Marketing Basics

Creating a Classified Advertising Website

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I had set up a classified advertising website a number of years ago using DeltaScripts PHP Calssifieds. I was really very happy with this script, but as times change, it has not seemed to keep up with either the new developments in user friendliness nor the dropping price in scripts. Therefore it was time to take a look at other options for a classified advertising website. I first looked at Noah Classifieds as it was directly installable from cPanel using Fantastico. I was not overly impressed with the admin features, nor the support available on the Noah Classifieds site (no manual either online nor […]

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Five ways to Increase your Public Persona

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The age of celebrity is upon us! We all need to conquer our fears and put our best face forward to build up our image, create our public persona.  Small business owners face this challenge on a daily basis, and with the digital divide in front of them, they need to find ways to cross the chasm. Here are five ways to position yourself as the expert in your industry – ways to put yourself in the spotlight and let your abilities shine. Dig deep into your own interests and expertise and come up with some quality facts or research and let others know

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Shopping Cart Comparison

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I am working on a client project that needs a shopping cart set up.  I have not done too many shopping cart projects – more with PayPal buttons for the one-off items.  But this clients needs more functionality than PayPal can provide – and wants the lower fees of a merchant account. I have in the past used OsCommerce, which is a decent shopping cart, but lots of work to get set up and everything working just the way it should be. I decided to look at hosted shopping cart solutions. One option that I really like upon initial inspection was ultracart.  It has

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Core of Search Engine Optimization

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The core of Search Engine Optimization is writing good quality content that is tightly focused around a central idea. This goes back to how we were taught to read and write.  Jane and Mike had a ball. They bounced the ball. The ball was red. They were bouncing the ball and it hit a tree. – the whole story was about the ball. Begin every new content creation project (new web page, description of your products, blog post, etc) by first determining what is the central idea. That is what is makes it the core of search engine optimization. Then come up with the

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Facebook as a marketing tool

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You hear it all over the web, at networking events, even in the local coffee shop.  Facebook is being called the new frontier for marketing.  Get on Facebook – it is where your customers are.  And best of all – its FREE! Facebook can be a useful marketing tool, I am not denying that.  But it is becoming harder for businesses to use this tool, and even harder for people to promote and find new customers using their personal profiles. Facebook controls what everyone sees on the ‘Wall’ – that area where the updates come from all your friends and business pages you have

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