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Paul said he'll post the audio for this show within about 24hr

Coryon Redd is the guest today. He'll be talking about free & nearly free tools to market & manage your business on the web.

Previous shows with Coryon Redd are here.

Coryon Redd runs Batteries4less.com selling discount cell phone batteries and accessories.
He teaches class on internet marketing for non-profit & for-profit businesses.

Google's Keyword Tool is a good first step to marketing your business.
You can find the tool if you google: "keyword tool".
You should find the appropriate link at adwords.google.com/select/keywordtoolexternal.
The tool helps you see which words people search for and which are the most popular.

Coryon is teaching class at the Nevada County One Stop
More info at sedcorp.biz or call 530-823-4703.

Paul asked what a business with local customers would do differently from a mail-order business.
– Look for keywords relevant to such a business in general and assume the same keywords would apply to local businesses.
– Think of the words you would or would not search for, let that help guide you.

Google Trends lets you see how what's searched for has changed over time and which geographical areas tend to use which words.

A similar tool is Google Insights.
Also, Wonderwheel shows relationships between search terms. It's under the 'options' section of the Google search results page (after you do a search).

Coryon invited email questions about today's show at coryon@batteries4less.com

To use Google's tools you can get a gmail account or register your current email address as your user name.

Useful tools for anyone are found at Google Docs that allow you to share a word-processing or spreadsheet documents. The documents are compatible with Microsoft Word <Office>. It allows employees to share information, in a collaborative way, which can help promote the business. A recently added feature is the ability to share folders of documents. In a folder you can share any document type, even those that Google Docs can't recognize.

Paul mentioned Google Gears which is an addon to Firefox that allows you to use Google while you're offline. Do a google search for google gears and you'll find an addon for both Internet Explorer and Firefox. It also allows the synchronizing of a document when more than one person works on it.

Paul mentioned the file size limits at Google:
1gig for the docs
1gig for a Picassa album
Over 7gig for the email
He also mentioned, from memory, that Google charges $5/yr for 20gig of extra storage.

Another tool is Google Alerts. Use the "News" link at the top of the Google search page. It will send you an email when a certain word, of your choice, shows up in news articles, blogs, periodicals, newspapers and etc. You can choose words that are related to your business or, of course, for non-business use.

Coryon said he has a blog about the "cell culture" at cellplaza.org.

Eli called to say he has a web site at Google Site as was wondering how to get a "shopping cart" or a "buy now" button incorporated into it so he can sell products.
– Coryon thinks it should have the ability to integrate with Google Checkout, so check into that first.
– There are many free & low cost shopping cart services. Make a list of what features you'd like and find one that fits.
– Zencart and Xcart are a couple of examples.
– Paypal is a great first option to receive payment. The various shopping cart services will have other ways to receive money.
– You can also create an eBay storefront.

Tim called and said he got a domain name in Sept at Go Daddy and wants to know an easy way to create a web site.
– You can use WordPress to integrate with Go Daddy.
– Catharine Schultz at catswebweave.com is consultant who can help with WordPress.
 – Joomla and Druple can provide site management but are complex and not particularly recommended.
– Though WordPress can be used on the WordPress site, it can also be installed on other domains. Catswebweave.com has more info.

Another tool is Google Analytics for those on a budget. It informs you about what works to draw people to make a purchase. It gives statistics about the usage of your webpages, which pages are viewed most, where the people visiting the pages come from, at what point do they end their visit and much more.

Gmail itself allows you to group your mail to better manage mail regarding your business.

Paul talked about 'blue screen of death' trouble shooting.
To find what triggered the crash in Windows, use Whocrashed. See the above link.

USB 3 is coming out. See the above link.

Mac users get complacent because they keep hearing that Macs are more secure than the PCs but may be more vulnerable to phishing scams. See the above link.

Disclaimer:
Views and opinions are those of the show's hosts only.

Last updated 12:04 PM 2/9/2010