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Even as oil prices surge, the housing market contracts, Wall Street reels and multibillion-dollar deals falter, small businesses are flourishing and, in fact, are helping to buoy the economy, experts say. Last week, for example, a monthly report showed an increase in private sector employment in October of 106,000. That included a surge of 63,000 Read More

Market research has the power to make or break any business idea you have. Luckily, the U.S. Census Bureau tracks just about every useful detail about our cities. Whereas it would normally be a major headache to sift through all of the data, I use a site that cuts down my research time to just a few minutes. Enter ZipSkinny.com, still in beta, w Read More

Every weekday at 9:30 a.m. sharp, the executive team at Bishop-Wisecarver, a Pittsburg, California, manufacturing company, files into the boardroom. They stand around the table; no sitting allowed. Then rat-a-tat-tat--each fires off a brief synopsis of the items on his or her frontmost burner. Ten minutes later all are back in the office armed wit Read More

For many sites, visitors that find their way to your About Us page tend to have a somewhat higher conversion rate than those that don't. Potential customers that do visit this page are showing a bit more than a casual interest in what your site has to offer and are looking for additional signals of trust. The About Us page can play an important f Read More

While learning how to effectively manage a paid search advertising campaign can take quite a bit of time, there are plenty of quick and easy ways to increase your chances at success. This article aims to outline five common mistakes that end up keeping small businesses and in-house marketers from maximizing the potential of their pay per click cam Read More

Email is awfully invasive, no way around it these days, but it's also awfully effective for all types of communication and response. One of the ways that I've found to get a little bit of control over the beast, while also making sure that my responses are well crafted, is to pre-write email responses to many of the common requests I receive. The Read More

If you're in the middle of a homepage design review like we are here at MarketingSherpa, you know there's a lot to consider. Here's a handy checklist of eight improvements worth testing. Read More

Years ago when Seinfeld was a new television show, Jerry Seinfeld was still a touring comic. At the time, I was hanging around clubs doing open mic nights and trying to learn the ropes. One night I was in the club where Seinfeld was working, and before he went on stage, I saw my chance. I had to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips for a young comic. W Read More

A great summary of the latest in search engine optimization. For example, find out what Google thinks your website is about by using the Keyword Tool. Plus, it's not directly stated, but if you've got a web videos, host them on YouTube rather than use your own bandwidth. It's more likely you'll show up on the top of Google SERPs. Read More

In his DMA 07 Conference and Exhibition presentation, “Running Red Lights: The Keys To Creating Dazzling Direct Mail,” Steve Penn, CEO and executive creative director of Penn Garritano Direct Response Marketing, said he likes to think of the direct mail package as a touchpoint for the entire brand experience. Copywriters always should “tell a stor Read More