Small Business Trends

I invite you to join me for a special one-hour webinar on Wednesday, May 20, 2009, at 2:00pm Eastern Daylight Time (New York time).  Verizon has kindly invited me back a second webinar — which means I must have done OK in the first one!

The topic of the upcoming webinar is Introduction to Search Engine Marketing — how to market your business online.  I’ll be talking some basics of how to get more visibility and traffic through the search engines.

I share some of the beginner techniques that I have taught students in my “Online Marketing on a Shoestring” course at the University of Akron.  The content is based on the questions small business owners have asked me in that course, as well as the questions about online marketing that I get in my inbox and when I speak at events across the country.

Here is some of what we will cover:

• Choosing a domain name – quick rules of thumb
• Simple techniques you can do yourself to improve your website so you can get found by potential customers in the search engines more easily
• 3 high ROI areas you can improve right away if you know a little HTML
• How social media amplifies your online presence and the role it plays in helping your company get found in the search engines
• When and how to hire SEO professionals — over the years I have hired a number of search optimization and marketing experts and I will share some tips for what to look for
• and much more

This is a beginner level program.  This session is for you if:

• your website is new and you are just getting started online
• you are thinking about setting up a website for the first time
• your existing website doesn’t get much traffic — and you want to change that!
• you don’t have enough time to mess around with search engines and online marketing, and you are thinking about hiring professional help but don’t know where to start

I will answer your questions to point you in the right directions.  I am not a professional SEO — so I am not pushing my own services nor trying to sell you anything.  This is purely an informational session.

UPDATE May 21, 2009:  THIS WEBINAR IS NOW OVER.  YOU CAN ACCESS THE ARCHIVE HERE:

http://adjix.com/e76h (before May 22 at noon)

http://smallbusiness.verizon.com/webinar/ (after May 22, noon)

YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW THE TWEET STREAM ON TWITTER BY SEARCHING ON THE HASHTAG: #SMBTOOLS , HERE:  http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23SMBTOOLS

This webinar is produced and sponsored by Verizon.

THANK YOU VERIZON FOR HOSTING ME!