What a busy week. I feel like I have been running around with my head cut off and completely slacked on getting a post up. Yesterday I decided to take the whole day off from anything that resembled work, with the exception of helping to shovel snow. Such is life sometimes. Now without further adieu…

Susie Asks: How much emphasis or value do you believe social networking is for companies? I believe it’s really good for brand building, but conversions are a different story, especially when you are limited in your “territory”. What are your thoughts and ideas.

Josh: I think social media and social networking are huge for companies to get involved with. When you have a brand that has been established over time it is very important to monitor that brand and encourage open discussion. One of the best tools I have seen for brand management and tracking social networking trend is an analytics software called SM2 Techrigy. I won’t go into huge detail about what the software can do other than it is top of the line for online brand management.

Recently, I have been trying to use Techrigy to help in planning marketing campaigns for clients versus just as a brand management tool. I will have to tell you about the results after I am done.

If you are limited to a territory I would seek out the noise makers in that area and work on building a positive working relationship with them. If you are an online retailer I would look for the Twitters and Bloggers in your area and build the best relationship possible with them. Don’t be afraid to be fully honest about why you are talking with them and see what different kinds of ideas they might have. That alone is enough to make them talk.

Jeff Asks: love your stuff- you must work with some talented people. who are these stalwarts of creative energy?

Josh: Funny that you ask Jeff. I do as Jeff says surround myself with many people with creative energy. Here in no particular order are those people.

Jeff Nyquist – former marketing director of The Marcil Group and current marketing director of Black Knight Marketing in Fargo, ND.

Sue Long – who specialized in marketing and design also formerly with The Marcil Group and currently with Black Knight Marketing.

Lindsay Stordahl – Lindsay is the author of That Mutt: A Dog Blog and provides marketing assistance for local companies via SEO, content and editorials. P.S. Lindsay is also my girlfriend and chief editor. Thanks, beautiful.

Justin Moen – Who we imported from Norway as a little programming gnome that helps with our automation processes and SEO. (Actually, he returned from a Norwegian hiatus and we snatched him up quickly after).

Sherry Asks: Since I am going to start a contest end of Dec at my blog. I like to know what’s the best way to choose the Winners. Beside using random.org, is there other way to do it?

Josh: Another way to have people win a contest is to make it so difficult that the only person to finish it wins by default. Or, you could have a set guideline that must be followed in order to win. There are always the contests that you purely decide who the winner is based on your own opinion or that of a panel of people (your friends or closest Internet companions). I think all work fine as long as you specify how people are chosen.

stores open on christmas Asks: My question is how do you brainstorm for good marketing ideas to test out on your blog?

Josh: Mostly out of boredom. I usually see what other people are doing and then see how I can apply that to my blog or other sites with the least amount of work possible. I usually just try something because I think it is cool and want to do it. Like my Marketing Ideas En Masse idea where I just wanted an easy way to post frequently about Marketing Ideas to help with my search rankings on that term. Yes, it helped and also got me a boat load of new visitors. I just kinda stumble through this as I see fit, like my own little Internet Marketing / Social Media experiment.

If you have a question and would like me to take a stab at it go ahead and shoot for the next round of Ask Josh or use my contact form.

These are the responses to the second round of Ask Josh. Occasionally I open up the floor for people to ask whatever they feel like asking. I don’t think there will be any perfect answers, but you asked for my opinion, so I’m giving it . Here we go:

Sherry Asks: What webhosting are you using? Have you heard of Shann Host or Dotster ? What do you think of the webhosting that I just mention.

Josh: I use 1and1.com as my webhosting. I have not heard of Shann Host or Dotster. I personally think web hosting has to do a lot with your needs are and how much you would like to spend. I have two servers, one shared and one dedicated, that I use for personal and business. I can tell you that the dedicated server customer support is much more knowledgeable and prompt. If you are only hosting a couple of sites and don’t drive tons and tons of traffic, focus more on the price. If you are hitting it hard, focus on the services and equipment.

BM Asks: How do I  start blogging? How many blogs do you own? How many are active?

Josh: I started full-time blogging at the start of the year. I had written a few blog posts before that but wouldn’t really consider myself a blogger at that point. Currently, I work on about 10 or so active blogs. I have a few drifters that are waiting for some attention. Mostly I use the extra blogs to drive niche traffic or build support for other sites I work on.

Chelle Asks: Is the majority of your traffic from social media or organic search results?

Which makes me wonder, why do you think more people don’t search for more marketing related terms? I’ve done a lot of keyword research for it and there are very few that aren’t broad terms that get more than 20 searches a day. Are people just not thinking that way for marketing info yet?

Josh: Most of my traffic comes from organic searches or referring site. I am averaging about 150 marketing related searches a day via the major three Google, MSN and Yahoo.

It’s hard to have an accurate view of search traffic from just keyword searches alone. Once you are first for random marketing related terms, you would be surprised of the amount of searches they bring. I have moved up a lot recently for “marketing ideas” and related terms like “Halloween Marketing Ideas” which will bring a nice steady flow of traffic in at least until the end of the month. I usually see what people are searching for when they come to my blog and at what page I show up in the serps for that term. If they are finding me on page 5 and I know with a little work I can get to page 1, I will spend a little time doing that. The first spot on page 1 receives about 80% of the clicks for that search term. You never know what you are going to get until you do it.

shawal Asks: It is possible to sell a blogspot blog, if yes, HOW?

Josh: Technically, no. But can you work something out with a potential buyer? Probably yes. Not easy. That is one of the hard things to overcome in free hosting like Blogspot. Everything you do there is like renting a house. You don’t get the equity you put into it.

Driveway Sealing Asks: I’ve started a new site and I wanted to know: What would you do to get it ranked highly in the SERPS in under 3 months?

Is it blog commenting? or directory submissions? a combo of both maybe? Anything else I am missing?

Josh: I would approach this one of two ways depending on how old the domain is. If it is a brand new domain, you are going to shoot up in the serps and then right back down to work your way up again. This is Google’s way of preventing spam sites from taking over their serps. So in that case I would do directory submissions, blog commenting on dofollow high pr pages and reciprocal linking like blog rolls. It’s as effective as one-way links, but it passes link love more evenly while you crawl the new site back up the serps.

For an older site that has been established for at least 1-2 years, I would focus on high quality anchor links. Write a guest post for a high pr site with your link in it and comment on high pr pages with a contextual anchor link. I don’t personally do this but it works if done correctly to purchase a link from a high pr page. Sometimes it can run $30-40 a month for a good link, but it is an option. Always consider the risk vs. reward factor before doing any of this. Link building is strictly forbidden in search engines TOS.

This is the second round of ask Josh, and I am again opening the floor up to any questions you might have about marketing, Internet marketing, myself or whatever. I will again try my best to answer everything you ask.

More than one question will be allowed, but please try and keep them in the same comment.

This is also another great excuse to comment your way to $50 and a FREE book by Tim Ferriss with only 7 more days till the end of the October Surprise Contest.

This will be used in a Seesmic expierment on the Unconventional Marketing Blog.