As I mentioned in my last post “Promote your Business with our 10 Steps to Online Success“, we debuted our new service a few weeks ago called “Show Up Online Now – the 10 Steps to Online Success”.

We offer two options:

1. People can do the work themselves, or
2. We can do it for you!

For those that choose to have us do the work, we use the online project manager, TeamWorkPM.net.  TeamWorkPM tracks all:

• projects,
• tasks,
• notebooks (think a shared Word document), and
• correspondence

with our customers. It’s amazing!

Side note: We used to use BaseCamp for Online Project Management, however, their new, completely revised version doesn’t offer task templating YET, which is a huge disappointment…

TeamWork Online Project Manager is awesome!

We’re really happy to be helping out so many people, and seeing our 10 Steps gain popularity as it has!

Some of those people attended are Pressure Washing & Window Cleaning companies that attended our 10 Steps to Online Success presentation about a month ago in Albany, New York.

We educated them on the power of linking from popular places (like this blog, The Big Picture, which has a high rank!), and we also showed them how linking to the individual pages within their web sites, helps those pages show up in the search engines as well.

With that, here’s some of the people we’re working with – a very special “Thank You” to each of them for choosing to have us help them!

• Perfect View Services which offers Window Cleaning, and Pressure Washing in this Service Area (they even offer a Rain Guarantee, that’s cool!)
• Alpine High Window Cleaning which offers Residential Window Cleaning, Commercial Window Cleaning, Exterior Cleaning, and Gutter Cleaning!
• A Brilliant Solution which offers Residential Power Washing, Commercial Power Washing, SealCoating in the following Service Areas.

Looking forward to hearing more about the results of the work we’ve done together!

Enjoy,

Charly

Wow, it’s finally up, and I’m SO excited to share this with you!

After over 6 months of preparation…

…revisions, and review – I’m extremely proud to introduce my good friend Jason and my new online product – The 10 Steps to Online Success.

It’s designed to show easy, free, ways to promote your business online – we’ve systemized the easiest, most impactful things the ISG Marketing Team does!

The best part is that I walk you through each step, AND if you don’t want to do the work, it’s a simple button click – and we’ll do it for you.

The 10 Steps to Online Success directly address the five biggest questions we receive:

1. I have a web site and I’m not getting anything from it!
2. Do I need to participate in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc?
3. How do I do participate in the social networks properly (and help my web site at the same time!)
4. Is my web site SEO’d?
5. What is SEO, how do I do it properly?

As you’ll see, we’re all about abundance, and want to assure you understand:

• exactly why you’re doing each step,
• how to do the stuff that really matters (we’ve tested & measured it for you!),
• we’re available to answer any questions, help you with each step, or even do each step for you!

Every step starts with a short video introduction by me, too.

Learn exactly how to Promote Your Business Online with our 10 Easy Steps to success!

Here’s to your success!

Charly & Jason

When I ask the question “Have you been pinning on Pinterest?” I still get a look of…

…confusion in many cases?!

However, those who know what I mean – are usually pretty passionate about it!

In December’s “ISG Way” event, I reviewed how Pinterest.com was one of the fastest growing sites in 2011.  I also reviewed how if that’s where the eyeballs are today – we need to be testing & measuring Pinterest for:

• creating awareness,
• sharing passions (in many cases, that means services & products), and most importantly,
• seeing if helps people reach their online goals!

The verdict is in – it’s definitely been helping people reach their goals.

There are two simple reasons Pinterest can help your business:

1) The audience is huge, and it’s trending right now!
2) As long as your pinboards are public – Google, and the other search engines will give you credit for your links!

What does that mean?

It means that every time you add a web address in the caption of your photo, you’re helping build the popularity of the place your linking to!

Yep, Pinterest helps you rank higher in the natural search results!

If you haven’t yet – give Pinterest a try!  You’ll need an invite, so feel free to let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll invite you!

Charly

First of all, Happy New Year to you, your family and friends!  Can you believe it’s 2012, already? Wow!

If you haven’t picked up on the vibe, yet, smartphones & tablets are taking over in a major way…

Here I am, a couple of days ago, blown away by the how awesome the “Ease into 5K” running app is on my iPhone — thanks Amy for telling me about it!

Not only did we see an exponential growth in mobile device use (i.e. smartphones & tablets) in the last quarter of 2011 with all of the web sites we host, but I’ve never seen so many people — of all different ages — using mobile devices of some sort, everywhere I’ve been!

A group at our local Apple Store are learning exactly how to use their new iPads!

It’s been said that smartphones and tablets will overtake PC’s as the primary device used online at some point in 2014…

WOW!

Conclusion?

The Future Is In Your Pants...

And NOW is the time to assure you, and your business are smartphone and tablet friendly…

Special thanks to Brad Larson, of Larson Education Services for sharing that phrase with me – I love it!

At our last ISG Way event, we summed up exactly what we’ve seen in mobile usage for the hundreds of web sites we host and market:

• A 12% increase in mobile use (going from 3% to 15%), growing exponentially in the last quarter of 2011,
• iPad users, in particular, seem to dominate the mobile user base (30%+),
• iPhone & iPad users not only make up the most mobile visitors (over 50%), but they stay on sites longer as well.

Personally, I’ve noticed:

• More people becoming savvy with their apps – Mail and Web Browsing, but also Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, Instagram, Words with Friends to name a few!  Most smartphone users are checking email on their smartphones first….
• Rows of people using their smartphone and tablets on a flight back from Ohio on Christmas Day – over 2/3′s of the plane had people playing games, reading the paper, reading magazines, watching movies, and listening to music using their phones or tablets (iPhones were most popular),
• The 60+ age group fully adopting, and most importantly, getting excited about what they can do on their tablets.   I saw two iPad training sessions going on in Apple Stores (see photo above), and a Nook training session – filled with older generations excitedly learning of the capacities of their new device!
• The younger generation (teens & 20 year olds), especially, ignoring voice mails and phone calls, yet responding almost instantly to text messages.
• I’ve switched from taking my notebook computer into meetings to taking my iPad with wireless keyboard (I’m can type very fast, and can’t keep up with discussion on a smartphone/tablet keyboard…)

Here’s my new and improved 2012 setup:

 What does all of this mean?

• Personally, if you have a smartphone, you’re going to see it being used in more interesting ways very shortly.  Think reviewing items in a store AT THE STORE, vs the older method of reviewing just a store (Oink is doing a great job of this already)!
• In business, at this point, you need to assure your web site (and blog, if you have one) are mobile friendly, and that they work properly on all mobile devices.  Simply test your web site with a smartphone or tablet to see if you can click the buttons, and navigate through your web site. (Be sure to test your contact form-if you have one, too!)
• Simplicity rules!  The simpler the site design the better (think bigger buttons, and no more than 5, if possible!)  Keep your contact forms minimal – not only does it result in higher conversion for standard computer users, but means more mobile users will be apt to contact you as well!  Take a look at our web site with your mobile device at www.ISGFL.com for a good example of this.

With all of this in mind, what’s the most interesting way you’ve been using your mobile device(s) recently?

Happy New Year, and cheers to you, your family, friends and business associates!

Charly

Yep, it’s true!  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have created sales for…

…their business by simply having a listing in Google Places!  (Think of it as today’s version of having a YellowPages listing!)

As you can see in the screenshot above – having top placement in the list - with reviews – even adds more of a punch!

In a future blog post, I’ll be discussing ‘freshness’ in relation to the way Google indexes, views and ranks its listings, but for now all you need to know is that it’s VERY important to:

a) Have your business listed, and claimed, in Google’s Places for Business.
b) Assure you are continually asking your customers to provide a review in your Google Places listing (this assures Google views you as “fresh” and continues to rank your listing higher and higher!)

So, how do you do all of this?  Let’s review…

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve ever met Shane Wilson, you know what I’m talking about…

…Shane’s extremely passionate, incredibly knowledgeable, and the ultimate family man.

Best of all, he knows Southwest Florida’s waterways and waterfront properties like the back of his hand!

Shane is all about assuring you’re educated with the best information for making your real estate decision, too.

If you’re looking for a waterfront home in Fort Myers or Cape Coral, or a waterfront condo in Fort Myers or Cape Coral – Shane will be more than happy to help you.

Over the last years, Shane has shared his boating adventures, tips and suggestions through his online boating guide.   Shane helps new and experienced boaters enjoy everything the Southwest Florida boating (and fishing, scuba diving, and even snorkeling!) lifestyle has to offer.   He even helps you understand how to enjoy (and find) the delicious local waterfront restaurants.

Shane is even known to take people searching for homes & condos out for a boaters view of the homes that are available, as well.

Recently, Shane his first free “5 Steps to Finding Your Florida Waterfront Vacation Home” eBook which helps you:

• Surf the Internet and ListingBook for waterfront homes,
• Take a virtual tour of a home you like, and
• Get a first hand experience of the waterfront lifestyle by going boating.

If you need help finding your Fort Myers or Cape Coral waterfront home or condo, be sure to check with Shane “Waterfront” Wilson, he’ll take great care of you, and your family.   You can visit Shane’s Waterfront Home & Condo web site, Florida Waterfront Home blog, or give him a call directly at (800) 741-3757.

I think you’ll really Shane’s energy & passion!

Have a great day,

Charly

If you’re ready to create success through the power of Internet Marketing, here’s…

…4 steps to help you succeed!

Are you ready?

Read the rest of this entry »

Now that the ideas have been had, the content has been created & deployed, it’s time for the fourth, final, and most important part of…

…the Internet Marketing process - testing & measuring!

Today, testing & measuring what’s been done online is extremely easy, in this stage, we’ll learn:

Read the rest of this entry »

Once the ideas have been prioritized, the content has been created & approved – it’s time for stage 3…

…in the Internet Marketing process – deployment!

Although this step may seem fairly simple, it’s really important during this part of the process to assure:

Read the rest of this entry »

After developing your ideas, the next step in Internet Marketing is to…

…create content using the ideas of most importance to your online goals.

Of course, it’s extra helpful to have a strategy around creating content that can be repurposed and used for a while (hint hint)…

Read the rest of this entry »