OK, so you’re a confirmed “do-it-yourself-er”. Some of us are just that way, and that’s OK. As long as you get good training upfront you’ll be fine. Make sure you hire a consultant to know that you’re doing the job right and then get after it. I will warn you, small business owners are the good at the art of distraction. Are you tweaking your PPC campaign but losing business because of it? Know your gifts, and focus on those. If you have time to manage your PPC campaign yourself, then great. But if you’re hiding behind your computer when you should be meeting with customers then hire someone to help. If you’re going to hire, then hire us! Enough preaching and shameless self promotion.

This is going to be a series of reviews on various SEO tools that you can use to enhance your business. Some of these tools are what we use at The Search Factory. As always, if you have any questions regarding what you see here, please feel free to send us an e-mail at http://www.thesearchfactory.net/contactus.htm.

 Tool #1: Keyword Spy

This is one of the best tools in the world. Want to know what keywords your competitors are bidding on? What position they are in? It’s simple with Keyword Spy. You simply type in the web address of your competitor and Keyword Spy spits out the keywords and allows you to download them to a spreadsheet. You can then upload your new keywords into your Yahoo!, Google, or MSN campaign. All this and it’s as simple to use as writing your name.

Think about it, you could spend hours of research coming up with your own keywords for your PPC campaign. And if you’re like me, you’ll wake up in the middle of the night thinking of new ones, having to write them down, and add them in the morning. Or for those neurotics out there, you’ll have to go to your computer and add them immediately-go to sleep for crying out loud!

Keyword Spy takes the guesswork out and allows you to have an upper hand in the fight for online supremacy. Like most online programs, there’s a free trial available online, give it a spin and see if you like it. As always, in order to get the full featured version, you’ll have to purchase.  Simply visit Keyword Spy and see what it can do for you.