries on a featured position.
• This marketplace will always remain free, people will be given an option for featured listings, but unlike eBay and Amazon, we will NEVER price gauge our sellers just because we have buyers.
• In case you have noticed we get ranked very high on the search engines, and we will continue to get a ton of traffic this way. The early sellers of items on our Marketplace will benefit by their listings always showing up near the top of all of our system. We have a special software rules & algorithm built in to our system.

Posted by Admin in b2b

Top 5 Technology Tools for Small Businesses

Before we start telling you about these top 5 technologies, I want to make it clear these are my opinion, and not based on research institute of small business administration or the US Chamber of commerce. Last week I read the state of the small business report from the US Chamber published recently, and it was too long and not helpful. I think small businesses like all businesses have similar challenges of efficiency, lack of financial resources, lack of people resources and lack of time. If technology could help them, they would love to use it, but if it’s not easy to use, they will not! We think every one should use technology to help them, not just online businesses.

They are not usually very tech savvy, and don’t have huge corporate arms training them on the latest version of Powerpoint, word or the sales force automation tools. If you don’t know this, large corporations spend billions of dollars a year training their employees on technology tools. In my professional opinion small businesses have a major disadvantage here. I use to work for Gartner Group’s learning division where I have 2 years of experience in the online business and corporate technology training area with large and small organizations. Bottom line is that today, small businesses can compete with large companies because of simple technology initiatives and tools available. You no longer need to work for a large company to have similar online tools, or be an online business. Look at Google, they just announced a suite of applications for small businesses, read the Boston Herald articled linked at the end of this blog. But here are the top 5 technology tools all small businesses should utilize to grow, why not use the advantages that online businesses use?

1. Mobile email device, such as a blackberry is a must. You shouldn’t have to go back to your computer and go check email, you should be busy spending time with your customers, employees, and suppliers. Do not check email back at the computer, and waste your time. Instead Save time, by using a blackberry or something similar, check email and send email from any where any time. I am a blackberry user of over 7 years now, there is nothing better, yes I have tried Plam and Treo products. It’s important to remember, You don’t have to check your email all the time, or respond to all of your emails all at once. Have some self control folks! You should be out and about doing your business, and check it when you have a moment. Do not set it to buzz every time you get an email. Control your time, save time, and be connected, not be a mess. There is no better tool for small businesses or actually any online business or not, than a mobile email via blackberry.
2. Having a business blog is a must! And you should be using a free business blogging system such as Blogger.com, Wordpress.com or MyTypes.com, as those blogs get indexed by Google every day. What does that mean, and Why you say? This whole website and company is based on blogging, and we wanted to develop a business blogging platform that had built in SEO for you. Blogs are the #1 way to promote your businesses on line, because search engines such as Google consider them news, you need to blog about your specific products and services and generally what is going on about your businesses regularly.

3. You need a website ( or blog site ) with a custom Domain, that has your professional representation with a custom design for you. First thing we recommend is that if you have the money, you hire a custom html web designer and have it done. Next best thing is for you to find a industry based solution, one with templates already built in for you. For example in the real estate or mortgage industry there are specific solutions, and there is so much specific content and application tools, that one really has to consider those solutions first. Next for a blogsite, in addition to your website or within your URL. For example: blog.MyWebsite.com, Great place to start is Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org. Ask your tech person for help, if they don’t know about these tools, have them take a look for find another tech person.

To find a tech person, If your needs are custom and complex you may want to look at Joomla.org or Drupal.org to find a great solution. These systems have thousands of programmers that know them very well, and they are totally free to use, you don’t have to pay in licensing fees at all, or give them your code. Chances are you are not very technical, so go to one of those communities websites and hire a programmer for about $2k or less you should get a full Joomla or drupal based site custom designed for you. All of the tools such as blogs, templates, shopping cart, and online business needs should be there for you. Best of all they are free, this new wave of Open Source technologies really is changing the world.

4. Learn about SEO (which stands for Search Engine Optimization), Online business marketing. It’s not just about mail marketing with news letters, SEO, blogs and Google Adwords based Search Engine Marketing are key to help you target key customers. Again there are many great resources on the web, including our SEO blogs and main blogging and SEO blogs coaching areas from the front page of our website at MyTypes.com.

5. Join an online businesses community such as a Barter system at ITEX.com. Why should small businesses join any online business communities, especially active one’s like Barter networks? No man is an island, neither is a women, or are any businesses. We all need each other to succeed, businesses need customers, suppliers, employees, not just owners:-). There are number of challenges and situations that you may want to get advice on. The chances are there are owners of businesses out there that have dealt with those issues, and often times they want to help you. You may have some advice that may help them, this is what online businesses communities do in an efficient time saving way. Barter services company like ITEX also have an online marketplace, such as eBay. eBay has been immensely popular due to it’s online business community of checks and balances of buyers and sellers. It almost forces you to have references, and that gives businesses credibility, and makes them more successful.

Bonus technology advice, you probably use Quick books to manage your books via your accountant already. If not, you should have a book keeper accountant do that, but you should use the online version of QuickBooks, not just the desktop. This way, your accountant can work remotely, yes you can just mail them your receipts, save time, save hassle!

Technology usage to grow your small businesses is not just about being efficient, it’s about saving you time so that you can spend it with your clients, employees, friends and family. Remember relationships are usually the most important things in life, especially the friends and family kind. If you treat your customers and employees like family, which most successful businesses do, you will succeed. And, our technology advice above is catered to help you do just that. Yes you can!

Here is Google’s free applications article promised earlier:

Google releases new online software for businesses in latest swipe at Microsoft - BostonHerald.com

Massage Therapists, Lawyers and SEO Consultants?

What do Massage Therapists and Lawyers have in common? Oh shucks, I forgot that the SEO consultants can trade for their SEO services too. They are all local professionals, who can benefit by bartering their services to grow their businesses. Yes they can, sorry for stealing the line from Presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s campaign, where the line is YES WE CAN! Not only do you get barter clients, you will grow your cash sales too, but you have to read the end of the blogs post for that.

Getting back to the focus of this blog, tips for professionals such as local Massage therapists and local Lawyers to trade for their services via a bartering system such as ITEX’s Barter site. If you are a massage therapist or a local lawyer you may be wondering how does this trade or bartering thing work? Simple, we will get in to the details in a second, but you don’t have to be a massage therapist or a local Lawyer to grow your sales via Bartering. We have local professionals such as marketing consultants, real estate agents, restaurants, auto detailers, car repair, dentists, and many other professionals and barter items that people can trade.

Here is an example of how massage therapists can benefit from our Bartering System, they already trade with their local friend massage therapists friends. But, instead of getting only massage in return, why not take a trip with our ITEX barter dollars? Or provide a massage or two a week, at full price mind you, and earn 200 ITEX dollars a week x 4weeks for $800/month x 12 = $9,600.00. Than you can take a trip for example a trip I hope to take to Mexico for 4 people full flight and hotel for 6 nights, all for a cost of $5,300. All these $ signs referenced above is for the ITEX Barter dollars. No this is not funny money, we do manage over $300m worth of transactions every year. We are a professional barter system, and there are over 24,000 small businesses that utilize our bartering network. In fact we are the largest barter network in the US, with over 90 franchise offices, where a local bartering broker helps you trade your products or services. Ok, I will stop selling now, let’s gets back to why I am blogging about massage therapists:-), who doesn’t love a massage!

So about the Local lawyers and how they can trade to not only get barter dollars but actual cash paying clients. This example was told to me a bartering guru at ITEX Alan, who use to own a bakery and he use to barter all the time for his goods, not just services. So here is the Lawyers scenario: Say Mr. Lawyers is an attorney who is not fully booked his 2,200 hours annually. And, he is going through a slow time of the year or the month, but he has to keep paying his secretary and legal assistant a full time salary, rent, insurance, all fixed costs. So if he could increase his billable hours by say just 10% that would get to his pocket book.

Mr. Lawyers comes in the office one day to check in, and his secretary Judy has every thing handled and says no appointments today, but here is this for client x, and client y, but they are all taken care of. Why don’t you go play some golf or go visit your friends and family? As he decides to put on his jacket, Judy gets a call from their local ITEX bartering broker, one of the local businesses needs an attorney to review a contract on immediately. Their original lawyer is too busy, so Judy agrees to setup the meeting for after lunch that day, and she tells Mr. Lawyers to come in at 2pm for a meeting with the local Bartering business, who happens to be a massage therapist. She is being evicted by her landlord and has to review the real estate contract. She is stressed out and needs some legal help. Mr. Lawyers meets with her, reviews the contract, earns $900 barter dollars via ITEX.

But, wait Mr. Lawyers just got a barter client, he did not get a cash client did he? No he did not, but do you think that the local massage therapist only deals with Barter for her business? Chances are not, so she will probably take her Cash business to Mr. lawyers. But, better yet, she is now connected with Mr. Lawyers and as she is a massage therapists, she obviously touches 3-7 people a day. Do you think they talk during massages? Yes, and Do you think she is going to tell people about how Mr. Lawyers is such an awesome attorney? She will actually refer cash business to Mr. Lawyers, as most people use cash not Barter. You can imagine the SEO consultant, the restaurant, the car repair shop, all benefiting by getting new customers, as the bartering businesses will promote their cash business.

Does Bartering makes sense for all businesses? Maybe not for people who are not doing well, and cant’ trade excess inventory, and are loosing money. But for successful products people, who want to sell their products at full price, want more clients, and for people who want to get more awareness Instantly by joining a local business community. Our local bartering brokers make the difference, they will help you with every thing and take care of all of the paperwork. Remember our blogging platform is partially owned by the fine folks at ITEX barter system.

As always we want to thank our supporters at cross jewelry and designer jewelry by Loverelic.com. We also started to sell our Infrared heaters, which are better than edenpure heaters at GreenIsBetter.org. We are building an online marketplace focused on services marketplace and b2b marketplace to help small businesses buy and sell products online, and especially to promote their businesses.

b2b

b2b article on Forbes.com Best of the Web

Hi Everyone, Here is the article from Forbes on B2b industry as a whole, b2b Marketplace are covered from different industries, and b2b marketing size numbers are provided. I am copying and pasting the article on this SEO blog, below the link to the Forbes online page. As these big companies often move content and store it, the link may not stay live. Do visit the folks at Forbes, as they did the article, I am just promoting it as we are trying to understand the market size of the b2b industry as a whole. We are doing this to gain a niche for our online marketplace.

Forbes.com Best of the Web

B2B

From the depths of 2000 and 2001, business-to-business e-commerce is once again getting bubbly with enthusiasm. According IDC, worldwide B2B e-commerce is expected to grow 55% this year to $3.4 trillion. However, instead of the big incumbent software and services firms reaping all of the spoils, there is a new crop of open-source up-starts gaining acceptance in corporate IT department. Suddenly big players like Oracle, Microsoft and SAP are scrambling to protect their flanks as the open-source invasion hits their core markets. Meanwhile, another up-start of sorts in the online advertising business, Google, continues to amaze skeptics. This 5,000-employee juggernaut now sports a market capitalization of more than $104 billion, bigger than another notable marketing company, Coca-Cola, with 50,000 employees.

…

Advertising
According to David Card, an ad analyst at Jupiter, online ads will bring in $11.9 billion in 2005, up from $9.3 billion last year. That’s still a …

Aerospace & Defense
Despite the ongoing war, defense aerospace equipment orders are not substantially up. And a shrinking volume of new equipment orders on the …

Agriculture
Some 80% of the 250,000 top-producing U.S. farmers use the Internet. Sites surviving the recent shakeout in e-agriculture help farmers connect faster …

Automotive
The automotive B2B landscape suffered a defeat in 2004 when the Big Three automakers threw in the towel on Covisint, its highly touted cooperative …

Business Process Outsourcing
Companies turn to Business Process Outsourcing firms to handle non-essential day-to- day business tasks such as human resources, document management …

Chemicals
With a commodity business like chemicals, prices can be the key factor in whether or not these cyclical companies makes money. So it was with relief …

Collaboration
Collaboration is one of the Web’s killer apps. A few years ago enterprise software companies dominated this space with Web conferencing and other …

Computers
Most businesses already use the Web to buy and sell computers and find IT services like Web-hosting. In this business the competition is fierce and …

Construction
Many online B2B companies learned the hard way that contractors don’t want to purchase their materials online or do business without a handshake. …

Content Management
Structuring, sorting, and routing an increasing flow of digital information are at the heart of what content management companies do for their …

Customer Relationship Management
The incredible shrinking world of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) continues. After many years as a best-of-breed darling, a rapidly fading …

Electronics
Speed is what’s important in the electronics industry. That’s why online auctions didn’t work out: companies simply couldn’t wait to see if they won …

Energy
Giant, thriving, deregulated energy-trading exchanges were once thought to be the future. Enron’s spectacular collapse and its fall out, have nearly …

Excess Inventory
When supply exceeds demand companies need to unload their surplus inventory. The Web, it turns out, has become one of the greatest liquidators of …

Financial Content Providers
Timely access to accurate information is critical for anyone involved in the markets. As a result, financial content providers have florished on the …

Financial Services
There is a bitter rivalry forming among a few of the top players on our financial business to business list. CheckFree posted some disappointing …

Food & Beverage
It’s been a rough year for public exchanges in the food and beverage industries. Sites like FoodUSA and Foodscape have folded. Others, like …

Healthcare
Web applications and healthcare have always held great promise. Thanks in part to physician’s resistance to change, that promise has been largely …

Hospitality & Travel
The North American hotel business spends $80 billion annually, and nearly 65% of all hotel rooms are operated by the top six companies. All eyes are …

Human Resources
Firms that perform human resources functions for other companies tend to specialize in either a particular functionality or in the type of customer …

Industrial Equipment
Not long ago industrial equipment looked like an ideal candidate for online exchanges. Lately, the focus has shifted to private exchanges and …

Knowledge Services
Does your company have an “information” strategy? Do your key employees have efficient access to the latest content? Look to the companies below for …

Logistics
Small logistics companies are thriving. RedPrarie and HighJump (now owned by 3M) are the best-of-class, but others, like G-Log, are also notable. …

Metals
The metals business may not yet be ready to accept the B2B revolution. MetalSite, Aluminum.com and MetalSpectrum have shut down. E-Steel has become a …

Paper & Forest Products
The paper industry is reeling as overcapacity, consolidation and globalization have led to mill closings and employee layoffs. Any help these …

Procurement
The procurement business has gone through some consolidation over the past year and as a result, the boundaries separating procurement companies and …

Real Estate
Commercial realty’s embrace of the Web has been slow. Only half of real estate firms have a common property information database and only 16% of are …

Retailing
For retailers, the Web has made the world a much smaller place and now retail firms of any size can more easily tap far away factories and …

Security
Web security is one of the hottest growth areas of online B2B. Even Google, Microsoft and AOL have recently acquired their way into the business. The …

Small Business
The Internet can be a powerful tool for small businesses. Many these days exist almost completely online, purchasing, marketing and selling their …

Supply Chain Management
Big is good in supply chain. That was Oracle’s thinking when it snapped up best-of-breed competitors G-Log and Retek this year, placing it in a dead …

Telecommunications
A year ago bandwidth was hot and telecom stocks were soaring. Today there is a fiber-optics glut and an industrywide depression. In an effort to …

Trading Platforms
The Web is a haven for upstart and established financial trading operations. But hard times have hit. A shakeout has eliminated BondBook and Atriax, …

Web Services
Interoperability is the name of the game with Web services. Companies don’t want to worry about getting Microsoft Windows applications to talk to …

Wireless
Businesses are anxious to deploy wireless technologies that will make them more efficient and reduce costs. Problem is, it’s taken awhile for those …

**As always this SEO blogs work is sponsored by the kind businesses such as the leading bartering company ITEX.com, Designer Jewelry by LoveRelic.com, and as always free blogs and blogging platform of MyTypes.com.