Make Sure that You're LinkedIn

Without a doubt, www.linkedin.com is yet another priceless free tool that can be taken advantage of by your small business, whether you're a start-up or merely faced with a shoestring budget.

Look at it this way: LinkedIn.com is a Myspace.com for suits and professionals. It allows you to connect with other professionals, promoted your own websites, products and services, plus you can really interact with other members in areas like the Q&A section and more.

Here are 5 reasons that you need to create your own free LinkedIn.com profile today:

1. First of all, it's free. While LinkedIn does offer a premium membership option, but I haven't seen any reason to take advantage of it just yet.
2. You can gain credibility in the professional workspace by having your connections and business contacts provide you with third-party recommendations and referrals. If you've yet to launch your own website, or simply don't have the time to do so, this can be a great way to track testimonials, etc.
3. You can really start showing your stuff (and increasing your connection list) by getting active in the Q&A portion of the site. Professionals across a host of industries post questions and you get to answer them, with a grading system similar to what you see on Yahoo! Answers. Try to achieve as many "Best Answers" as you can to really see your search stats soar!
4. A  quick glance at your log-in home page will allow you to track how many times your profile has been viewed and
   how many times that you've shown up in search results.
5. You can easily integrate presentations, your blog, a reading list and a number of other cool Apps and Add-Ons that help gain your profile greater depth and exposure.

Quit stalling and saying that Social Networking isn't for you. Head on over to LinkedIn.com and create your profile today. Don't forget to add me to your contacts at www.linkedin.com/in/jlgibbs. 

EzineArticles.com: Link Building, Credibility-Building and Exposure

When I'm in contact with small businesses who are strapped for cash and operating on a shoestring budget, one of the first questions I ask them is:

"Have you ever heard of EzineArticles.com?"

If the answer is "Yes!", I probe them to find out if they're taking advantage of it. If the answer is "No!", I launch into a number of the same points I'm about to share with you...

1. EzineArticles.com is absolutely free to use. You can write and distribute your own articles on the site, gaining traffic, credibility and link-backs through your resource box. Or, you can search out relevant free content that you can include on your website, in newsletters, in information products, etc. as long as you agree to include the entire resource box, with active links.
2. Because EzineArticles.com titles place so high on the search engines, it's a great way to gain increased search engine attention for your wisdom without having to spend a fortune on pay-per-click campaigns.
3. It's a great way to gain subscribers to your newsletter. You can include a sign up link in your resource box and begin serious list building on a shoestring budget.
4. The Author's Section provides access to priceless tools, reports, graphs and promotional widgets and items that will make driving your article conversion rates, click rates and many other metrics completely within monitoring and measurement - an important aspect of any true marketing campaign.
5. Your articles could be picked up and broadcast by hundreds or even thousands of other ezine publishers in search of top-notch content. They in turn share your resource box with their entire lists, and (if you do the math) the results can be absolutely astronomical!

Visit www.ezinearticles.com today and sign up for a free account and get started taking advantage of this priceless tool!

Stay tuned for our next shoestring solution!