...Without spending a fortune on advertising

I'm Rikki Arundel, your Small Business Marketing Strategies host. One thing that most small businesses have in common is "Small Marketing Budgets." We have to be canny about marketing, seek ways to reach our prospects and customers that don't cost a lot of money. If that is what you're searching for - you are in the right place.

Learn about Blogging and RSS

Blogging is becoming so important to business and I will be devoting a lot of space here to helping you to understand how to market your business with blogs - Here are the links to my Blogs:

Small Business Marketing Strategies
GenderShift Blog
My personal blog
Expect More From 2007

This neat little widget comes from MyBlogLog which is a blogging community, although as you can see it works just as well on a web site. The pictures are of the last few people from the MyBlogLog Community who have come to visit this home page. Cool huh!

I have been very very surprised recently to discover just how many small business owners really do not have a clue what blogging is all about or why it should be of any interest to them. I will be providing some simple tips and support to help all small businesses get to grips with this new and important marketing strategy at RSS and Blogging.

You may have noticed the those little orange "RSS/XML" Buttons or the new standard orange Feed symbol appearing on web sites and blogs and if you are still wondering what this is all about, you are not alone. I have really started to get serious about this topic because it is clear just how important it is going to be. Take a quick look at Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign where blogs are a crucial central strategy. This is something every small business needs to master.

In December Microsoft released long awaited upgrade to Internet Explorer which includes a feed reader (A What!!) I know new jargon to learn, new technology to grapple with - Firefox users like me have or course had that feature for a few years now, however even more useful is Google Reader an excellent on-line reader for managing your blog subscriptions. If this is all sounding a bit too much - don't worry I am going to be updating the Blog Section of this site over the next few weeks and all will be come clear.

Now a little magic - Below is my Small Business Marketing Strategies Blog which is replacing my newsletter simply because it is so much easier to manage both for me and for it's readers. Simply scroll down and click on any of the recent articles. It took me just five minutes to publish that here and now every time I update my blog - this page is automatically updated.

Throughout the site you will find other live feeds published, not always in box, sometimes they are just listed, but this means that I now have other people automatically contributing content to my site keeping it fresh and current. Check out my RSS and Blogging to learn more about this new important technology.

Search Big Daddy

Let me start my mentioning BigDaddy. This is something new that you need to look at if you have a web site or a blog and want to get other people promoting it for you. Big Daddy is a search engine with a difference. To see why it is different type "ezine articles" (without the quotes) into the search field below. (it will open up in a new browser window.)

OK so what you saw was a typical search return - except you may have noticed that a page from this web site right there at the top - not a link - the actual page in an iframe. You will also have seen that the number one position on the search results was ArticlesBiz.com - which is also my site. You could get the same results for your chosen search keyword - Free.

Find out how here

Social Bookmarking

ADD TO YOUR SOCIAL BOOKMARKS: Blink Del.icio.us Digg
Furl Google Simpy Spurl Technorati Y! MyWeb

You might right now be asking - What! is social bookmarking. I spend a lot of time online - too long I suspect - but it's not as sad as it sounds because my PC is my route to my network around the world and social bookmarking is one of the tools for connecting online. The problem is that the list above represents only a small sample of the more popular social bookmark sites.

Del.icio.us is an online bookmarks site - Click on this links and you will find all the bookmarks I have saved online - http://del.icio.us/rikki - These links are also listed further down on this page and they are also on my blog. They are all links I think people who like my sites may be interested in. I can also find other people who like the web sites I like. Of course I also list my own sites because sites like Del.icio.us and My Yahoo are indexed by search engines and therefore provide inbound links to my site which helps to improve my search engine ranking.

I also really like Ma.gnolia another social bookmarking site with some great tools for working in groups and linking to other people - I also prefer the look and feel of Ma.gnolia to del.icio.us. Click on the Maglolia image below to see another great feature called Roots. Click on the X in the top right of the Roots display to return to this page.

Some of the social bookmark links like Technorati and Google are really only for listing RSS feeds (click on Blogging and RSS on the navigation bar if you need to know what that means) Digg is a site for sharing good articles you find and discussing current events.

However that the links above do not include for example Squidoo. What! I hear you say, is Squidoo? Well it's a site you really should take a look at. Squidoo is a great way to promote your expertise or your products or even just some aspect of yourself using what they they call lenses. Take a look at mine to get an idea:

The great thing about sites like Squidoo is that they allow anyone to have a professional web space at no cost and with no requirement for technical skills. Even if you have a web site - it's a way to help promote your site and they are fun and as you may have discovered I can link to a video which I have loaded onto another free site - YouTube.

If you are already into social bookmarking and a site you use is not listed or you just want to explore this brave new world - click on the link below.

Skype Me

Of course the ultimate networking on PC is Skype, the most popular of the VoIP systems - "Voice over Internet Protocol" in simple terms telephone via the internet and much much cheaper - actually Free if its PC to PC 0- but still really cheap to call out now to an phone. You can even have phone in other parts of the country or even the world. So for example I have a London Number 0208 1235672 - Anyone can call me on a local call in London and reach me on my PC - or my voicemaile of I am not there - Or I can forward it to a mobile or landline.

Oh! Did you see this little symbol at the top of the page -

Using a system called Jive - This symbol tells you if I am online or not and if I am on line whether am I able to take a call right now. If I am available and you have Skype, click on that button and you will be immediately connected to me

Amazing isn't it - If I am not there you can leave a voice mail - or you can instant message me for when I get back - If you don't know me you will probably get a request to send me a message to explain why you want to speak to me.

If you are on skype and want to add me to your contact list make sure you mention that you got my details from my home page.

Skype ID: RikkiArundel -

If you are not on Skype all you need is a microphone (I recommend you get a USB microphone - a little more expensive but saves lots of hassle) and the Skype software which is free to download and install from Here

What - you still don't have a web site?

You don't have to have a web site to use the internet for marketing, but it helps. You will find a lot of online marketing ideas here. I don't mean necessarily internet marketing strategies, but ideas that any busines can use to drive visitors to your web site and therefore to your business.

All the ideas here are practical and if I don't use them myself, I know someone who does. I have been involved with the Internet and helping people, especially small business owners, to use it more effectively for 12 years and I am surprised at how many people are still missing the opportunities open to everyone.

Click Here to see how ordinary people of all ages from all around the world are creating profitable online businesses or using a web site like this to support an off line business. .

You don't need to be a tekkie to be successful using the internet, anyone can use it to support their existing business or to replace it provided they follow a few simple rules. If you exploreed dthe link above the case studies you have just been reading all use SBI! the same Success System I am using to create this web site. But, it's not really about building a web site it's about creating a business that works. You will see lots of stuff from SBI on this site, simply because they give away so many great free products, but why not check it all out here.

Article Marketing

There are literally thousands of directories today and what we are seeing more and more now is the emergence of niche directories. My own Directory Articles Biz for example is specifically targeted at business related articles and is being strongly marketed to Professional speakers and Women in Business.

I strongly recommend that you start using this strategy. It does not take long to put together an article and if you submit a couple of articles a month to a dozen directories you will soon see a dramatic difference in your web traffic. You will find my recommendations of good sites and some services to enable mass submission if you click on the Ezines & Articles navigation button.

Recent Articles From Rikki Arundel

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