Internet Marketing Consultant's Toolbox Resource Center 

Are you in the need for some Internet stats, graphs or reports? Netpop offers an affordable alternative to pricey "all you can eat" research services. Instead, for a monthly fee you can access a certain number of research reports (based upon your subscription level). So if you suddenly need data on social media usage, for example, you can zip on over, search for the type of information that you need and then purchase only those report(s) that you desire.

The reports are based on surveys of broadband Internet users and cover demographics, leisure and entertainment and Internet usage. Netpop gets a little Web 2.0 on us by highlighting on the home page those items that have been most viewed, most commented upon and the like. At the time of writing, interesting research included very recent data on consumer-generated content, virtual worlds and barriers to mobile marketing usage; pricing started at $24.95 a month for 25 research items.

Upgrading an online "media center" is one way to gain visibility in the press and all the benefits of a well-honed media machine. NetReach offers a online media center "in a box" type of application that allows you to build and manage a state-of-the-art media center without the need for technical or other resources. You build a template by choosing the features you want... and voila!

Your media center can contain press releases (obviously) and archives, news release capabilities via integrated RSS feeds, a company blog, user forms, an online press kit and photo gallery and an overall content management system. It will also accommodate whitepaper PDFs, video podcasts and so on. It is integrated with Google Analytics so that you can assess how effective it is in generating links and contacts for your company. At the time of writing the service was priced at $99/month.

There is an art to writing great press releases, and there is also an art to getting news outlets to pick up on said press releases. And what's the point of writing one if nobody reads it?

Enter the world of search engine optimization specifically for press releases. That means your releases are packed with relevant keywords picked specifically so that news and search engines categorize your releases accurately. If that is done, searchers will be able to find your releases more easily, because you are serving up exactly what they are looking for. Newsforce offers tools to optimize your already written releases, including a keyword research tool and a specific press release SEO tool that will show you exactly where in the title, subhead and body of the release those keywords should be placed. There's also a link building tool and follow-up reports on how your release was ranked by news search engines. You submit your release through your choice of wire services and use this service or one like it solely for optimizing your release.

Just how much are you worth? Find out at Payscale, where you can search for "marketing consultant" and narrow down compensation details by factors such as company size, city, experience, degree, gender and more. You can also see what marketing consultants make in terms of bonuses, commissions or even perks by a particular company name. For example, at the time of writing the basic median salary for a marketing consultant in Austin was the highest of the major cities (go figure), ringing in at $88,246. However, if you added in number of years experience (+20) and number of employees reporting to you (10-20), NYC marketing consultant compensation rang in at an average of $138,063. Basic services are no cost, more details will cost you $19.95 for a membership.