My Top 10 Content, SEO and Social Media Tools and Websites

This list is in no particular order because every blogger or internet marketer has slightly different needs or ways of doing things:

Here are just a few of MANY different resources out there to get you started or add to your existing online marketing campaign.

Blogging is only one form of content used to get your brand, product or service out there. Of course, I do list a couple blogging sites, but I have a few other very interesting sources you can use to spruce up your SEO and Internet Media Marketing.

So, first and foremost:

1. Blogger.com. Which happens to be the blogging site I am using to post this blog. It is very easy and like most blog sites, it's free. It provides several, clean templates to choose from and like a lot of blogging sites you can add gadgets, widgets, modules (whatever your blog site chooses to call them) to profitize your blog through adsense or simply get creative with. It is connected with your gmail and/or Google+ account which I happen to like, simply because I love everything google. That's just me though.


2. Worpress.com. I really like wordpress, too! (they're add-ons are called widgets btw). It's not quite as easy as let's say blogger or squidoo, but you have a lot more flexibility. Here's a blog I created for a customer of mine using wordpress.com: miamisportfishing.wordpress.com


3. Squidoo.com. I personally like squidoo. It makes blogging fun, and plus it is easy to add profit sharing modules from Amazon and Ebay to earn a little extra cash. Here's one of my personal squidoo blogs, or as they call it - lenses: www.squidoo.com/how-to-blog-when-you-hate-blogging


4. Animoto.com. This is a great, cheap site to make videos if you don't have a video making software such as iMovie, or of course, any other that you prefer. In fact, even if you do have movie making software, I still suggest looking into this site simply because it is super easy and can save you lots of time if you have several videos you are making for yourself or your clients. It's mainly used for stills (photos) and piecing them together with some music to make a nice presentation for business or personal use.


5. Screencast-o-matic.com. This is another great tool that I really like a lot and for the longest time wondered how people did this. Screencast-o-matic is a FREE site where you can record your onscreen activity. This is perfect if you want to show how to download software or instructions on how to play a computer game for example. Basically, it's perfect for any tutorial where you need to walk someone through what you are doing on your computer screen step-by-step.
   
   Then there are the obvious Social Media outlets that I believe every start-up and small business needs to be a part of. You just can't run from it anymore, or your competition will surpass you in no time.
   
   Times are definitely different. For instance, my sport fishing client I referred to earlier - he has been in business since 1994 out of the same marina in North Miami Beach, FL. He is a very well known Captain in South Florida and has always had a lot of new business and repeat customers.
   
   Up until the last 5-7 years he mainly got his business from people getting into their car, driving to the marina, walking around from boat to boat and inquiring in person (OMG!) about charter boats and rates.
   
   Because my client had three beautiful sport fishing boats and a nice appearance along with knowledge, expertise and charisma, he had no problem booking charter after charter.
   
   Well, for better or worse those days are long behind us. With a click on the back button it is more than easy to compare prices right from your living room, and if your prices are above your competition's, or even worse, you don't even have an online presence, your days could very well be numbered!
   
   So here are the most popular Social Media outlets if you don't already know this:
   


6. Twitter.com. Twitter is basically like online text messaging capped at 140 characters per post (or tweet) for everyone who is 'following' you, and often times everyone who is following them, to see. You can link to your website, blog, or any to any other site or topic that you find interesting online and people can click on th short link to read more. For example, when I am finished writing this blog, I will attach the url into a twitter post and send it out into the twitter nest of people who are follwoing me. If someone really likes what I have to say they may even retweet it to all of their followers and so on.


7. Facebook.com. 1 Billion people now use Facebook. Need I say more!


8. LinkedIn.com. This is great if your business is to provide a service or product to another business. I am not saying if you provide directly to the consumer that LinkedIn is NOT for you, I am just saying it is extra good in you are a B2B company.


9. Hootsuite.com.  I love Hoot Suite. It's the tool I use to monitor all of my Social Media sites in one nice, neat little package.  I tend to have internet ADD, so for me having everything under one browser tab makes my life much simpler.


10. Yoast for Wordpress SEO. This is a GREAT plug-in if you built your website on wordpress.ORG. This is different then the shared server blogging site, wordpress.COM. Right now I am really speaking to website owners moreso than bloggers, although Yoast may have this SEO tool for wordpress.com, as well.
    
    This plug-in basically walks you through SEOing each individual URL page of your website and then analyzes it and tells you what you need to add or take away to make the search engines happy. There is another great Wordpress plug-in called SEO all-in-one, but I prefer Yoast Wordpress SEO. (You will need a wordpress.org account to use this).
    
11. One more for good measure: Google+. Did you know that Google Plus has 20 TIMES the growth rate of Facebook??? Yup, you heard that right. So, even though you may not be too familiar with Google+ right now, it's time to get familiar with it! Especially with Google's new personalized search results; Google Plus+ is going to be imperative for your business.

Wow, I totally realize I could go on, and think I will add a separate post with a few more of my favorite tools and sites for great content writing, SEO and Social Media marketing.

In today's world it really is essential to have some sort of online presence whether you do it yourself or hire someone to help you. SEO and Social Media marketing company's prices are much more competitive then ever before as this form of marketing becomes more popular then ever.

My advice is this: DO NOT underestimate the power of the web. Also, understand that it takes TIME to build your online presence, so prepare yourself.

Once you get there, however, you'll realize it's worth the time, energy and expense it takes to get you where you need to be in the world of technology, and you may even have fun doing it, as like anything else, it is an ongoing process.