History has shown that the best time to trade stocks is in a down market.  Now is one of those best times.

And, the best way to trade stocks is through an online broker.  You may not know much about stocks, but there are so many ways to learn from the internet.  Recommendations on what stocks to buy are everywhere or you can invest in stocks in your area of expertise where you know what companies are up and coming.

Online trading can be very rewarding and a lot of fun.  And, when you invest in a down market like the one   we are experiencing now, there’s such a better chance in your stocks going up.  The biggest factor to making a profit on stocks is to buy when there is value.  With the stock market off 40% from a year ago, that value exists now.

There’s nothing like stock trading in making your life more exciting.  Trading stocks is something you can talk about at a cocktail  party.  It will impress the men and the ladies at the party.  It’s a way of life for so many people and a way for many to get rich.

First Trade might not be the most famous of the online brokerage companies, but it’s one of the best.  It has stocks, options, mutual funds, ETFs and fixed incomes.  The good news is that all trades are at very competitive prices.

According to a March 2009 study by Internet Wireless World, the number of worldwide internet users is:

1,596,270,108

Bob Bentz has been working in the 900 numbers industry at Advanced Telecom Services for almost twenty years. 

We asked Bentz what the most common question that he has received over those twenty years.  Bentz didn’t hesitate when he said: “that’s easy, what percentage of the cost do I get is by far the most common question.”

So, Bentz, who never tires of talking about non-adult 900 numbers, created a video to explain exactly how much money that you will receive from a 900 number.  “Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to the most common question that I get,” said Bentz.  “Callers think that I’m being evasive when I can’t answer that question simply until they get into the complexities of the question itself.”

Want to know how much money you’ll get back from a 900 number?  Watch the videos below and you’ll soon learn.  Note, Bentz was right when he said it’s not a simple equation.  It took him two parts to explain it and you’ll need 20 minutes total!

What makes for a good directory?

CLICKZ15

And, with Google’s assertion that it doesn’t want anybody to pay for links, what about buying a link in the Yahoo Directory or on veteran sites like Best of the Web?

Matt Cutts, Google’s guru of SEO, said recently that the key to a directory’s value is that it isn’t just about purchasing links.  We’ve all got those emails.  “Buy a link from us and we’ll be sure to increase your Google ranking.”

Not so easy.  The key to a reputable directory, said Cutts, is that the directory doesn’t accept all sites.  In fact, directories like the Yahoo directory or Best of the Web directory regularly reject sites that don’t meet their credentials.  That’s the key to a valued directory.  If you want to pay, you don’t necessarily play.

Best of the Web Discount Code for July 2009

Best of the Web bills itself as the “oldest directory on the web.”  Given that it has been around since 1994, I guess that’s probably a pretty accurate assertion.  Hard to believe that web directories are now 15 years old!

CLICKZ15

The great thing about Best of the Web is that it offers significant discounts on purchases.  In fact, it’s crazy to buy a listing on Best of the Web without a discount promo code.

Get Clickz has its own unique Best of the Web discount code.  This promo code will get you 15% off any purchases from Best of the Web.  The Best of the Web discount code is CLICKZ15.

In fact, this  permanent Best of the Web discount promo code is good for July 2009 and anytime after that.

Best of the Web Promo Code — CLICKZ15.  Good for 15% off anytime, any month, but good also for July 2009.

A few years ago, directories became the brunt of many jokes among SEO consultants.  If you were an SEO

Use CLICKZ15 for a 15% discount at BOTW. Good any month.

consultant that recommended directories, you were seen as being out of touch and a pretender, not a contender.

Not much has changed over the years when speaking of general directories, but the truth is that all directories are not created equal.  One such directory is the Best of the Web blog directory.

The Best of the Web Blog directory has a page rank of 6 and 1,260 inbound links, according to Google.  That may not seem that big, but consider that it’s older brother, botw.org, has been around since 1994, about the time that Al Gore invented it.

If there are only a few directories that are worth paying for, then you probably would have to start with the Yahoo Directory, but after it, Best of the Web, and the Best of the Web Blog directory would have to be given consideration in that second group of directories worth paying for.

Now, compliments of Get Clickz, you can get a 15% discount on any paid directory submissions to Best of the Web, the Best of the Web Blog directory, Best of the Web Local Business Directory, or the Best of the Web UK Directory.  Just enter the promo code CLICKZ15 for your 15% discount available this month, and every month thereafter.

Just go through the regular process of ordering your directory listing and then when you get to the shopping cart page, you will be asked to enter your promo code for the discount.  Enter CLICKZ15 and you’ll be on your way to earning a 15% discount to Best of the Web.

Many of the discounts available at Best of the Web are good for only one month; write this promo code down, because it is good for any month.  There’s no expiration date for the CLICKZ15 promo code for Best of the Web directory submissions.

Visit new internet marketing blog OnlineSiesta.com

There’s a burger place near my office called Five Guys.  The burgers there are really really good, not like McDonald’s.  But, I try to eat healthy so I don’t go to Five Guys as much as I’d like to.  I limit myself to once per month.

The problem with Five Guys (other than the fact that I’ll need an extra 30 minutes on the treadmill if I eat lunch there) is that if I eat there, I feel like crashing after lunch.  I think it’s the same concept that Tomer Treves, of InfoLink, had when he came up with the idea of a blog about online marketing, digital advertising, and monetizing a blog.  These are very much the same sort of ideas behind Get Clickz.

The first posts that Treves is posting are about in text advertising.  And, that certainly makes sense given that this is Treves’ primary area of expertise.

Treves states that he will be writing these articles about online marketing right after lunch.  Let’s hope there’s not a Five Guys near where he works!

I love schwag.  I’m the guy who loves to take home schwag from trade shows.  I usually have a suitcase that is five pounds heavier coming home from the trade show than when I left for the trade show.

But, who needs another coffee mug?  A tablet is helpful, but once it is used, it’s gone forever and your message has disappeared.  A rubber ball?  Probably the dumbest piece of schwag available at a trade show! Yo-yo?  Even dumber!

Best Flash Drives provides custom USB flash drives to the marketplace.  These USB drives have the logo of your company on them and, if ordered in a large quantity, they are extremely affordable.  It’s a piece of schwag for a trade show that will be used time and time again by your customers and prospects.

It’s also a great way to distribute your marketing message.  Put your power point presentation on a custom USB drive and mail them to your prospects.  Whenever they use the drives, your message appears.  It’s a great way to make a lasting impression!

Get Clickz writer Anthony Wayne had his article about making money with blogs published in Online Business Watch.

In the battle of the web site giants, Twitter is gaining ground, but Google is still the king!

Total Visitors (April 2009)

1. Google — 131 million
2. Facebook — 71
3. My Space — 54
4. Amazon - 50
5. Twitter — 17

Twitter shows a 1298% growth over the past year while My Space shows a 7% loss.  Facebook had a huge year with a 217% growth rate in visitors.

The economy appears to be having an effect on paid search.  If you own Google stock, perhaps you already know that.

7.25% of all search engine traffic to all categories of websites currently comes from paid clicks (Hitwise, May 9, 2009).  Last year, in this same period, 9.84% of all clicks came from paid clicks.

Part of the situation may stem from the fact that more effort is being put into search engine optimization.  It may also be that younger adults simply don’t “see” paid advertisements.  If you are in the affiliate marketing business, you know that banner advertising simply doesn’t deliver like it used to.

Comscore data shows an interesting trend.  In the last two years, searches are up 68%, but the number of users clicking on a pay per click PPC advertisement is up just 18%.

There are more women on Twitter than men, according to a May 2009 study of Twitter users.

55% of Twitter users are female.

Men have more followers.  Of those that women follow, 56% are men.  Of those that men follow, an even larger 65% are men.

Total minutes spent on Facebook are up 7 times year over year.  In addition, time spent on social networking and blog sites is up 83%!

Total time spent on Facebook is 13.9 billion minutes per month making it the overwhelming # 1 social networking site.  MySpace, which used to dominate this space, is # 2 followed by Blogger, Tagged, and Twitter.

(Source — April 2009, Nielsen Online)

If you like to write, like I do, your blog or your e-commerce web site has a much better chance to do well than if you don’t. 

Article marketing is such an important part of search engine optimization.  It creates links and gets click-throughs to your business.

The first thing you have to do is to write articles and then, of course, you have to submit articles.  When you submit articles to article marketing sites like Article Alley, the hope is that other bloggers will go there and pick up your article and post it on their blogs.  When they do, you get exposure and get an important link as well.

Bloggers are always looking for fresh content.  It’s tough coming up with a new blog post every day when you write 12 blogs like I do.  After all, who has the time.  I use article sites often to find new content and also to find a new point of view.  You can pay for content, but free content is always the best option if you are a work at home blogger.

Free articles can help you climb the search engine rankings so its crazy not to take advantage of article marketing sites like Article Alley.

Anybody who works in marketing knows that one of the best things you can find is a great list.  If you have a great list of people interested in your product, the rest comes easy.

Finding a good telemarketing list, however, is not an easy chore.  Many lists are outdated and the lists that aren’t outdated might have people on them who are actually on the do not call list.  Make calls to these people and you will get an angry prospect and  you may find yourself in legal trouble as well.

One of the best lists of The List Company is its mortgage mailing list.  While not a lot of homes have been selling recently, there is a lot of refinancing going on as mortgages are at an all-time low.  It’s a great time to be reaching out to people needing a new mortgage.  It can be very lucrative.

If you are looking for telemarketing lists, then The List Company is a great resource.  The List Company has over 300 million consumers in its lists and over 14 million businesses.  Now, if that isn’t enough to make your offer generate significant revenue, I don’t know what is.

“Mobile marketing continues to grow,” said Bob Bentz, president of Advanced Telecom Services.  “When we talk to advertising agencies, they usually know very little about it, but once they try it, their customers are sold.”

The best thing about mobile marketing is being able to have a one-on-one relationship with the consumer or prospect on the only medium that he has with him 24/7.  The other great thing about mobile marketing is that you can reach the prospect when he is most likely to buy.

“Subway is one of our clients and they send their broadcast text messages at 11:30 am, right before lunch,” said Bentz.  “We’ve had other clients like nightclubs and gentlemen’s clubs that send messages right when the game ends and the fans are walking out to their cars,” added Bentz.

Now, that’s powerful marketing!

This boy was singing his favorite Britney Spears song in his bedroom when his Mom walks in and scares the crap out of him.

One of the most cost-effective ways to stay in touch with your customers or prospects is via email marketing.

At our company, we’ve used four different email marketing services, but the one we keep coming back to is iContact. 

When it comes to technical things, some of our tradiotional marketing staff is old school.  They just don’t learn new systems as well as some of the younger employees.  That’s what makes iContact such a great newsletter software tool.  It’s really easy to use.  In just an hour, you’ll be a pro on it.

It’s also really affordable.  You can get involved with iContact for as little as $9.95 per month.  It also works well for large organizations; its Enterprise product is still a very affordable $660 per month.  If you are doing large bulk email marketing, the Enterprise product is the system for you.

If you have never used an email distribution tool before, then iContact is a great choice.  It is affordable, easy to use, and it delivers great results that will help your ROI no matter what your business is.

Everybody wants to improve their ROI.  After all, who wouldn’t want to make more money with the same investment that they are currently making?

ROI Analytics is one company that does it right.  While I’ve never used them personally, I’ve heard good things about them and their web site is very professionally done.  That is usually the first thing that I look for in a vendor–a professional looking web site.

The first thing that any internet advertiser needs to do is to determine what its ROI is.  So many web sites simply don’t keep track of these things.  They may not have the software in place to effectively track ROI or they may simply not have the staff to track it. 

David Ogilvy once said that “half of his advertising is wasted, he just didn’t know which half.”  That should never be the case with direct marketing and internet advertising is just that.

Another thing that I look for in any internet product is a free trial offer.  It’s so important to test drive a site first to see if it delivers the value that you need.  ROI Analytics does offer such a free trial.  Your site can get 15 days of free internet leads to try it out.  So what are you waiting for?

Lots of blog writing tips available on this web site.

Get Clickz’s Bob Bentz also has written an article about how students blogging for dollars.  With jobs tough to come by this summer, a blog might be the perfect idea for the struggling student.