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Ha! I had to start this post with a laugh because its been roughly one month since this blogs initial launch and the comment spam is already rolling in. What kills me though, is that many of the spam comments we receive are from Internet marketing companies from around the net. I’m always left wondering how successful these companies are, because it must do something for them to be able to keep doing it.

In any regards, i labeled this post “Super Blog Blast 3000″ because there are many software programs available that will scour the net to make comments on thousands of blogs. I’ve never truly understood this, as the real blogging community frowns upon illegitimate users that are simply trying to get a free link from their site. In addition, most blogging platforms put a “no-follow” attribute automatically on the link from your comment, making it a non worthwhile linking tactic in Google’s eyes. Plus, even if they don’t use a no-follow, influential bloggers whom know the industry they serve, also know when they get automated comment spam. Therefore, the links you will likely get wont be any good.

Nevertheless, automated comment spam and trackbacks are continuing to be a growing problem and are not showing any signs of slowing down. However, there are a few options to check and limit blog spam:

1. Follow the link- there is obviously going to be comments and trackbacks that shout ‘I’M SPAM.” However some “black hats” can be sneaky. If you’re not entirely sure if the comment is legit, first start by following the link back to the poster in question. Are they a SEO company? Are they selling products that are questionable? If so, the best course of action is just to delete or mark it as spam. Even though it may be legitamate, its better to be selective to who you link to than approve a link to a bad neighborhood.

2. Add a captcha- A captcha is a box that a human user needs to enter in numbers or letters (sometimes a combination of both) before they can click submit. Chances are you have seen this on another blog or website. If you are haven’t see one, just check out our get started page and scroll down to the bottom to see the box. Although it may not look the pretties, it does save a lot of labor in moderating comment spam. Most blog platforms will have plugins that you can install that will to do this for you or your blog platform may already have it.

3. Review your comment rules- most blogging platforms have options on how to deal with comments. For instance, WordPress allows you to set how many links to look for in a post. I usually set this to 1, because most users don’t put links in their signature. (Especially legitimate SEO’s)

Blogging is a great tool and its unfortunate that a small bunch of abusers continue to look for ways to break the barrier. However, if you are a blogger, employing these simple tactics will help ensure that your community remains spam free. Lastly, if you are still in search for a quality link, check out our business blogging directory…and if you think you are worthy enough, submit your link for review.

I have always found humor in how things sometimes get their name. For instance, do you know what the difference is between an herb and a spice? Do you the people that know the difference say, “Hey honey, can you pick me up some spices at the store?”

In any regard, I’ve always struggled with the notion of search engine marketing (SEM) actually being labeled “marketing” when most companies/professionals refer to it as search engine optimization and pay per click advertising. These alone are great mediums for marketing products and services, however, aren’t enough when you consider all the elements that are involved in really marketing online.

Developing solid search engine marketing strategies involves more than a process of getting high search rankings and managing a pay per click budget. To really market and be successful online, you need to know your customers and how your company’s offerings will solve their problems. Once these important questions are answered, they need to be communcated in a way that not online increases traffic, but also communicates how the company competes, the kind of demographic that uses their products, and how to get them. These are done in a variety of ways:

• Web Design & Development- you website needs to look in keeping or better than its competitors as consumers re savvy and will likely shop around before making a decision. It should present a compelling story that answers “Why should i buy from you.” Additionally, your website should include vital information that makes it easy to understand how to purchase or get in touch with your company.

• Website Content- your website content is the voice of your company and should be written in a way that communicates value to your target market. This is definitely not as easy as it sounds, as web objectives do vary company to company. As a general rule of thumb, starting from the end result you want is a good point of reference. For instance, a technical company that markets to electrical engineers may want to place more emphasis on finding spec sheets so that they can determine if your products fits their specifications.

• Interactive Features- using a video or a flash demo can do wonders for waking up a website and make it convert. Those companies that offer complex products and services usually benefit the most out of these features since consumers are increasingly demanding easier ways to disseminate information.

To put it clearly, i don’t deny search engine marketing as a marketing practice. However, achieving high rankings or buying keyword traffic alone is only a component to the above equation. To really be successful, fundamental marketing principles apply. Use you website as a tool for your target audience and you’ll reap all the benefits of what search engine marketing as to offer.

A new study of business blogging by Forrester Research revealed which the Wall Street Journal recapped is that most businesses aren’t reaping the rewards from blogging. In fact, they concluded that most business blogs are “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion.” As a major advocate of business blogging and co-founder of the largest business blogging portal on the net, I wanted reflect on this study and share with you some insight.

First, here are the raw numbers:
70% of corporate blogs stick to business or technical topics
74% rarely get comments
56% simply regurgitate press releases or other already-public news
53% of B2B marketers say that blogging has little or no significance

As I’ve been following business blogs for the last 3 years, i can say with a good degree of confidence, that I agree with the above study. Most of the blogs that have been submitted to us for review (which i can honestly say that i personally have seen over 20K myself) resemble the above statistics. However, most of the time, these blog owners aren’t using their blog in the typical way a real blogger would, in that they are looking for a fast buck and not focusing on content, But whats truly interesting from this particular study, is that nearly 20% of the blogs surveyed were from fortune 500 companies with likely the “deepest pockets” to formulate solid strategies. Although this may seem unfortunate for the business blogging community at first, it’s what I believe to be really a function of the disparity between high-level management and understanding how this social media is used.

To put it short, its easy for larger companies to jump at the opportunity to participate in high-buzz technologies with little understanding of how the technology is used. Why? Because high-level management are the ship steerer’s and not the technology strategists. They understand the general importance of these new media’s and want to partake. After all, who wouldn’t want to be on the leading edge?

The general problem however, lies within the overall execution. Upper management is used to providing the macro strategic direction, but lacks the expertise to leverage the medium.

Whats to do then?
First, there are a ton of positive reasons to blog including a hefty ROI. So don’t get discouraged from the above numbers. Secondly, if you really serious about how to use a business blog for your company, there are a couple of options:

1. Hire an expert business blogger in your industry. Chances are, these guys already exist, since our directory alone has near 500 industries that it tracks
2. Hire an online marketing agency (like ours….wink…wink) to work with your marketing department and formulate your blogging strategy for success
3. Encourage & motivate your marketing department to “champion” social media (because this is likely just the tip of the iceberg)

I was once told that “when companies or individuals are faced with issues that they don’t know how to handle, they do what they know how to do,” which usually isn’t the best solution. So I purposefully left out the “spruce up the old blog trick” out of the above equation because unless you have a significant knowledgeable on-board resource to do so, this strategy will likely fail. Thus, i highly recommend employing one of the above solutions as this will significantly increase your chance for success.

Looking to purchase a new home or buy that new car? Whats that you say? Business is slow and your going to buckle down until the economy picks up?

If any of the above sounds familiar, your not alone. Many businesses are feeling the pressure of slowing purchasing behavior. When times are rough, its easy to cut advertising and marketing dollars, as these are simple expenditures to cut. But did you know that there are benefits of economic recession?

What seems like a logical move to reduce immediate expenditures could actually be detrimental to long term growth. In fact, many businesses look at a recession as a time to grow at their competitors expense. As budgets tighten, those that focus their company’s resources and seek to reinvent themselves are positioned to succeed.

Refocus Your Marketing & Advertising Resources
As you know, the lifeline of any business is its revenue. Without consistent advertising or marketing, getting business is likely going to be harder to accomplish regardless of your company’s size. In lieu of cutting these expenses, consider refocusing your marketing efforts to “bread and butter” cash cows and positioning your company’s competitive advantages. Secondly, choose highly focused direct marketing mediums (such as the Internet) that offer predictive ROI scenarios. Lastly, tracking response is key, so make sure that predictions are conservative and that you have qualified resources available to push sales through the chain. After all, nothings worse than having qualified prospects hit a brick wall due to shoddy salesmanship.

Seek to Reinvent
Remember when personal computing was dominated Macintosh? Did you pick up an iPhone on the 11th? Companies that seek to continually reinvent are true marketing companies at heart. They scan the marketplace for niche’s to serve and use their strengths to dominate other verticles.

Seeking to reinventing oneself is never easy. However, asking a fundamental question of “what is our business” is a great place to start. The important thing to remember is to keep your response as macro as possible. For example, if you run a “Bus Company” your really in the “transportation business.” Believe it or not, although adopting another form of transportation vertical sounds out of the ordinary, most forms of transportation exhibit similar traits. People still need to go to point A to point B, its just a matter of how they get there!

In my opinion, continual Innovation and marketing are the true drivers of business. Without the two, no company can seek a competitive edge or get their products into the marketplace. Although a recession is typically tied to an overall slowdown, if you want to position your company to launch ahead of your competitors during the turnaround, increase your focus on marketing and reap the benefits of the recession.

Interestingly enough, most websites I run across don’t have as much of a problem in getting traffic as they do in converting the traffic they have. Sure, we all would agree that getting some more traffic certainly wouldn’t hurt. But generally speaking, there are usually many easy to implement website changes that most companies can perform to their website that will immediately add to the bottom line before spending a dime on website promotion.

Ok, so what are the secrets you ask? Well believe it or not, making your website lead generation firendly isnt as hard as you think as long as you stick to the basics. The below 3 tips may seam elementary to some, however i assure you than if you follow these basic guidelines, your lead generation efforts will thank you.

1. The phone number- The last thing you want is a qualified prospect having to work at trying to contact you. I’m a fan of putting important contact information in the upper right hand corner of every page. Many web users like to call rather than e-mail or fill out a form. So, if you plan to track leads, make sure you purchase a unique phone number for your website.
2. Clean-up your form submissions- This is not the easiest or the most fun task to perform, but does have one of the largest pay-outs in my opinion. First, start out by outlining the information that you would like to know about a potential customer that would make your qualifying efforts easier. Next, try to shorten your list to the “bare minimum,” as most website users typically don’t like long forms to fill out. Lastly, add a captcha (a number or letter field that prevents spam) and a form validator that will notify users if they missed a field. Lastly- test, test, test!
3. Focus your content- “Our business is your business.” Does your content describe what your product or service does well or could be used for any company? It wasn’t until recently that marketing and advertising professionals started to recognize that web content writing is different than print. More specifically, web users are time poor. If they don’t find what they are looking for, they literally are a click away from your competitor. As a general rule of thumb, try to keep your content down to 300 words or less per page. Additionally, focus your writing on solving customer “pain points”…that is what your customers likely care the most about your product or service.

As you may have noted, none of the above related to flashy graphics or web design. These are important aspects to lead generation as well. However, sticking these 3 basics will assure that the visitors you do have can get the information they need as well as contact you when they are near a purchasing decision. Good luck and happy selling!