Inside the Mind of an Internet Marketer

Listen up affiliate marketers - I have found a niche that is sending me a bunch of traffic that I never even wanted and am sharing my secret with you to act on now.

I recently wrote a post titled "Free iPhone Ringtones - Download or Create Your Own".  I am a big fan of the iPhone and don't know what I would do without mine.  I wrote the post to simply point out an awesome ringtone site that I found and use all the time now.  This post was written about a month ago.

So what has happened since that post?  I get over 100 visitors a day for people looking for iphone ringtones. The most interesting thing is that I get the majority of the traffic from the term "free iphone ringtones" for which I am currently ranked 18 in Google.  This is the highest referring term I have ever had for a second page SERP ranking.  Imagine if I was on the first page of search results - there would be tons of traffic coming my way. 

There is also a pretty big longtail on this one.  I am seeing referrals from the terms 'free ringtones for iphone' 'iphone ringtones free' 'create iphone ringtones' and a whole slew of other terms that also don't necessarily rank on page one of Google's results.

So my message to you, go setup an iPhone site and get some links to it.  If my blog that isn't about the iPhone can pull in this level of traffic, then surely with some hard work and focus you can have a site that is making you some decent money.

Not sure how to do Niche Marketing - check out this awesome ebook, Nichework Marketing - The Step by Step Guide to Finding & Dominating Your Marketing Niche.  This book was just written and released released from my friend Ben Fitts.  It is geared towards network marketers but the information is accurate for any type of niche marketing on the Internet.  I just got done reading it and it is the reason I even decided to share this iPhone niche with you, my readers, so check it out and let me know what you think. 

Posted by markbarrera at 03:44 PM | Comments (8)

As everyone knows, it is very important to stay active with social media and it is a good way to gain traffic and links to your website.  I get lots of emails and IMs from people who ask which sites I like to use.  There are a TON of different sites out there - some are niche specific and some covers lots of different topics.

If you are looking for some all purpose sites to submit your stories and news to, make sure to check this post on Social Bookmark Links that are Worth Building.  It is a great place to start with your marketing efforts.  But make sure you don't just rely on these - it takes a much larger effort to achieve top notch results.  So take the time to find similar sites that cater to your niche.

On another note:

If you ever have a question for me or just want to exchange war stories PLEASE feel free to add me to your IM at the following:

AIM - untmarkbarrera *at* aol.com
Yahoo - untmarkb *at* yahoo.com
MSN - searchengineexpert *at* hotmail.com

Posted by markbarrera at 11:16 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

I just started reading a book that I have been anticipating arriving.  The osCommerce Webmaster’s Guide to Selling Online looks to be a great read.  I will admit that many things discussed in this book seem to be written for a beginner to internet marketing.  That being said, the information presented in this book is essential marketing information and all readers will benefit by remembering some of the basic tenets.

The book covers every aspect of online marketing that I wish all business owners had more knowledge of (which would help our marketing firm with client interactions since not all are as well versed as Josef Katz).  I am only a few chapters into the book currently, but the am pleased with the presentation of the informative material.

Here are the chapters covered in depth in this book:

1. Increasing Profits and Sales with osCommerce
2. Advertising an Online Store
3. Search Engine Optimization
4. Dynamic Content to Improve Sales
5. Building Customer Confidence
6. Design to Sell
7. Improving Product Catalog
8. Increasing Order Value
9. Increasing the Turnover via Promotions and Special Offers
10. Improving Conversion Rates and Customer Experience
11. Understanding and Using Reports
12. Repeat Customers

The book does have information that is directed at webmasters who use osCommerce, a great open source online store solution.  I have done consulting on sites that run this easily customizable e-commerce solution and have been pleased with the platform functionality.  Although the book contains these tidbits directed at osCommerce users, the information is good for any webmaster to digest and these osCommerce references are few and far between.

I will do a full write up of my thoughts over on the Dallas Marketing Blog after I finish reading the book so go ahead and sign up for the feed. 

I have read many books about internet marketing, but if you have any you would recommend please let me know in the comments :-)

Posted by markbarrera at 10:25 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week I posted a blog at the Dallas Business Blog about a special that Search Marketing Standard is running on a one year subscription. 

To sum up the special, for the price of a cup of Starbucks (only $4.95) you can have a year subscription to the best magazine in the search marketing industry.  I have been a subscriber for a while and have deeply enjoyed every article they have produced.

They just put out their latest issue, so hurry over and subscribe to Search Marketing Standard to get the latest copy and every upcoming issue for the next year.  Make sure to enter the coupon code 'HOLIDAY67'.

This offer ends on Monday, December 10, so ACT NOW to get this amazing rate. 

Posted by markbarrera at 12:26 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I just got finished reading a post by Danny Sullivan putting to rest the old debate of whether or not the META keywords tag needs to be used.  For years people have wondered if using keywords in this tag would help them rank and how exactly the tag influences search results.

The Answer?

Google & Live/MSN - DO NOT support the META keyword tag.

Yahoo & Ask - DO support the META keyword tag. 

What does this mean?

While Ask & Yahoo may use the tag for retrieving search results, the use of the tag for ranking purposes is almost nil.  I must agree with Danny on this one, use the tags for misspellings if you just have to use them.  Otherwise, forget about the tag all together and GO GET SOME LINKS!

Posted by markbarrera at 02:45 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you who keep up with the SEO industry, you probably have heard of Michael Martinez, Rand Fishkin, Jim Boykin, Matt Cutts, Danny Sullivan, and many other of the A-list crowd.  If you haven't heard of them, go to their sites and check out what they have to offer, because they are all search engine optimization and marketing experts and you definitely can learn a lot from all of them.

This morning, I found a great post by Michael Martinez and the staff 1st Query that made my Friday even more enjoyable.  The 1st Query team has come up with some great SEO jokes that you just have to check out!  The jokes mention a few of the people mentioned above and if you know them, then these jokes are sure to make you laugh out loud.

If you know of any other great SEO jokes, please send them my way so that I can compile a full list for all to enjoy. 

Posted by markbarrera at 10:16 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

For sites that have under 500 pages I have always been a fan of using XML-Sitemaps to create my XML sitemaps.  For anything larger, I usually have been running a program on the server but this is no fun having to get the IT guys to let me run this program.  They always seem to have doubts that the marketing guy knows what he is doing and is bound to mess something up (although I have never messed anything up).

I have found a solution that allows me to crawl and create sitemaps for sites that have more than 500 pages.  Audit My PC has a page with a Webmaster Tool interface.  The tool allows you to:

• Build sitemaps for any search engine no matter how large your site is.
• Build Yahoo Sitemaps, Google sitemaps, XML sitemaps and more.
• Build HTML Sitemaps for human visitors and smaller search engines.
• Find broken or missing links and what pages are linking to them.
• Check the load time for each of your urls.
• View server headers, check for proper redirects and more.
• View and analyze page content for proper formatting
• View keywords and other information used on pages.

You can save different projects for later viewing or just export the info you need at the time.  I highly recommend checking it out and submitting a sitemap to the different search engines if you haven't already done this.

(hat tip to the SEO monkey) 

Posted by markbarrera at 12:56 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

For my readers that haven't checked out one of my business ventures, Marketing ICE, I definitely think you should check it out.

We have been receiving a lot more coverage across the web and have assembled a large community of bloggers and Internet marketers who watch our SEO training videos and participate in the forum.   I am very proud to be a part of creating and maintaining a site that is growing so much and helping so many people out.  Right now, we have over 70 SEO training videos and that number will continue to grow.

Don't just take my word for it, check out what others have had to say about the site:

Marketing ICE Reviewed
Get your free SEO training here
12 Free SEO Training Videos from MarketingICE.com
Cool Video Training on SEO and Blogging

Please check out our list of SEO tutorials and let me know what you think or if there are video topics that we don't cover yet but would like us to produce. 

Posted by markbarrera at 11:21 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

If you haven't heard of Crazy Egg, I suggest you take a look and sign up for a free account.  Crazy Egg allows you to create tests so you can learn what visitors are doing on your web pages by simply installing some javascript code on the page you want to track.

The data is then presented in a very easy to read reporting interface.  It allows you to view a heatmap of exactly where each visitor clicked on a certain page, showing you what areas of a page draw the most attention.  Once you view these reports, you can change the layout of your page to increase desired user actions.  Crazy Egg allows you to:

• Test different versions of a page to see which works better
• Discover which ad placement gives the best results
• Find out which design encourages visitors to click deeper
• Learn which content leads to improved sales

They also just added a new feature that gives you even more advanced reporting.  Their confetti view allows you to sort out each click based on referrer or other data.  So if I only want to see how users that came from, let's say, a banner ad I have on a site, I can have it show me only clicks from that site.  This is an awesome addition to an already great tool.

Here are screen shots of the heat tracking and confetti reporting views:

 
I use Crazy Egg on every site I manage, because the data it gives is just too valuable not to collect.  Google Analytics has a similar feature of tracking which links are clicked on by whom, but it doesn't nearly compare with the data that Crazy Egg gives to you.  Check it out - I am sure you will not regret it.

Want to read other views on Crazy Egg?  Watch a video on how to use Crazy Egg (requires free registration) or check out these other reviews:

• TechCrunch Review of Crazy Egg
• Crazy Egg Launched - Visualize Visitor Clicks
• 7 Reasons Crazy Egg Will Be Successful
• Crazy Egg - Visualize visitor clicks
• Crazy Egg is Crazy Delicious!
  

Posted by markbarrera at 09:32 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBacks (1)

The Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association will be meeting on April 16, 2007 from 6:30 PM to 8 PM for its monthly meetup.  The presenter will be Robert Scott of Scott & Scott LLP.  

The title of the presentation is "Internet Marketing and the Law" and will cover the legal trends and the issues implicated in modern marketing techniques, including internet search optimization and pay-per-click marketing.  These issues will include trademark infringement, service mark infringement, anti-cybersquatting, and copyright law.

With the Internet being so new, the legality of many online activities have not been defined by law and are being determined by case law as claims are brought forth.  This is a good opportunity for online marketers and anyone with a website to learn about the legal implications of their online activites.

The meeting will be held at the Renaissance Dallas-Richardson Hotel located at 900 East Lookout Drive, Richardson, Texas 75081 (972-367-2000).  The hotel is in the Richardson Telecom Corridor, on the east side of 75 Central Expressway, approximately one mile south of George Bush Tollway. The meeting will be in the Symphony Room and is open to the public so come on out and learn a lot and network with the top search engine marketers in North Texas.

About the DFW-SEM:
The Dallas / Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association is dedicated to the following principles:
- Educating North Texas businesses and marketing managers about the value of search engine marketing
- Promoting the search engine marketing industry in North Texas and surrounding regions
- Recognizing the value North Texas search engine marketers provide to businesses, advertisers, and search engines.

Posted by markbarrera at 04:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

UPDATE: You may now sign up for this Video Based SEO Training at MarketingICE.com as we have launched our BETA web site.  Sign up now and get a greatly reduced rate on our membership or sign up to watch our FREE training videos.

If you haven't heard me talk about the new site that I have been working on with Ben Fitts and Jack Spirko, you will now have a chance to learn more on Tuesday, March 20, 2007.  Sign up for our free SEO training webinar and become a beta tester for our new site that will show you:

• How to promote your web site.
• How to build a blog.
• How to make money from your blog.
• How to build your mailing list.
• How to get more links to your web site.
• How to get more traffic to your web site.
  
• And MUCH MORE...
  

Our web site has interactive video tutorials where you can watch step by step following our experts asa they perform different aspects of online marketing.  Not only do we show you how to do something but we also have a community forum where you can also ask questions and get help from these experts and discuss topic with other members.

I'm very excited about this project and I think it is going to help a lot of you that are new to Internet marketing and are looking for a way to make money online.  This webiste shows you what it takes to start your own business that allows you to work from home. The Internet provides me with my full source of income, and now we are going to show you how to do the same.

We're looking for 100 people to help us beta test the site.  We want to offer you a special discounted 30 day trial to try it out so you can help us find bugs and tell us what you do and don't like.

We want your feedback so we're willing to give you a special shot to be the first to check out our site.

If you want to be one of the first 100 then PLEASE be on this webinar.  We will not be recording this information. If all 100 beta memberships sell out, that is all the beta memberships we will allow.  We'll shut down the site to new members until we have tested it thoroughly with the help of those beta testers.

Want to be a beta tester? Then do whatever you can to get on this webinar!

Date:
 Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Time:
 9:30 PM - 10:30 PM EDT

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/483999695

Posted by markbarrera at 11:11 PM | Comments (2)

Have you been looking for a way to learn all of the ins and outs of marketing on the Internet?  I have teamed up with some other professional online marketers to create an seo training site that contains MANY hours of online video tutorials.  We have categorized our videos in an easy to follow fashion that shows you each step of what it takes to run a blog, create a website, make profitable affilate sales and many other online marketing activities.

On top of these videos, we have created a user community where all of your questions and comments can be discussed. While the site is not open for users yet, we do have some free SEO training videos to show you at YouTube.  The advanced videos will only be available to registered users.

Check it out and sign up for updates by entering your email adress here on my blog.

UPDATE: You may now sign up for this Video Based SEO Training at MarketingICE.com as we have launched our BETA web site.  Sign up now and get a greatly reduced rate on our membership. 

Posted by markbarrera at 12:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 2007 DFW-SEMMeeting - Open networking event 2007

The next DFWSEM Association meeting will be held on Monday, February 19, at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson. This will be an open networking and informational event that will follow up on sessions from Search Engine Watch Live in Dallas. Time is from 6:30 PM to 8 PM.

Meeting Place: Renaissance Dallas-Richardson Hotel located at 900 East Lookout Drive, Richardson, Texas 75081.

The hotel is in the Richardson Telecom Corridor, on the east side of 75 Central Expressway, approximately one mile south of George Bush Tollway. Symphony Room. Hotel Phone: 972-367-2000 Map: Renaissance Richardson

Find out more about the DFWSEM at http://www.dfwsem.org 

Posted by markbarrera at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently, a hacker decided to attack the blogs of some people in the SEO industry.  The blogs that were hacked, were all WordPress blogs and were hacked through a simple exploit.  This event made many people realize that it is important to continually upgrade your WordPress blog when updates are made.

While it can be frustrating to do, Ben Fitts has taken the time to show you how to do a WordPress upgrade. So if you are not a great programmer or just need some guidance, check out Ben's WordPress Upgrade Video.

Posted by markbarrera at 01:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you who read things I write, I hardly ever give any blackhat advice. I do try to keep up on the latest blackhat techniques to know where I think the algorithms will need to change. However, since I run a blog, I must deal with the spam that people try to sneak onto my blog.  I have been getting a lot more lately as my site begins to grow.

I have been getting a lot of spam lately from a spammer leaving their mark as "Megaaaaamer" and then dropping in plenty of spam filled links and thought I would see how much spam this person it getting through.  Why did I do this? To see if this spam not only gets through, but if it help the sites it advertises. Then, if it does help, why can't I just do the same thing and boost the rankings for a spammy affiliate site.  Again, why do this?  This will help me to better evaluate the different search algorithms and also learn a whole lot more about the dark side of the industry, the guys we unfortunately must deal with.

So while I know this will upset people who see me as a spammer, but  hey, its my blog and this is simple stuff. I just want to show a way for people to appreciate the work of the spammer - (ok, not really but I have been needing to put up a new post).

How To Spam by Following the Spammers:

Ok, so after receiving plenty of spam from "Megaaaaamer", I first did a Google search for this phrase to see how many others were being spammed from this same bot.  Sure enough Google found almost 25,000 results for this odd phrase. Ok, so this shows me that this spammer is actually making it onto other sites.

Next, I took a look at the search results.  The first two are obviously sites that this spammer was trying to get ranked either because they owned it or had more spammy links on it as it was the link for his name on the comments.  I clicked the first one (admiralcarinsuranc.tripod.com) and came to a page full of spammy links. To my surprise I found that it had a PR3.  Odd that a site that had gained PageRank only from comment spam and was full of spammy links could have a decent PR but I guess I didn't realize how well spam can work when done "properly".

Next, I ran backlink checks at Google, Yahoo & MSN.  Of course, Yahoo always is the best indicator of backlinks so I checked these out first.  The first link to this spammy site was coming from John Battelle's Searchblog. After looking through the comments for someone spamming back to admiralcarinsuranc.tripod.com and found a predictable "It's Good Nice site!" comment by Alexy (I wonder if this Russian is any relation to the famous email spamming Alexy...).

So what does this tell me? First off, while the page is nofollowed, it does have a PR4 and we know that Nofollow doesn't really work. This site would be a prime target for comment spam.  So, what next after I leave my own comment spam on this site? Go back to the Yahoo backlinks and continue to find the sites that the spammer penetrated and add your own spam link.

Yes, this is aweful. No, I don't do it.  Yes, it works for now.  However, if it was that easy for me, don't you think some algorithms are in the making to watch for these same things also?

In conclusion, I do not endorse this technique, but if you really want to waste weeks doing this just to get a PR3 site, by all means, go ahead.  Otherwise, stay away and do as I do, and hope that the search engines can figure this stuff out and keep my inbox from filling up with these dumb comments from Megaaaaamer.

Posted by markbarrera at 01:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Many people have a blind faith in the "nofollow" tag attached to links these days.  This tag is supposed to discourage blog spam but in order to do that, it should first do what is was intended to do.  Who treats the nofollow tag the worst...nope, not MSN as many would suspect, it is actually Google!  I wrote a post over on the Dallas Search Engine Marketing Blog about an experiment I did to see how the search engines treat the nofollow tag. Check it out and leave your comments!

"Nofollow" - Does it Really Work Like Google Claims?

Posted by markbarrera at 07:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently, a federal judge issued a ruling that is shaking up the way that websites are designed. The ruling lets a lawsuit by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corp. to proceed. This does not mean that Target has lost the suit, only that the case would not be dismissed and would proceed. The suit charges that Target’s website is inaccessible to the blind and therefore violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and several California laws designed to protect the disabled.

Targets argument for dismissal was that accessibility only applies to physical locations and not websites. The court disagreed saying that all services must be accessible to “persons with disabilities.”

How Does a Website Become Accessible to the Blind?

People who are blind commonly use text to speech software that dictates the contents of a website to them. This means that any images on a website that have text in them won’t be read by the speech software. For example, if you look at this site that sells yamaha parts you will notice that the navigation on the left has text that is presented as an image. There is a way to label the picture with any text you want so that a speech reader can speak to the contents of the image. This is done using an “Alt” tag. In the case of the Yamaha site, each image would need to be alt tagged with the same text that is contained in the image. So for the “buy accessories online” link, the code would have “alt=’buy accessories online’”. This way, a blind user would know to click that link if they are wanting to buy the accessories. Without these tags, the user would have to navigate to each page and hope that there is text on that page to tell them what the page is about.

A good example of proper alt tagging can be seen at the site of an extended auto warranty company. If you point your mouse over one of the green tabs that links to more info on the warranties, you alt text will appear (only in Internet Explorer, Firefox users must right click to view image properties). The text in the alt tag should reflect where the image link will take you in the site. Every image on this page has an alt tag provided.

How Does This Affect My Search Rankings?

Search engines act in a similar fashion to text to speech software because the search engine spiders that read your web page also cannot read text in images or decipher what the image contains. By using the alt tag you are able to tell the search engine what exactly is in the picture. Search engines also use this data to better help them when indexing images into their image search engines (images.google.com, search.yahoo.com/images & others).

When linking to a specific page, the search engines prefer that you use text, so that they can tell what the content of the page being linked to is about. Essentially, it is like voting for a page to rank well for a keyword in their search rankings using the text in the link. For example, if I wanted to link to the site completelandsculpture.com, I would use the text “Dallas landscape design“. If I used their logo to link to them, the search engines would see the link as having no text associated, so it would be like a vote without giving the site credit for the content it contains. This is why you need to alt tag the image with same text “Dallas landscape design” or something similar so that the search engines then know that that site is about landscape design. This will help to rank that site better for the text used either in the text link or as an alt tag.
You may be wondering, why not just stuff every image alt tag with keywords to rank better for those terms. The answer is that the search engines have evolved and can detect this keyword spamming. A rule of hand is to use a phrase less than 4 words to describe the image and don’t stuff keywords into the tag. Many people will tell you that the search engines don’t rank on alt tags but I can say that I have seen sites with only images show up in search results and the description that Google displayed used text found only in the alt tags.

How Can I See My Site Like a Text to Speech Reader or a Search Engine?

There are a few ways to make sure your site is readable to both the search engines and to people with disabilities. The first is to use a website standards validation tool. This also makes sure your site can be viewed properly in all browsers. All you do is put in the URL of the page you want to check and they will create a report with all errors. If you want to see how your site actually looks to search engines and browsers for the disabled you can use the SEO Browser tool or the Lynx text browser. This will strip all of the CSS styles and Images out of your site so you can view it at its most simple form.

For more in-depth analysis of the things you need to consider to make a site ADA compliant please click here.

-Mark B 

(republished at Promotion World) 

Posted by markbarrera at 10:29 PM | Comments (1)

Over at The ComTech News Blog Jack Spirko, who served in the US Army Airborne during the First Gulf War, has posted The Internet Marketers Creed.  Jack has been involved in Internet marketing for 10 years and I can speak to his abilities due to a time in which we worked together.  His post speaks to the passion and thought processes of interactive marketers and even printed a copy to hang by my desk.

This creed is a kickback to the Marine Corps Rifleman's Creed as heard in the opening of the classic movie Full Metal Jacket. This creed by Jack speaks to all Internet marketers who truly have a passion for the art and science of Internet marketing.

Check it out and leave your comments to a guy who gave a bit of his life to serve our country!

Posted by markbarrera at 06:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As an Internet marketer, I know enough about optimizing sites to be found in the search engines that I decided I should join an affiliate program to test my skills.  I am normally always working for my clients and don't always get to do exactly as I please.  I was referred to Cognigen by Jack Spirko.  I have only been selling products for a few months but already I have earned more than a thousand dollars.  How much more? I will keep you guessing, but trust me- it IS more!

Most affiliate marketers tend to use PPC to push traffic but I like to stick with good old organice traffic. Who would pay for traffic if it is so easy to get for free? (OK, it's not easy, but well worth the efforts).  To sign up as a Cognigen agent click here.  Cognigen allows you to sell many different services including cell phones, broadband phone service, local and lond distance phone service and more.  If you know much about search engine marketing, I highly recommend taking some time to create some extra income without a lot of work.

Posted by markbarrera at 02:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you are a current Google Adwords advertiser or are thinking about joining the Adwords program, take notice of recent changes by Google.

Recently Google displayed a notice in all Adwords accounts notifying advertisers of a change in the terms of service and a change in the way an ad's quality score is determined.

 

 In the new Adwords terms of service it states that the price an advertiser now pays is partially determined by the relevance of the landing page.  Google will now be sending spiders to crawl the landing pages and check for the presence of keyword material that is relevant to the term that the searcher intially used.

What does this mean? 

This means that you can most likely no longer simply pick a page in your site to send traffic to any more.  The better targeted your landing page is, the less you will pay for each click.  This can mean big savings for large ppc campaigns.  Web site owners must now put up the initial investment needed for the creation of optimized landing pages in order to achieve lond term savings.

Choose a web design and internet marketing firm that is able to understand all aspects of proper on page optimization as well as in depth knowledge of the PPC advertising programs. 

Posted by markbarrera at 10:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am simply someone who loves working on the Internet!

For my day job, I work as the Client Services Manager at Vizion Interactive, an Internet marketing company in Dallas. I work with many clients in a diverse mix of industries.  I create campaigns that encompass all aspects of internet marketing including PPC marketing, organic marketing, and email marketing. I have been interviewed by industry magazines, been recognized as a top-notch blogger, and worked with companies in many industries (mortgage, pharmaceuticals, retail, service, technology, software, and many others).  I am a member of the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association, Dallas Executives Assocation, and I am also a Google Adwords Certified Professional.  I am a co-host of the Internet Business Broadcast so make sure to sign up to our podcast that we are constantly updating.

In my spare time, I manage a few sites of my own that provde affilate and advertising revenue to me every month.  Who doesn't enjoy having recurring revenue doing something that they love!  I also play soccer, run half marathons, and get outdoors as much as possible to fish, camp, or just enjoy the view.  I also enjoy being an uncle, brother, and son to a family that I greatly cherish.

I recently co-founded a company called the ICE Marketing Group, LLC.  Our web site - MarketingICE.com - serves as an easy way to learn Internet marketing techniques.  Our site offers online videos that show you exactly how to perform the same activities that I use on a daily basis both for my clients and for myself in order to make my living. 

Please take the time to subscribe to this blog via the RSS feed.

You can reach me at mark@markbarrera.com with any questions or comments that you may have or feel free to call me at 214-908-0954 if you need consulting or any other Internet marketing services.

Enjoy the site and PLEASE share your comments. 

-Mark Barrera

Posted by markbarrera at 07:39 PM