So now you to can learn why teaching sells.

http://www.melissadata.com/enews/marketingadvisor/articles/0909/1.htm

http://www.mysmbstore.com/marketplace/storefront/index.espx

very interesting

They also have a section on traffic
adminder.com/traffic

Today I noticed another new feature, “Service Areas” (something every small service business has dreamed of since the launch of maps). I thought maybe I was first again to find it but alas I was beaten to the punch, as it should be.

Mike has a great post on this rebranding of the Google Local Business Center.

All of these developments lead us to the question (or inevitability?) of Google’s monopolisation of small business advertising. With the large percentage of people searching online before making local purchases, Google is a powerful force in local business visibility.

One could speculate about the future and all of the implications. That could spawn endless blog posts and there is no time for that. But basically the thought is that if Google can get its act together, and stop losing entire towns, they will be increasingly involved in the lives of small businesses and increasingly important for them.

Which in a sense is sad, because there is so much great marketing that can happen outside of (and beyond) the Google box if one is just willing enough to be creative.

A source of info from Goog about their adwords program.
Thought I’d throw it on here until I have time to make a better page about Adwords and optimising Adwords campaigns.

For anyone concerned with a user friendly interface (and who isn’t?) this tool is brilliant. And it even has a free service!

AttentionWizard

Heat maps show where users look most (/look first) on your webpages. This particular service uses an algorithm that simulates human attention with a high degree of accuracy.

Very useful in determining how your pages are viewed and optimising the for what really matters, HUMANS

The Google Local Business Center (the dashboard where businesses can edit their local business listings) has added a new feature:

“post to your place page”

It seems to be a some sort of blogging functionality for creating posts about your business which then show up on your place page.

Here is what the post editor looks like inside of the Local Business Center dashboard -

Once you post a message expect 5-10 minutes before it shows on the place page. When it shows on the place page it looks like this:

This is an interesting development.

I recently was discussing with a colleague the idea of small upstart businesses forgoing websites altogether (in there initial startup phase) and using their Google Local Listing instead. (Of course, other bootstrapped internet marketing -and offline marketing- would accompany that)

The idea came to me as I notice (as every local SEO notices) the number of small businesses ranking well locally on Google without websites.

The question that arises now is, with the inevitable convergence of Google’s site creation / blogging software and Google Local Listings will small local businesses even need a website at all?

As a web developer that worries me a bit (and it ought to worry web designers who make useless flash-heavy websites a lot). As a small business marketing consultant (and a lover of small business) it excites me because it fits into what I teach about bootstrapping.

I think small businesses should have their own website and take a hands-on approach to their own internet marketing, but having a website at the early stages is not a necessity (clever bootstrapped marketing is).

So, what will this new development mean for the world of small business and local SEO?

I wonder what the usual suspects, the Local SEO experts, will have to say on the subject. Mike Blumenthal just posted about the major local seo developments of 2009 and how they point the direction for 2010. I wonder how this effects that direction.

From the looks of it TimeSvr is a virtual assistant service. So I am “bookmarking” it here to look into at another time.
Virtual Assistant services have been in the lime light with books like The World is Flat and 4 hour work week