So you want to start a vlog. You realize blogs are great branding & marketing tools and you want to take that next step. Here are 5 easy steps on how to create a video blog for $105.

1. Download www.WordPress.com
2. Buy a Vlog template
3. Hire this company to Install Wordpress for $35
4. Download CamStudio for free, or buy Camtasia for screen capture / editing video you took from a web cam or a video camera.
5. I have heard the Logitech QUICKCAM PRO 9000 Web Cam is pretty good webcam for creating online videos and the Flip Ultra Video Series is pretty good for the money as a digital camera; has a built in usb drive for easy transfer.

Google jumps on the social networking bandwagon and has introduced SearchWiki. When a user is signed into their Google Account and does a search in Google they will see new tools next to each search result. These tools allow users to move / delete / add / comment on search results. Although the comments can be made public (only to others who are signed into their Google Account) the positions they change are only visible to them.

SEO Implications

Although Google has publicly said SearchWiki will have NO affect currently on normal organic search results, the future could. Google is always looking to make their search results better and knowing if 10,000 users don’t want to see a Wikipedia result #1 for every search result may be great information.

YES. A website may benefit from a site map. Even though pages can be indexed from a website following quality back links, it cannot be confirmed that all the pages will be indexed, due to variety of reasons. But if you have a site map ready, with all the information in place, one can confirm that all the pages are indexed on Google and the other search engines.

There have also been instances where sites without sitemaps have also made it to the search engines without much difficulty. That’s fine, but if you have a website that is not well reputed yet on the search engines, and have fewer backlinks, then submitting a sitemap may help. And if you have a website with large amount of content, a site map gives you an opportunity to organize the content and get the best ones out there on the search engines.

BUT, site maps are not required. Site maps won’t guarantee all your pages are indexed. Creating a Site Map will not fix poor coding, website navigational, keyword research, and Meta Data. In fact, if you need a site map to index all your web pages it means your web developer & programmers did a poor job building your site. It also means that you are most likely not benefiting fully from internally links.

A good web design company & software development company knows how to plan, build, and organize a website so it doesn’t need a website.

Read this article about, The Difference between a .HTML Site Map vs. .XML Site Map

Why do you see these Social Bookmarking Icons on every website? Blogs, forums, and even corporate sites have these images. This video explains (1) what they are (2) why the are important (3) how you can integrate them into your site.

What is Social Bookmarking? Article

What is Social Bookmarking? Video

Reliable listing is a search engine optimization company that provides SEO services. This is a video case study that a client of ours requested after being cold called, signing up, being unhappy, and then trying to sold on new seo services requested.

Click here to read the Google Local Tutorial or our article on Video Distribution discussed in this video.

WebBizIdeas Google Local Tutorial will teach a Small Business how to proper optimize their website in Google Local’s listings. A small business can take advantage of this information and have their web site appear in the top 10 results of Google Maps and Google’s organic search engine listings. Local Advertising has extremely high conversation rates and considering Google Local is free internet business owners should take advantage of this.

To read more view our full Google Local Tutorial.

I am an internet marketing consultant for a Minneapolis Landscaping Company in Minnesota.  Yesterday the owner asked me to review an offer he received from a company that cold called him.  We listed his company in Yahoo Local and that is how Reliable Listing got his contact information.

The company sent over a fancy 10 page report “analyzing”  the client’s site.  They highlighted in RED the things he needed to change in GREEN the things that were good.  I can’t express in words how much I despise companies that do this because each one of them is a waste time. 

The are produced many times overseas in India by people that don’t analyze your business..  The companies just try to create a fancy report (cookie cutter template) to put fear in the website owner’s mind.  They don’t look to see what the website or each page is about, they are only interested in the end result.

Here is what they sent:  Reliable Listing Proposal

Here is my response:  Reliable Listing Response

This report is to (1) inform internet business owners not to do business with companies like this (2) to specifically tell customer not to do business with Reliable Listings.  On top of all this they have only been in business for a year; that is barely enough time to achieve good search engine goals.  In the next 1-3 months look for this blog post to be on the first page of Google when you type in “Reliable Listings.”  We will see who really knows a thing or two about search engine optimization & brand awareness. 

This is a video that www.Seedwell.com; video production company focusing on viral marking produced. They are a great company that usually produces hilarious viral marketing videos but this one discussed “social entrepreneurship”. The groups discussed in the video have been celebrated by Oprah, Jay-Z, Bill Clinton, National Geographic, MTV, CNN, PBS, NBC and others. If you are thinking of starting an internet business you may acquire some great internet business ideas by viewing this video & exploring “social entrepreneurship.”

For those who missed Comscore’s webinar which reported on the state of the U.S. Online Retail Economy I have attached their .PDF they gave out to attendees.

This report touched on the fact that Q2 & Q3 of 2008 has seen a decrease in online retail growth. In fact they showed since Q4 of 2007 the growth rate has significantly gone down from 19% to 6%. Gian Fulgoni, Co-Founder and Chairman of Com Score, touched on how offline retail spending was dragging down online retail sales. This was actually a good bit of data to hear since we had seen slower growth in sales despite increase traffic for our site, Wholesale Keychain.

The Rich are Still Spending Online!

I thought it was about right that the growth in higher income households saw a 15% increase in spending while the rest of the market segments saw a 3% increase.

What does this data tell Internet Entrepreneurs?

If you are looking to break into the Job Portal industry now would be the time. Monster.com, CareerBuilder, and CraigsList all are criticized for SPAM. If you have a bright idea on how to counter-act Job Posting SPAM and the capital to compete taking advantage of the “fear” of job security is at hand. If you are a strong writer and have experience, knowledge, and passion to help others starting an informative website in the Job Search, Financial, or Real-Estate Market would be a great idea. Affordable web content management software would allow anyone to start this type of internet business. Another segment not shown but discussed is the LARGE increase in classified sites; makes sense with the economy.

Sales Increases & Decreases by Category

Where to put your marketing dollars?

It isn’t any secret that search engines dominate online referrals, leads, and sales. This graph shows that 52.7% of referrals came from Search/Navigation. It wouldn’t be a bad time to look into internet marketing services & internet consulting services.