Search Engine Tools are a dime a dozen, but most only do a very tiny micro-task; substantially useful tools are few and far between.  Here are my personal favorite free search optimization tools for SEO; some may be familiar but hopefully there’s a few surprises in here for you.

Snippet Preview Tool
This allows you to enter in titles and meta-descriptions and test out how they are likely to appear on Google.  An invaluable search engine tool.
http://www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html

Rex Swain’s HTTP Viewer
It’s great for checking out HTTP header responses and following redirects for any page.
http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html

Search Engine Reports Free Bulk Rank Checker
This search engine tool is perfect for running a quick search engine ranking check on a prospect – drop a ton of terms in and it will bring back their ranking positions (not which page that is ranking exactly, just its rank – but that’s a fast way to assess someone’s situation).
http://searchenginereports.net/

LSI Keywords
I had previously reviewed a great site called textalyser which can perform a frequency analysis of documents.  If there is more than one URL to analzye though, it requires pasting in the text which is cumbersome.  I usually use textalyser and paste in the text from the top web pages ranking for a term to discover what related words I should be using when doing on-page optimization for that term.

Get a free quote on search engine optimization now.

But I recently found this *fantastic* search engine tool…”LSI Keywords”.   Ignore the name, let’s not argue about what LSI is, it’s a misuse of the term…but this tool will actually go retrieve the top 5 results on its own for your search, eliminating the manual steps of grabbing the URLs from the search engine and copying and pasting the content into the tool.   It also lays out the frequency charts for the unigrams, bigrams, and trigrams right next to each other so you don’t have to scroll down below the fold to see the top terms.  This is a *great* search engine tool, a huge timesaver.
http://lsikeywords.com/

Xenu Link Sleuth
The myth, the legend.  Perfect for finding broken links and much much more.
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

Screaming Frog
This is starting to take some of the mantel away from Xenu; it can be used to check many kinds of SEO issues on a website, and is an ideal tool for performing a quick site audit.
http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Drive traffic to your web site, start today.

SEOQuake Toolbar
I don’t use the mozBar; not because I’m not a moz fan, but I’m trying to keep myself from being dependent on SEOMoz’s tools.   My theory is, SEOMoz is so effective and popular it seems to be taking over the entire SEO world…so if I want to compete with people who are SEOMoz believers and aficionados, then if I use search engine tools and techniques from elsewhere, perhaps that will give me an edge.   The SEOQuake toolbar is great for rapidly doing a competitive analysis on a SERP.
http://www.seoquake.com/

GoRank Keyword Density Analyzer
I use this to check out keyword density and other metrics on the top search engine results pages that are ranking for whatever term I’m trying to optimize for; it can help in figuring out how long the document should be, how often the keyword should be used, and so on.  If you’re a fan of extensive on-page optimization, you’ll really appreciate this search engine tool.
http://www.gorank.com/url_comparision_report.php

Pingdom
This tool provides a quick way to check page speed and image sizes, without having to install Firefox or Chrome plug-ins.  Since search engines now take into account page speed, using something like this is an important step in any search engine optimization audit.
http://tools.pingdom.com/

Niels Bosma’s Excel SEO Tools
I have to confess, I have had zero time to evaluate this personally yet, but its feature set is extremely exciting and it comes recommended by some very knowledgeable people.  There are a *ton* of functions this provides including the ability to scrape data from websites, manipulate backlinks, analyze analytics data, and more.  It looks so promising I felt it would be a crime to leave it out – I hope to put some time into using it soon.

http://nielsbosma.se/projects/seotools/

Online Sales Google SERP Bookmarklet
To use this search engine tool, just go to the website, click on the green button and drag it into your bookmark toolbar.  Then whenever you do a Google search, hit the button and it will transform the search engine results page into separate, nicely pasteable, titles and URLs.  It’s a super-useful tool.
http://www.onlinesales.co.uk/google-results-bookmarklet/

Facebook offers so many opportunities to reach customers with specialized advertising that almost every business can benefit from some form of paid advertising on Facebook, even if it spends only a few dollars a week.

However, it is one thing to use paid Facebook advertising sparingly—for example to tell your fans about an event—and quite another to commit to making Facebook a significant source of leads or traffic for your business. Answer the follow questions to find out if Facebook ads can be a significant source of leads for your business.

Are you a local business with a physical location?

Does your business have a doorknob that customers turn? If so, then Facebook is for you. Dentists, doctors, lawyers, veterinarians, physical trainers, gyms, specialty shops, cupcake stores, specialty groceries, beer and wine shops, restaurants, mechanics, theaters and music venues are highly likely to benefit from locally targeted Facebook campaigns, which may cost as little as $100 to $200 a month.

Facebook allows you to advertise to people who live within a few miles of your location, to advertise directly to your known customers, and to advertise directly to your customers’ friends who live nearby. Facebook is good for selling locally because Facebook makes it easy to get your message in front of your local market demographic even before your target audience has begun searching for your particular product or service.

Does your business harmonize with Facebook?

I suspect it is possible to successfully sell almost any product or service on Facebook. However, it is clear that some products sell on Facebook like magic and others are really, really difficult to sell there. The interesting question for your business is “How easy will it be to sell on Facebook?”

Some types of products or services are a natural fit for selling on Facebook — so natural that you can set up a campaign and start finding new customers in a few minutes. Other types of products and services will be a harder sale. And, Facebook may not be a good channel for purchasing clicks until you have exhausted easier channels.

The more the following statements describe your product or service, the more Facebook is for you.

Our Stuff Is Unique

Facebook is for you if you sell unique or personalized products. Facebook is the worldwide capital of individual expression. It’s the perfect place to sell customized and personalized products, items that express a person’s own tastes and preferences. It is also a great way to engage potential customers on a human-to-human level

You will not maximize Facebook’s marketing potential if you are selling products that could be listed in the “commodity” category or if customers can easily find your product at big-box retailers and national chains. Facebook is the place to sell products that don’t carry an expected price. Sell unique products, where the value is determined by the customer’s desire to have something interesting, not by the price.

We Sell to Consumers

Facebook is for you if you sell to consumers, not businesses. Facebook is a place for individuals to connect with friends and family. It is best used by businesses as a place to find and connect to individuals and individual consumers. It is not a good place to sell to other businesses. Although corporations have pages on Facebook, they are there as a sales presence to market to consumers, not as a purchasing presence to buy from your business.

We Sell Fun Products

Facebook is for you if your products are fun. It is a great place to sell events, memberships, experiences, personal improvement, travel and entertainment. Facebook is fun! It is a place where people go to connect, to play and to socialize. It is a place to feel, express opinions and display emotions.

And events, travel, and entertainment are full of fun and positive emotions. These subjects are naturally social, and people love to ask “Where have you been?,” “What have you seen?” and “Where do you want to go?”

If you provide personal improvement products, especially anything that’s new, trendy, hip or cool, Facebook is also a great fit. If your product involves some form of training, accent the social advantages more than the academic aspects, such as how learning a new language can make travel more fun.

We Harmonize With Identity, Personal Beliefs, and Convictions

Facebook is for you if your business harmonizes with a person’s identity — political affiliations, religious convictions, beliefs or social movements. Regardless of whether your company leans right or left or whatever, there are lots of people who may be predisposed to do business with you for that particular leaning. And you should take advantage of it. There are very simple ways you can target your customers on Facebook and communicate with them in ways that connect to the things they care about.

If you appeal to a variety of such backgrounds, then you can design specific marketing campaigns to cater to each of those preferences. You may have different pockets of people within your customer database, and the better you understand those pockets, the more you can target your ads, and the more you can sell.

Where does your business fall? Visit,IsFB4ME.com to help you answer that question. The site asks you 10 short questions about your business and results in a score from 1 to 10 that you can use to better understand how your business fits with Facebook.

Anyone who has started a business has his or her own rules and guidelines, so I thought I would add to the memo with my own. My “rules” below aren’t just for those founding the companies, but for those who are considering going to work for them, as well.

1. Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cure All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but aren’t as expensive to pay.

6. An espresso machine? Are you kidding me? Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keep everyone in tune with what is going on and keep the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show him or her how to use the lock on the bathroom. There is nothing private in a startup. This is also a good way to keep from hiring executives who cannot operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over a personal secretary, run away. If an exec won’t go on sales calls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the most inexpensive way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista, ask yourself why, then use it. It’s a startup so there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

9. Keep the organization flat. If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.

10. Never buy swag. A sure sign of failure for a startup is when someone sends me logo-embroidered polo shirts. If your people are at shows and in public, it’s okay to buy for your own employees, but if you really think people are going to wear your branded polo when they’re out and about, you are mistaken and have no idea how to spend your money.

11. Never hire a PR firm. A public relations firm will call or email people in the publications you already read, on the shows you already watch and at the websites you already surf. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them a message introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communication with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

12. Make the job fun for employees. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. My first company, MicroSolutions, when we had a record sales month, or someone did something special, I would walk around handing out $100 bills to salespeople. At Broadcast.com and MicroSolutions, we had a company shot. The Kamikaze. We would take people to a bar every now and then and buy one or ten for everyone. At MicroSolutions, more often than not we had vendors cover the tab. Vendors always love a good party.

Zombie repellant might not be something you expect to find on the shelf at Walmart. Or, for that matter, puppy shoes.

But a public relations-savvy contest that the nation’s largest retailer announced last week could result in one of these off-beat products landing on Walmart shelves before year’s end.

For Walmart, it’s all about garnering publicity and social-media hits. But for the winner of the contest, it’s a chance to go from a virtual unknown to a distinguished product sold with roughly 150,000 others at more than 3,800 Walmart stores nationally.

“Their shelf base is probably one of the most rare and precious items in the world,” Golden Gate University consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow says.

Online contests by familiar brands continue to pick up social-media steam. Baskin-Robbins has sponsored contests to let folks create ice cream flavors. Mountain Dew has involved consumers in creating soft-drink flavors. Now, Walmart’s getting into the action.

Walmart dubbed its contest the “Get on the Shelf” program — an American Idol-style competition for small businesses. Two rounds of online voting will determine three winners, all of which will be sold online, with the grand prize winner gaining a spot in select stores.

As on the reality show, it’s the contest’s oddities that often grab public attention. Among the more unusual submissions:

•”Uggs” for dogs? Pugz Shoes — boots for puppies that are stylishly similar to Uggs — are designed to keep your pooch’s paws warm. With a faux leather exterior and a faux wool lining, they’re practical and fashionable — because dogs are people, too, right? (Four shoes — $19.99)

•Zombie repellant. Miss Stephanie’s Potions is a line of scented sprays and body washes for children afraid of monsters hiding in the closet. It includes a range of products to ease kids’ night frights, such as zombie-repelling sprays and fairy-attracting scents. (4-ounce spray — $9.99; 8-ounce bubble bath — $9.99)

•IPad pillow. EPillow, a lap pillow for tablets, allows users to get cozy with their electronics. ($29.95)

•Toilet seat backrest. The Toilet Comforter cushions your back during long thinking sessions on the porcelain throne. Grab a magazine — you might not want to get up. ($25.95)

“It’s like American Idol,” Yarrow says. “The first round is really entertaining because there are so many duds, and the duds themselves are funny and engaging.” And, she notes, they can generate buzz.

Originality is the key to gaining retail space, says Chad Brewer, president of Hugs Pet Products, which makes Pugz Shoes.

“If you don’t have something that’s really different — that’s going to stand out — you’re not going to get that shelf space,” Brewer says.

The national exposure could provide a much-needed boost for small businesses, several contestants say.

“We’re still not in the black yet, but we’re literally only a few thousand (dollars) from it,” ePillow creator Renee Anderson says.

With more than 800 video entries already, the competition is tight, but New England Consulting Group founder and CEO Gary Stibel says just because products don’t make the final cut does not mean they have lost entirely. Any publicity can generate sales, he says.

Giving shoppers a say in the company’s offerings is crucial to connecting with them, says Chris Bolte, vice president of @WalmartLabs — the social-media and e-commerce team that created the contest.

“You always want to stay closely tuned to what your customers are looking for,” Bolte says. “It’s really about getting products on the shelves that we haven’t seen.”

Then there’s just one minor issue: What aisle at Walmart stocks the zombie repellant?

If you don’t have a Facebook page for your business, it’s not the equivalent of trying to operate without a telephone and modern plumbing. But social media is something almost no business can afford to be without.

Social media allows a business to connect directly with its consumer base. A business with a Facebook page is approachable, personal and accessible.

Before the advent of Facebook, businesses relied on press releases and advertising to get the word out about sales or product developments that might interest customers. Compiling those took time and money. But the amount of information a company can disseminate now is constrained only by the number of times the person in charge of social media can hit the Post button.

The ease of disseminating information, coupled with a general lack of Facebook etiquette, can become a problem in its own right. And some common social media behavior can have serious negative repercussions. Below are four offenses business pages commonly commit.

1. Overposting

Because the only constraint to posting on a business Facebook page is the willingness and stamina of the poster, many businesses try to break their own posting records every day. Every thought the poster thinks is deemed essential public knowledge, and it’s shouted from the Facebook rooftops with gusto.

Overposting clogs up users’ newsfeeds. Your business’s postings become white noise and an annoyance. Then, they become spam.

When customers feel that your page has spammed them, they will either hide your business from their feed or delete you from their list. And once they delete you, the follower is unlikely to reverse their decision.

How much is too much? If you’re posting more than once or twice a day, you risk alienating your customers.

2. Oversharing

Oversharing is not overposting, which is talking too much. Oversharing may be treating the business’ Facebook page like your diary or your political soapbox. Treating your company’s social media page as anything except a PR platform is oversharing.

It’s fine if you want to inject a little personality into your promotion platform. But there’s a fine line between “personality” and “personality crisis,” and once you cross the line, your page is toast. People will hit the “Hide postings from…” button faster than you can say “Ron Paul Forever!!!” (Oh, and turn the caps lock off.)

3. Poor writing

Many businesses cut a corner by writing their own social media content tor farming it out to an intern with poor grammatical skills. Your Facebook feed come across like the the local furniture-store owner who does his own TV commercials. Unless that’s the aesthetic you’re going for, consider having somebody professional look it over.

And by professional, we don’t mean your text-speak-fluent “resident young person.” Bad writing (multiple misspellings, clunky prose, the overuse of emoticons and abbreviations) makes your Facebook page look unprofessional. How many people want to patronize a business projecting a voice that says essentially, “Uh, yeah, whatever”?

4. Lack of moderation

Your Facebook Wall is like your community bulletin board. So, it will probably collect graffiti. Personal musings, links to dubious sites, pictures of somebody in a swimsuit—whatever it is, random crud will clutter up your page. You have to be diligent to keep your Facebook page spic-and-span. Otherwise, you risk having a page where law has no name.

While you don’t need to put a full-time hall monitor on your page, you have to clean things up once in awhile and delete postings that don’t fit the purpose of your Facebook page.

I’m guessing that one of your New Year’s Resolutions for your small business was to make more money.

Great. But now what?

To help you actually achieve your goal, I’ve got 12 tips to make sure you do make more money this year.

1. Get listed free. Take 30 minutes — right after you finish reading this column — and list your business, free, on search engine local listings.

This helps your company show up when a prospective customer searches for a business like yours on the Web or a mobile device. No technical expertise is needed. Get started with

• Bing business portal, bing.com/businessportal;
• Foursquare, foursquare.com/business;
• Google Places, google.com/places;
• Yahoo Local, local.yahoo.com; and
• Yelp, biz.yelp.com/claiming.

2. Figure out what makes you money. Businesses have two kinds of money, cash and profits.

Cash comes from making sales. Profits come from selling products or services for more than they cost you to produce. Small businesses generally focus on bringing in cash, and that’s OK because cash keeps the doors open.

But to get ahead, you need to focus on the parts of your business that bring you the most profits.

3. Market to current and former customers. Satisfied customers are the ones most likely to be future customers or refer others to you.

Yet small businesses typically neglect to market to them.

When my garbage disposal breaks, will I remember the name of the plumber I used two years ago? Not if the business doesn’t keep its name in front of me.

4. Get a contact management system. You need a good way to organize, manage, and stay in touch with your contacts, something easy and that you can access from mobile devices, not just a drawer full of business cards.

My company just switched to Salesforce.com.

5. Create a marketing plan. Spend your marketing dollars and time wisely.

Identify your best prospects and the most effective ways to reach them. Then market consistently. You have to stay in front of prospects.

6. Contact at least three prospects a week. Or seven. Or 20.

Give yourself a realistic quota, make a list of top prospects and referral sources and keep it where you see it. Get out there and sell.

7. Bother people. I mean be persistent, not annoying.

People are busy, including your prospects. Even if they want to buy from you, they may forget you. So stay in touch repeatedly.

8. Close the deal. Marketing is great, but at the end of the day, you also have to make — and close — the sale.

Sure, you have to let prospects know about your products or services, but you also have to ask them to make the purchase. Give them incentives to purchase now and make sure they see a strong call to action in your marketing materials.

And ask, directly and in person, to take the order, close the deal.

9. Shop local, shop small. I asked a woman at my gym where she got her workout shoes.

She responded: “Try them on at (name of local small store), then order them online.” Yikes!

Small businesses can’t survive as showrooms for online retailers. If we want customers to buy from us, we have to shop small.

10. Check out social-media marketing. I’m not saying that Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn will make you money, but you can increase your visibility.

At least know enough to figure out whether it might be right for you.

11. Get a cloud-based email newsletter service. Don’t be misled by the word “newsletter.” You can use these services to announce sales, new products or services, whatever.

Some choices for small businesses: Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, Vertical Response, Emma. An added bonus of cloud services is analytics. You get far better information about how your sales efforts are performing and who is responding to your emails.

12. Develop a business plan. In many ways, this is the most important.

Yes, I’m biased because I’ve written two books on developing business plans. But developing a business plan has been the single most important contribution to my company’s survival and success. Planning gets everyone moving in the same direction and provides structure for decision-making.

Now is the perfect time to develop a business plan for 2012.

By now you’ve surely seen those clever Allstate Insurance ads featuring a guy called Mayhem, ready to wreak havoc on the unprepared. The commercials have popularized the idea of mayhem, but it’s something I’ve seen for years in the area of marketing.

When marketing is seen as an event rather than a system, mayhem ensues. When organizations abdicate marketing strategy to creatives, mayhem ensues. When business owners try to make marketing harder than it is or easier than it really is, mayhem ensues.

Below are seven sure-fire ways to invite mayhem into your marketing mix.

1. Be all things to no one

Rather than trying to effectively appeal to a narrow slice of a market, many businesses attempt to be all things to all people and, of course, wind up being all things to no one in particular.

This is how commodities are created and we all know commodities are traded on price alone.

2. Think good service is enough

Quick, how many of you reading this right now think that your business provides lousy service? So, I’m guessing no one raised their hand and that everyone believes—I didn’t say it was true—that they provide good service.

The problem with good service is that it’s an expectation, not a difference. The problem with relying on good service is that anyone can claim it.

The key to standing out in a crowd is being different in a way that matters to a narrow segment of the market. End of story. Difference allows you to charge a premium.

3. Sell before you teach

You can sell anything to anyone. In fact, you should, but only after you’ve earned the right to do so, and you do that by giving and teaching first.

Giving can mean giving advice, giving answers or giving an experience. Teaching can mean demonstrating you know your stuff, teaching people there is a difference and showing them how to solve life’s persistent troubles.

The secret to giving and teaching in today’s online world is to commit to creating content that builds trust, educates and closes as a daily marketing task.

4. Cling to the funnel

The notion of the marketing funnel—that is, getting in front of lots of people and squeezing a few through the skinny part of the funnel—is a broken way to think about marketing these days.

The problem with the marketing funnel is that you have to keep filling it up just to get new business. It’s time to think about a new shape: the marketing hourglass. The hourglass takes into consideration the fact that a happy customer is your best source of new leads. By spending as much time on lead conversion and in creating a remarkable customer experience as you do on lead generation, you replace the struggle to fill from the top.

5. Think the Web is flat

There was a day when you got online and built a destination (your website). That day evolved into a web that included outposts and flat roads that pointed back to your main hub.

Today the interconnectedness of social networks, social marketplaces, mobile behavior and customer-published content has created the need to view the Web in a very circular way. A way that makes room for offline integration, as well as entire market places housed outside of your primary hub. Facebook, for example, has become both a gateway and a self-contained market and must be addressed as both.

6. Think the sale is ever really over

Many business folks, and certainly many sales folks, view the selling job as complete once the customer says yes or signs the deal.

The problem with this way of thinking is that it’s transactional, when business these days is about relational. Relationships are built by delivering an exceptional experience before, during and after the sale.

In fact, that sale isn’t over until the customer realizes the value promised.

7. Travel without a map

One of the problems with the concept of marketing is that there’s always going to be more to do than can be done. So, the trick is to create a plan and then map that plan on a calendar based on the highest payoff priorities.

Without a long term action plan, perhaps annual at least, businesses fall prey to the idea of the week and fail to build any momentum that drives them towards their ultimate business-building goals.

Traveling in this manner is much like heading out with no destination and no map. It’s not hard to see how you will inevitably drive in circles in that scenario, is it?

As we measure the degree of damage, or more precisely, reduced revenue and increased costs from the downturn, advertising spending tends to be one of the first cuts owners make. Yet this may be a great time to expand marketing to take a share of the market away from your competitors.

The key is marketing without little or no money through efforts like community engagement, referrals or sending a press release to local media. Another method is becoming a recognized expert who is called upon by media and other outlets to speak, write and lend your expertise.

You want to be recognized as an expert in your field, a specialist with trustworthy credentials that establishes your credibility. How does one become an expert? The traditional path is to spend a lifetime in the industry and earn relevant educational certifications and degrees. But the traditional method takes a long time and is impractical for the new entrepreneur who wants to enter the business arena as a player.

There are alternative paths to reach the goal of being recognized as an expert. Here are 12 ideas:

1. Learn about what’s important in your industry today and become current. Every commercial niche has one or more trade magazines. Obtain a few back copies, three at least, and read them cover to cover, particularly noting the editorials as their topics are what’s currently on the minds of the industry leaders. You should understand and adopt the opinion of the lead editorial from the lead magazine in that genre. The editors and writers know what is best for their industry. You should be adept on the subject and have an opinion or two of your own, of course, as you are an industry expert.
2. Note the advertisements. These will also tell you what’s new and important to the industry, as well as what the leading businesses are talking about and selling.
3. Write an article and submit it for publication in one of the industry magazines. This often isn’t as hard as it seems. Once done, you are a published writer in the industry. If you have trouble getting an article published, write a letter to the editor or respond to one; that’s easier, and it will start the process going. People will see your name and read your material.
4. Create a website and a blog. Begin to communicate with your market, discussing industry issues and creating an open forum with you as an expert. Highlight your involvement, as well as your diverse commitment to the industry. You can further establish your credentials and publish your materials, including press releases, articles, and so forth.
5. Create podcasts (video or audio) based on your blog entries. Post the video on YouTube. You can post your audio to iTunes. Some people find it easiest to start with services like Audio Acrobat (www.audioacrobat.com); you can phone from anywhere to record your podcast, and Acrobat feeds it to podcast hosting sites such as iTunes.
6. Offer to speak at a local college. Just about everyone lives near a university, college, state school, technical school, or some other bastion of higher learning. Offer a professor or department head the opportunity to have you speak at a forum run by the professor or department head on a subject relevant to you and the educator’s interest group—at no charge, of course.
7. Offer a local club, association, or service organization programming chair the opportunity to have you speak on a relevant subject both at no charge.
8. Run your own seminar. This is a smart way to continue to build your credentials.
9. Become a corporate speaker. If your subject matter has commercial application, you may be able to get a local business to let you speak after hours, during lunch, or at a business meeting. Being a public speaker at leading businesses and corporations adds to your credentials.
10. Send out media releases to the local press. Repeat your credentials and promote your speaking, writing, seminar or whatever you have to promote that you believe is of interest to and important for the general public to know about.
11. Join a national trade organization for your industry and offer to write a monthly column on interesting aspects of the industry for the organization’s newsletter or magazine. Of course, mention your name and business at the end to insert yourself subtly and tastefully. Be sure your article at least includes a byline with your web address. Now that you’re writing a monthly column for the industry trade magazine, you must be a respected expert. \If you can afford it, give a seminar at your industry’s national trade show. Or have a booth, or get on the board or any committee for the organization. All these options give you enormous credibility and visibility. Speak at the trade show; sponsor an event; be a presence.

You have begun to cement your reputation into a solid foundation of respectability. Now you can add to your credentials the facts that you are a nationally recognized and published author, a lecturer at universities and colleges, and a nationally renowned expert on your area of interst. In the end, marketing you as the expert leads to more business.

Finally, Google has released Google+ for businesses. While many major corporations such as Pepsi, Macy’s, Toyota, and H&M, have already hopped on board of the new social media, many small business owners are left clueless as to how this new medium can take their business to the next level. As always, SOHO is on top of it. Take a look at some ways that Google+Business and Google+Pages will help take your company to the next level.

Google+Business: described as the identity of your company.

Google+Pages: is the identity of a company on Google+. This is the first step to get your business on Google+. Here you can post updates and news about your business, engage in conversations with your customers, send tailored messages to specific groups, and view your number of +1’s around the web.

Specific Target Marketing

Compile and categorize your consumers and employees into Circles with ease and modest effort. With Circles, marketing campaigns can be geared towards specific demographics such as repeat customers, loyal customers, age groups, location based. Within office functions, create circles for the HR department, the interns, or even the front desk assistants to communicate, exchange or share data.

+1 Button

Implement the +1 button within the pages of your website and blog. This button allows your traffic to share information with people within their circles. And if the people within their circles like their information, then they have the option to re-share that information with their circles. And the process continues. This +1 button is just another tool for users to now share and re-share information.

Hangout

Google+ has a feature called “Hangout,” which is a video chat service that can be used to talk to dozens, or even hundreds, of people at once. Conduct meetings, listen to customer opinions, host an online seminar, the options are endless. Screen shot sharing and real-time collaboration on Google Docs are just a couple features allowed Hangout.

Direct Connect

Customers can now find your business with ease. Whenever someone types “+” followed by the name of a company in Google’s search box, the users will be taken directly to the company’s Google+ Page.

As small business owners we can sometimes overlook small details that could possibly violate the requirements of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration Act of 1970. For this reason, the OSHA provides several free services created with the sole intention of helping small business owners. Take some time and learn how the OSHA can help your business…for free!

Free On-Site Consultation

This confidential program provides small to medium-sized businesses advice on how to identify workplace hazards, achieve compliance with OSHA standards, and establish safety and health management systems. The consultation session is just that: a consultation. So you should have no fears of being penalized or receiving a citation. Read more about OSHA’s free On-site Consultation Program.

Hispanic/English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) Coordinators

These are the people who assist with outreach, education, and training efforts to Spanish speaking workers. The coordinators are also available for Hispanic-related seminars, workshops, and speaking events. For more information or to find a coordinator in your region, click here.

Training and Education

OSHA’s Training Institute (OTI) and OSHA’s Training Education Centers across the country provide basic and advanced courses in safety and health. OSHA’s area offices offer information services, such as audiovisual aids, technical advice, and speakers for special engagements. In addition, the Training Centers have begun offering one-day or one-half-day seminars to increase opportunities for small business employers to attend safety/health training.

Electronic Tools and Resources

OSHA eTools are “stand-alone”, interactive, Web-based training tools on occupational safety and health topics. They are highly illustrated and utilize graphical menus. Some also use expert system modules, which enable the user to answer questions, and receive reliable advice on how OSHA regulations apply to their work site.

• OSHA’s Safety and Health Management Systems eTool provides guidance for employers looking to build effective safety and health management systems at their worksites.
• OSHA Safety and Health Topics Pages provide access to selected occupational safety and health information. The subjects of these pages include specific workplace hazards, as well as individual industries.
• Recordkeeping injury and illness resources.

• OSHA’s Compliance Assistance Quick Start is a tool to introduce employers and employees, especially those at new or small businesses, to the compliance assistance resources on OSHA’s website.

• OSHA’s Safety Pays Program is an interactive expert system to assist employers in estimating the costs of occupational injuries and illnesses and the impact on a company’s profitability. This system uses a company’s profit margin, the AVERAGE costs of an injury or illness, and an indirect cost multiplier to project the amount of sales a company would need to generate in order to cover those costs.

•  Frequently Cited OSHA Standards is a query tool which allows the user to determine the most frequently cited Federal and State OSHA standards for a given SIC code. The SIC code may be determined by accessing the online SIC Manual.

OSHA also provides others services and assistance to help small businesses. These include the following:

• Third-Party Training and Education — OSHA gives training and education grants to various non-profit groups to develop programs to help small businesses establish safety and health programs. Grantees develop training programs and materials that they make available to small businesses. For more information on grants, see the Index at www.osha.gov.

• Mentoring — OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) recognize worksites where employers and employees work together to achieve safety and health excellence. Small firms can be matched with and mentored by a VPP site that will share its safety and health experience and expertise. For more information on VPP, contact your VPP coordinator in your nearest OSHA regional office.
•  Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) — Part of the Consultation Program, SHARP also recognizes exemplary employers who take special pride in providing a safe and healthful work environment for their employees and who meet specific program criteria. Employers who qualify receive a 1-year exemption from OSHA’s general schedule inspections.

• Training and Education — OSHA’s Training Institute in Des Plaines, IL, and OSHA’s Training Education Centers across the country provide basic and advanced courses in safety and health. OSHA’s area offices offer information services, such as audiovisual aids, technical advice, and speakers for special engagements. For more information, contact the Institute at 1555 Times Drive, Des Plaines, IL 60018, (847) 297-4810, or fax (847) 297-4874. A list of courses also can be found under Outreach at www.osha.gov. Note, in particular, OSHA’s computer-based training software — Expert Advisors — on topics such as hazard communication, asbestos, cadmium, confined spaces, fire safety, lead in construction, and more! See the Index on OSHA’s home page for this and other information.
• State Plans — Twenty-four states and two territories operate their own federally approved occupational safety and health programs. These entities conduct most OSHA enforcement through their own standards, which are at least as effective as Federal OSHA’s, but may have different or additional requirements. Many states offer additional programs of assistance to small businesses. For more information on state plans, see the list of plans at the end of this brochure or visit OSHA’s website at www.osha.gov.
• Electronic Information/Internet — OSHA standards, interpretations, directives, interactive software, compliance assistance materials, e-Tools, and additional information are available or can be ordered online at www.osha.gov. See also, OSHA’s online small business page.
•  CD-ROM — Directives, standards, interpretations, and other materials on CD. Available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954 or at (202) 512-1800. Specify OSHA Regulations, Documents, and Technical Information on CD-ROM, (ORDT), Order No. S/N729-013-00000-5; $45 per year and $21 per single copy. Issued quarterly.
• Publications — OSHA has many published materials, including specific topics for small businesses, that are available or can be ordered online at www.osha.gov.