1. Google.com - Enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages. The company’s focus is developing search technology.

2. Yahoo.com - Personalized content and search options. Chatrooms, free e-mail, clubs, and pager.

3. Myspace.com - A Social Networking Site. Site that you could interact with other people in different places.

4. YouTube.com - is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide.

5. Facebook.com - A social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos.

6. Live.com - A Search engine from Microsoft.

7. Ebay.com - An International person to person auction site, with products sorted into different categories.

8. Wikipedia.com - An online collaborative encyclopedia.

9. Msn.com - Dialup access and content provider.

10. Craigslist.org - A site that you could advertise your online business.

Source: Alexa

Global brands are now redefining their advertising strategies by focusing more on their business objective of making sales and profits. Creativity isn’t going to help if it won’t garner sales. As a result, focusing on generating return on investment is embedded on the the different branding campaigns, online branding campaigns not excluded.

Online branding campaigns, though, are hard to measure to determine conversion rates and performance. But it is not entirely impossible. E-consultancy gives some channels online wherein the online branding campaigns can be accounted as effective or not:

1. Rich Media Interactions

User interactions with flash and videos can be determined by mouse-over, banners, videos played, dwell time and response.

2. Clicks and Landings

Big global companies could create a microsite that would attract participation from the users. It may be about gossip or tips (related to the global brand). Every click made to the site will be trackable and user response can be measured.

3. Coupon Redemption

Printable coupons that are redeemed in the stores of the global brand companies shows how effective the branding campaign is. It is an effective measure of success at point of purchase.

4. Social Networking

Social networking sites have proven their effectiveness in generating traffic and attracting visitors. With social networking sites, you can ask for reviews, make polls and surveys, and develop word-of-mouth advertising through the online community.

5. Post-purchase Follow-up

Follow up on the users who cater to the products by asking them to drop by your website for free goodies or more sales. This will develop brand advocacy and cross sell opportunity. You’ll be able to narrow down your target market for future advertising campaigns.

Financial commentaries and surveys are implying the coming of a recession in the general business world. While large corporations and big companies may be able to go through this period without any huge problems, small businesses may not be so lucky. Finance and expenses will be an issue.

However, in this age, the Web has made it possible for small businesses to market to their customers and rake in sales. With online marketing and search engine optimization, even a business with a very tight budget can come through a recession. While lots of time and effort may be required for this, the one thing the company can count on with online marketing is that it is cost-efficient. Online marketing is a cost-efficient way of acquiring new customers (and retaining old ones).

Of course, in order for you to make sure that you are spending your money wisely and efficiently, you need to be guaranteed that you will receive satisfying online marketing results. You need to be able to have the guarantee that you can rake in customers and boost sales.

You will have to be listed on the search results of the top search engines (e.g. Google and Yahoo!) . Getting listed in these search engines will help you generate traffic to your website. Many search engines usually offer paid inclusion programs for guaranteed listings.

One sure way to gain exposure in search engines is to be on the sponsored listings area. Search engines will promote your business and website themselves. Sponsored listings are keyword specific, which provide rapid targeting opportunities. They are also shown at the top or on the side of the search results page and can be easily viewed by the customers.

Local searches are now popular. You can take advantage of this trend by submitting your website to business listings set up by other businesses in the search engines.

To be on top of the search results is tough. The search engines are the ones who control who gets to be first on the search results list. However, there are some SEM companies out there that offer guaranteed ranking services and you can avail of these services when you can afford it. You can also opt to do SEO and online marketing yourself if you can spare the time.

Here’s a video that shows you different websites that offer cheap website designs and solutions. These sites are especially helpful to small businesses that seek affordable website design sites.

Extensive SEO and outsourcing services may be fine for companies and establishments that have the money and manpower. But unlike the big guys, some small businesses may not be as lucky as they would want to be to be able to afford SEO services. This would mean that they would have to rely on themselves. A tight budget would also bring in limits to what they can do.

But there is actually a way to reach the goal of reaching the customers and be within the scope of the limitations at hand. The main point of the strategy would be to direct your SEO efforts unto your target market only.

1. Make a Plan To Promote Your Content.

Content is an important aspect of every website if they want to achieve high rankings in the search engines, thereby achieving exposure and reaching their customers. This is why your content has to be very informative and easy to understand for the users. But aside from making an effort in creating great content, you also need to put in some effort in promoting that content. You cannot solely rely on the search engines if you want to be noticed by your target market.

This is why creating a plan to promote your content is as important as making great content. With this plan at hand, you will be able to plan out specific optimization techniques, social networking ideas, and promotional schemes. Your marketing project will become more targeted and will be distributed to channels related to your business.

2. Make It Easy to Publish and Promote Your Content.

Many business websites are fairly static, and being static doesn’t help in increasing your rank. You would want to have new and fresh content always in this case. New content everyday also helps in promoting your website itself because of the additional web pages and internal links.

Promoting new content doesn’t have to take that much effort and time. Most companies make use of a blog software and employ a person to post on the blog part-time. Small businesses can also do this; it would result in added exposure to the online community and the part-time job will not cost that much.

3. Social Networking

Social networking sites are free and very helpful in SEM. The main purpose of social sites is, of course, to socialize with the online community. You can see how much of an advantage it will be to your business if you socialize with many people through the social sites.

Create an account, make friends, participate in polls, give votes and comments. With the amount of visitors the different social sites attract everyday, your business will definitely gain some exposure and recognition.

4. Develop Massive SEO Tactics

Once you’ve made progress with your content and socializing skills online, it is time to bring your promotional plan to a bigger venue. Directing your efforts on your target market still, broaden your marketing strategies to involve the greater sphere of the Web. Add more SEO techniques and improve upon marketing your website.

Never forget to focus on the appropriate channels of distribution that are related to your business. Targeting your market is still critical, especially since there are limitations to your promotional plans.

1. Build and focus on your global brand and vision.

When you can see that a product or service can be served on a global scale and that everyone can enjoy from it, then that’s a start. Begin with that vision. A business is not complete without a vision and a mission, after all. Focus on building on that and develop your brand with it.

2. Raise and invest in money.

Capital is essential in any kind of business venture. Start with your own network of acquaintances in raising money for the start of your business if you cannot generate money for yourself. Make an opportunity to meet the people who you think are right to be in the business with you. Convince them that there can be no loss for them for this venture.

As much as possible, look for people who are involved in global startups because these people are often in safe jobs and have nothing crucial to lose. People like these are also interested in new business ventures.

3. Be different and better.

Being different sets you apart. Be unique ad you will be recognized. In the business world, this can give you your core competency and a distinct advantage over others. But that’s not all to it if you want to be successful. When you do things, you make sure that you do them better.

4. Use great systems to complement your business.

Even the smallest of businesses have a their own simple system and tools. Your global business is no exception. And with a global business, it cannot be just any system and tools. To compete in the global market, you’ll have to achieve the worldwide standards — e.g fast communication, top-of-the-line security, etc. Great systems like these can ensure you some of the foothold you need to stay in the business.

Don’t forget that in making these systems and in using these tools, you adhere to efficiency and effectivity. A lot of companies also bring down their expenses and concentrate on improving their systems to make them more cost-efficient.

5. Protect your brand.

Your brand should be protected. It’s what your business is all about in the first place. You should be prepared for future risks to protect it. Believing in the business is to believe in the brand and you have to stand up for it. The product may be as simple and as small like a straw or a pill. But it’s your brand and to stay in the global market is to protect it.

6. Protect and improve on your operations

Being a global business you are prone to many competitors wanting to know how you do your operations. To be more discreet on the operations and processes, companies usually split manufacturing and other procedures across countries. You could have formulas made in one country, then ship some of it to another country for processing, and some of it to another country for another treatment. In doing so, take into account the countries benefits and disadvantages. For example, one country you have in mind may have extensive but cheap labor force, and another country may be more technologically advanced than your other options.

7. Create and develop an innovative distribution model

To reach the global market, logistics and distribution channels are taken into careful consideration. How do you reach this part of the world? How can your customer be ensured of a speedy transaction?

To solve this problem, global companies apply their own innovative distribution model. They could give license to people across the world to help you sell your products. With this kind of negotiation, both of you will have profits to gain.

With the online community now geared towards viewing videos more than reading content, it is no wonder that video sharing sites such as Youtube, Google Videos, and Revver are generating huge amounts of traffic. Videos also don’t as much concentration as needed in reading articles and content. With these advantages and traffic attraction, video marketing has definitely become one of the most commonly used marketing methods in the online market.

To be more specific, here are 5 reasons why video marketing is utilized by almost any kind of business online:

1. It seems that Google views video sites as authority sites. Youtube, for example, has a PR of 8. Daily Motion has a PR of 7. Getting involved with these sites — becoming a member, uploading a video, and interacting with other members — will also give you the opportunity to have a high search engine result.

2. With such high ranking sites, it is correct to assume that you can target many of your customers from there. Youtube, for example, having a PR of 8, attracts many audiences. With the amount of traffic it is receiving, you can be certain that by participating in it you will also be able to attract customers of your own to your own website.

3. People are more likely to want to be familiar with whoever they are dealing with online. Using videos to show yourself and marketing your products and services, or even just to share information, would make things between you and the customer more open. Statistics has shown that videos and appearances online can dramatically increase traffic and sales.

4. More and more videos are being indexed and ranked! Google is now also aiming to provide a more comprehensive search and information viewing experience for the audiences.

5. The flexibility videos have with social networking sites has made them even more pronounced in the online community. Every day, a lot of people bookmark and share videos through social sites such as Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. These social sites generate a lot of traffic, and with the huge amounts of traffic they get, the videos get more exposure and can lead many more visitors to your website.

Add to these reasons the fact that making videos are not very expensive to do, why would anyone not to take this chance? With the amount of traffic and conversions that video marketing can give you, it is definitely one of the many marketing strategies that has more benefits and less disadvantages.

Looking back on the previous year, a lot of business opportunities had succeed. And this year, there are some best opportunities that we foresee to get in on some of the fastest growing markets by meeting the needs of particular niches.
Here are The top business opportunities for 2008:

1. Eco-products
Products such as Metal water bottles,Cloth grocery bags, Clothing made of fair trade cotton. products that are environment friendly. This products could give a lot of benefits to the consumers as well. This could be a good choice of business.

2. Niche travel
A tour market in the industry of travel. And its growth on a particular niches within the travel market could be rich in business opportunities. Like those popular cruises also a full-service bus tours are another expanding niche.

3. Solar installation specialists
Most people are very particular when it comes to energy saving therefore they would be willing to invest in this solar energy sources for homes and businesses. Installing solar panels and solar-run appliances could be a lucrative business opportunity.

4. Senior care
This is a huge market now caring for seniors that is growing this year. Statistics Canada says that the number of individuals aged 65 to 74 will almost double, from 2.3 million to about 4.5 million over the next two decades.You can open your own senior care home through providing in-home care or home services such as preparing meals, housekeeping or running errands. Senior care franchises are another option for getting in on this business opportunity.

5. Mobility products
Another great business opportunity and thus could prosper more online are those products that help people do what they wanted to do comfortably. Also, products that help people reach, grasp things or get up from chairs - all simple tasks that can become increasingly difficult. Clothing especially designed to be easier to put on and fasten is another area of products you might want to explore. And people’s hobbies like gardening.

6. Green consulting
A lot of people have always been interested to protect the environment. But there are also others who still needs to be educated about protecting the environment.Therefore, it would be best to put up this green consulting business to share your ideas to others.

7. Organic food
People are always aware about what they eat. We tend to think of produce when we think of organic food but the market for organic meat is growing apace. People want to know where their meat is coming from and how those animals have been fed and treated.

8. Xeriscaping
Conservation of our natural resources makes xeriscaping a good business to put up. It best for those who enjoy getting into gardening or landscaping. It gives you the chance to flex your green thumb at the same time this could be very helpful to our planet through creating attractive landscapes and planting trees as well.

9. Import Consulting
This is one of the larger market since it comprises importing products to the other countries thus this could help you create a good relationship to and also reach out to other countries. our clients would be seeking knowledge about and relationships within the particular countries they were importing from. While the three countries Canada imports the most from are (in order) the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom, there’s a growing interest in importing from countries such as China. To make the most of this business opportunity, it would be wise to become or partner with a licensed customs broker.

10. Home renovation
One of the top on list. Most people would always want to renovation within their homes. That’s why this kind of business is fun and interesting. Since its new year, near beginning, most families do have plans of improving their homes.

Source: About.com

In this video, Randy Gilbert will help you Learn “The Four Essential Tips” on how to be a successful entrepreneur. So you can be be more Proactive and Successful in the entrepreneurship.

One aspect of link building that is often undervalued is the acquisition of local links. Link builders have long been engrossed in the vast community of the Internet that looking into the online groups, associations, directories, and others, in one’s physical geographical area fails to bring a good impression. It would be right to think that if you want your online business and website to be known across the Internet, you wouldn’t just focus on your local area. But it is not right to dismiss the idea that local links also give a boost to your website.

The rise of local searches have also made this idea more credible. Local searches would focus mainly on the vicinity of the user and might want to see a website that is vouched for by many of the local organizations or business in the area.

Here are a couple of local links to start with:

Local Directories

You can start to search for your local directories by simply search for keywords like “ (city or state) local directory,” or anything else that you can relate with your website. Both free and with-fee listing directories will be available to you. There are directories that might have quasi-political affiliations, and there are others that are entirely unaffiliated. While you do have the option to choose which directories to use, it would be wise to check which specific directories is best for your business. Remember that link quality is important when acquiring links.

Regional/Municipal Government Listings

If your local government has directories on their sites, then take this opportunity. Check first to see if you can qualify to link with them. Most of the businesses that link to government websites most often have certain requirements before exchanging links.

Yellow or White Pages

You have an advantage when you have a phone number. Get yourself listed with the help of the phone companies and their yellow or white pages that offer a listing service in your area. You can have your company submitted online without getting it published in the paper version. Don’t forget to submit to national online phone directories, too! Examples of national phone directories online are Switchboard, Internet 800 Directory, Yahoo Yellow Pages, and AnyWho.

Local Business Websites

Of course, every business that has a website will also be acquiring links from their local area. Look for businesses that are in your local area. There is a good chance that they would also be interested in linking to you.

Better Business Bureau

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has a great reputation among businesses on the local, regional, and national levels. Listing your company with the BBB will provide you with a high quality link, and will increase the credibility of your business.

Chambers of Commerce

Chambers of commerce often charge a fee. Unlike the BBB (which also charges a fee for a listing), regional, state, or city chambers of commerce does not really have a very high PR. They are, however, good with links, and will also provide you with networking and service benefits.

The Local Directories of Search Engines

Google and Yahoo! have their respective local directories and they provide free business listings. When enlisted in the these local directories, your website will have the chance to be at the top of the search results for any user that is in your area.

Business and Social Clubs

Social or business clubs may have websites that contain a membership directory. Why not affiliate yourself with some of the clubs that you are comfortable with? Affiliating with them can help you get links on their websites.

Local Libraries

Never underestimate the resources of a library, even when the Internet is around. Some local libraries have websites that have resource links to local businesses. If you cannot link with them, then look into their extensive listings for local associations, consumer sites, and other sites that you could submit your website to.

Acquiring local links is part of link building to success. Some people would just jump directly to linking with just about anyone on the Web. This is not a wrong thing. But getting and linking with local links should not be dismissed, as this can also help with raising your PR and have a competitive edge over your local competition.