Please welcome Allon Bloch, co-CEO of Wix – a free online software that allows you to make your own flash website, blog, MySpace and more!Supposedly, it’s incredibly-simple to use. U know how non-techie I am. While I really want to give it a whirl, “test” it out, and report back to you…something better brewed ov’r yonder. Since time and energy is scarse & after developing a nice rapport with a few of Wix staff while hosting the below interview/article, Wix offered to contribute a weekly series specific to “Internet Branding for Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners”. How sweet is that!?

Phew! Having Amit share tips, how-to’s, and more, I’m hoping we will all soon have some kickin’ flash websites ourselves.

P.S. Read to the end, and find out how You can be apart of this invitation-only closed-Beta opportunity!

So, what is Wix Allon ?

Wix is a start up that’s venture backed.

It’s a classic story of a few founders frustrated with a big problem – and spending time and energy to resolving it. In this case, Gig Kaplan, Avishai and Nadav Abrahami (brothers) were looking at the web publishing market in 2005 and were frustrated with the inability to create a web site that looks good and is easy to make. To create a good looking website you need to pay many thousands of dollars to a team of coders and designers, and once you have the site published you need to run back to the coders when you want to make a change. The other option is typically a dreary looking template site that provides no creativity, self expression or a true way to tailor a site to one’s needs.

- So the guys (yes sorry all the founders are guys in this case…) felt like they could tackle this problem and moreover felt like it’s a pretty basic problem. During the last couple of years the emergence of widgets as an important part of the web, especially on social networks, have increased the importance of creating a web-top publishing platform that could enable users to create great stuff online WITHOUT the need to code and WITHOUT being constrained by templates.

- I joined as co-CEO in February 2008, and Nir Zohar as head of operation about a year ago. We’re HQed in NY with a large team in Tel Aviv, Israel

- We’re still in private beta, and while I can’t reveal any of our numbers/targets, we are amazed at the kinds of web documents people are creating. The three broad buckets we have are the following:

o Consumers who want to express themselves- creating personal sites, widgets, slideshows, greeting cards etc

o Artists and musicians who create web stuff for their fans

o Small businesses

- Let me elaborate about our impact on small businesses: instead of spending many thousands of dollars creating a site and then spending weeks every time you want to make a change, a small business owner can create their own site, on their own, and publish it wherever they want. Furthermore, despite the fact that we are in flash our sites are searchable like any HTML sites (that’s part of our secret sauce). We provide a lot of professional looking content that people can use. Certain small business owners would want a graphic or web designer to create this for them – which is fine, and in the future we will create a marketplace to connect designers with site owners. This will still cost a fraction of creating a site today – because it takes much less time to make it – hours or a couple of instead of weeks. And you can do a collaborative design – you don’t just provide a general idea and get a black box – the site owner can change anything they want in real time. And once it’s finished they can change whatever they want on their own

- Let’s take an example: let’s say you’re a small flower store with and you want an online presence. You go to wix, create a site and publish it. Now you want to promote a certain event to your customers – you can say create a flyer widget on and email it to your customers or post it on your site or on your myspace profile. And you can prepare that promotion easily on your own – you take imagery from your site, add some text, press publish and voila you have a promotional flyer that you created in minutes – a much easier way to market yourself online

- Business model: wix is now free for our beta testers. In the future we will charge a fee to our business customers for using a premium offering, but it’s going to be around $10 a month (and we host the site – which is what you pay for hosting today in any case). So for the price of two cups of cappuccino

You have a striking presence online….

Since Wix is still in closed beta, they only approached a select number of quality blogs whose readers will most benefit from Wix.
I’m proud and honored that EWM makes the “cut”, and they happily offered to give me AND You advanced access so we can all test the product for yourselves!

Here’s how:

The following video offers a quick look at our editor.
For further information, please see our blog kit. [BTW, I really like that "blog kit" instead of "press kit" ]

Part 2: Internet Branding Step 1: Understanding Your Goal & Assessing Your Digital distinction

Everyone defines social media differently.

When in doubt, I always use www.Wikipedia.org which states, “Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share content, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media themselves.”

As a small business owner, I share all of my content, opinions, experiences, perspectives and medium with you—my reader, therefore making it a very powerful branding & marketing medium for you, your products & services.

Social media has many different forms. It can be in text, images (such as logos & avatars) used in your blogs, audio such as podcasting, webcasts and videos such as YouTube. You can also use tools like as message boards, forums, and bookmarking sites.

We’re presently in this new wave on the internet called “Web 2.0.” — the second wave of user-generated content. We’re creating a consumer-generated community where we share opinions, we ask in our blogs: “Do you agree with my opinions? Do you disagree? Am I totally way off?” etc.

When you write or share a video, it could go viral. If someone loves your video and audio, they’ll post it on a message board, their blog, distribute it on their ezine list, post on their website…etc. It’s This powerful.

My colleague, Deb Micek, is a columnist for www.WomenEntrepreneur.com, the sister site to www.Entrepreneur.com, Entrepreneur magazine. She is its social media or New Media Marketing columnist.

She says that Web 2.0 is made for women because, “If I share my opinion, women are apt to agree, disagree or share indifferently.” The great thing about women and Web 2.0 is that, if they agree, disagree or are indifferent, they will share their opinion.

What are the ways to do it?

Blogging and social networking websites, like LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook. LinkedIn has a life of its own. People are making recommendations and referring others to me. My LinkedIn account just grows and has a life of its own.

Facebook is the newest “best-thing”. I was supposed to dedicate the entire month of November to just learning how to optimize that site…but, I’ve then been sick…for another day soon

The bookmarking websites are StumbleUpon, Digg, www.sk-rt.com, and del.icio.us. For instance, you like one of my articles or website, etc. All you have to do is bookmark it.

 Here’s an easy way to describe things:

You know how you have bookmarks on your internet browser on your personal computer or laptop? The websites you like and want to save for later.

Well, the problem lies in that fact that I have four computers and 1 laptop (soon-to-be 3) at home. I have 30 bookmarks on my personal computer, but if I use the laptop, my bookmarks aren’t there.

StumbleUpon, de.licio.us and Digg created online bookmark web pages. You can bookmark any of your web pages with your account at these sites. Your bookmarks are always available to you because they’re on a website, not on your desktop.

What’s critical is that you create friends in each of these bookmarking websites. When I create a bookmark for XYZwebsite.com, all of my friends have access to it.

That one bookmark can drive traffic to the site because, “Ponn said she liked this. She thought it was worthy enough to be bookmarked, let’s check it out.” Each of these bookmarking sites have “tell a friend” options when you bookmark too…so email alerts are sent to friends of your choice. What’s cool is that we generate this kind of targeted traffic for ourselves by be-friending like-minded colleagues and friends online.

People tend to write testimonials and recommendations in the process of their web surfing too. I have people stumbling upon me and I have recommendations from others I’ve never even met. They like my website, give their thumbs-up, and write a little recommendation, which in turn drives more traffic to my site. They like what they read and they share it with their friends, and they share it with their friends, and so on.

While many people utilize bookmarking sites, I highly recommend building your networking sites too, ie LinkedIn, Facebook.

For example, in my LinkedIn account, I’ve gotten recommendations cc’d saying, “You need to learn more about internet branding? Ponn Sabra is the key person to learn from.”

You’re ability to build your account to the professional things you want to be known for, or “branded on the internet” is critical to your business’s success and viability.

You can build accounts around your website, books, ebooks, and consultation and coaching services.  Build one account and building the others comes like second nature.

While many haven’t been involved in a lot of this stuff, people are quickly eager to get involved. It’s a form of giving you credibility through other people recommendations—sortof like generating second-party-unbiased opinion/testimonial for you, your products and services. 

So, I always recommend that you start the ball running in your favor, by making professional accounts, writing your best material, and basically putting your best foot forward at all time online.

People are inquisitive yet skeptical. So, social media marketing is ideal for us entrepreneurs and small business owners with our own niche speciality; because if others find something they like, its in their nature to write about it and tell their friends…so their recommendations buzz around the internet in your favor.

That’s how these bookmarking and networking sites are made. They’re based on recommendations…and creating viral buzz.

Keep in mind though that if they don’t like something about you, they’ll be the first ones to bring you down with full critiques/criticisms. BUT, here’s the best part of a downside. If you get a thumbs-down, people are intrigued to find out why…so, those very people will be taking a look your way, driving traffic to your site and hopefully forming their own opinions—good or bad. 

And, then—the Best part of that down-side is: because of the real-time nature of social media…is that you can calmly, and professionally write up a rebuttal, defense, apology, etc. and come up on-top from this one negative comment! 

A lot of small business owners I know are just dipping their toes into this area, taking a look and thinking about it.

If someone were just starting and wanted to try one of these social media sites, the best place I think to start is LinkedIn.

Why?

My sister invited me to LinkedIn about four years ago. [Take a look here, and let’s become friends ] I never used it. Then I dedicated one day to sign up. It only took four hours to create my entire LinkedIn account to get recommendations and build my network score to 100%, which means you have certain number of friends/referrals, you have recommendations on file, you added your professional profile (present and past work experience, etc.). 

At the beginning of the day my profile was less than 25% (I don’t remember exactly…but, it should’ve been like 0% since I never used it). With a little dedication…like I said it took me 4-hours, I made it 100% so more people can join.

Now about a year later, I get recommendations, testimonials and requests to be linked to people I don’t even know. 

“I love your site. Will you please link in to me?” I’m always amazed by people coming out of the woodwork. It’s a great way to network. 

I typically reply, “Thank you very much. I would love to know more about why you love my site. Would you mind recommending me?” and they’ll do that, giving me more credibility at the same time I get to learn about them, because I’ll “read” their profiles. 

LinkedIn is very easy. 

But if people have the time, are more tech-savvy I highly recommend working on Facebook! [Here I am.]

I have one colleague in PR (Public Relations). She’s friends with magazine editors and publishers at Fortune 500 magazine. You can get Facebooked and connected to very powerful friends, like politicians, actresses, well-known famous people.

You’ll be surprised by the people who will request connecting with you. I have yet to decline anyone in either of my LinkedIn or Facebook account. [If you haven’t received a reply recently…it’s simply because I haven’t been online for months…slowly weaning back. First duty (as described above) is to build quality information for you to see I’m still worthy of your time ].  

In terms of social bookmarking, my top recommendation would be StumbleUpon. [Here’s my account.] It’s one of the easiest places to get your profile up. You can literally do it in five minutes. To actively befriend you and teach you how to do it, I have a couple detailed articles on how to use StumbleUpon personally and for your business.

• StumbleUpon for Computer-Dummies
• StumbleUpon Addiction for Business Research

Secondly, a very easy place is Del.icio.us, here’s my Beginner’s guide

 For women, there’s a new media site, www.sk-rt.com. I have a couple how-to articles here:

• How-To Sk-rt! Digg-ing Just for Women
• How To Become a Power User on Sk-rt.com – Calling mom and fashion bloggers…at least to start…

It’s a great start-up story. Three to five women were watching the Super Bowl in February 2007.

They said, “Wait a minute. We wouldn’t want to spend millions of dollars on advertising during the Super Bowl. Why don’t we do a Digg for women?” They designed sk*rt and launched it in June 2007. It’s an incredible website to be associated with!

Interested in a challenge? While I have yet to reach 500 RSS subscribers…I’ll blame it on my health preventing me to be as active as I should be, but give it a whirl:

• Want 500 New RSS Subscribers Each Month? Join Our Four-Week Challenge!

Enjoy the social media online networking fun, and please share your experiences below!

A lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners, especially women, who I work with have a bit of a mental block about writing for a blog…and they think so hard, trying to put out a professional image to maintain their “Expert” status.

Again, keep in mind the majority of readers are authors, writers, public speakers and consultants.

Blogging, for those who aren’t aware, is short for “web log.” The best way is to have it post frequently on your site, and bring conversations to your expert tone and personality.

When you go to my blog, you will see that it does not always have a perfectly spelt check.

I might write, “Pleezz give me your comments on this.” I am very informal and conversational. That is not Best-selling Author Ponn Sabra writing or one of a syndicated columnist.

Its your job to share this approachable personal and personable voice on your blog.

I sell more books from my blog than from my www.Amazon.com and www.BarnesandNoble.com pages.

Don’t you see me as a friend?

Wouldn’t you agree that I write to you one-to-one? Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur?

Don’t you feel compelled to find out what the best-selling author has to say about this particular topic? (God willing )

And, you can do this too!

I consult with authors who have this mental block, which I call the “blogging block.”

“I want to position myself as an expert”. “I want everyone to know I am a bestselling author” as some of their remarks.

Many feel they have to keep up an image and talk the way they publicly speak or share expertise.

Blogs and authors have failed in blogging by doing this. They cannot keep that up, because it takes a lot of mental power to write at that level every single day.

If you blog, you should write three to seven times a week.

How can you maintain that level of expertise day in and day out? It is very difficult…and exhausting, quite frankly!

Another problem is that Your readers will come to expect of you.

You may let them down, or they will begin to think, “I don’t want to follow her anymore.”

If you just change moods…or worse, get burnt out and stop blogging altogether!

So, I recommend that just start off by being the Ponn Sabra you know you are right here and right now!

I write every day as though I am writing to my best-friend.

Many times, she tells me, “Ponn, you write over my head. I don’t understand what you’re talking about with social media, online networking, buzz, etc. BUT, I’m still with you! When I come online, I will hire you to do it. I know you know your stuff.”

And, this is ALL I care about! I’m on the top of her mind for my area of expertise…not because I write as an Expert, but because I write first as a friend, keep her interest…and she knows I’m here when she needs me.

That’s why blogging doesn’t just Brand you but it continuously promote you and your products and services!

You show other people you are an expert by keeping the conversation alive.

People are intrigued to stay with you through the process…your process.

It’s your duty to maintain and sustain the ability to have the two-way conversation and dialog in your blog.

If we make it conversational, they will be inclined to comment or ask a question.

And, the only way to successfully do this is by inviting YOU by writing in a personal or better-yet “person-able” tone in your blog.

A great test to the gauge your conversational-blog-success is your comment-to-posting ration.

A client said, “You have a really high comment-to-posting ratio. I have problems getting comments. Can you look at my blog?”

Guess what?

I looked and said, “I don’t want to say you talk down to me, but I feel like you aren’t talking with me. I don’t feel like I’m a part of your process. You’re not really talking down to me…but, I feel like you just write to share information and your expertise. I don’t feel compelled to comment or comfortable enough to ask a question. So, while I may continue to read…I may not now or ever comment or start a dialogue.”

A great way to share your expertise is sharing a case study of a successful consultation with one of your clients.

Show some success statistics with your public speaking.

Show success stories for others to be intrigued and know you are an expert.

Write to me woman-to-woman or entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur. This will enable you to maintain your expert status, but still build that conversation.

When asked, “How powerful can blogs be? Can blogs make more of a difference in branding ourselves on the internet than a static website?”

My response:

Blogging is basically just a different platform for your website. It is called a “contact-management system,” which allows you to update your website easily.

If you go to WordPress or Blogger, you can get one for free. You can update every single page with every post you make. When you update your website daily or three times a week, that is more juice for the search engines to see your website as an authority figure.

If you have a static website of only four pages, it will sit there. Google, Yahoo! and MSN can only crawl those four pages. The search engine spiders crawl every time you share a new web page.

So, yes a blog is critical to your internet branding.

At the very least, you can add it to your main home static web page to create more opportunities for the search engines to find you and brand yourself an expert in your specific field.

What better way than to write in a conversational tone and create a dialog with your ideal clients? But, a blog!

Yes, I’m peeping and poppin’ around ever-so-slowly throughout the blogosphere…gathering more strength with every new day.

Luv U All for your patience, understanding, love, support, prayers, gifts and well wishes!

With much anticipation & exhaustion…I’ll be on a plane for much needed travels and proud to introduce a full week’s slate of regular contributions here at EWN (EmpowerWomenNow)!

So, with Entrepreneurs & Internet Branding as our on-going focus please welcome:

Monday: Internet Branding – yours truly

Tuesday: Family Life Balance (spouse-support for entrepreneurs): Mark of Successful Together Coaching

Wednesday: Beyond Web Design (Internet Branding focus): Amit of WIX

Thursday: (interchanged): Home Office: Julie Lenzer Kirk, and Health & Wellness Cindy of Go WorkOut Mom! (but will be gender-neutral for all entrepreneurs and small business owners needing a healthy tip or 2)

Friday: Online PR/Public Relations (Internet Branding focus): Teresa of Key Business Partners
Saturday: News, Opportunities, Interviews, Updates, etc. (As it comes in…which you’re always welcomed to contact us).

Sunday: Book & Product Reviews by our growing group of book reviewers! Thanks Cindy & Megan. More to debut soon…and you’re always welcomed to join us!

Amanda and crew are working diligently to update this ‘ol blog with all the newest frills (which I don’t even know about since I’ve been totally outta’ the loop).

Anyways, we look forward to debuting a prettier-more-community-friendly format during the upcoming months too. So, feel free to share your suggestions or recommendations below

Last, I ask that you will continue to support EWN and me, as I make my slow return online with a goal to have EWN’s presence less about me–but more on my mission “to continue to empower you to be your very best–despite any and all odds”.

I’ve been found saying a lot lately…”I have a disability, but I am NOT disabled.” I pray this attitude for all.

So, thank you for allowing me to be me, and I pray we all continue to grow together.

We’ll all strive to empower you to your fullest: first, as a balanced (mind-body-soul) person; and second, as an entrepreneur eager to gain the visibility and profitability your business deserves with our humble tips, tools & resource articles and posts!

We’ll always welcome regular contributors or one-time guest blogs!

• Part 1: Internet Branding versus Personal Branding

• Part 2: Internet Branding Step 1: Understanding Your Goal & Assessing Your Digital distinction

If you look, I have an endorsement at EzineArticles.com. It says, “”EzineArticles.com Should Be The #1 Online Marketing Method for Any Online and Offline Author!”.”

The majority of my readers, subscribers, listeners and clients are offline entrepreneurs and small business owners who are authors, consultants, coaches or experts, like public speakers.

When people ask, “What is the first thing I should do online?”

I tell them, “If you are a speaker or author, the number one thing I recommend is what I did in the first two months, during which time I was, trying to get my website up…Article Submission”. This is very easy for anyone who already has pages of professional material written, or spoken (get transcripts of your public speeches).

• Take portions of your book, eBook or speech.
• Cut them into 500 to 800 word articles.
• Submit them to www.EzineArticles.com. After you reach 10 you become a Platinum member, you get an unlimited amount of articles. This #1 action alone will help you become branded right here and now on the internet as an Expert…even without a website!

For example, if you are a coach for fitness, just write 10 articles about fitness.

If you didn’t know EzineArticles.com is a directory, which means other ezines, websites, blog owners could use your articles in their websites and electronic magazines. They help showcase and broadcast your articles on the web—one of the easiest thing you can do.

When I talk about article submissions, in addition to www.EzineArticles.com, I share the top three or four ways I submit online.

I don’t recommended just submitting to www.EzineArticles.com. GoArticles.com and IdeaMarketers.com are my #2 and #3 recommendations.

Submit to multiple directories so more people can read it!

Now, I highly-recommend that you use article submission and distribution services to help the process, such as http://www.ArticleMarketer.com, and http://www.isnare.com One submits to article directories and ezine articles. The other is a list of website owners who will submit it to their ezines.

Your goal is to get your article or message to as many people as possible.

You can do it for free by submitting it yourself or have your virtual assistant submit it for a low cost at places like www.EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com and IdeaMarketers.com—then go for it! Their all free to submit to.

However, if you want to be more widely known, it is economical to use the other resources I use on a monthly basis.

I have been online for over four now, and for the first two years, I exclusively sent to them to EzineArticles.com, and I got a lot of traffic!

If you go to my ezine articles profile, you can see how often my articles are picked up. The more you niche your market, the more you will be picked up by your target market article ezine publishers.

If you have articles you have written for your list, submit it to directories to make it available afterward.

Please keep in mind that it is not recommended to duplicate published blog posts to article submissions. There will be penalties against you for your search engine optimizations. Your articles should be unique and separate from your blog posts.

The greatest thing about ebooks and hardcover books is that you own the copyrights. When you cut it up into 500 to 800 words, you have articles. I was coached by www.TheeBookCoach.com.

This is one of the greatest ways to sell your book, ebook, or recorded teleseminars, eClases (with transcripts) etc.. You give a 500-word teaser, which is practically two pages of your ebook, book or transcript. Ta Daa! You have another marketing method for your materials.

The key is to repurpose your content as much as possible– chop up big material that you have and submit them as articles.

People sometimes save all their best content in their eBooks & books…and yet, this is the perfect way to hook your readers online with a teeny bit and lead them to your products (eBook or book for sale) in your resource box.

Now, the resource box is not my specialty. Christopher Knight, owner and founder of www.EzineArticles.com, has at least two or three articles just about the resource box.

I have an article in there called, “How I Became a Platinum Member at www.EzineArticles.com in Less Than an Hour.”

Briefly, in the resource box, keep it short and simple, no more than three sentences.

1. It should just say your name, who you are and something critical. Mine say, “Ponn Sabra, Women’s Empowerment Coach, Best-Selling Author and Syndicated Columnist.” You want something to give you credibility.
2. Use an action-driven sentence such as, “Ponn is a disabled home-schooling mom of three. She still finds time to empower women entrepreneurs to action.
3. For free tips, tools or resources, go to http://www.EmpowerWomenNow.com.” That came out very easily. I might have used that at one time

Here is one critical tip: Typically, you have one or two live links in your resource box. You can embed one link inside your sentence. I always write it out as well, “Get your free tips at http://www.EmpowerWomenNow.com.”

Some people don’t know that Empower Women Now is a website. So, it’s your job to make it very easy.

Also, when other people pick up your article, they might not pick up the embedded link. You will ensure you have a live link if you write out as http://www.EmpowerWomenNow.com.

You’re goal is to use the call to action to bring the people to your website to download your free report or sign up for your newsletter. This is how article writing and submission brands you online while bringing you tons of traffic to your website at the same time.

This way four-years later, article submission continues to be my very first recommendation to brand yourself on the internet!

When you strategically bring your brand online, you can create this community around you, yourself and your business. People will be drawn to you first, as a small business owner, then secondarily your business.

The blend of buying your products, services, consultations and coaching sessions is almost second nature. They’re already dedicated, committed, trusting and respecting you as the expert in your field. This is missing in the marketing aspect.

If I’m talking as an expert to a friend, I’m much more personable. You’ll, hopefully, purchase my products and/or be committed to what I do and hire me in the process.

You’re developing that relationship and building trust over time, just as you’re doing with some of these things like writing your blog or an article then opening that up for people to respond.

When I start with a new clients, first thing I do it assess how digitally distinct he/she is.

It only takes you about 10 minutes to find out how you score. In my article, I scored a 10 out of 10. Internet branding is my area of expertise, so I hoped I would maintain that

You have to realize that keywords and search engine results change on a daily basis, so it’s good to always look back. I first did this about four months ago and checked back again to make sure I’m still up there.

Say, for instance, “Ponn Sabra” is branded. A couple of names that people online know me as are “The Women’s Empowerment Queen” or “Power Networker Ponn.”

Why would I do an online test to find out if my internet brand is critical or scores high for my name, “Ponn Sabra”? The answer is very simple. For example, we’re looking for Jane. She’s a consultant and XYZ Business.

Most people don’t know the URLs. If you weren’t familiar with me previously, you wouldn’t know www.EmpowerWomenNow.com or www.XYZBusiness.com.

If someone is willing to hire Jane or me, buy my products and buy my books, the first thing they do is a search for that particular person’s name to find out, “Who else is talking about Ponn Sabra?” or, “Where else can I find her?”

It’s critical that you know this. If your name is Jane Doe and someone is doing a search for “Jane Doe” but you’re not in the first three pages, then you’re just another Jane Doe. You want to be the Jane Doe who sticks out of the crowd.

My name is very unique, so I’m glad I optimized my name. You want to optimize your name for your areas of expertise. Go to Google and do a search in quotes for “Ponn Sabra.”

You want to see that everything that comes up under your personal name in the first critical three pages is actually associated with you, like an article about you, a press release about you, your book, your website or your blog.

Thankfully for me, there are almost 13 pages and every single link is associated with Ponn Sabra. This is what you want to achieve in getting online visibility as an entrepreneur.

What’s really cool is that the top way you’ll find Ponn Sabra’s name is my own personal web page, which is also my blog. You’ll find numerous search engine optimized press releases. You’ll find articles that were picked up through article distribution centers. The last way is where people have interviewed me or I’ve had joint venture partners.

Because this creates the top three pages in Google for my name and for other keyword phrases I’m optimizing my sites for, it’s critical that you do the same.

That’s why I say, “The top five techniques in building your internet brand revolve around these five things:

• Article submission,
• Blogging,
• Social media networking,
• Bookmarking,
• Online press releases, and
• Joint venture partners.”

Does it make a difference if you put it within quotes?

It does. I’m not the SEO Queen, by any means, but search engine specialists say it’s a way of finding the exact keywords. In this online calculator, the first criteria is that you put it in quotes and don’t do it freehand.

When people are searching for you, typically they’re not doing it in quotes. You’re doing this specifically for that test.

We’ll start with Article Writing & Submission; its the easiest one and can be done even before you have your own website, blog.

Dan is the leading personal branding expert for gen-y. He is the author of the Personal Branding Blog and publishes Personal Branding Magazine.

Since the start of the internet, the term eBranding was present, but overlooked. It used to be all about companies building websites to promote products and then eCommerce websites were unearthed as a gateway for people to actually purchase products online and have them shipped. People didn’t realize that they would actually promote themsleves online through this very same medium. eBranding, in essence, is everything on the internet that represents you. At the beginning of your career you actually get to decide how people view you online. Your eBrand could be a limited to a single blog or website and then can be spread thin among several social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The total sum of all your presences online is your eBrand. The more you give people to see, the more you will judged on.

Everyone in this generation must have their own eBrand. The cost of building one is minimal to free and the rewards are tremendous. Before explaining various strategies, you must think about who you are and what you stand for. You need to take a niche, such that you are the best at something for a specific audience. How do you describe yourself and how do others describe you? I call this discovering your personal brand and it’s a necessity before you go through the hassle of actually creating content.

Let’s get started:

· Blogging : Let’s face it, if you want to have a successful career in the digital age, blogging is your ticket. If you use wordpress.com you can start a free blog in seconds and they just upgraded their systems to version 2.5, which has a better look and feel, as well as the ability to post video and sounds in a flash. Your other options are to use Blogger.com, which is Google’s blog platform (free as well), Typepad.com or Wordpress.org. With Wordpress.org, you must host it on your own domain and server space, but you have more flexibility with design. A blog allows you to deliver value to your niche and over time, that value translates into new business or professional contacts.

· Commenting: You don’t have to have a blog to participate in the blogosphere. Commenting is an amazing way to show bloggers you care about their writing. When you comment, try and add something relevant to the discussion or directed them to other sources. If you have a blog, comments will draw traffic and possibly subscribers.

· Guest Posting: The bad news is that writing specifically on your blog is not enough anymore. To form stronger relationships and turn the “visibility switch” off on your eBrand, you need to write for other sources in your niche.

· Off-Blog Networking: Sure, anyone can comment on a blog, but not many people take advantage of the contact information provided by the blogger. Commenting is about continuing the conversation, whereas off-blog networking is about actually getting to know the author. I’m not saying call the person, but at least connect through email if you have genuine interest in the person or their topic.

· Byline Articles: Are you an expert? Well it’s time to start thinking like an expert. Guest blogging will be rewarding, but it’s not as strong as writing for traditional media sources. By branding yourself on respected websites and having your articles link back to your eBrand, you are establishing credibility, while increasing traffic simultaneously.

· Existence on Social Networks: Your eBrand needs to be where the people are. Facebook has 63 million users, while LinkedIn has 20 million. Why not create your profile and link to your blog or website? When you join social networks, be sure to understand that it’s all public. Don’t post pictures of “drunken moments,” but instead have a profile that expresses your brand in a professional, yet personal, light.

· Domains: If you haven’t purchased a domain to secure your eBrand, you will be at a huge disadvantage later in life. For $6.95, you can buy yourname.com at GoDaddy.com. The purpose of buying your domain is two-fold. First, .com’s rank very high in search engines and secondly, people remember names. By searching for you or typing in your name in the search bar, your eBrand will come up.

There still seems to be some confustion as to the difference between Personal Branding and Internet (online, web, e-) Branding. 

Hopefully, I can clarify it for you more simply as this:

• Branding, as many of you know, are the images, logos, taglines or key messages that your business may have associated with these figures, tones, lights, colors and words.

• Personal branding is taking you as a person, an entrepreneur, a small business owner and an author/coach/consultant to brand your business with your personality, personal flair and business entity.

Once you know what your unique selling proposition or USP is you’ve basically got the essence of what your Personal         Brand is.

• Internet branding, however, is taking that USP and bringing it online. We take the images, logos and taglines, your USP, and your offline business ==> online to the internet. It’s your ability to create the real-time user-generated community as an alternative method of offline marketing or advertising. Internet branding is another (and I believe the most-powerful) marketing technique any entrepreneur or small business owner can utilize.

In many cases, internet/online businesses are strictly built, developed, and actually created in real-time as it evolves through its own community input and involvement. In these cases, one company’s internet brand is actually an entrepreneur’s personal brand too…but, that’s another topic in and of itself.We’ll talk in more detail in this series when we discuss what Web 2.0 is and why it’s made ideally for an interactive, risk-taking, forward-thinking, thought-leading entrepreneur.

Research plays a big-role of building your Internet Brand, such as knowing your keywords and phrases and figuring out how your target market can find you.

What’s unique about your creating & sustaining your internet brand is that by taking your images and what people associate with you as a business owner/entrepreneur, and You get to blend your personality and begin or better yet; lead a dialogue between you and your client or customer in real-time.

Most people who know me online, associates Ponn Sabra as “The Women’s Empowerment Queen” or a Networking Expert.

When you come to my blog or ezine, there are ways to communicate directly with me in real-time. You can comment on my blog, and I always comment back (when I’m healthy and actually online).

You could “speak” with me by asking questions, and I’ll answer them in podcasts. It’s using the internet’s resources and internet marketing techniques available to me to bring future my brand online.

Undoubtedly, bringing your business online will give you greater visibility and more profitability, if done right, you can target your ideal client/customer and they’ll find you…fortunately, not from your own local community but literally throughout the world.

So, entrepreneurs and small biz owners of typical brick-and-mortar businesses, crafts home businesses, or authors, coaches & consultants who are targeting only local sales and leads, can benefit greatly from getting online now and developing their internet brand.

We hear it almost every day, “the internet is booming”; and it is, because it’s a great mechanism/tool to capitalize on your unique selling proposition and finding target market.

Another exciting thing about internet branding is by using the many different techniques for building your internet brand is that you are building a community.

By having a dialogue with people in constantly being in communication; you’re building forum around and within your target market.

This dialogue is what has been missing for most forms of marketing, such as advertising through ads, newsletters, postcards, etc.

Typical offline marketing or advertising techniques generates a one-ways sales conversation from the business to the consumer.

I’ve always believed that (and benefited from) the more two-way conversations occur around and about you & your products or services, the more opportunity the business owner can get to know their clients/customers, and the more they can know, trust and respect you–the person behind the products and services you’re promoting.

Therefore we have happier people, better relationships…ultimately a Great, Personalized Business Brand (both offline and online)!

I’ll share the five main ways I’ve successfully developed my internet brand in this series, so stay posted.

1. Article Submission. Positioning you as an expert even before you have your own website/blog up & running.

2. Blogging. Bringing conversations to your expert voice, tone & personality

3. Social Media/Networking/Bookmarking. Web 2.0 was made for Woman!

4. Online Press Releases. What are they? Why are the important? How easy you can do it yourself!

5. Joint Venture Partnerships. Generating & Capitalizing on word of mouth marketing & viral buzz!

Conumer-Generated Marketing defined by Wikipedia

Consumer Generated Marketing is when average people create advertising for companies. This can include images, video, blogs, etc. Examples include Diet Coke and Mentos videos, the I’ve Got a Crush On Obama video, Star Wars fan films. The content in CGM is obviously brand based or brand focused user-generated content.

I’m curious what your thoughts are in the below 2 questions and my short-concise answers shared:

• What is the impact of CGA (consumer-generated advertising) and CGM (consumer-generated marketing) on today’s consumers, compared to traditional advertising?

As a freelance writer/entrepreneur for over 10 years, I have extensive experience utilizing offline advertising, such as monthly newsletters, bi-weekly postcards, business cards, expos, etc. Web 2.0 consumer (user) generated advertising allows the consumer to become involved in the discussion which solidifies their purchasing power and gives them the ownership to their personal research for the products and services they are buying.

• What are the risks/benefits for the brands involved?

I believe the risks and benefits are one of the same: transparency of the business owners and their companies allows the consumer to view their personal and personable side which makes them more approachable; thereby translating into higher sales conversion, due to the consumer’s perceived customer service.

One-tip/thought to share:

I believe static websites are dead because when used correctly a blog is simply utilizing a contact management system/platform (such as WordPress) to give you the online presence you need as a small business owner, which allows you to build the user-generated community, and is MUCH easier, cheaper, faster way to update, search engine optimize for keywords and phrases, and syndicate your web pages (blog posts) which is critical to targeting a website’s ideal reader, subscriber, client or customer.

Of course, I can elaborate…but that’s what I’ve been sharing most recently in all my Internet Branding posts and how to build an user-generated community around you, your biz & products or services Online!

Now, its your turn to share your thoughts, disagreements, agreements, concerns, etc. and let me know what or how you want me to elaborate on this critical internet branding/marketing concept

Click here for the Webcast page, and get ready to listen live today at 5pm EST! If you can’t make the call, transcripts will be made available.

Branding is the the ability for a company to be associated with marketing images, such as logos, labels, taglines, key messages, etc.

Personal Branding, however, is the ability for a person and/or their careers, professions, etc. to be packaged into a “brand”. Successfully “branding” yourself personally or as a business entity allows one to become more noticed, attracted and hired; often referred to one’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

Internet branding, most often associated with “corporate Internet branding” is when a company takes their brand (logos, labels, tag-lines, images, key messages, etc.) and utilizes the Internet to deepen their customer relationships. By creating a real-time consumer/user-generated community, a company can interact directly with their customers. This helps establish a more personal experience for their customers thereby creating greater loyalty, respect and trust as a thought-leader in their specific industry. The more approachable and personable a company is by servicing your customer’s needs and desires, the higher a return on their marketing investment. Assuring the best online experience includes but is not limited to a company’s ability to have a website/blog that download quickly, the ability to offer excellent real-time customer service, having easy navigation (site map) and a clean design; while promoting your USP and offering protection of customer’s privacy.

Therefore, Internet Branding for a Small Business Owner is the ability to take one’s Personal Brand online and strategically create a user-generated community around you (the small business owner) and your company.

Key words = You (the small business owner) and Your company.

Having a Strong Personal/Small Business Owner Internet Brand translates to your ability to be recognized and noticed widely throughout the Internet. Therefore, Internet Branding includes but is not limited to your ability to capitalize on link-popularity, Google PageRank, having high search engine, alexa and/or technorati (blog) rankings, so your internet branding/marketing efforts attract your most ideal customer.

Internet Branding simply means any and all the internet marketing techniques you utilize to harness the power of your Personal Brand, while creating a following (readers, subscribers, customers) who are actively involved in the growth, development and success of you and your business.

Since many of the Internet branding techniques are easy to use, implement and are highly-economical, I feel small business owners are well-positioned to develop their Internet Brand comparable to any other company/corporation coming online for the very first time.

You are one single small business owner, and you have the ability to create an online user-friendly experience that your own customers may not even know they are contributing to your user-generated community because they are simply having fun and ease to communicate directly with you and your Internet brand.

• For example, when a customer comments on your blog, their sole interest may be in sharing their own thoughts based on your well-informed and articulate article prompted them to start a dialogue with you. Meanwhile, their comments, recommendations, suggestions can be used for your market research and product development purposes.

• Another example may be when one of your friends in any of the social bookmarking sites you are a member of, may simply “bookmark” your webpage/blogpost simply because she/her felt its worth sharing with other friends. By sharing your article/blogpost, they in turn are creating a “viral campaign” that brings traffic to you, your excellent article, and your business as a whole.

As I shared above, there are hundreds of internet marketing techniques you can utilize to harness the power of your internet brand; but after 3 years creating my Name-Brand-Blog , understanding the power of one solidified Internet Brand with your images, and staying true to you & your business (such as my very first blogpost, Meaning of Ponn), I learned through much trial and error that the Top 5 Internet Branding Techniques guaranteed to catapult your search engine rankings in your target market (keywords & phrases) today are:

1. Article Submission.
2. Blogging.
3. Social Media/Networking/Bookmarking.
4. Search Engine Optimized Online Press Releases.
5. Joint Venture Partnerships.

I will be a guest for FemalePreneurs.com discussing ” Internet Branding: Giving You the Online Visibility and Profitability You Deserve”

To participate in the Webcast you can register here.

Date: Thursday, October 11th, 2007
Time for the call: 5pm Eastern (NY time)
(That’s 4pm Central, 3pm Mountain, 2pm Pacific, 10pm GMT;
Australia & NZ: Friday approx 7to11am depending on city)

We will discuss:

1. Article Submission. Positioning you as an expert even before you have your own website/blog up & running.

2. Blogging. Bringing conversations to your expert voice, tone & personality

3. Social Media/Networking/Bookmarking. Web 2.0 was made for Woman!

4. Online Press Releases. What are they? Why are the important? How easy you can do it yourself!

5. Joint Venture Partnerships. Generating & Capitalizing on word of mouth marketing & viral buzz!

Jan will be interviewing me based on the above format, and then we’ll be opening the call to Question & Answers at the end–so please come join me us and try to get your questions answered live…a free call is much cheaper than my $175/hour consultation fees