‘Tis the season to be shopping, and ’tis the season to be shopping online. So, are you making it easy for your prospective customers to find you? Are you making it EXTREMELY easy for them?

Consumers visit many different kinds of websites throughout the holiday season, whether it be manufacturer, retail, review, news, comparison, local, etc. With this in mind, it’s critical that you expand your visibility across the online landscape to increase the probability that people will find you during this critical holiday season.

To that end, make sure that you conduct the following Internet marketing tactics to increase your exposure to drive your holiday sales:

1. Website

Is your website fully up-to-date? Does your home page mention any holiday promotions you are offering? Is your site optimized so that you rank on the search engines?

2. Blog

Is your blog full of holiday specials, promotions and useful information for your customers?

3. CraigsList

Are you publishing classified ads (for free!) in CraigsList.org? The site has more than 50 million users and has the 7th most Page Views of any English language site.

4. Yelp

Are you listed in Yelp? Do you have a professional profile page? Are you advertising on the site? Yelp attracts more than 27 million unique visitors each month.

5. Kijiji

Kijiji is a CraigsList wanna-be site, but with more than 2 million unique monthly visitors is worth leveraging for your business as well.

6. Your Local City and News Sites

Check out advertising and promotional opportunities among your local city and news sites. Some of these sites can attract large local audiences, who may be more engaged with the site due to the local nature of the content.

7. Paid Search Marketing

Are you running ads in Google, Yahoo! and Bing?

8. Content Network

Remember, you can leverage the search engines to also run text, image and video ads on their content networks. A better, more reliable approach would be to use their site targeting features to ensure that you are appearing on only the sites that matter most to you.

9. Comparison Shopping Engines

If you are a retailer, consider if comparison shopping engines are right for you.

10. Press Releases

Issue a few holiday-related press releases, and submit to an online wire service. Send your press release to credible blogs in your industry as well.

11. Articles

Write an article or two that your target audience will LOVE and publish them in online article directories such as eZineArticles.com.

12. Content Aggregators

If you do write a blog and/or articles, be sure to submit your writings to online content aggregators such as AllTop.com. To submit your site, go to:  http://alltop.com/submission/.

13. Twitter

More than 22 million unique visitors are on Twitter a month. If you believe your audience is among them, start Tweeting your holiday specials and promotions.

14. Facebook

Facebook has more than 300 million users, half of whom log in every day. Are you cultivating your Facebook fans, and engaging with them?

15. Commenting

There must be a handful of blogs that your audience tends to read. Read them and add comments when you can add real value to the discussion. Be sure to include your name and a link back to your site (when appropriate).

Subscribe to the Website Marketing NOW blog feed.

Follow Website Marketing NOW (WebsiteMN) on Twitter.

Website Marketing NOW is a regular contributor of website and Internet marketing advice on StartupNation.com, a truly awesome site dedicated to helping entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses become successful through education, inspiration and community.

Several of our recent blog posts on StartupNation.com have been extremely popular, generating some of the highest page views among all the blogs on the site in 2009.

Based on the popularity of the blog posts, we thought you might find the content valuable and so are highlighting the most highly read posts here for you. Check them out!

• 15 Questions to Measure the Strength of Your Home Page
• The Internet Marketing Checklist for Small Business
• 19 Ways to Increase Your Website Conversions
• 5 Mistakes to Avoid When Designing Your Website
• 11 Reasons People Leave Your Website

Hope that you find the advice to be useful in taking your website and your Internet marketing to the next level. Happy Reading!

Subscribe to the Website Marketing NOW blog feed.

Follow Website Marketing NOW (WebsiteMN) on Twitter.

It’s a new year, and that means it’s the perfect time to identify the most impactful trends for your small business in the coming year.

What does 2009 have in store for your small business, and how should you revamp your marketing plans to leverage trends, capture market opportunities and maximize your revenue in 2009?

In response to these questions, the Website Marketing NOW team has developed the following list of Internet Marketing Trends for 2009, as part of a series of trend assessments for the new year. Enjoy, and thrive!

Internet Marketing Trends for 2009

#1: Internet Marketing Growth among Small Businesses
The recession is going to force many small businesses to rely more heavily on cost-effective marketing channels such as Internet marketing. Expect to see more email marketing, blogging, social media marketing, social networking and widgets, and expect to see more investment in websites and microsites. Make sure that you pump up your Internet marketing efforts in 2009 to compete effectively.

#2: Small Business Innovation
The recession is going to force small businesses to innovate. The down economy is going to mean fewer dollars to go around, and those that innovate will have the best opportunity to not only survive but to thrive. Cost-effective experimentation can be achieved online more easily than offline, and so you should aim to launch several innovative online campaigns during 2009 to move your business forward through the tough economic times.

#3: The Mobile Platform
The Apple iPhone is now the best-selling mobile phone in the US. Guess what? This means that the mobile platform and the opportunity to market to consumers via the mobile platform are finally here, and not just hype.

#4: Government
With the billions upon billions in bailout and recovery funds pouring into the economy from the government, expect the government’s role in the economy to increase in 2009. New government-funded projects mean opportunities to eliminate waste and to increase efficiency, and this is often served best by online solutions.

#5: The Graying of America
As the 78 million Baby Boomers age, we are experiencing a major surge in the number of seniors in the US. Many seniors are going to need special services. Many are going to be looking online for products and solutions rather than fighting the crowds, and this presents significant market opportunities for those companies able to connect online with this generation.

#6: User Generated Content
User generated content is here to stay. People trust advertising only a mere 14% of the time, whereas they trust recommendations of other consumers 78% of the time (Source: Universal McCann, 2008).

#7: Continuity
Instead of one-off solutions, companies are migrating towards a continuity model, as this provides a more reliable revenue stream. For example, ongoing computer back-up services, online education and subscription model businesses.

#8: ROI
With the recession, small businesses are going to be forced to focus on ROI (return on investment). This applies to both you as well as your clients. Make sure that you are tracking the ROI of your marketing campaigns to find the most effective mix. For B2B companies, helping your clients increase ROI in 2009 is going to be a critical ingredient in what you do.

#9: Google Sophistication
Google is becoming more and more sophisticated in identifying relevance. In 2009, expect spammers and black-hat practitioners to lose a lot of ground (thankfully!). To thrive on Google in the future, you will need to offer quality and utmost relevance. You will need to be a brand that others want to talk about.

#10: Rising CPC
As more small businesses discover the power of pay-per-click advertising on the search engines, you will find that the average cost-per-click for many industries will rise in 2009. This means that to maximize your results, you will need to implement an intelligent bidding strategy, and one not just based on high bids for better positioning.

#11: Verticalization
Expect verticalization to take shape online in 2009. For example, whereas Google and Yahoo! are for the masses, vertical engines are starting to appear. TheFind.com, a vertical product search engine focused on the fashion and lifestyle segment, went from 1 million monthly unique visitors at the beginning of 2008 to an estimated 10 times that number by year’s end.

#12: Personalization
The Website Marketing NOW team has written about the Personalization trend multiple times. We still see this as an area of growth in 2009, and we expect to see this trend grow among small businesses looking for an edge. Check out Zazzle.com, LuLu.com and Threadless.com as corporate examples, and Kiva.org as a nonprofit example.

Subscribe to the Website Marketing NOW blog feed.