Millions of small-business owners use some type of paid search advertising to attract customers and prospects to their business or website. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising – also called search-engine marketing or simply paid search – can be an effective, low-cost way to gain visibility online. more

I’m all Apple all the time. Since 1984. more

When a new sales representative is hired, a company provides what is known as orientation and ramp up. Once those elements are complete, the company believes the salesperson can go out and begin earning money. more

In this age of social media and digital everything, you can’t afford to be a website weakling. If your competition has a killer online presence, and you don’t, you lose. Today’s consumers look online more than ever before. Even business owners who think they don’t really need a “best in class” website are missing more than they think. more

Use of mobile devices continues to grow by leaps and bounds, and local business owners should be taking notice now more than ever. A new “Mobile Path to Purchase” study conducted by Nielsen tracked what consumers are doing with their mobile devices. According to the study, consumers show a strong preference for finding information related to local contact and purchases, such as looking up a business location, accessing map and driving directions and calling a business. more

When business owners create products or services – and the marketing plans to sell them – they often base their decisions on what customers tell them. But which is more important: What customers say? Or what they actually do? more

As online video gets cheaper and easier to produce, and its effectiveness as a marketing method grows, more and more small businesses are jumping in. Business owners who’ve stuck largely to text-based marketing channels such as search ads, blogs and social networks are discovering that video can be a compelling addition to a marketing mix. more

Despite its massive reach and wide adoption, Facebook remains baffling to many small-business owners. Facebook itself has never really understood small business, and hasn’t done a great job explaining how biz owners can use it to grow sales. more

Though many home shoppers who assume they are still in a buyer’s market find it hard to believe, one of the sobering fundamentals shaping real estate this summer is shrinking inventory: The supply of houses for sale is down significantly in most areas compared with a year ago, sometimes dramatically so. And that is having important side impacts – raising prices and homeowners’ equity stakes, and reducing total sales. more

When Groupon first hit the scene it put the spotlight on a massive new market and inspired countless copycats. But many local businesses lost money with the Groupon deals model, which often requires losing money on the initial offer in hopes of making it up on additional sales and return visits. more