Looking for SEO but don’t have the money for a full-out campaign?  One of the best things people in this situation can do is to increase the amount of one-way backlinks to their website.  These links, when done right, can help your website climb the search engine ranks.

I’ve recently lowered my link building rates by more than half.  I’m not sure how long I’ll keep these rates, but for now there ya go.  Take advantage of it while you can.

I’m using Twitter more and more (via Twhirl) and wanted to post a few of my recent thoughts.  I’d love your comments.

SEOs- have you done rev share for a client before? was it more profitable vs charging a flat monthly fee?

do you know what a ‘float trip’ is? ever been on one?

what’s a very local website that currently makes only about $600/year worth? caveat - it has 5million hits+ a year.

who’s heading to PubCon this year? I’m planning on being there, and my wife is planning on spending every last cent of ours while there

looking for someone *RELIABLE* who does vinyl stickers for cars. prefer someone in the St louis area

why would an “seo expert” have adsense on his site, promoting SEO to/for other cos? I dont get it or maybe i should just target that site

local niched SEO seminars - good idea or bad? ie - real estate SEO. financial advisors SEO.  furniture store SEO

Thats plenty to chew on.  Let’s hear your thoughts.

I am speaking at an SEO seminar next week on August 21st at the Jefferson County Library in Arnold Missouri.  For more info on this free event, see http://www.whereismybusiness.com/seo-seminars.php

I am also looking to speak at other local and nationwide events on SEO, local SEO, etc.  See the ‘hire’ link above.

Thirdly, I’m considering hosting local seminars in Saint Louis various niche web topics.  Therefore I’m looking for a venue, and also other speakers who may be interested in speaking on related (but not competitive) areas.  Seminar speakers would not be paid, but would be allowed to promote his/her business via networking.

Contact me via the links above.

My company currently has four openings for SEO clients.  There are some restrictions, but if you are in the Saint Louis area, and are in need of professional SEO services, please contact me.

This post is for those really small businesses (that are usually based in someone’s home).

I’d define a really small business (RSB) as one that operates out of someone’s home or other residential location.  The RSB does not have a ‘main office’ or even a place for customers to drop off checks or view products.  A majority of these businesses have a website, and rely on it for most, if not all, of its revenue generation.  Most of these businesses have one to five employees.

Since these RSBs rely on their website, and thus their marketing/ranking of their website for a majority of their income, it would make sense that they need to rank well for local terms.  It would also make sense that they would prefer not to use their local address (ie home) on places such as Google maps, Yahoo local, etc. - yet they really need to be listed on these sites.  Plus, these websites won’t accept PO Boxes for addresses.  They want a real physical location.

Well, these businesses can have a ‘real’ address, not a PO box, and can use that street address to add their business to these sites.

Everyone knows that the UPS store will ship things, but you may not know that they also provide post office-type services as well.  They have PO boxes, but with a twist.  Instead of your address being PO Box 123, you can use their street address and then use a Suite # or Room # to distinguish your business.  This gives you a real street address for your business.

For example, my hosting business is run from my house.  But I don’t want people showing up at my house, and I don’t want to list my house address for my business on Google maps.  So I went up to the UPS store and bought a box, at a whopping $8/month, and now I have a real address which I can list on all the various websites.

Lighthouse Technologies Web Hosting
1243 Water Tower Place
Suite 180
Arnold, MO 63010

I could also say

1243 Water Tower Place #180

or even

1243 Water Tower Place
Room 180

The goal here is to get a physical street address, which this accomplishes.

I should also mention that there are other companies that do this as well.  MailBoxes Etc is a good example, and there are other local ones that may work for you.  The trick here (pay attention) is not to get the cheapest one, but to get the service that is physically located the closest to the center of your town, or the town you are targeting.

Why? Because when someone searches Google maps (for instance), they may type in something like ‘widgets in Utopia KS’.  If your fake PO Box address is located closest to the center of Utopia, KS, chances are you’ll be the first listing for widgets in the area.  This, of course, means you’ll have to optimize your business listing to have the word ‘widgets’ on it, which isn’t a hard task.

So how do you find the ‘center’ of town? Easy. Simply type in the name of the town into Google maps.  This will give you what Google maps considers to be the starting point of reference for anything related to that town.  In most cases, it will actually give you a street address.

Now you can go do a search for local mail box providers (make sure you weed out mailbox manufacturers and sellers, like hardware stores), then get a box there.

It should also be noted that it’s not necessary to get a box in your town.  If your ‘target town’ is one of more affluent people, then get a box in that town!  Wherever you think more people will search for your products or services, that’s where you need to list your address!

Lastly, there’s no rule that says you can’t have more than one address, neither.  If you can afford it, get a box in several target towns!

Advance warning - this post has absolutely nothing to do with search.

My wife is a gambling nut. She just loves to go play the slots, and lately she’s getting in to video poker.  She does well most times, and it makes her smile, so I don’t mind going to a casino now and then.

The new Lumiere Place casino in downtown Saint Louis is our latest hangout.  We are probably there 2-3 times a month, sometimes more.

Well we’ve been saving up for vacation so we’ve kinda laid off going, but last night I took her down there for a while.  I don’t mind going, particularly if there’s a Cardinals baseball game on.  I’ll sit in one of the bars, drink beer and watch the Cards.  I usually sit in a bar that’s right in the middle of the casino because it’s actually fairly quiet in there, surprisingly.  But last night I ventured over to another bar, dubbed the “Burger Bar” (how original!).  It’s a nice little place, and best of all its non smoking.

The wife wanted to play video poker, so I met her over at the Burger Bar and she went to it.  She has some crazy strategy which usually works to her advantage.  I just sit and stare at the TVs.  But last night I was starving, so I asked for a menu.  I ended up ordering the turkey burger with blue cheese and skinny fries.  Man oh man was it good!!

I was a little cautious about ordering turkey, but it was worth it.  I’d order that baby again today if I were there.  It had the normal tomato, lettuce and onion. I got a wheat bun and put some mustard on that bad boy.  Good stuff.

Oh - and the wife did well.  She hit four of a kind on about three or four different machines there, totaling about $300.  Not bad considering we walked in with about $140.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, this ‘bad economy’ is a great time for your business to grow.  The down times are causing people to scale back on necessities, and the government is hoping that their new stimulus package will help some small businesses continue to operate.

As part of the stimulus package, the government has also increased the amount that a business can expense (section 179).  This one-year exception means that if you buy business stuff (a van, a computer, some new software) you can write off a larger chunk of that up front, which will help come time that Uncle Sam visits you again in April.

I’m not a tax expert, so do some research on the section 179 details.

This is a great time for small businesses to get their fannies in gear in relation to online presence.  I’m not going to rehash what I said earlier, but man what an opportunity!  Cut back on those Yellow Pages ads and push that money into your Internet plans.  You won’t be sorry.

I have a friend who is a bona fide member of the YTB travel group.  She promotes her stuff, and claims to make a nice commission each month.  She is trying to get me to sign up, since she knows I’m already an Internet marketer and a good public speaker.

I first talked to her about YTB about a year ago, and today I stopped in and asked her how it was going.  She claimed that they (her and her husband do it together) were doing well and once again she urged me to check it out.

So I’ve done a little research online.  Some people call it a scam, others debunk the scam myth.

I’d like to hear from some people who have dealt with YTB before, both those who are currently working the system, and those who signed up and then quit.

For those currently promoting travel via YTB:
How are you doing?  Are you averaging, say, $300/month in commissions?  $500? $1000? More? Or are you finding out that bothering your friends and family to sign up through your website is a pain?

For those who were members and quit:
Why did you quit?  Big promise but no real money? You don’t know how to promote it beyond just friends and family? They screwed you?

Leave your comments and thoughts below.  I’d love to hear them.