Getting and managing online reviews is becoming a very important part of any business’s online marketing strategy.

But sending customers directly to Google or Facebook to leave a review can lead to upset customers giving you a 1-star review, which drags down your average rating and hurts business.

My new Review Lead Pro system help solve that problem.

Learn all about it with this 12-minute video. As a way of saying thank you for watching, I’m giving away a Reputation Report. But you must watch the video to learn how to get the free report. It’s only 12 minutes long and does a good job of explaining my offer.

The report is free, even if you don’t decide Review Lead Pro is for you.

So watch the video now by clicking this link.

Ready for that free report? Reach out by email – andy@andycommons.com

Save hundreds of dollars on your Missoula Car Rental by renting our vehicle via the TURO app.

Turo is a peer-to-peer car-sharing program. Similar to AirBNB but for cars.

With the current shortage of rental cars, prices at the major car rental companies have gone way up. You’ll be paying a lot, if you can even find a car to rent.

Instead, you can use the TURO app to find and rent a car from someone like me.

We have a great car available on the platform. If you decide to rent a car via TURO, we’d really appreciate you considering our car first if this post has helped you.

Link to our car:

2016 Mazda CX-5 Hatchback

If our car doesn’t work out for you, we hope you’ll find another one that suits your needs and will keep us in mind the next time you need to rent a car for less in Missoula.

Thanks… Andy

New to TURO? – Getting Started Tips:

It’s easy to set up an account and start renting cars.
Just check your app store for the TURO app. Sign up, answer a few questions, upload a photo of your driver’s license, and add a credit card. You’ll soon be on your way to saving money on your next car rental.

Note, most cars listed on Turo are not at the airport. Some folks will offer airport delivery for a fee. Or, you can save some money and just take a taxi or Uber to where the car is located. In our case, an Uber to our house from the airport is about $20 each way. We also offer airport dropoff/pick-up for a fee, and many people choose this option for the convenience of having the car waiting for them at the airport. We can also deliver to other locations around Missoula for a fee.

Here’s a non-business post discussing my first car.

I actually bought it with some money my grandma gave me for $600.

My Dad and I restored it in our garage.

I sold it about a year later (in 1985 or so) for $1,500. I probably broke even, but it was fun!

The result:

Did you know you can’t just grab any old photo off the internet and use it in your blog post, in your social media post, or on your website? Of course you do. But there are lots of folks to don’t know how to find an image you CAN safely use online. Now, one way is to take a photo yourself and use it. But we often don’t have the time or the talent to create a photo that tells the story we want.

Here’s a video on how I find royalty free images for use in blog post, social media posts, and on web pages.

A summary of the above video: 

Don’t just use images you find on the internet. They are most likely not free for unlicensed use.

You can end up with a large bill from the owner of the image if you are caught using it.

Instead, either use free images or pay a small fee to get the rights to use them in your online posts or print publications.

Some good sources for images that you can obtain for free are:

Pixabay, Clipart.com and Desygner.

Some well known places to pay for quality stock photos include,

Getty Images, Shutterstock and Adobe Stock (formerly Fotolia)

Mobile SEO is now even more important

SEO has never been more important for local companies

With the recent roll-out of Google’s mobile friendly algorithm, all websites that want to show up locally must be mobile friendly. Google mobile search rankings are arguably very important for all local companies, as it is much easier to pull out a phone to Google a business than it is to park and pull out a computer at a coffee shop. So make sure that your website is mobile friendly if you wish to rank well in Google on mobile.

Here are some great articles that you should read this month to stay on top of things.
Enjoy, and if you have anything you want to discuss, drop me a line at Andy@andycommons.com
– Andy

QUICK SIDE NOTE:
I’m proud to be part of several “Start up Communities” here in Missoula. Tonight, the Hellgate Venture Network is having their monthly meeting. A guest speaker joins us each month to give a quick overview of their business, and then there is lots of networking time. learn more via the Linked-in Group.

The other thing I’m working on with a very fun team is called 1 Million Cups Missoula. We meet each Wednesday at 9 am at the MONTEC building on East Broadway. This free group was formed by the Kaufman Foundation, and has meetings popping up all over the country. We meet for 1 hour, and there are usually two start ups that present. Each gives an intro for 6 minutes, followed by a 24 minute Q&A. Check out the 1MC MSO website. We’d love to see you there. If you are with a start-up, be sure to apply to present.

OK. Enough of that. Here are the articles I hand picked for you this month.  – Andy

				Mobile Is Local: Quick Wins and Fast Fails In her session at ClickZ Live New York, Jori Ford detailed how to master the mobile-local search space.
				View on searchenginewatch.com	Preview by Yahoo

				The Guide to Google’s Mobile-Friendly Algorithm | SEJ A small business owner’s step-by-step guide to preparing for Google’s upcoming mobile-friendly algorithm update.
				View on www.searchenginejou…	Preview by Yahoo

				Elements of Personalization  Search results don’t show up the same way for everyone, and in today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers five ways in which we can improve our sites’ performance.
				View on moz.com	Preview by Yahoo

				Link Risk Management: Are You doing this? Columnist Stephan Spencer warns that if you don’t regularly monitor your backlinks and proactively get rid of spammy ones, you could be risking it all.
				View on searchengineland.com	Preview by Yahoo

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My top picks of articles PLUS a new offering from Andy Commons LLC!

HI Everyone. Happy News year.  I hope you are enjoying all the snow we have. But those roads are a mess! Be careful out there.

It seems this month is already moving quickly. It’s tough to keep up with the news. So below you’ll find my hand picked articles of things I thought you might like.

But I also wanted to announce that coming soon I’ll be offering Social Media Marketing services. My team can help you with a complete social media plan including

				Incredibly Useful, Illustrated Guide to On-Page Topic Ta… The truth is, you can create optimized pages that rank well without understanding complex algorithms. This post provides a simple framework for on-page topic target…
				View on moz.com	Preview by Yahoo

				How Can the Value of Top-of-Funnel Channels be Measur… Marketing efforts at the top of the funnel, like PR and content marketing, are notoriously hard to measure in terms of their value. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Ra…
				View on moz.com	Preview by Yahoo

				Google’s Gary Illyes Discusses Mobile as a Ranking Facto… Google’s Gary Illyes recently was gracious enough to answer questions about the new “Mobile Friendly” ranking factor, as well as other SEO related topics. Er
				View on www.stonetemple.com	Preview by Yahoo

				Panda 4.1 Google Leaked Dos and Don’ts – Whiteboard Fri… Panda is about so much more than good content. Let Josh Bachynski give you the inside information on the highlights of what you should (and should not) be doing.
				View on moz.com	Preview by Yahoo

				Why SEOs Need To Care About User Experience During 2014, Google has released a host of updates that focus on user experience. This post describes what Google have been up to and why SEOs need to care.
				View on urlprofiler.com	Preview by Yahoo

				15 Landing Page Trends from Rising Companies, Designer… What are the most effective landing page trends happening right now? We looked to top companies, designers, and 25,000 LeadPages users to find out.
				View on blog.leadpages.net	Preview by Yahoo