Be Brilliant Marketing Resource List

Print:

Vista Print www.VistaPrint.com

Web Hosting:

1and1: www.1and1.com
Very cost-effective packages, friendly customer service, many different plans to suit your needs. (Bev’s note—I use 1and1 for everything and love them!) Basic plans start at only $1.99/month and include domain name registration (www.yourbusiness.com), web hosting, email addresses (example yourname@yourbusiness.com), and more.

Blogs & Social Networking:
Blogger (aka Blogspot): www.blogger.com, www.blogspot.com
Google’s blogging website. The easiest to use of all blogs—sign up and start posting immediately!—but with less features than some of the other free blog sites.

Typepad: www.typepad.com
Another blogging site allowing you to create multiple pages and categories for your blogs.

Wordpress: www.wordpress.com
A blog site that allows you a lot of control over what goes in your blog, from the look to the categories and pages, and also gives you built-in traffic analysis tools. A little more difficult to use than Typepad or Blogger.

LiveJournal: www.livejournal.com
Part blog, part community, this is the site that people wanting to get involved with a community sign up with—it allows users to create and share blog entries with each other through “communities,” or create personal journal posts. Basic membership is free; there is a paid option that gives you more features.

MySpace: www.myspace.com
One of the best-known social networking sites, MySpace allows you to find your friends and create a profile about yourself (or your business). It allows you to use html to completely customize your profile, which Facebook doesn’t, and to add music and videos to your page. However, MySpace tends to skew younger than Facebook.

Facebook: www.facebook.com
Facebook is now the number one social networking site. Since its base is primarily college-age users and older, it’s somewhat more sophisticated than MySpace. You can create a profile for you or your business, and add friends. The look of Facebook is less customizable than MySpace, however.

Twitter: www.twitter.com
Twitter allows you to blog instantly from the internet or your cell phone via text message; blogs are then sent to your “followers” (people who subscribe to your updates) automatically. The catch? Every blog has to be under 140 characters long! The term Twitter uses for this is “microblogging,” and it’s most effective when utilized several times a day…otherwise you may lose followers. Great for getting information out there instantaneously.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com
A professional networking site. Create a profile that contains your work information (like a resume) and connect with other professionals. Basic membership is free; there is a paid option that gives you more features.

Newsletter Tools:

Mad Mimi:  www.madmimi.com
A sleek and inexpensive newsletter system with great customer service. You can customize the look of the newsletter and post it to Twitter and Facebook.  Great stats that tell you who opened the newsletter and what they clicked on.  Free for lists under 100, up to 500 subscribers for $8/month.   People can sign up from your website or blog.

Constant Contact: www.constantcontact.com
A very powerful newsletter  management system, which allows you to send out newsletters to anyone who signs up via your website. It allows you to completely customize the look of your newsletter, include coupons/discount codes in your newsletter, and track statistics, all from Constant Contact’s website. They offer a free trial; after the trial, newsletters with under 500 subscribers cost $15/month.

iContact: www.icontact.com
A newsletter provider similar to Constant Contact. They also include tools to track statistics so you know exactly how many people open your newsletter and which sections garnered the most attention (via click-through statistics; that is, which links in your newsletter received the most clicks). Slightly less expensive than Constant Contact.

Audio, Video, Photos & More:

YouTube: www.youtube.com
Part community, part video hosting site, YouTube allows you to upload your own videos and share them with the world. Through keyword searches, ANYONE worldwide can find your videos, making it a great resource to reach a wide audience.

Flickr: www.flickr.com
Flickr allows you to upload your photos and share them with a global audience. Create photo albums and share them with the world! You can upload a certain amount of photos per month for free; there is a paid option for professionals (such as photographers) that give you more options.

DivShare: www.divshare.com
Upload any type of file for free. Password protect them so only the people you choose can access your files. Great for sharing all types of media, word documents, Acrobat files, etc. One of the most popular ways to use DivShare is to provide resources for people reading your newsletter (for example, to allow newsletter readers access to certain files such as special coupons and other downloads).

Teleseminar/Teleconference Hosting:
Free Conference: www.freeconference.com
Easy Conference: www.easyconfrerence.com
Free Phone Conference: www.freephoneconference.com
Free Conference Call: www.freeconferencecall.com

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Great FREE tool to evaluate your SEO effectiveness: www.websitegrader.com
Gives you detailed reports and breaks down effectiveness by section so you know EXACTLY what to fix. Best of all, it’s 100% free!

Google’s FREE Website Optimizer: www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/
Another great FREE analysis tool provided by top search engine Google. Best for those with e-commerce websites.

Google 101: www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=70897
How Google (the top search engine) ranks pages in search results. Vital to a good understanding of SEO.

Google’s guide to hiring a SEO company: www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291
Google’s guide to what to look for in someone if you hire them to improve your search engine rank.