I love funny t-shirts! Bustedtees.com as well as Snorgtees.com are two websites that I check often to see what new shirts are available. I swear they have the funniest shirts you can find anywhere. But one problem I do have is that I don’t always appreciate the crude humor. I enjoy the clean stuff, stuff that makes me laugh without having to be “dirty”. Both Bustedtees.com and Snorgtees.com have a ton of both clean humor and dirty humor tee shirts. Here’s an example of some of their stuff:

So what I decided to do is create CleanTees.net - a compilation of all the clean/funny tees from both sites combined. So if you appreciate clean humor like me, you can just use CleanTees.net to search through all the clean ones, without having to view the dirty ones. I have not yet added all the snorgtees.com apparel quite yet. But all of Bustedtees.com is in there. As well as some funny tees from CafePress.

From an affiliate marketing perspective, this idea came from a frustration of having to look through crude humor to get to clean humor. So I decided to create an avenue for people who are interested in this topic. I spend about 1-2 hours every week updating the site to keep it the most up to date with new products. The images are Ads that come from my Commission Junction account. I get $5 for every purchase that comes through my website. The website itself is a simple CSS template, that I customized. The website overall took me a total of 3 1/2 hours to completely put together! Not too bad!

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Janet Meiners recently wrote a very helpful article on Marketing Pilgrim about what customers want. She pulled information from two different survey sources on how online customers want more detailed product descriptions. As obvious as this may sound, it’s very rare to find an e-commerce website these days with very detailed product descriptions. It seems today that many online entrepreneurs have a “short attention span” and are not spending the time and energy to give each product description the attention and care it deserves. Here is a striking stat:

79 percent of those surveyed “rarely or never” purchase a product without complete product information.
- the e-tailing group

This data comes from the WebCollage’s 2007 Survey of Online Consumer Product Research Habits. What does this stat tell you? It says that if you do not give better product descriptions and information, then your potential customer will leave your website and purchase somewhere else. In the survey the people were asked, Which of the following pieces of information are useful to you when researching a product for purchase?

• Detailed product benefits and capabilities: 67%
• System requirements: 61%
• List of items that are included with the product: 61%
• Comparison of different models: 58%
• Product Documentation/Warranty Information: 51%
• A manufacturer’s overview of the product: 48%
• List of new features for this product model: 45%
• List of compatible accessories: 44%
• Larger or alternate product images: 31%
• Product tours or demos: 27%
• Other: 9%

This is some seriously great and valuable information that everybody online who runs an e-commerce store should know. Shoppers said they spent a full 8 minutes reading product descriptions. Images, content, descriptions, reviews etc. All of those included add up to be a full 8 minute presentation of your product to the consumer. Make sure you take advantage of this and give as much helpful information as possible. Be patient in your creation of your product descriptions. Review them regularly. And add to them or change them as you find necessary. Doing so will make you more profitable online.

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If you have not already “got on board” with social networks for your business it’s still not too late. However there will be a day in the future when it is. So don’t wait too long! It does not matter if you are an Internet Marketer like myself, construction worker, or a hair stylist. If you are a business owner and want to better promote your business on the web then you need to strongly consider Social Networks! I’m not just talking about Facebook or Myspace. I’m talking about industry specific social communities where people gather to discuss and share information regarding particular topics. There should be a social network especially for Real Estate Professionals! There should be a social network just for construction professionals. And on and on!

So here is my recommendation to you. Find a social network that exists that is tailored to the specific industry that you are in and join it. Be an active community member. If there is not one already, then create one yourself and do good to the cause! Don’t try to reinvent the wheel in an industry that you don’t know very well. But if there happens to not be a social community for your industry, then ask your web professional how you can go about building your own. You can build your own custom application using the open source tools such as Elgg or Dolphin. Or you can use Ning which is like Blogger for social networks.

Social Networks (in case you don’t already understand the need) can be a very effective tool for your small business. Social Networks have a way of creating better interaction between the Consumer and the Producer. They create new avenues of networks and people that business owners never before thought they had. Through social networks you can:

• Advertise your company services/products
• Show off your portfolio
• Share your professional profile
• Share bookmarks of helpful resources

And many many more. You should also join Linkedin which is a general business profile social network that will also help you build your small business network. I recommend that as well as it has worked well for me. Being active in a social community will build more web traffic, build more branding, and open your business “doors” to a larger community altogether.

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Anyone who knows me or who reads this blog regularly knows for a fact that I am not the smartest search engine expert around. In fact I pride myself on the fact that I learn from the best, SEObook.com, Seomoz.org etc. The only thing that helps me is my ability to adapt and learn new principals as they come out, and to have the guts and resources to institute them. I do like to think however that in the state of Utah I can hold my own when it comes to SEO. But as you get outside of little old Utah, you find some amazing experts in the field of search engine optimization.

I wanted to put together for you today my top ten list of SEO tasks to complete for your website. Maybe you are like me and you have a website or two, and don’t have the time, energy, or patience to put together a full scale SEO program. Maybe you are satisfied with doing the basics, and let your branding power do the rest. If this is the case you will find this list helpful. They are as follows:

1. Keyword use in content
2. Inbound Links
3. Anchor Text Of Inbound Link
4. Keyword Use In Page Title
5. Keyword in Meta Descriptions
6. Structured Page Navigation
7. Internal Linking
8. An XML Sitemap
9. Friendly URL’s
10. Keyword in H1 Tag

These basics have worked very well for me. These of course are in no particular order. It’s a top ten basic seo list so if you are going to be basic, you should at least do all 10 and nothing short. You can check out a post I wrote about a few weeks ago about the Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization - where you can get a free report from SEOmoz on the basic fundamentals. The fact is if you are a small business owner, just following the basics will get you head and shoulders above the competition. Most “webmasters” are still not following any of these basic principals. Most are outdated and still think that meta keywords justifies “search engine optimization”. What a crime.

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Hitwise has released it’s search engine numbers for the month of March 2007. In these numbers you will find a 10% increase for Google over the other 3 major search engines. You can find out more about the article at Hitwise: Search Engine Stats. Here is a basic rundown of those numbers.

• Google = 64.13%
• Yahoo = 21.26%
• MSN Live = 9.15%
• Ask = 3.48%

This information is helpful for a couple of reasons. For one, it shows Google’s true dominance over the search engine market and why for organic search engine optimization it’s so important to put Google on the top of your list of priorities. It does however also show that you don’t necessarily need to fully depend on Google only for your traffic. Nick Stamoulis wrote about how if traffic can be sustained by 2 out of the 3 other search engines that you can be well off as well. 

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Subscribing to helpful blogs in your industry through RSS is extremely helpful. In fact, I highly recommend that you subscribe via RSS to all helpful blogs that effect your business in one way or the other. Reading blogs new posts often can be a very helpful activity for learning and staying on top of information relating to your job and/or business. Some bloggers subscribe to thousands of blogs to keep on top of the up to date and relevant information. I’m not suggesting thousands by any means. But even I subscribe to 50 blogs that I feel are the most beneficial to me.

Typically you subscribe using a RSS reader of some kind. I personally use Google Reader. Other people have their preferences. Any RSS reader will do the job. By using a RSS Reader and subscribing to several blogs you will learn faster, and stay on top of new information that is forming in the world to give you an edge in your industry. What a wonderful way to read tons of content every day without spending a ton of time.

While doing this, be sure to participate in the blogging community where you reside. Post comments, start your own blog, respond to comments, share helpful links etc. You will be rewarded greatly with the information you learn and you will help others learn more information through your blog as well.

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