Social Media Business Hour with Nile Nickel (general)

SMBH_142   Guest Bio: Stephan Spencer is an internationally recognized SEO expert and bestselling author. He is the author of “Google Power Search”, co-author of “Social eCommerce”, and co-author of the “The Art of SEO”, now in its 3rd edition and considered THE bible on SEO. Stephan founded Netconcepts in 1995 and grew it into a multi-national SEO agency before selling it in 2010 to Covario. Stephan continued as a sought-after SEO and digital strategy consultant. His clients post-acquisition have included Zappos, Sony Store, Quicksilver, Best Buy Canada, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Chanel. Stephan speaks at many Internet marketing events, including SES, SMX, PubCon, Internet Retailer, Shop.org, etc. He’s contributed to Huffington Post, Search Engine Land, DM News and MarketingProfs, among others. Stephan is the creator of Traffic Control, a 3-day seminar on SEO, co-creator of the 3-day professional development seminar Passions into Profits with Kris Jones, and the host of 2 podcasts, The Optimized Geek and Marketing Speak. Interesting Facts and Sound Bites:  

  • He holds an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  • Inventor of “The Gravitystream” - an automated pay-for-performance natural search technology platform, re-branded as RIO SEO Website Optimizer.

 

 


 

Show Notes: 

Nile:              Hey, welcome back to the social media business hour. We’re talking with Stephan Spencer and Stephan is a true SEO expert. He’s really written the bible on SEO. Go back in the first segment if you’d like and listen to the details regarding that. But without getting into the details we were talking about some SEO strategies and one of the things that we happened to talk about was an SEO audit and in that audit finding duplicate content. Now, one of the questions I get asked a lot Stephan is about duplicate content. What’s considered duplicate content? What’s not? You know, what would get you slapped by Google if you will. And so rather than me speculating on it let me just ask you about that. Stephan:          Yeah, great question. So, let me first dispel a big myth about duplicate content. It doesn’t create a penalty situation. It is a filter. Not a penalty. So, when you get filtered because you have duplicate content that another more authoritative site also has it’s not like you are being slapped. It’s just basically that you’re not being favored over a more authoritative site. And this can happen if you’re even the originator of the content. So, let’s say that you have created unique valuable content about cruises and cruise lines and various, you know, just each cruise line, princess cruises and so forth. And this is an actual real world case. A company, cruises.com created all these different write ups about each cruise and each cruise line and so forth and then they would syndicate it to various sites that -- like airline partners and travel partners like Orbits. And guess who would end up winning the duplicate content filter war in Google. It wasn’t cruises.com. it wasn’t even any of the airlines. It was Orbits. Because when you think about how much authority Orbits has with all of these links and really powerful, important links pointing to their site. So, cruises.orbits.com was the site that would win out and then everything else would get filtered. So, you don’t want to get filtered out. Even if you’re the originator of the content that can happen so there’s some strategies and tactics you can use to ensure that doesn’t happen. Like for example, any partners you’re syndicating to asking them to link back to the -- your original article from their article. Like if you’re syndicating an article to various business sites then you could have in the byline or the bio where you specify, you know, just your company and so forth. You can include a link to the original article on your site. Not just to your home page because we want to link directly to the article in question so that Google can see that oh, this is the originator. And also when you’re the first one to show that article on the web and then later your syndication partners start to show it on their websites that’s also a signal. And then there’s another thing that -- I’ll geek out for just a moment here and then we’ll get back to normal talk. And that’s called a canonical tag. So, you add this into the HTML code. It’s not really difficult to do. It’s just one line of HTML and it just specifies what the definitive source URL of that piece of content is and so if you get permission, you get buy in from this syndicating partner that they’ll put a canonical tag in your HTML on the page that points to your URL, your article on your site then that will be a very definitive signal to Google that you’re the originator of that content.   Nile:                You know, if you happen to share content or get it syndicated and the syndication partner -- obviously, you might want. But they are not going to do anything related to linking back to you or allowing this conical tag. Did I get that right?   Stephan:          Canonical tag.   Nile:                Canonical. See? I told you I’d mispronounce it. What -- or how much of the content do you have to change on your page to make it unique?   Stephan:          Substantial. It would have to be very substantial. Because if you just move your paragraphs around or you add an extra paragraph -- think of it like if you had this imaginary five or six-word long window that you ran across both pages to compare and contrast them and see how many of those -- these are called shingles. These five or six word long windows are in common between the two documents. Shuffling paragraphs around is going to still leave most of those shingles in common between the two documents. Adding an extra paragraph or reducing a paragraph, that’s still going to keep -- leave most of the shingles in common between the two documents. You’d have to do a substantial rewrite. Paraphrase most everything. Or significantly augment the content with tons of like user generated content, lots of customer reviews or discussion forum posts and things like that to really differentiate your content from the other site. And that’s also -- we didn’t even go into the issue of duplicate content that you’re causing to your own site just by misconfiguring all the -- like the URL structure or having superfluous parameters in the URL. And I’m getting geeky again. Sorry. I just -- I’m a geek.   Nile:                That’s okay. Keep getting geeky. You know, we get some technical people on here so we want to know this.   Stephan:          Yeah, yeah. and actually I’m a podcaster as well so -- when I say I’m a geek I actually have a show that has geek in its name. optimized geek.   Nile:                I like it.   Stephan:          So, yeah. I’m a real geek. So, anyways, if you have duplicate content on your own site -- so, you are competing with yourself. Now it’s like you are creating not only duplicate content but you’re creating page rank dilution. So, think of it this way. Like if the leading candidate for president -- whoever that is. I’m not going to get into Trump and all that sort of stuff. But let’s say whoever your favorite candidate is had a twin brother or a sister, whatever. And they both ran and they had similar platforms and they didn’t really have any differentiating, you know, their level of experience was pretty much the same and so forth. You’d have a hard time picking one of them, right? So, it would split the vote and neither would win. So, imagine doing that on your website. You have five different variants of the same exact product page at different URLs. You know, flags or parameters in the URL, tracking parameters and things and they’re all picked up by Google. It’s like having four twin brothers and you both, you know, all of you running for president and none of you are going to win.   Nile:                You know, so people get into article spinners and then they’re looking to change words out in the article and they get the percentage of words and all that type stuff. It sounds like that’s sort of a game that they’re probably not going to win. Is that a fair statement?   Stephan:          Oh, are they not going to win? In fact, they are going to lose very badly because most of Google’s future algorithm is going to be based on machine learning and you can bet that with artificial intelligence they’re going to be able to sniff out any of that nonsense and if it does not read like it was written by a human and it like reads like poetry -- you can't make an article spinner right like Shakespeare or, you know, whatever. Pick your favorite poet or a writer, right. So, you cannot fool the search engines going forward. You might be able to fool them today or a couple of years ago. But even today I’d say you probably aren’t fooling them. Maybe a few years ago possibly. So, you are down a path that is not going to bode well for -- it’s not going to -- you’re not going to win. You are going to in fact lose. Certainly get penalized for it. And when you do something that you think okay. I’m going to kind of skate the edge here and see how far I can get away with this and I know it’s not cool, I know it’s against Google’s guidelines but it works. And other people are having success with it. So, I’m going to keep writing this out until I think it’s too dangerous and then I’ll stop. That’s a terrible idea because what will happen is Google will be able to retroactively look back on all your bad behavior because they’re keeping a rap sheet on you for certain. And they’re going to be able to figure out -- hey, wait a second. You have a pattern of, you know, skating on the edge here, doing stuff that’s against Google’s guidelines until you suddenly think you’re about to get caught and then you stop. We’re sick of that and we’re going to slap you like you’ve never been slapped before. And rightly so. You know, you had it coming to you.   Nile:                Yeah, and that’s what everybody, you know, has heard about the Google slap that happened to a lot of people and they went from respectable or high rankings to being invisible.   Stephan:          Yeah, but they think in terms of like okay. I did this thing and then I got caught or I did this and then I got caught or I do this thing and I don’t -- did I get caught? I’m not sure but suddenly my rankings are not what they used to be and so forth. So, they can't pinpoint it to a particular algorithmic update. What they’re not thinking about is they’ve created a pattern of bad behavior. Google’s been keeping that rap sheet on them and they can retroactively go back and reassess, reanalyze the data, figure out that you were doing something that was not okay and you have this pattern of stuff and something that probably wouldn’t on its own have gotten you in trouble; with that pattern of bad behavior you’re slapped.   Nile:                That makes perfect sense and I know a lot of people won’t like that but let’s go back to where you were talking about duplicate content on your own site. And it’s not there for any other reason than you’re trying to create, you know, different pages on your site that address specific issues and you might have people look at content on those pages.   Stephan:          Yeah. it’s totally inadvertent. It’s not like you said well, let’s create five different copies of every product in my catalogue or, you know, whatever. It’s just that whoever built the site didn’t know what they didn’t know.   Nile:                If you encounter that problem, is there any way to basically say this is my main page, these other pages, you know, ignore because -- it’s something like that if you will.   Stephan:          Yeah, absolutely. That’s what the canonical tag was built for. So that really reduces the duplicate content. The thing is it’s only a hint. It’s not an absolute directive so Google may or may not obey that canonical tag but the -- before the canonical tag was cross domain meaning it covered multiple websites -- you could go, you know, like let’s say you get syndicated onto -- I don’t know. Businessinsider.com or something, right. And they agree to do a canonical tag back to your site, to your original article on your blog. Well, back in the day when canonical tags were brand new that was not supported. You only could use canonical tags within your own site and that was to reduce the duplicate content that was inadvertent created because of tracking parameters and things like that. Because if you have like added to the end of your URLs source=blog to track when people are coming into your home page from your blog or source=email if you’re tracking people coming in from your email newsletter and then you also have that email newsletter archive down the web and, you know, have all these different pathways into the home page and they all are different URLs with that source= whatever tracking parameter. Now you’ve created umpteen number of duplicates of your home page and that’s not -- that creates that duplicate content situation we’ve been talking about.   Nile:                Okay, okay. It makes sense. Well, listen, we’ve got a lot to talk about. I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface but we’re at the end of another segment. So, join us in the next segment. You definitely don’t want to miss what’s coming up next. And we’ll be right back. Hey, welcome back to the social media business hour. This has been so exciting. We’re in segment three of a three segment interview with Stephan Spencer who is -- I’m going to change your title. I was saying that you wrote the bible on SEO. I’m now going to make you the SEO god so -- you might argue that Google really is in that position because they’re the guys that are making the rules but listen. I’ve learned so much. I appreciate it. Thank so much Stephan.   Stephan:          It’s great being here. Thanks for having me.   Nile:                So, you know, if somebody wants to learn some more about some of the SEO there’s a lot of tools out there. Are there any tools that are really worth your time?   Stephan:          There’s so many. That’s a great question because there are a lot of time wasting tools out there but there are some great tools and it depends on what you’re trying to do. Like some people will buy a big, expensive enterprise level tool and then they don’t have anybody to run the tool which is absolutely ridiculous. It’s like buying a really expensive car and nobody has time to drive it. What a waste of resource. So, if you instead buy lower priced tools and you spend your money on internal resources, staffing and outside consultants and so forth that’s way more effective use of your money. So, my favorite tools -- and I’m using these for all my clients, right. So, every engagement where I’m dealing with the three pillars of SEO which is, you know, every engagement I’m dealing with all three pillars so architecture, content and links if you recall. So, for links I’m using link analysis tools such as AH _____16:28 majestic.com, open site explorer which is part of MOZ. Of course Google has their free tools inside of Google search console. It used to be called Google web master tools. Doing link analysis with those. And linkresearchtools.com. these are all fantastic tools and I recommend having at least a couple of them so that you can compare and contrast the data that’s coming out of them and the reporting because they’re all different. They’re using different algorithms, different data sets, they crawl the web differently and to varying degrees. So, that’s just link analysis to figure out what your competitors are doing, where they’re getting their links from and which links are the most authoritative, important, trusted links so that you can maybe go after some of those same links and -- but again. That’s more tactics than strategy. You’ve got to have a strategy to like go viral with some crazy, amazing content marketing piece and so forth. And so we can circle back to that if you’d like. But so that’s link analysis. And then let’s say we’re doing some competitive intelligence on what keywords and so forth are driving the most traffic and rankings for our competitors. We could look at tools like search metrics. That’s M-E-T-R-I-C-S.com or semrush.com. and if we’re talking about keyword research to figure out which keywords are popular. Not based on looking at our competition and what they’re getting traffic on but just like what’s popular with Google searchers in our niche, our categories and so forth. Then you want to use the Google AdWords keyword planner which is a free tool. You just have to have a Google AdWords account which means you have to sign up with AdWords and give them your credit card but you don’t have to start buying AdWords campaigns. You can just never do that. And then log in and start using this free tool inside of Google AdWords called the keyword planner and this will tell you which keywords are more popular than others, synonyms, verb tenses, plurals versus singulars, all that sort of great stuff. And there’s complication with like -- algorithms have gotten better over time with google so it’s not so much like oh, I’ve got to get the right verb tense or I have to get the singular or the plural right depending on which one’s more popular. It’s more about entities and stuff so we can geek out on that later. But keyword research tools, that’s one of my favorites but there’s also keyworddiscovery.com which is a paid tool. There’s a tool within authority labs that’s great for doing keyword research. Authority labs is knows as being a tool for tracking your rankings. Your search rakings across the engines. It’s like Google and Bing and so forth. And speaking of tracking your rankings if you have never thought of YouTube as a search engine you should because it’s the number two search engine by search volume, number of search queries. So, tracking your rankings on the YouTube search engine is something that’s not on anybody’s radar for the most part but it should be. And there’s a tool called Woot that you probably have never heard of that allows you to track your YouTube search rankings as well as some other YouTube engagement metrics like watch time and number of views and favorites and likes versus dislikes. All that sort of good stuff so that’s --   Nile:                Okay, spell that one for us.   Stephan:          Yeah. Woot, W-O-O-T.net.   Nile:                Okay, great.   Stephan:          Yeah. lots of tools.   Nile:                Well, you know what? That -- listen, that’s worth the price of admission just to the podcast here for getting that listing of tools. And I know that wasn’t a complete list.   Stephan:          Not even close.   Nile:                But, you know, the thing that amazes me is you were just rattling all of that off the top of your head.   Stephan:          Oh, yeah. there’s a lot more up there.   Nile:                I can't remember all three of my names consistently. First, last and middle. I’ve got to stop and think every once and a while so that was impressive.   Stephan:          Oh, thank you.   Nile:                So, listen, what are some of the common or maybe even the most common myth about SEO?   Stephan:          Boy, there’s so many. And I actually created a white paper full of myths to dispel many of them. There were 72 in that document all in so --   Nile:                And I bet you that document’s on your website, isn’t it?   Stephan:          It is. It’s my lead magnet on my home page, on stephanspencer.com. so, yes. You can go ahead and download that if you’re listening -- if you’re driving don’t do that now. Go do that later when you’re in front of a computer.   Nile:                Yeah, we’ll have the links on social media business hour. This is episode 142 so no problem. Just go get the links and in the meantime continue to listen.   Stephan:          Yeah, yeah. so, let me give you a few examples of just myths that need to die but still haven’t. so, I still, to this day in Florida people are talking about meta tags and them having really any value for SEO. And I’ll -- let me get into specifics here because details matter. Like the devil’s in the details. So, the meta keywords tag is a meta tag that never counted in Google. And this is a great screening question by the way. If you’re looking to hire a consultant or an in house SEO person ask them about meta tags and specifically about meta keywords. What’s your process for optimizing meta keywords, how are you going to go about doing that? And if they give you any answer other than meta keywords what -- they never counted. Never. If that’s not their answer you boot them out the door because they never counted in Google. And if they give you some BS line about how, you know, they’re not as important as they used to be. Or yeah, they used to matter and not anymore. None of that is true. They never counted in Google and I can point to concrete evidence of that fact. Google webmaster central blog which is owned by Google and Google engineers write for that blog. They said that -- and back in 2009. We never counted the meta keywords tag. So, that’s one. And there’s another meta tag that’s talked about a lot called -- so, that was the meta keywords tag. Now I’m going to talk about the meta description tag. Do you know the meta description tag doesn't move your rankings at all? It’s not part of the rankings algorithm. It’s only used to influence the snippet that’s displayed on your search listing. So, you can change that snippet from like a copyright statement all rights reserved sort of thing to something more compelling which is great. But if you’re position nine, who cares? Nobody’s going to see that search listing. You’re buried. Yeah, you’re on page one but barely. So, instead do stuff that’s going to improve your rankings in the search results instead of tweaking the snippet that’s displayed. So, meta descriptions, that’s a very much a second order activity if that, right. Focus on the things that really move the needle. So, you could ask another kind of trick question or screening question of your candidate in front of you in the interview. Like tell me about the meta description and how that influences the rankings or how that -- where that plays in Google’s rankings algorithm. And if they give you any answer other than it doesn’t count, it’s not part of the rankings algorithm you boot them out the door.   Nile:                Well, you’ve got a quick boot process. I mean, we’ve got two questions already that we could identify if they know anything and boot them quickly.   Stephan:          Yeah, so just download my white paper and you’ve got 72.   Nile:                And if they don’t get through all 72 you know that you need to be looking for somebody else.   Stephan:          Yeah.   Nile:                I bet that you have some recommendations. Tell us a little bit about your business and how people could engage with you in all seriousness.   Stephan:          Yeah, okay, cool. So, I used to have like dozens of staff. We were in three different countries and it was fun. And I decided after I sold my agency that I was not going to replicate that again. That I was only going to take on a small number of clients that I could work with individually rather than just handing them off because when you run an agency, you’re the thought leader who is writing books and speaking at conferences and so forth you don’t have time to work on individual clients when you’ve got, you know, 30, 40, 50 active clients at any given point in time. So, I take a small number of clients and I work with them directly. I’m the one doing the deep dive SEO audits, I’m the one writing the content marketing strategy and presenting it. I’m the one who’s doing the keyword research and creating keyword strategy and doing the ongoing month by month kind of retainer work for the clients. Now, I don’t do all the like trench work. I’ll recommend, you know, outside people for doing things like optimizing individual title tags across a 10000-page website. I mean, I’m not going to -- I’d rather like -- I’d rather pull my teeth out than do that work. But the more strategic work and the really -- the deep dive forensic analysis and a really creative brainstorming for content marketing to get links and so forth, I love that stuff and so I do that with my clients. So, _____25:59 handful of clients at the beginning. Those are all clients I work with personally since I sold my agency. So, _____26:06 Chanel, Sony, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Bloomberg business week, Best Buy, Canada. Those are all post acquisition clients. So, if you’re interested. If anyone’s wanting to talk more about potentially taking it to a whole other level in terms of Google and driving more traffic just, you know, contact me at my -- go to my website stephanspencer.com. email me directly at stephan@stephanspencer.com and we can talk.   Nile:                And we’ll have all those links as I’d mentioned earlier up on the website. You know, I’ve been blown away. We’ve been through three segments. A lot of information. And I feel like we just haven’t scratched the surface. So, I understand why you’re so revered and have reached the status that you’ve reached. Because really, there’s just a lot of great information and I had so many questions that I wanted to ask we didn’t even get to.   Stephan:          You know, there’s always another level. There’s always deeper that you can go. Your website’s never finished, your SEO is never finished. If somebody is interested in doing more on your own DIY kind of SEO I encourage them to get a copy of my book the art of SEO. You don’t have to buy it in fact. I got permission from my publisher to share a free electronic copy of this 50-dollar book with listeners. If you email my assistant she’ll send the link. I can't -- we can't include the direct link to the O’Riley site because it’s super-secret and O’Riley, my publisher would have a fit if it got out there in the wild but for your listeners we can allow them to download one of my three books for free. So, there’s social ecommerce, art of SEO and Google power search and they could pick any one of those three for free. Just email my assistant admin@stephanspencer.com.   Nile:                And we’ll make sure that that is on the site as well. Actually we won’t put that on the site. You’ve got to listen. If you don’t write it down, go back and listen to it. It’s there. I think there’s value in that. Wouldn’t you agree?   Stephan:          Yeah, yeah. you can allude to it and say somewhere towards the end of the episode there’s instructions about how to get a free copy of a 50-dollar book from Stephan.   Nile:                There you go. That’s what we’ll do. That will be the tease in the site. But you’ve got to go back and listen. You know, Stephan thanks so much for being with us. I can't tell you how much I’ve learned and how much I appreciate it. I know that all the listeners with me do. Again thank you so much.   Stephan:          Thank you Nile. It’s been great being on the show. I love it.   Nile:                You know, and for the listeners, I want to thank you too. You really make the social media business hour. We would be nothing without you. And hopefully you learned a few new ideas or concepts. I’d be surprised if you didn’t. you know that my desire is you take just one of the things that you learned today and you apply it to your business this week. I know those small changes can make a big difference and I’m committed to bringing you at least one new idea each week. So, identify just that one small change you could make from the information that we’ve presented here and find out what a big difference it will make for you. So, until next week, this is Nile Nickel. Now, go make it happen.

Direct download: SMBH_142.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:58pm EDT

Award-winning marketing expert Linda J. Popky, the founder and president of Redwood Shores-based Leverage2Market Associates, transforms organizations through powerful marketing performance. Her clients range from small businesses and consultants to mid-sized companies and large Fortune 500 enterprises. She’s been involved with many of the Silicon Valley companies who developed and deployed the technologies that have changed the world over the last twenty-five years, including Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, NetApp, PayPal, Plantronics, Autodesk, Applied Materials, and others.

A consultant, speaker, and educator, Linda has been named one of the top women of influence in Silicon Valley and inducted into the Million Dollar Consultant® Hall of Fame. She is the past president of Women in Consulting and is a member of the Watermark Strategic Development Board. The first marketing expert worldwide certified to offer the Private Roster™ Mentoring Program for consultants and entrepreneurs, Linda has taught marketing at San Francisco State University’s College of Extended Learning, University of California Santa Cruz Extension in Silicon Valley, and West Virginia University’s Integrated Marketing Communications program.

Linda holds an MBA and a BS in Communications from Boston University. Her new book Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters¸ was released in March 2015. A classically trained pianist, Linda has also produced Night Songs, a CD of classical piano music.

Direct download: Linda_Popky_Final.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

This is a special episode of the Social Media Business Hour. In this episode Nile Nickel allowed the microphone to be turned on him. Lauren Gaggioli of The College Checklist Podcast interview Nile, the CEO of LinkedInFocus to learn how students can leverage LinkedIn to get into college.  Nile provides helpful, actionable information on how to use LinkedIn to help our college-bound students network and showcase their academic efforts to ease the college application process.

Nile also explains how important networking is for college admissions and how students can stand out from the crowd by making connections with people on LinkedIn that can benefit their college experience and career.

Direct download: Nile_On_Laurens_Show_Final.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

SMBH Tammy Stanley thumbnail   [audio mp3="http://socialmediabusinesshour.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Tammy-Stanely-FINAL.mp3"][/audio] Tammy Stanley directs The Sales Refinery, a sales training firm that transforms the bottom line in corporate and individual sales. Known for her self-revealing style and her captivating story telling, she analyzes and presents the often over looked fundamental aspects of the selling process. Tammy started her Master’s Degree in German Studies but got sidetracked having children – 4 of them. Within only one year of moving to an entirely new city and state, Tammy built a multi-million dollar direct sales organization, reaching her company’s Circle of Excellence seven years in a row. Wanting to make a greater impact on salespeople everywhere, Tammy founded The Sales Refinery, a sales training company that assists sales professionals in the field as well as executives at the corporate level. Tammy’s greatest strength is taking on complex challenges and creating solutions. She causes breakthroughs in performance by transforming the way salespeople perceive themselves, others, their situation, and their opportunity. Tammy is the author of Carpe Phonum… How to Seize the Phone, Take Action and Call Your Prospects Even When You Lack Courage, she is a co-author of Direct Selling Power, and her newest book, Calling to Skyrocket Your Results was released in June 2014.

Website Links: www.tammystanley.com

Related Books:

Direct download: Tammy_Stanely_FINAL.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

In 2011, Josh started a company solely devoted to helping other businesses with LinkedIn.  That company, LinkedSelling, has clients in North America, Europe and Australia that pay him thousands each month to run their LinkedIn marketing campaigns for them.

Direct download: Josh_Turner_FINAL.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Maggie Patterson is a communications strategist who works with entrepreneurs and corporations to help them craft intelligent communications strategies that boost the bottom line. With 15+ years experience, Maggie has worked with big brands and solopreneurs, and has run her own successful communications agency for nearly 10 years. Her work has been published by leading sites including Duct Tape Marketing, Social Media Examiner, Virgin.com and The Huffington Post, and she is the host of the Marketing Moxie Podcast.

Direct download: SMBH_Maggie_Patterson_1stbrk-00-11-to-00-17-2ndbrk7-54-to-8-06.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Joe Pardo, a New Jersey based dreamer, has always believed that society starts with you and that to change society you must first change how you think. His innate curiosity about people inspired him to start Dreamers Podcast. He jokingly now considers himself a recorder of dreams. An avid lover of all things Disney, he is also the creator of Adventurtorium: An Up Inspired Experience. A DJ mix which features Disney music mashed up with hip hop instrumentals to the story of Disney Pixars Up. Other mixes he has created can also be had from his website. Currently working towards his MBA in business administration, he is excited to see where this new dream will take him.

Direct download: SMBH_Joe_Pardo_1stbrk-00-30-to-00-40-2ndbrk-9-26-to-9-36.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

On this show weare delighted to have Lori Cheek, a NYC based architect turned entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Cheekd, a mobile dating app that makes missed connections obsolete- https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cheekd/id807619613?mt=8.

After working in architecture, furniture and design for 15 years, Lori came up with an idea that lead her into the NYC World of Tech and is now solving the problem of missed connections. She completely threw away her design career, no longer building structures but instead, she is now building relationships.

Direct download: SMBH_89_Lori_Cheek_brk-7-03-to-7-13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Matthew Woodward started his career online when he was just 13 years old writing games reviews for a website known as NintendoPhiles.

Over the next couple of years he developed an interest in competitive gaming and created his first community based website. The website allowed people to share ‘demos’ or short videos of them showing off their best action.

 

Over the next few years Matthew would develop his online skill set…and he admits, he didn’t even know you could make money off the internet back then. He just enjoyed messing around with websites

 

Matthew eventually found himself as head of online marketing for one of the biggest distributors in Europe, where he led a range of online marketing campaigns for clients such as Tesco, Asda, Orange, Samsung & Motorola with great success.

That was nearly 3 years ago and a lot has changed since then. Working for himself without corporate restrictions has allowed him to excel in all areas at a rapid pace. He has researched, built, developed and ranked over 40 websites in the past 3 years.

Direct download: SMBH_86_Matthew_Woodward_1st_brk_09_to_20_-_2nd_brk_9-33_to_9-38_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

Steve is an expert at driving, converting, and

monetizing traffic. He’s managed over $1.3 million in online advertising spend working with Fortune 500 companies, and has been an entrepreneur since graduating from undergrad.

He’s the founder and CEO of Conversion For Good,

a conversion optimization agency that works

exclusively with mission-driven businesses and

non-profit organizations.

In December 2014, his first book, Profit Hacking was released. The book has drawn positive reviews from bestselling authors, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and marketers.

Direct download: SMBH_85_Steve_Daar_1stbrk-00-26to00-30-2ndbrk-8-11-to-8-20.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Hailing from the land of Paul Bunyan, wooded trees and lakes for miles, Tena’s big personality + aptly given nickname ‘Tena-talks-a-lot’ sent her searching for more. After spending some time in the big city with a “big girl job” Tena quickly realized that the cubicle life wasn’t for her. With a little nudge from her husband she founded tena.cious, a social media + graphic design firm, and effectively launched herself as a brand with a career that makes room for all her passions.
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Despite starting off as a company of one, Tena has built a team of amazing women who have supplied the resources + woman power for her to pursue a legacy outside of solely running a business. Tena is a social media expert and accomplished speaker + trainer on all things social. Her love of twitter, training and talking + her social rock-stardom has made her known for building connections both online and off.
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Her experiences as a mom of three, business owner and leader within her communities makes her a strong advocate of customer focused, loyalty and relationship based sales. Tena believes in creating a strong brand presence for your business and with a heart as big as her personality, her raving fans + the size of her CLIQUE grows daily.

Direct download: SMBH_65_Tena_Pettis_brk_12-23_to_12-26.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Social Media Brand Strategist, Business Consultant , and Speaker, Karen Yankovich is the CEO of Dimar e Group, LLC. Having “been there and done that” i n the arena of losing (and then re-finding) a focu sed approach to business and life, Karen now offer s coaching and consulting for entrepreneurs. Her u nique specialty blends her “get it done” attitude with a passion for soulful living in her personal services and online workshops.

Social Med ia and LinkedIn Evangelist, Karen guides entrepren eurs to creating wealth by combining smart busines s practices with simple proven systems that develo p and maintain strong customer relationships. She offers results oriented and expert Conversational Marketing strategies that position her clients to bring in instant results. Karen’s background inclu des over twenty years in the fields of information technology, marketing, and customer relationships , making social media her ideal niche. 

Direct download: SMBH_64_Karen_Yankovich_brk_10-50_to_10-53.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am EDT

Entrepreneur Magazine has said - When it come to marketing strategies, content marketing has just been crowned king, far surpassing search engine marketing, public relations and even print, television and radio advertising as the preferred marketing tool for today’s entrepreneur.

We are very fortunate to have Jeff Herring – The King of Content Marketing with us to show how to unleash and cash in on your content over and over again.

Jeff has been building his own businesses with Content Marketing since 1994. With his exclusive Content Marketing strategies, Jeff has fast become a Living Legend of Quality Traffic Generation.

Jeff has long been the “behind the scenes” guy creating Direct Response Content for many top internet marketers and business leaders,with clients such as Dan Kennedy, Alex Mandossian and others.

Jeff is going to show you a simple yet powerful system for creating prospect & profit pulling content in 20 minutes or less…

Here’s what Chris Bloor of Australia said about Jeff after he was a guest on his recent telesummit:

“I can honestly say that in the 12 years I have been online, I have NEVER had anyone leave me wanting more and more of their content than Jeff did in the time he was sharing with me.

I love the feeling you get as you listen to someone and it hits you… “This is going to make a huge difference in my life! I won’t be the same after this…”

Direct download: SMBH_62_Jeff_Herring_brk_10-19_to_10-22.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

John Walters is an extraordinary tax expert.

Unlike many Certified Public Accountants who are only allowed to work in their particular state, John is an Enrolled Agent (E.A.).

This means, John has been licensed by the federal government to help people with their tax problems, anywhere in the United States.  Specializing in getting his clients more money back at the end of the year, John creates a customized tax strategy for every single one of his clients.

John is not a typical “accounting guy”.  He uses his unique understanding of business and marketing, to help his clients come up with business strategies that work for them.

Direct download: SMBH_John_Walters_final_01.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:07pm EDT

Jason Hartman has been involved in several thousand real estate transactions and has owned income properties in 11 states and 17 cities. His company, Platinum Properties Investor Network, Inc. helps people achieve The American Dream of financial freedom by purchasing income property in prudent markets nationwide. Jason’s Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ is a comprehensive system providing real estate investors with education, research, resources and technology to deal with all areas of their income property investment needs.
The United States offers nearly 400 distinct and diverse markets while most media pundits characterize the “housing market” as if it were a single entity. We realize they do this to cram a cogent comment into a simple sound bite. Real estate cannot be described that simply. It’s just not accurate. There is NO such thing as a United States real estate market. However, there IS an Atlanta, Georgia or a Dallas, Texas real estate market. To that end, we at Platinum Properties Investor Network scour the entire country with an “Area Agnostic™” approach and select the most suitable and sensible markets to recommend to our investors so they don’t waste countless hours doing it themselves. Through our podcasts, educational events, referrals, mentoring and software to track your investments, investors can easily locate, finance and purchase properties in these exceptional markets with confidence and peace of mind.

Direct download: SMBH_Jason_Hartman_sm.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT

EntrepreneurOnFire is a top ranked, 7-day a week business podcast, hosted by John Lee Dumas, interviewing today’s most successful and inspiring Entrepreneurs.

John shares the journey of his guests, highlighting a failure and lessons learned, an AH-HA moment and the steps taken to turn that moment into success.

Since EntrepreneurOnFire’s launch in September of 2012, John has interviewed Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Barbara Corcoran, Tim Ferriss, Chris Brogan and over 500 inspiring Entrepreneurs.

Direct download: SMBH_57_John_Lee_Dumas.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:32pm EDT

Having served as the Executive Director of the Florida Venture forum for nine years, Robin helped attract $1.2 billion in capital for fund emerging growth companies throughout the state. Many of these companies were based in Hillsborough County, providing jobs and career opportunities for many.

As a serial entrepreneur, Robin knows that timing is critical for a community. We must innovate in Hillsborough County. We must have the visionary leadership to tackle some of area’s challenges, and we must count on the experience of a proven business person to position in the global economy.

Robin Kovaleski Lester, a serial entrepreneur, comes by her interest in job creation, economic development and sound business practices as a result of her years of experience. She has started, run and sold three firms and is now managing partner of Florida Growth Partners, a consulting firm that links emerging growth companies to sources of capital across the globe, helping them gain access to capital for continued growth and job creation.

Prior to founding Florida Growth Partners, she was executive director of the Florida Venture Forum, where she helped raise more than $1.2 billion in venture capital to fund Florida-based companies. During her tenure, she grew the organization by more than 88 percent, making it one of the Top 10 Venture Capital Conferences held annually in the United States. She also has extensive experience with publicly-traded companies, having served as investor relations officer at two Florida-based companies, SYKES (NASDAQ:SYKE) and BREED Technologies (NYSE:BDT).

Direct download: SMBH_52_Robin_Lester.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:07pm EDT

Nick is the owner of Tech Nick Creative, a web marketing company in Minneapolis, MN. At night, he dreams about social media, web design, blog strategy, and other ways to help small and medium companies grow using the web. Nick is a speaker and instructor on social media strategy, teaching a course on the topic at Century College, Argosy University, and North Hennepin Community College.

Nick is the coauthor of  the book

Shout In The Right Direction: Target Your Audience and Amplify Your Voice on the Web.”

Nick RosenerThe book presents a “More Focus, Less Noise way of thinking about your marketing.”

So have you ever wondered why do some businesses fizzle on social media, while others consistently pick up thousands of followers? The companies that are most successful online have learned to Shout in the Right Direction.

Today, it’s no longer enough to hope that you are reaching the right people on the web, you have to know. The National Institute for Social Media calls Shout in the Right Direction “a must read for entrepreneurs and small business owners,” mentioning that it provides an “easily understandable rationale for approaching the marketing planning process.”

Written for small business owners, managers, and digital marketers, this book gives readers:

  • A simple and easy-to-follow approach for making a marketing plan that delivers results.
  • Innovative strategies for leveraging social networks to generate business.
  • Creative ways to develop messages that resonate with audiences.

Eric and Nick have distilled years of research, consulting, and practical experience in digital marketing strategy into this practical and thought-provoking guide to small business marketing.  I strongly recommend picking up a copy of Nick’s book for some great new insights into Social Media Marketing
Here’s the Link: http://nickeltips.co/1ka3q9C

Direct download: SMBH.EP48.FEATURING.NICK.ROSENER.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:34pm EDT

We live in a society that is predicated on getting ahead by any means necessary. The ever-shrinking job market has put many individuals in positions to do the things they never thought would be needed. Consequently, all these issues have led new applicants to lie on their applications, with the hopes of getting ahead. This is not only morally unacceptable, but can cause you irreversible harm when it comes to your reputation. <strong><em>What most people do not realize is that we live in an information era, and recruiters can access any piece of information if they know where to look.</em> </strong><strong>
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Even as it has become so much easier for employers and recruiters to learn more about you, <strong><em>some studies have indicated as much as 35 percent of resumes contain some form of deceptive past employment information. This is true on Social Media profiles like LinkedIn.

Direct download: 060214_KXL_Job_Application_Lies_2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:42pm EDT

We live in a society that is predicated on getting ahead by any means necessary. The ever-shrinking job market has put many individuals in positions to do the things they never thought would be needed. Consequently, all these issues have led new applicants to lie on their applications, with the hopes of getting ahead. This is not only morally unacceptable, but can cause you irreversible harm when it comes to your reputation. What most people do not realize is that we live in an information era, and recruiters can access any piece of information if they know where to look.

Even as it has become so much easier for employers and recruiters to learn more about you some studies have indicated as much as 35 percent of resumes contain some form of deceptive past employment information. This is true on Social Media profiles on sites like LinkedIn.

Direct download: 060214_KXL_Job_Application_Lies_1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:11pm EDT

 

Rick is a Personal Manager, Marketing Consultant and Public Speaker living in Nashville Tennessee.

 

He’s the former manager of Superstar Taylor Swift and recently launched his online Membership Program The Music Industry Blueprint and is now helping people all over the world Navigate The Music Business. He has taken a traditional offline business and has taken it online!

 

After a 15 year career in radio, he moved over to the Record Company side in 2004.

 

Today Rick manages The Music Industry Blueprint where he evaluates what you have, and teaches artist how to take what they have and grow it into a business. Rick’s experience helps them navigates the hard, uncaring music business. He believes it’s hard enough that you shouldn’t have to make it any harder.

 

Rick wants to provide the strategies it takes to help make the road a bit smoother. Rick recognizes he got to where he is today with hard work and but also specific strategies learned from great mentors. He is dedicated to pass along that knowledge and specific strategies to the next group of people who want to have a career in one of the most rewarding and fascinating businesses in The World, The Music Business.

 

We are excited to welcome Rick to the Social Media Business Hour!

Direct download: SMBH_45_140519_-_Featuring_Rick.Barker.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Do you or have you ever felt a bit overwhelmed with everything it takes to be successful?

 

Our guest today has felt the same way, but she has learned how to conquer overwhelm and replace it with a proven system for instant clarity, power and freedom.

 

 

So would you like to hear what she learned that helped her climb that mountain?

 

 

In our power-packed show today, Melanie Benson Strick, America’s Leading Authority on Optimum Performance, will help you:

 

 

  1.  Know the ONE question you have to ask to be among the top 3% (hint: it will save you time, money and your sanity!)
  2. Leverage a powerful technique to breeze through problems, roadblocks and delays
  3. Prioritize your actions to double (even triple) your revenue in the next 90 days.
  4. Create a step-by-step process to move from ideas to income -- guaranteed!
  5. Learn a simple strategy every millionaire knows to power up your motivation and banish procrastination -- forever.

 

Direct download: SMBH_44_140512_-_Featuring_Melanie_Benson_Strick.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:33pm EDT

Adam is the Founder, Help My Website Sell™ a company is dedicated to helping companies, organizations, and entrepreneurial ventures Emancipate The POWER Of INFORMATION through mastering:

-  Effective, easy-to-implement website conversion strategies and techniques that work;

-  Simplified internet marketing technologies that support the business’ website and sales conversion and customer experience goals;

-  Spending less time editing and maintaining their websites, and more time promoting and monetizing them.

Having worked with numerous companies and ventures of different sizes, markets, and niches, Adam offers a unique blend of website conversions know-how combined with a mix of live coaching and consulting.

Social Media Business Hour presented by Nile Nickel.  

Join us each week for the latest in Social Media and Business.  

These terrific, thought inspiring shows include "News Of The Weird" segments where you'll get the strangest stories from around the world.  Impress your friends and family with hilarious and often surprising news stories that the major news networks don't cover. 

In addition, get some great tips for how to attract and keep your perfect customers using Social Media.  On top of the laughs that you'll share, Nile will deliver you golden business lessons from truly great entrepreneurs.  

 

These incredible men and women have been where you are and have struggled through the challenges you face every day.  Take this opportunity to invest in your business, your education and enjoy it along the way!

Direct download: Adam_Hommey.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:06pm EDT

Bob Burg is a sought-after speaker at corporate conventions and for entrepreneurial events. He regularly addresses audiences ranging in size from 50 to 16,000 — sharing the platform with notables including today’s top thought leaders, broadcast personalities, Olympic athletes and political leaders including a former United States President.

Although for years he was best known for his book Endless Referrals, over the past few years it’s his business parable, The Go-Giver (coauthored with John David Mann) that has captured the heart and imagination of his readers.

It shot to #6 on The Wall Street Journal’s Business Best Sellers list just three weeks after its release and reached #9 on BusinessWeek’s. Since its release it has consistently stayed in the top 25 on 800ceoread’s Business Book Best Seller List. Its been translated into 21 languages. It is his fourth book to sell over 250,000 copies.

He believes his new book, Adversaries into Allies: Win People Over Without Manipulation or Coercion is by far his most important work yet.

Bob is an advocate, supporter and defender of the Free Enterprise system, believing that the amount of money one makes is directly proportional to how many people they serve. He is also an unapologetic animal fanatic and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Furry Friends Adoption and Clinic in Jupiter, Florida.

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_2.24.14.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Charlie is a speaker, author, and founder of the Business & Entrepreneur Network, Charlie McDermott helps small business owners clear the path to building valuable, scalable and… saleable businesses via automation and the creation of direct response marketing assets.

Charlie started his first business as a college student at West Chester University located in Pennsylvania, and grew it into an 8-figure health club empire. Twenty-two years later he sold that business to focus his marketing expertise on Hollywood where he used over twenty different forms of media to breakthrough the clutter and land his son acting roles in feature films and television shows including, The Office, Private Practice, Medium, and a full-time gig as Axl Heck on the hit ABC comedy, “The Middle”.

Today, Charlie works with hundreds of entrepreneurs every month online from as far away as Australia and via live events held in the Philadelphia, PA and Wilmington, DE areas.

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_2.17.14.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Michael is the Host of The Solopreneur Hour Podcast. He is an in-demand speaker at conferences and organizations nationwide.

His current mission is to support and educate Solopreneurs, including those in Internet Marketing, Network Marketing, Real Estate, Athletics and more.

As a bonus, he’d like to change the face of the network marketing industry by teaching associates the correct way to build relationships with social media.

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_2.10.14.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Dave discovered he was an entrepreneur at the ripe age of 6 years old before he knew what the word meant. He and his very first business partner/sister started his first business together, it was a lemonade stand.

Their customers ranged from thirsty farmers to total strangers. It was also there that Dave learned about adding value to existing clients, so he and his Sister started baking cookies to go along with the lemonade.

While in the 7th grade he and his cousin started “Best Team Auction Co” where during recess they would auction off any items their classmates would bring to sell and in August of 2012, he fulfilled a lifelong DREAM of his! He became a licensed auctioneer. He later went on and tried his skills at raising pigs and cows it was through this experience he discovered he was not a farmer.

Today he owns four businesses all of which are debt free and profitable, he is a pilot, diver and an inventor, and has been the guest speaker of several organization and has been featured on air as well as local print media.

Dave owns Empowering Small Business and has helped small businesses owners across the country by Empowering their Dreams of truly owning their business instead of being OWNED by the business.

Dave has been coached and continues to learn from some of the worlds best small business coaches, Howard Partridge, Mark Ehrlich,   “Inner Circle Member” and belongs to Team Phenomenal , and is a huge fan of Zig Ziglar

He guarantees that your business will change if you implement just some of the great information and tips you will receive if you attend our events, or your money back!

Dave is married to his lovely wife Toni and they both personally invite you to Empoweing Small Business events and workshops. We look forward to meeting you!

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_2.3.14.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Get all your Social Media Marketing Strategies and Tactics each week from Nile Nickel in the “Social Media Business Hour”.  Check out expert tips as you learn about how to grow your business by attracting and keeping the perfect customers.  You’ll always get valuable internet marketing lessons AND really incredible business strategies.

Don’t miss the “weird news” segment of each show, as Nile delivers fun facts about what’s going on in the world, covering hilarious news stories that will leave you laughing. 

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_10.21.13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:38pm EDT

Social Media Business Hour presented by Nile Nickel.  

Join us each week for the latest in Social Media and Business.  

These terrific, thought inspiring shows include "News Of The Weird" segments where you'll get the strangest stories from around the world.  Impress your friends and family with hilarious and often surprising news stories that the major news networks don't cover. 

In addition, get some great tips for how to attract and keep your perfect customers using Social Media.  On top of the laughs that you'll share, Nile will deliver you golden business lessons from truly great entrepreneurs.  

These incredible men and women have been where you are and have struggled through the challenges you face every day.  Take this opportunity to invest in your business, your education and enjoy it along the way!

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_10.14.13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Join us each week for the latest in Social Media and Business. 

These terrific, thought inspiring shows include "News Of The Weird" segments where you'll get the strangest stories from around the world. 

Impress your friends and family with hilarious and often surprising news stories that the major news networks don't cover. In addition, get some great tips for how to attract and keep your perfect customers using Social Media. 

On top of the laughs that you'll share, Nile will regularly deliver you golden business lessons from truly great entrepreneurs. These incredible men and women been where you are and have struggled through the challenges you face every day.  Take this opportunity to invest in your business and enjoy it along the way!

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_10.7.13.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_9.2.13_64bit_24000.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

Giggle and Laugh Out Loud while listening to Nile share funny statistics for married couples, men and women.  
You'll also surely get some ideas for your business, when you hear the stories of really incredible and new business models that are changing the world...in a great way!

Direct download: Social_Media_Business_Hour_8.26.13_64bit_24000.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

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