What does Google Places mean to me?

You probably already know, or have witnessed first-hand that Google have changed the way that searching for local business and accommodations. Local listings now integrate below the sponsored listings, but above the organic search results.

Google claimed some time ago that 1 in 5 searches across Google's search engine empire were location specific.  Due to this reason they have integrated more local listings within your search results. So this is seen as an attempt to provide results to that 20% of searchers.

There has been much chatter across webmaster and SEO forums such as CapturedTech.com  specifically about this subject. The reasoning behind this trend is due mainly to the fact this is a huge change for us as users, many of us as webmasters and our businesses as a whole are affected in one way or another.

The online world of link building can be more than work - it can be fun too. Unfortunately not all web masters are brilliant programmers otherwise every time they ran into a problem they would be able to "program their-selves out of it." There are a lot of great programs out there however for a lot of different Internet marketing methods. Buzzstream is one of them. I usually won't write an article talking too much about one specific program, but this is different. Buzzstream is... SWEET.

Twitter Followers and Following Back

The goal of many Twitter account holders is to get as many followers as possible and to that often requires following those accounts in return. This leads to issues with trying to get useful information from your Twitter stream, but for some accounts, that might not be your purpose. Maybe your purpose is to sell tweets through one of the ad platforms like SponsoredTweets or TwittAd. And unless you are someone somewhat famous in your field, getting followers without following back is quite hard to do.

If you’re looking to implement a virtualization strategy the first thing you need to identify is what you’re realistically looking to achieve from it. One of the more common reasons an organization might look into moving to a virtualized platform is to improve business efficiencies and make sure they’re really utilizing their existing IT. Another factor to influence this decision might be you want to improve your time to market or your overall turnaround time. Once you’ve identified why you need a virtualization strategy you’ll be able to derive whether it’s for business purposes or whether it’s for IT purposes.

Does Your Business Need Direction?

Create A Business Plan

Is your business operating without a strategic plan? If so, you could be putting at risk its long-term viability. Businesses that work to a plan have been shown to improve their chances of survival. Does working to a set of objectives sound too restrictive though? Don't worry, working to a business plan doesn't mean your business can't respond to changing market conditions. Being flexible is imperative to your success too; there's nothing stopping you making changes.

My jaw dropped. I didn’t know quite how to react to the longest consumer watchdog article I have ever seen – and, this, in the New York Times. The article – “A Bully Finds A Pulpit on the Web” – is a must read for anyone involved in online marketing and, more broadly, search engine optimization, for that matter. New York Times reporter, David Segal, takes the reader through the nightmarish business model and world of a dubious online marketer who works on the shady edge of the web and is the self-professed “Howard Stern of online commerce.” As a web professional, I read and cringed my way through all eight pages of this outlandish story with a mixed sense of awe and fearful disgust.

Jasmine Stephenson is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on accredited online colleges for the Guide to Online Schools.

HootSuite is an amazing tool that brings all your social network accounts to one user-friendly interface. Instead of spending hours sorting through all of your online marketing mediums, HootSuite provides everything you're looking for on one screen.

For those who were hit by the recession or looking to make a career change, rest assured as there is a healthy job market out there for those who are well educated and experienced. In 2011, we will start to see outsourcing becoming more prominent because of the benefits offered to the employer. Companies often outsource jobs to take advantage of the lower pate rate offered for a particular job function with no corresponding worries about providing employee benefits or contributing to additional overheard expenses. Outsourcers have also seen increased productivity among the work environment and have access to a larger pool of workers. So, what exactly is outsourcing you ask? In the simplest terms, outsourcing is when a company contracts with another company or person to provide services that would otherwise be performed in-house.

Every business needs to be able to keep up with the competition and run as leanly as possible. Working smart, by improving efficiency is one of the ways in which you can achieve this and with the aid of a few business technologies, it is much easier to do than you would first think. Below are 5 examples of those business technologies which are readily available to all.

Let’s face it, not all websites are created equal.  Each website has a unique set of demands and requirements in order to function.  While it may seem like all hosting is the same, there are four distinct types of web hosting that each offer their own set of perks and limitations.  To better understand what type of hosting your website needs, keep reading.