websense

Wow, never even crossed my mind to wonder if I had the right to link to someone or some entity’s content, especially when caution is used to give credit to the original poster. I mean, it’s done constantly. I do it myself in nearly every post. Every bit of information you ever wanted someone else to see is sent via a link.

Most sites need and want links. Everyone is happy when the link juice is flowing. Rankings, followers, users, and often sales and/or conversions go up when you have more inbound links. So what’s the problem?

Possibly because the news organizations are feeling the sting of social media, i.e., that it is becoming a news source in and of itself, some news organizations are lashing out, not wanting their stories linked to, and considering charging for access to their content.

Now, without getting into all kinds of discussion on whether or not it is ethical to link, I’ll just put my two cents in and then direct you to a guy who is fighting to make sure you keep your right to link. My thoughts are that as long as the content you are linking to is public, then you have every right to pass on the information. That’s how the web functions. Without linking, no one would ever get anywhere unless they knew every url and could go directly to every site. Forget search engines, forget ever emailing a cool site or that motorcycle on Craigslist to anyone. Forget including your clients in your online portfolio. Ridiculous.

Chris Crum over @ WebProNews had a pretty interesting article back in January on the right to link – worth taking a look. I personally hope this becomes a non-issue very soon.

The National Small Business Administration is joining 20 states in their case against the federal government’s new health care law. I think this is hopefully a move in the right direction. I hate that so much of our world is ruled by litigious activity, but in this case it’s necessary.

This health care bill is going to strangle the small businesses in this country. Most, if not all, can’t afford the taxes this administration is levying. Most medium sized business will struggle as well. Are we really wanting to kill the small amount of growth that is starting to happen?

Are you a small business (or medium) owner? Have you run the numbers? The administration likes to say that these taxes will only effect the wealthiest Americans (which still doesn’t make it right) but they include small businesses that make over $200,000 a year in that group. How are we supposed to grow our businesses? How are we supposed to hire and train the people who are looking for work? How are we supposed to conduct our businesses as if we were still a part of a free enterprise system when we see socialism staring us right in the eye and handing us a bill?

For some reason Fox is not using the Embed anymore, but if you’d like more information, here’s a great video clip: http://video.foxnews.com/v/4196756/small-businesses-join-big-fight/

Always on the lookout for my small business clients and friends, I have happened across and interesting offer from RatePoint, Inc. RatePoint provides copy in the form of testimonials, customer feedback, that sort of thing, for use on it’s clients’ web sites. This is a free offer for small business owners who are trying to maintain their online reputation. The services includes:

•Unlimited collection of reviews and testimonials from customers
•Unlimited automatic posting of content, such as newsletters, coupons and offers to Facebook and Twitter by simply checking a box
•Unlimited use of online surveys to collect customer insights
•Unlimited e-mail campaigns to a list of up to 125 contacts

This might work for some of you who need a hand in this department, but aren’t looking to spend money on it. I’ve mentioned here numerous times how important it is to build your brand and maintain your reputation online. This service may be helpful to you. It’ll probably be a bit cookie cutter, after all, it is a free service, but I’d wager that it has some very good points to it. There is a catch, each of the services offered have limitations. Such as only 125 email contacts for each email, you can’t post a review after 30 days, etc. These carry extra fees, thought they are minimal.
Overall, it is for sure better than nothing. If you have tried it or are using it, let me know what you think of it, I’d be interested to hear.

I’ve blogged quite a bit over the last couple of years, especially during the economic downturn, about making the most of your marketing budget. We’re seeing a turn around here in NE Ohio, but a lot of companies are being careful. They know they need to make the most out of their marketing budget.

If SEO isn’t part of your marketing strategy, I gotta ask why. Why, when it has been shown time and again to provide the best ROI? TKG’s SEO blog had a great post on this topic a few months back. The article outlined precisely why you should be using your marketing dollars for SEO. James Wells also has a great post about the Value of SEO in Your Marketing Budget. He makes the great point that “many companies are overlooking this extremely cost effective and valuable form of marketing”.

If you aren’t sure how much you should be spending on SEO, perhaps a better question would be to ask yourself how much money you would like to make. Marketing requires that you spend money to make money, as the old adage goes, but with SEO, sure, you’ll spend some money, but in truth, far less than with traditional marketing, with a much higher ROI. Once you develop a strategy, put it in place and tweak it as analytics dictate, you’ll start to see why I’ve been touting this stuff for so long.

If you don’t believe me, or these other guys, take a look at this fantastic Fox Small Business video. These guys are getting a taste of where their marketing budget should go to grow their small business printing personalized gifts for children. They are a perfect fit for SEO, and that’s the advice they are giving.

We’re more than half way through 2010. What kind of growth would you like to see this year? Do you want to spend a lot for a little, or a little to get a lot?

If you got our Spring Newsletter (way back in March), or read this blog very often, you know I use LinkedIn and feel that it has some real potential to be more relevant in the business world, in some cases than other forms of social media. In my mind, it just makes sense. It has great potential for driving traffic to your site, especially with some of the new features.

LinkedIn has in recent months added a number of new features to enable users to spread their brand over a number of applications. You can now “follow” other companies and thus, users can “follow” you. You can link your blog to LinkedIn pull your posts into your profile. It also will find all blogposts by those in your network, making it easy to keep up with the business blogs that are important to you. You can also have your LinkedIn status feed your Twitter account to get your business some additional exposure, as well as traffic.

LinkedIn has a video stream called InTips, with lots of pointers on ways to make the most of your profile. One of the really cool aspects of this is that they have developed a series of six videos for students or people graduating from college. Best ways to find a job, beef up your profile and resume, and so on. If you belong to one of those two groups, I highly recommend you check out these very helpful videos and create or work on your profile, it could really help you find the best position for you.

LinkedIn has also developed an integration with Microsoft to make networking with your contacts in Outlook that much easier. I’m all for making this stuff easier, and when it comes to using social media to make connections or drive traffic to your business or e-commerce site, I think LinkedIn should be your first stop.
Chris Crum has a great post on LinkedIn over at WebProNews. Definitely worth a look.

So, do you use LinkedIn? What are your favorite aspects of it? Are you getting traffic from LinkedIn?