Don’t worry!  Here are a couple tools to help you out.

ColorZilla FireFox plugin

ColorZilla is a free FireFox plugin that will allow you to grab the color from any web page.  This is a great tool to help you match a base color to a graphic or to a web page that you like.

ColorZilla

Color Schemer Online

Color Schemer Online is a free tool that will take one color and create an entire palate of matching colors.  Also, it allows you to darken and lighten the color scheme with the click of a button.

Color Schemer Online

Here’s what I do.  I find a graphic or website that has a color I like.  Then, I use ColorZilla to grab the HEX value for that color (“AF235B” for example).  Finally, I pop onto Color Schemer and paste in the HEX value and click the “Set HEX” button.

And by magic – a nice set of colors for me to use is displayed.

This tutorial is a supplement to that training.

Have you ever thought that a graphic would really add some “pop” to your website, or thought that you wanted to create a graphical advertisement to link to a specific area on your websites.

Well, now you can do that with PowerPoint 2007.

Actually you can do this with almost any version of PowerPoint, but the location of the buttons and the screenshots would be different.

1. You need to change the “Page Setup” to match your desired image output size.  To do this, take the pixel width and height of your desired graphic and divide by 72.  So, if you want to create a standard “wide skyscraper” ad – which is 160 pixels by 600 pixels – you would make your PowerPoint page: 2.22 inches by 8.33 inches.
2. Now you can drop in any graphic or text that you need to create the ad.  Don’t forget to use the cool PowerPoint 2007 clip art files and formatting options.
3. Finally, do a “Save As” and select “Other Formats” – in the file type drop down box select the .jpg file type.  After you click “Save”; click “Current Slide Only.”

Here is an example.

Of course not.

That is where Ping.fm steps in.  Ping.fm is a tool that will connect all your social networking platforms together and allow you to post updates to all locations at the same time!

So, take a couple minutes and get a Ping.fm account.

For other ideas on how to leverage social networking tools, contact Fonder Consulting.

One seldom touched social marketing vertical is blog aggregators.

A blog aggregator is, at its core, a blog search engine; but instead of “spidering” for content it relies on blog writers to deliver content to it.

But, what most blog writers don’t realize is that you have to create an account and “claim” your blog in order to get good placement in searches.

So, if you have a blog then start creating and account and claiming your blog on these, top two aggregators: Technorati and Bloglines.

If you are leverage long-tail tools like blog aggregators then contact Fonder Consulting today.

If a portion of your online marketing plan doesn’t include video then you’re definitely missing the boat.  People love to watch video online that is why YouTube is it so popular.  But the major downside to having video on your website is that the spiders for search engines cannot listen to your video or watch your video and know what it’s about.  You have to have accompanying text. 

A simple and easy way to change the audio for your video into text to find a good speech to text tool.  There are many out there, but I recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking. 

In fact, I didn’t type this blog post at all, I spoke it using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

In order to make the most out of your online videos consider giving a speech to text tool.

Another free video sharing website is Viddler.

Viddler has all the same basic features as YouTube, but it has one major improvement…

Viddler does not restrict your video, based on time, it restricts your video based on size.  Its current size restriction is 500 MB.  Why is this a big deal, because you can squeeze a long video into father megabytes.  If you increase the compression…

Now, now… I’m not saying switch all your videos to Viddler, I’m saying that it is a good alternative to YouTube if you have a long video to display.

By the way, I didn’t type any of this text.  I spoke it.  Stay tuned…

To research your potential customers and find out their thoughts and opinions on various topics in your vertical market.

To do that you had to hire an expensive market research firm – wait a couple months – then find out the results.

No longer, just use Twitter.

Because Twitter community where its users share their thoughts on any subject in real-time you can do a search and find out what people are saying on topics in your vertical.

Let’s say that I am selling mattresses.  I would go to Twitter and just type in “mattress” and have a window into the thoughts of consumers on the topic of mattresses.

Oh yeah, this is in real time.

So, take a minute, and look through the Twitter “window” and see what you see.

So, you and/or your employees get serious and start writing good content for you customers.  Maybe you review a product in your service area, or maybe you give out some great tips.  You take that key word rich article and you put it on your website or blog… Then you think, is that it? 

No, that isn’t it.

You need to be Article Marketing!

Whoa, back-up, what did he just say?  “Article Marketing?”

Article Marketing simply means you write articles and you submit them to article directories for the entire community to consume.

Here are a couple article directory websites to help you get your article read by more than just the users that come to your website.

EzineArticles.com

Ezine is by far the most popular, and they are the most fanatical.  Every article that is submitted HAS to be original; that is, the article can’t exist on any other website by theirs.  This is good and bad.  The up side is the community (people on the internet) know this and know that if you have it on Ezine then it must not be total crap.  The down side is that you can’t even have it on your own website.  You have to submit to Ezine first, and once approved put it on your own website.

GoArticles.com

GoArticles is very popular and has a good following.  Their editors aren’t as fanatical, so you can have the article on your website first.  Just make sure on your website you put in the author’s name; which has to be the same as your pen-name on GoArticles.  This site is my current favorite.

ArticleBase.com

Another very popular article directory, but they have one major downside…  The links you put in your article are tagged as “no follow.”  That means the links won’t help your pagerank in the search engines.

There are many, many more article directories out there, but here are the top 10 based on popularity.

1. ezinearticles.com
2. articlesbase.com
3. buzzle.com
4. goarticles.com
5. helium.com
6. articlesnatch.com
7. articlealley.com
8. articledashboard.com
9. amazines.com
10. ideamarketers.com

If article marketing is apart of your current marketing startagy, contact Fonder Consulting and we can help you get rockin’!

Now! Build Your Own Professional-Looking Website in 60 Minutes or Less Without a Web Designer or Programmer

Plus, You Don’t Have to Know a Lick of HTML Code – Here’s How YOU Can Do It Right Now…

Websites, websites, websites!!! Any business that does not have a professional-looking website in today’s business economy has already doomed their business to failure. Point Blank!!!

Truth be told, your business can’t even look at growth in this Web 2.0 society without one… How else will your prospects, who are looking for your products and services, find your business online if you do not have a website?

But I know and feel your frustration when it comes to websites…

In fact, like me, you probably have some BIG questions, right? Questions like:

• How do YOU get a professional-looking website with all the bells and whistles without paying up the wa-zu?
• How do you use it to position YOU as “The Expert” in your industry and how do YOU market your products and services online to your target market?
• And most importantly, how can YOU not be held hostage at the mercy of a web master who’ll charge you monthly just to make the tiniest changes?

All legit questions right? Well, with our system you don’t have to worry about any of that… Really!

See, no other system on the market today turns the tables on web designers and put you in the driver’s seat for a successful internet strategy…

No other system on the market today offers you a quick, easy, and straight forward method for creating professional-looking websites – “at will.” As well as, teaching you how to find and obtain your own domain and hosting – all without draining your bank account as dry as the Arizona desert.

Best of all, no other program on the market today maximizes FREE web tools, guides you step-by-step, and gives you a plug-n-play marketing strategy to explode your business success, while at the same time, shortening your learning curve by over 250 hours – guaranteed!

In fact, if you wanted to set up your own website with all the bells and whistles of a Fonder Consulting Business Blog / Website, using old as the hills design strategies, not only would it cost you a mint, but you’d also have to pull a rabbit out of your hat to get it to work right the very first time…

Don’t believe me?  Check for yourself.

I know personally ‘cuz I’ve been pulled through the ringer just like you… Tell ya what, call up your nearest web designer and ask for a quote and see what comes back to you.

Ask them about features our system already has. Features like:

• A push-pull method of automatically communicating with search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo. This powerful feature allows you to experience higher search engine rankings without even trying…
• A powerful password protected backend to manage information like posts, pages, themes (the actual look and feel of the business blog / website), comments, audio & video, categories, and so much more.
• An off-the-charts content management system that automatically archives and stores information. It’s like having your own personal filing cabinet on the web.
• A tracking system to see who is visiting your website and what search phrase did they type in to find you.
• A one-of-a-kind plug-in management section that allows you to continue to add functionality to your business blog / website – all for FREE.
• A simple method of creating your own graphics without PhotoShop or any high-priced software packages – just using software that almost every business already uses.
• A talk back system which allows your prospect & readers to post comments about information you published
• Plus much more…

BIG WARNING: Be prepared to give your arm and your leg as a down payment to your webmaster!

Plus, watch them quote a monthly fee that’ll siphon money from your bank account every time you want to make the slightest change… The choice is yours.

Or… Throw one up yourself and have fun editing it! If you have time to learn HTML, PHP, or any other code language – have at it.

OK, so how much is your internet
success and time worth to you?

I don’t know about you, but for me, TIME IS MONEY! And if I can streamline successes in my business, then I’m all in.

So now I bet you’re wondering, “How much is this going to cost me?”

One thing that I believe every customer wants when landing on your site is proof that you know what you are talking about.

They want something for nothing.  And do you know whrat I say?  Give it to them!

I know this goes against your inner shrewd business person, but trust me (come on, was that well played) this works.

One of the best ways to prove that you are at the top of your industry is to give away helpful hints in the form of a blog (see our tips section).

But to get the most bang for you buck you need to make sure you couple your blog articles with Article Marketing.

Article Marketing is a simple concept, you take the articles or tips that you have written and allow others to put them on their website.  Here is the catch, they have to keep your links in their articles.

Here is a quick step-by-step to get you started doing Article Marketing.

1. Create an account on GoArticles.com.
2. Write a unique and helpful article pertaining to your industry.
3. At the bottom put a line like: “My Business is a leader in My Industry and you can find out more information at: mywebsite.com.”  Of course replace My Business, My Industry and mywebsite.com with your business, industry and website.
4. Link those three phrases to your website, so for example:  Fonder Consulting is a leader in online marketing and website creation and you can find out more information at: http://FonderConsulting.com.  Notice how my business, industry and website are all linked.

Now your article, with links to your website will not only be on GoArticles.com but many other websites that display their content.

To launch an innovative online marketing plan like Article Marketing give us a ring.

NOTE: If you want to submit your articles to more than one place just use your favorite search engine and search for “article directory” – there are tons.