The Best Online Directories for You Las Vegas Website

It is a well known fact in the internet world that the DMOZ directory is the best online directory to submit your Las Vegas website to. DMOZ, The Open Directory Project (ODP), is a huge categorized directory of web sites and pages which is staffed by volunteer editors. Each and every website page added to the DMOZ directory is manually reviewed before it is added to their directory and it can sometimes be a challenge to get added as DMOZ editors are backed up with inquiries for additions… it can take month or years to be added. Being listed in their directory is free.

Alternatives and Supplements to Submitting to DMOZ

In addition to submitting your website to DMOZ, you can also submit it to hundreds of free online directories . Submitting site to online free web directories can quickly increase your google page rank and rankings on the google search engine. PageRank is an major part of google’s website ranking algorithm, and the higher the PageRank of your website, the higher your organic listing can appear on a google search. The PageRank within your Las Vegas website is increased by pages from other websites linking to it, and the higher the PageRank of the websites that link to it, the better it is for the your web site. 

When submitting your website to free online web directories, be sure to take time to find just the right category for add it to Don’t be tempted to submit your website to a category that is higher up the tree structure than it should be, because it probably won’t be accepted and will increase the chance of delays in getting your website added.

For a list of major search engines and directories visit searchenginewatch.com.

When looking for a free web host for your Las Vegas website, it may be difficult to find a good web host although they do exist out there. But through all the hosts which are listed in the search engine it can be difficult to sort the good services from the bad services unless you can find sources which have used most of the services in the past and can inform you where to avoid and where to look. That is what this blog post is here to help you with.

What is free web hosting?

Free web hosting is typically provided by companies as a sample to their services, or a reward to loyal customers who purchase domain names, or transfer domain names to their plans from another service provider. Free hosting does not give full control of servers or the page layout (ususally the hosting company will show their ads on your free website hosted page or website). Typically a free host will provide space on a shared server of between 100 mega bytes to 1,500 mega bytes on average. The actual bandwidth for visitors is often between 500 to 5,000 mega bytes. You can either purchase or use your own domain name on a free plan, or use a provided sub domain if the option is available.

Where can I find free web hosting and what kinds are available?

Free web hosting is available all over the internet in different forms. The most common form of web hosting is a shared host with advertisements. Although there are free hosts which do not force ads onto the free websites but the service is less reliable, and the providers may be at risk of disappearing or going out of business from loss of profits to afford to keep the service running.

Some free services also provide ad free services on a post to host basis, and provide the option to upgrade to a paid service once your website reaches the limitations of space and bandwidth. One example of this service is meek host. Meek host provides 1,500 megabytes of space along with 1,500 megabytes of bandwidth if you successfully manage to continually post 15 posts in their host forum every month before the date limit. Once the date limit is exceeded they will suspend your account and allow you approximately 1 month to redeem your posts to get your services back, or delete your entire account.

Some companies that offer free website hosting in one form or another:

• 000webhost.com - Free Web Hosting with PHP, MySQL and cPanel, No Ads
• Bravenet - Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting and Web Tools
• Free Web Hosting from Doteasy.com
• 110mb.com - Free Website Hosting Provider

What are the downsides of free hosting?

With free hosting you should never launch a website that is entirely important to keep live with NO downtime. Free hosts come and go often due to lack of supporting funds costing the users of the free hosting their websites. Also free hosts tend to have more limitations and also much more downtime than a paid hosting plan.

Professional Hosting Options for your Las Vegas Website

If you aren’t interested in launching a website on a free hosting plan and require the most professional solution from the start (and if you have the modest budget), you should consider a professional Las Vegas website hosting company like www.lasvegaswebhostingonline.com. They are backed by professional performance and excellent customer service.

If you have any further questions about hosting your Las Vegas website, feel free to contact me at michael@marketinginlasvegas.com or call me at 702.341.0085, I’d be happy to help!

Facebook has fast become a major social networking website for meeting other business professionals in Las Vegas and it is also quickly becoming an essential marketing tool to help market your Las Vegas business or company. If you don’t already have a personal page, create a facebook page right now. Once you create your facebook profile page, be sure to add a fan page for your business.

Reasons Why You Need a Facebook Fan Page:

1. It’s 100% Free - in these times, this is an invaluable and no-cost way to market your business products and services.
2. PR - You can publish articles, links to your blog/s, website or any interesting or helpful articles to your fan page that can help you communicate with people in your network and your fans and help keep your business in their mindshare.
3. Fan page is public - this means that major search engines such as google, bing, and yahoo! can index the page and your page can come up in their search results.
4. Personalized URL - upon reaching 100 fans, you can register for your own custom facebook URL (i.e. www.facebook.com/yourcompanyname)
5. Viral Marketing - when you post content to your fan page, it’s automatically added to the pages of all the fans that follow your fan page.
6. Applications - you can choose from dozens and dozens of apps that can help interact with your fans including photo galleries, polls, RSS feeds from your blog or presentations.

Social marketing and social networking is very important for Las Vegas businesses to participate in, now more than ever. As I always say, if you are not participating, your competition is.

For this reason, I have compiled a list of links to all of the top social networking websites. You should sign up, fill in your profile information as completely as possible, and log in occasionally to participate, find and add friends and share information and gain exposure for you company and its products and services.

• Social Networks in the Yahoo! Directory
• Social Networking God: 350+ Social Networking Sites from Mashable.com
• Top Social Networking Sites for Entrepreneurs
• Social Networking Websites Review 2009 - TopTenReviews
• List of Social networking websites - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Top 20 Social Networking Websites - Work Exposed the Blog

You may have heard of the term “guerilla marketing” and wondered, what in the world is that? Guerilla marketing is a strategy of marketing your Las Vegas company or business with little to no budget, but a fair amount of your own time. It is a way of marketing and advertising that is unconventional, sometimes controversial, and buzz-worthy and involves such unconventional advertising tactics as:

• Publicity Stunts - sometimes newsworthy that might get you place on the evening news
• Business Card Assaults - visit your local libraries and bookstores and place your business cards in every book that relates to your business
• Bumper Stickers - you already know how many people see the back of your bumper in a normal work week
• T-Shirts - giving away free t-shirts with your company’s logo and marketing messaging and web address can lead to awareness and word of mouth advertising
• Open Houses - Invite your clients to an open house at your office, have them bring friends for the fun, great opportunity to introduce yourself and your business products and services
• YouTube videos - create an informative, outrageous or noteworthy video pertaining to your business and post it on YouTube, you never know, it might just become an internet classic
• Business Partnerships - finding other businesses that offer related services to your services and feeding each other business is a great way to help market your business
• Write Articles - for newspapers, magazines, or blogs
• Customer Giveaways and Recognition - give away prizes to clients and honor them with a Customer of The Quarter award

Las Vegas business owners and companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on their marketing efforts.  Unfortunately many smaller companies don’t even have a marketing plan or strategy in place to help guide them and judge the results of their efforts.  Many times, it seems like money wasted.

Put on your Marketing Strategy cap!

There are numerous highly effective marketing strategies that can help you grow your Las Vegas business that can help you refine your marketing efforts. Just takes a bit of time, thought and research to figure out a plan. Here are some suggestions:

• Identify Your Target Market - Who buys your products and services and why? How old are they, are they male or female, conservative or liberal? How do they think and feel?
• Market to Existing Customers - Your existing customers are your most valuable resource. Be aware of what services you’ve provided to them and anticipate if they need additional products or services. They aren’t always aware of all of the products and services you offer. Help them, they already trust you.
• Niche Marketing - What customers or clients do you currently have where you deliver the best results and generate the most revenue? Many marketing experts agree this is one of the simplest and most effective ways to generate business.
• Provide Free Information - Providing potential clients with free information, facts, resources that will help them solve their business problem and save them time and money is a valuable strategy in getting your foot in the door for a prospect to become a client.
• Maintain Communications - Keeping in touch with present and potential clients is personable and keeps your name and company in their mind throughout the year. You can send postcards, mailers, email newsletters or call them on the phone to check in.
• Customer Referral Campaign - Offer an incentive (gift certificate, free services, etc.) for your existing loyal customers to keep your services in mind with the people they already do business with. They can act as sales people for you and you should do the same for your Clients as well.