Our meetups have become very popular – and for good reason.  Nearly every meetup (or class, as we like to call them) has been near or at full capacity for several months now.  The classes that WIMB puts on are meant to be meat and potatoes kind of classes – in other words you’ll get a ton of real world tips that you can go back and apply to your business right away.  We avoid the fluff.

Several of our attendees have asked about subscriptions for future meetups – and we’re happy to announce that now we have one!

Introducing our 12 month Head of the Class Subscription for $89.  This is a savings of over 25% ($31) – like getting three meetings free!  You will be guaranteed a seat at every 2012 WIMB meetup class. Subscription is non-transferable, only ten six are available.

This offer is only valid until Jan 26,2012, so don’t wait too long!  To get yours, click the button below or click here.

We’ve heard stories for a while now about businesses being asked by Google reps if they could come in and take pictures of the inside of some bars, salons, etc.  And now we know why.

Yesterday Google announced (in limited areas) the availability of a new service called “Business Photos”.  Besides the outside of your building, a few product pictures and maybe one of the staff, businesses have been very limited in the amount of pictures they could upload to their Google Places listing.

With the new Business Photos option, Google will actually send a professional photographer to your business, take pictures, and make those pictures available as part of your Places page.

For now, this is only available in limited areas, and St. Louis is not among them.  Currently, Phoenix AZ, Orange County CA, Bay Area CA, San Antonio TX and St. Petersburg FL are the testing grounds.  If you are in one of those areas, go ahead and apply for the business photos service.  For the rest of you, keep an eye on this blog for updates.

Tools required: An Internet Browser ( I suggest FireFox) and a spreadsheet program (such as MS Excel)

The first thing you need to do after attending an eye-opening seminar such as the one we just sponsored is to sit down and start building a foundation.  That foundation will help you decide your future plans and paths.

This foundation show start with some basic keyword research.  I say basic, although in reality I mean detailed.  Keyword research can be a bit monotonous and boring, but without it you’ll be like a pilot with no flight plan.  It is essential that you understand where it is you are going before you take off.  So let’s get started.

Dumb it down

Keywords. What are some generic words that would describe your business?  You may already have a list of words that your web designer asked for (we’ll leave why he/she asked for them for later).  Make a list of 20 or so words that explain your products, your services, your industry.  These need to be high level words that give you an overall summary of your industry.  If you handed this list to a stranger, they’d have a generally good idea of what it is you do.

Buzzwords and Lingo

Many industries have special words or acronymns that are only understoof within that immediate circle.  Avoid industry buzzwords that won’t be used or understood outside of your area.  The only exception to this is if your customers understand what they’re looking for.  If you sell guns, M1A1 may be better and more specific than ‘machine guns’.  Write them both down.

Branch it out

Now start branching out your generic list.  If you sell mattresses, writing ‘memory foam’ and ‘coil spring’ count because they are two separate items under the same mattress umbrella.  Same goes for multiple revenue streams. If you do ‘computers’, you also may do ‘PC repair’ and ‘website design’.  Get a bit more specific than just your high level words.

KW Research 101

Once you’ve got a decent list, it’s time for a little fun.  Type these words into a spreadsheet.  You may want to make a separate sheet for each word, because you’re going to end up with a nice list of similar words for each of your starter words.

Now head over to Google and check out the Google Suggest tool.  Simply start typing in your first keyword in the search box and see what Google ‘suggests’ as similar phrases and word combos.  Type in the ones that pertain to you.  Rinse and repeat for each phrase.

You’ll soon find out that there are some great phrases & keywords that you totally missed when writing your short list. Soon your head will be buzzing with new words.  As you come across these foundation words, start a new blank sheet for each one so that you can come back to it in the future.

KW Research 102

For a little bit more research, head over to Google’s AdWords program.  This is their pay-per-click advertising medium, but we can use it to get some great keyword ideas, and it won’t cost a dime.

Start a new campaign, name it something like ‘KW Research’.  Put in an ad as if you were advertising, and soon you’ll be presented with a nice list of words that could also work for you.  Obviously the more keywords Google gives you for your ad, the more money they can make.  Add all the keywords that are relevant to you and finalize your campaign.

Once you’ve completed the campaign, go back and pause the ad campaign so you don’t actually get charged anything.  Now that it’s paused, you can go back into your keyword list and export it to Excel (fancy, huh?) or do even more research on your other terms.

There are plenty of other keyword research tools, but these are two of the very basic.  They’ll get you on your way to establishing a nice list for your SEO campaign.  Building these lists also help you understand your industry a little better, and may be eye-opening when you see just what your customers are typing in to find you.

Want to learn more? Check out our webinar on keyword research

Today’s economy is beating up on many businesses.  Some of the big players are feeling a pinch in their budget, especially when it comes to marketing.  Many marketers are finding themselves out of work, or still working but with little or no budget.

Times like this are great for an aggressive small business.  Since big companies are cutting their marketing, there’s more space for smaller retailers to get in there and be heard.  An aggressive small business now has a great opportunity to grow while the larger companies are asleep at the wheel.

Because of the economy, we also realize that while your small business may want to take the bull by the horns and run, you still can’t afford to fork out a few thousand a month for a full-blown SEO campaign, but you still want to get some customers from the web.

Well, you’re in luck.  Over the past few months, WIMB has been refining and polishing a new referral program, which we are launching today.

Here’s how it works: (an example)

You have a business selling widgets.  Your average customer spends $3000 over their lifetime for your widgets (service, upgrades, additional widgets, etc).  That customer could easily be worth $100 to you to acquire.  You decide could afford to acquire 5 new customers a month, totaling (in this case) $500.

You hire WIMB to generate leads.  We send you warm leads that you convert into sales/new customers.  You pay us for the leads, and we stop sending them to you until the next month, where we send you more.

Soon your business is growing.  We’re making money, and your business is thriving.

This lead generation service is available for any industry.  We will, however (just like our SEO services) not generate leads for more than one business per industry at any time.  That just wouldn’t be fair to our customers.

Included in all of our lead generation service is one month free.  This first month not only gives you a taste of what’s to come, but it also gives us a chance to fine-tune our service so we only send you the best, warmest leads.

Every month we provide you with a report on the leads we sent you, and over time we’d hope that the fine-tuning is producing little or no junk leads. No one wants junk leads.

Can’t afford an all-out SEO campaign? This is your solution.  You set the budget, and get seven months of quality leads. Your business grows, and ours expands to new industries. It’s a win-win.

To find out about joining our lead program, email Will at info@whereismybusiness.com