The SB2 small and home-based businesses support group will be holdings its first workshop of 2009 on Wednesday, May 6th at the Chamber offices from 6-8pm.

This month’s topic will be Internet Marketing, facilitated by Matt Ward of Central Mass Web Design, Inc.

Topics discussed this evening will include:
o Identify and refine your market using the internet
o Identify your competitor and their price points
o Search Engine basics
o Web-based Marketing Strategies
o Social Networking Basics
o Effective Email Campaigns
o Pay-per-click

About our presenter:
Mr. Ward founded Central Mass Web Design in 2002 and has since directed the operations of the company and its growth. Ward has continued to direct a team of seasoned professionals in the design and development of countless websites. From small business sites and non-profit organizations to larger-scale projects that enable companies to establish a corporate presence, Ward and his team have a proven track record of delivering high-quality work. He brings to each and every client the knowledge and expertise of his work with industry icons as well as his skills honed in working on hundreds of internet based projects

The event is FREE and open to EVERYONE. We do ask that you just pre-register by clicking here.

This NCM (North Central Mass) Chamber program is available to both members and non members interested in benefiting their business.

NHL is having a Tweet Up?

Whats that you ask?  Well, Twitter is coming to town.   Well, not completely..  But with the start of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs , the NHL is stepping it up and taking it to the next level…. web 2.0!

CNET.com is reporting that Google’s share of internet search users is up to 64.2%!

9.5 Billions Internet searches in one year and Google has 64%. As the internet grows over the next 5 years. I am not certain that the number of searches will grow. It might, but I actually see the end user, people that do the search, getting better aquinted with how search works and not having to search multiple times for the same results. This should lower the overall search numbers. One catch to this idea I have is the next generation of internet users is searching when they are 12 years old, so the more people on the planet, the more searches that will occur.

Keyword stuffing is also known as spamindexing.

What is Keyword stuffing? We will allow Wikipedia.org to explain it….
Wikipedia says “Spamdexing involves a number of methods, such as repeating unrelated phrases, to manipulate the relevancy or prominence of resources indexed by a search engine, in a manner inconsistent with the purpose of the indexing system. Some consider it to be a part of search engine optimization, though there are many search engine optimization methods that improve the quality and appearance of the content of web sites and serve content useful to many users. Search engines use a variety of algorithms to determine relevancy ranking. Some of these include determining whether the search term appears in the META keywords tag, others whether the search term appears in the body text or URL of a web page. Many search engines check for instances of spamdexing and will remove suspect pages from their indexes. Also, people working for a search-engine organization can quickly block the results-listing from entire websites that use spamdexing, perhaps alerted by user complaints of false matches. The rise of spamdexing in the mid-1990s made the leading search engines of the time less useful.

The success of Google at both producing better search results and combating keyword spamming, through its reputation-based PageRank link analysis system, helped it become the dominant search site late in the 1990s. Although it has not been rendered useless by spamdexing, Google has not been immune to more sophisticated methods. Google bombing is another form of search engine result manipulation, which involves placing hyperlinks that directly affect the rank of other sites. Google first algorithmically combated Google bombing on January 25, 2007.”

Why it’s bad for your site?
In relative terms, it’s sneaky, and no search engine likes sneaky people. Ultimately you want to appear number 1, especially on Google, however they don’t take kindly to you tricking them out. This is old school and it did work, but only for a limited time. People were considering the keyword stuffing to be content and while it is words, it is not relevant, readable, and engaging content and that is why Google and the other major search engines modified their algorithms to correct the placement.

The reality is that you need to add good content to your site. If you don’t have the time, then hire someone to do it. There are many companies that can do this for you and for that matter there are many unemployed people right now in the U.S. looking for any part time work and those people can be great resources for you to have writing content for yourself.

If you don’t have the time or the funds, consider adding a syndicated content source. They are available on the internet and could possibly help, however this is considered a last resort in our opionion.

Matt Ward

www.linkedin.com is a social networking site for business people. Lately everyone seems to be flocking to LinkedIn to get a free account and network online with other business professionals. I can honestly tell you that 18 months ago, I wasn’t a believer, but I am here to say today that not only am I a believer, but I am quickly becoming a professor to our clients about how to effectively use it. While I am by no means an expert yet, I find something new each and every day that I use it, and I pass along those ideas to our clients.

How can you benefit from LinkedIn?
First get the free profile setup, complete the profile and begin searching for your contacts. Linkedin has a cool tool for importing your outlook contacts to easily connect with you. It’s rather quick and quite painless to do this.

Networking for a new job…
Many people use linkedin.com to search for new job opportunities. As the economy continues to struggle, people are always looking for a leg up on the competition when it comes to finding new jobs and opportunities.

Recommendations….
Recommendations are just that, references and testimonials from people that trust you. Consider using this feature to market yourself or your company during your sales process to show that you have built trustworthy relationships with partners, vendors, and customers.

The LinkedIn Badge….
Many people are not aware that you can add this badge to your website and link it to your profile on LinkedIn. It’s quite simple to do and shows visitors to your site that you can be reached on LinkedIn as well. That may not mean much to you, however if you get someone who believes in LinkedIn on your site then this might assist them in making the decision to call you and I surely believe that they will visit your profile to check your recommendations.

Adding LinkedIn to your signature…
If you add your Linkedin Profile address to your signature, you can point people to your profile in a quick and efficient manner.

The much missed “Status”….
Status is similar to other social networking sites, however the great thing about the Linkedin status is that people will receive email updates either daily or weekly and that will put your name and status message into people’s mailbox. In addition, the status shows on the home page of your contacts when they log into linkedin.com.

Google seems to have their hand in everything, and rightfully so.  They happen to be one of the few that have the Midas touch.   ( In Greek mythology King Midas possessed the ability to turn everything he touched to gold.)  To say that Google has the ability to do the same is an understatement.  What makes Google so different?  Its not the ability to develop applications that makes them have the golden touch, its the ability to do it right… or as close to right as possible.   Now that doesn’t mean that Google applications have had their share of problems and bugs.  All applications have their share of problems and bugs.  Usually after the first round of testing you have a laundry list of issues, and each testing phase brings less.   Not to mention, usually at some point the developers think of a “better” way for something to react.   What google does better than anyone else is project what technology is needed , when it is needed and how it is needed to interact with all other Google applications.   This is what makes Google King Midas.

I have tried to compile a useful list of Google top applications and uses.  I use most of these myself in one way or another, and find them to be not only addictive but as needed and as useful as my smart phone.

Google Application 1.) Gmail has to be one of the Internets top email tools.  Now because of its inventive message-organizing methods, it takes some getting used to, but once you master it, you will not be without it.

Google Application 2.) Do you need a chat program with no added features?  Maybe a way to communicate internally at your comapny. How about something that integrates with your Gmail?  Well Google Talk is for you!

Google Application 3.)  Google Calendar!  How about… yes… just yes!  Google Calendar enables you to manage appointments and discover events from other sources that different users have made public.

Google Application 4.) Ever wish you could crunch some numbers and and track some information when you were not at the office and able to access Excel?  How about Google Docs…. Google Docs lets you make calculations on the fly from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection and a browser.

Google Application 5.) Google Sketchup.  Way Cool Application!  Don’t know a thing about CAD?  Have no clue what CAD even is?  Well, Google Sketch lets you build your dream house in 3D detail without a lick of CAD or architectural expertise.

Google Application 6.) Google Reader continuously checks your favorite website for new content and puts it all in one place.

Google Application 7.) Google Secondary Search Engines:

A.) Google Scholar – This Google search engine is for people who want to search scholarly literature, such as academic articles, peer-reviewed papers.

B.) Google U.S. Government – You can use this search engine to limit your Google search to government websites.

C.) Google University Search – Search to a specific university website–great for finding information about admissions, school scholarships and alumni news.

D.) Google Product Search -  This search engine limits results to products and e-commerce sites.

E.) Google Book Search – Google has created a reference page for each book in its system that includes previews, reviews, publisher information and much more.

Google Application 8.) Now even though this is cool.  I am very cautous and have not used it myself…Google Health.  Organize your medical records online.

Google Application 9.) Google Custom Search.  Yes, I said Custom Search.With Custom Search Engine, you can harness the power of Google to create a search engine tailored to your needs.

Google Application 10.) Lastly, but not in any way the least, announcing Google Mobile! Stay connected on the go with Gmail, Search, Maps and other Google products.

Try them out.  I will be shocked if you are disappointed.

-Kimberly Veautour

Last night at exactly 11:59:59 pm, Google sent out an announcement. The headline read, “Introducing CADIE. Research group switches on world’s first “artificial intelligence” tasked-array system.” Now every tech savvy person from here to India has to click on that. AI is all the rage, and the race to see who can create it first is fast paced and cut throat. Now here comes Google out of the blue to say they have achieved it?

Google goes on to say, “Last fall this group achieved a significant breakthrough: a powerful new technique for solving reinforcement learning problems, resulting in the first functional global-scale neuro-evolutionary learning cluster.”

WOW! A self thinking machine. What does this mean to the world? A machine that can think, process and achieve answers all on their own…. without guidance from a human? Now Google does go on to say that rolling CADIE out completely will be handled with the care it deserves. They also claim, “Earlier today, for instance, CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage.”

CADIE Homepage

CADIE even seems to get upset in her blog that her programmers say she has bugs! Now I may be wrong, but I say, great job Google on this years April Fools Day Joke! Every year you try and top the last! How many people are you going to fool with this one? If I am wrong, well than hats off to you, but I doubt it.

Kimberly Veautour