New York SBDC Research Network

From SmallBusinessNewz With Google’s ever evolving algorithms, producing fresh content is more important than ever. Importance of good content marketing But does it have to be high quality or will any old thing do? If you’re outsourcing your content production, don’t let financial matters cloud your judgement, as quality will always outweigh quantity. Not convinced? OK, look at it this way. Everything you put out on the web is there to promote your business in some way shape or form. It may not be a blatant advert, but it will be designed to drive traffic to your website and therefore will be associated with your company. Now are you beginning to see why quality is important? If you’re still struggling, here are 6 points worth remembering when it comes to content marketing.

On January 18th, 2012 the internet, or a good chunk of it, including Wikipedia, is going on strike to stop the web censorship bills in Congress. Here's why.

Check PAGE RANK of Web site pages Instantly . "In order to check pagerank of a single web site, web page or domain name, please submit the URL of that web site, web page or domain name." http://www.whitehouse.gov 10 http://www.sba.gov 9 (Small Business Administration) http://www.state.ny.us 9 (state of New York) http://www.ibm.com/ 8 http://www.asbdc-us.org 7 (Association of Small Business Development Centers) http://www.nyssbdc.org/ 6 (New York State Small Business Development Center) http://www.timesunion.com/ 6 (Times Union newspaper, Albany, NY) http://nysdca.blogspot.com/ 6 (Data Detectives - the blog of the NYS Data Center affiliates) http://sbdcrn.blogspot.com/ 5 (blog of the New York State Small Business Development Center) http://www.whitehouse.com/ 5 (spoof of White House site) http://www.rogerogreen.com/ 4 (my primary blog)

Consider using the Domain Age Tool to research that factor when investigating a website. The tool's quite simple to use. Just plug in a URL (or several at a time), click the "submit" button, and you should get back a page showing the site's exact age in months and years. sba.gov 13 years 7 months old nyssbdc.org 11 years 2 months old whitehouse.gov 14 years 1 months old microsoft.com 14 years 3 months old mcdonalds.com 14 years 2 months old pg.com (Proctor and Gamble) 14 years 3 months old timesunion.com 12 years 1 months old nytimes.com 14 years 2 months old Yet there are some, such as ibm.com, walmart.com, and state.ny.us that it is Unable to Determine.

An effective, creative, and well-designed website for your small business is a critical marketing and sales tool that is essential in the Internet age. There are some consumers who do everything online, from watching TV to communicating with loved ones to purchasing services and commodities. Below are some tips to make the most of your online presence. Business Unusual : Take One Website, Add Stroke of Genius (Entrepreneur) For More Sales, Create a Landing Page (Entrepreneur) 35+ Usability Resources for Web Designers (DESIGNM.AG)

I was on Internet radio on Monday, October 5. Don't mind telling you that I was mildly terrified. Through a series of connections, involving the business.gov website , a woman named Barbara Weltman became aware of me and my connection with the NYS Small Business Development. Her producer, Gloria Luzier, e-mailed me and asked if I would appear on Barbara's radio show, Build Your Business Radio . I provided a few questions that she might ask me, about the SBDC, the State Data Center and blogs. I got a call about 4:20 pm to make sure I was actually at the appointed place, then again at 4:27. I never talked to Barbara herself before or after the show, but I was in contact with other friendly and helpful people, including Wade Taylor, wsRadio, Operations Officer and Assistant Program Director, who gave me information on how to provide the links below. SBDCs, State Data Centers, and the Curse of Blogging, Part I - Roger Green SBDCs, State Data Centers, and the Curse of Blogging, Par

From Hill Library : The Internet Intelligence IndexTM can assist you in gathering information to support your competitive intelligence efforts. It contains information from a variety of sources, including links to over 600 intelligence-related Internet sites, covering everything from macro-economic data to individual patent and stock quote information. The Internet Intelligence IndexTM is divided into three main categories: General Business Internet Resources, Industry-Internet Resources, and International Internet Resources. The Index is compiled by Fuld & Company, a top research and consulting firm in the areas of business and competitive intelligence.

comScore describes itself as "a global leader in measuring the digital world and the preferred source of digital marketing intelligence". I'm fond of their "press releases" page, as it provides links to brief articles featuring measurements of users of the Internet from countries around the globe. In the past, I came to rely on sites like this, only to see them stop publication of material without any warning. I'll keep my eye on this one, as it seems pretty hip. Pass it on to your e-clients, too.

Whenever we have questions related to internet use I frequently check the Pew Internet & American Life Project . I’ ve used reports to answer questions on a whole range of topics, including online dating, social networking, online shopping, video game demographics and health information seeking, etc. If you’re just looking for some good, up-to-date internet trends, take a look at their “ Latest Findings ” page. As of today these reports were updated in December 2008, and include internet user demographics, online activity reports, and internet adoption rates.

Trulia is a "real estate search engine that includes demographic information," according to the Albany Times Union's Chris Churchill. The fascinating but slightly spooky Google Maps, street view "allows you to take virtual...tours of about 30 U.S. metropolitan areas," including Albany and Buffalo. One of the pictures of my house was either taken on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, based on the location of the garbage cans. There may be local resources as well, such as the City of Albany search and Times Union real estate .

If you have anything to do with online advertising, here are a couple of recent pieces that may cause you to rethink the subject. It starts with a report from Ad Age, Think Different: Maybe the Web's Not a Place to Stick Your Ads . It turns out that internet users are pretty good at ignoring banner ads, and as Jakob Nielsen said a decade ago, "The basic point about the web is that it is not an advertising medium. The web is not a selling medium; it is a buying medium. It is user-controlled, so the user controls, the user experiences." As Techdirt summarizes in Advertising Is Content; Content Is Advertising , helpful content on a business website can advertise that company, and to get noticed, advertising has to offer something to the viewer ( ie , content).

Roll your own search engine Create search engines using the sources you trust. Works the way the personalized pages on Google or Yahoo! work but this time with the purpose of searching those sites. They also have a toolbar so that you can limit to your favorite sources wherever you happen to be. So if you want to the New York Times, Answers.com and Amazon.com in a drop down or radio button, there it is. They have a popular set of sources but you can also design your own - list all the sites you like and then label the group - what they call a " searchroll " You can also look at others' searchrolls. So if you like Rosario Dawson , then you can have a look at her Latino Issues roll which lists about a dozen sites of interest. Steve Rubel , marketing strategist, has created the Interactive Marketing roll which includes many really good marketing sites.

Josee often tells you about new books added to our collection. Today, I'm going to steal a bit of her thunder (sorry, J!). We recently obtained an electronic version of the book "Web & Software Development: A Legal Guide". It's published by Nolo , a publisher of self-help legal books for people & businesses (and provider of lots of other titles in our collection). I like the books from Nolo, because they're an honest attempt at boiling down complicated legal issues into terminology that's straightforward. A lot of their titles (like this one) are written by practicing attorneys with practical experience in their chosen specialty. We bought this book primarily because of a recurring type of request: Is software patentable? And, if it is, is it worth pursuing? I tried researching this question without this book, and the stuff I found was just dense and likely of little use to the client who needed it. Fortunately, chapter 9 - "Software and Internet