Archive for the ‘Web 2.0’ Category
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14
Jan
2010
Why WordPress Is The Favorite Of The Search Engines
WordPress, coupled with HostGator hosting, offers unlimited capacity and flexible, high impact Plugins that offers small business owners and Internet marketers a unique capability to advertise, market and promote their business.
Since 2002, blogs began to develop popularity with Internet marketers. They are also increasingly popular to those that just want to put a lot of content on the internet. There are sports blogs, political blogs, community blogs, etc., and this trend will continue to grow. If you read any popular blogging tips online, you will find that there are a number of free blogging services such as Google’s Blogger or MSN’s Live Search. WordPress.com also offers a very popular free service.
I’m sure you are familiar with the importance of building your business reputation through the myriad of Social Networking sites that are available. Many tend to overlook the fact that the same is true of blogging. Commenting on someone else’s blog and allowing people to make comments on yours is a very powerful way to build an Internet marketing business.
WordPress is often positioned as a tool that well, just creates a ‘blog.’ But an increasing number of small business owners and Internet marketers are finding that they can also use it as the most important tool in building an Internet marketing business; i.e., Building a website
I once heard that Google loved WordPress sites, but I never really understood why… until I started using it. The search engines send out ‘robots’ to read the content of our sites. They like to see sites that are organized and optimized to make their jobs easier and faster. WordPress offers many significant ways to easily ensure that your site is easy to read. You are probably familiar with the term Search Engine Optimization.
One of the more powerful capabilities of WordPress’s SEO lies in its ability to manage large amounts of text, audio and video content. After 10-15 pages it becomes difficult to manage a static HTML site. Although you can use template-driven software as well like DreamWeaver, nothing beats the ease of WordPress. I used the GoDaddy and Website Tonight combination to host several websites and continuously faced “having to upgrade and spend more money on space.” These restrictions are counterproductive to adding content to sites.
Since most Internet marketers are inclined to advertise their affiliate relationships on their blog, a word of caution here. WordPress has banned the use of affiliate links on its free WordPress.com blogs. If you are just getting started in affiliate marketing and want to use a free blogging service, you are better off using Google’s Blogger which is much less restrictive.
If you are willing to pay a modest HostGator membership fee and enroll in their “Baby” plan. You can host an unlimited number of WordPress blogs on this account (currently only $9.95 monthly). Read More! Plus, you will not have problem with size limitation on pages, pictures, or videos. Furthermore, if you have a HostGator account, you can do a 1-step installation of WordPress on your domain/URL. This is done through your easy to use C-Panel using Fantastico Deluxe.
And, once you have your WordPress blog installed, there are literally thousands of themes or templates that have been built to support WordPress. These themes make it easy for you to develop your own unique marketing brand.
Using premium blogging tools you can easily create a static website, an article directory, a WordPress based membership site system, a complete e-commerce site, an auction sites, a portfolio site and so much more. As a matter of fact you can use it for just about anything.
A second very powerful capability of WordPress is its ability to handle the thousands different plugins that are free to install. In fact, the possibilities are virtually unlimited. These plugins help you manage and take your Internet marketing business to the next level.
Here are just a few as examples:
1. Easy Adsense: Allows you to monetize you site with Google Adsense ads
2. Google SML Settings: Generates a sitemap compatible with Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask search.
3. Platinum SEO Pack: Complete Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your blog.
4. Follow Me: Allow you to add a Twitter follow-me badge.
5. Pretty Link: Shrink and manage your own affiliate links.
6. WordPress.com Stats: Tracks view, post/page views, referrers and clicks.
SEO is a critical element in advertising, marketing, and promoting your Internet business. SEO is all about driving free organic traffic to your web business. WordPress Plugins further increase your SEO rankings with Google, Bing and Yahoo or Google.
If you aren’t using WordPress you should. The learning curve has reduced substantially in the past 3 years. It’s so easy to use my 16-yr old daughter became an accomplished blogger in just two short weeks. WordPress, coupled with HostGator hosting, is becoming the “industry standard” that offers small business owners and affiliate marketers a unique capability to advertise, market and promote their business.
19
Dec
2009
Social Bookmarking-7 Major Tips To Stand-out Amongst The Crowd
It is not always the easiest thing to do, trying to figure out just what is going to attract attention to the things that you post on a social bookmarking site. But there are things that you can do that might help you be more successful. This would be to use the Social Bookmarking-7 Major Tips to Stand-Out, to help attract those who may not be attracted to your posts otherwise.
1. One thing you will find that seems to attract attention is having some sort of top ten list. For some reason, people always tend to be interested in seeing what is at the top. It could be cars, movies, TV shows, books, you name it, if it is in the top ten people are probably going to read it.
2. Wanting to learn how to do something or learning how to do it in a way that is easier than how they have been use to doing something, is always an attraction for people. They love seeking out good how to’s and tutorials. It is important to remember though not to pick a topic that has been done over and over again. That is a definite turn off.
3. It is just human nature, but people as a whole are easily distracted or bored. So it is always a good idea to try and come up with something that is unusual or unique.
4. Something else that really seems to peek everyone’s interest and that is controversy. Now that is something that will always attract attention, when something that rides the borderline of should it be posted or not scenario. And taking a stand on something that might be considered controversial is also another way to attract attention.
5. Laughing is one of the more enjoyable things in life. It is a sure fire way to make people feel good and to make them happy. So always make sure to try and find something humorous to post so that people can have a good time.
6. OK, having something outlandish to share, something that will get the readers head to be shaking after they have finished reading it, is always a good thing. People love to read about weird stuff, especially if it’s something really outlandish done by another person. They love shaking their heads thinking they are glad that was not them.
7. One very, very important thing that needs to be remembered, is this, any news article must be current. No one wants to read old news. That is the quickest way to get what you put on a social bookmarking site drop to the bottom like a lead weight.
Just a point to remember, these Social Bookmarking-7 Major Tips to Stand-Out may not work for every social bookmarking site that you might want to become a member of. The reason for this is because every site varies in what type of items are posted there, the interests of the different people that frequent the sites. So it is not easy trying to predict just how well you will do on one of these sites.
But even if you think that these Social Bookmarking-7 Major Tips to Stand-Out might not work for you, it really can not do much damage if they do not work. It is always worth trying.
Dhruv Patel is a customer of DreamHost. He has created site to help new DreamHost customers and to promote DreamHost by giving DreamHost coupons.
19
Nov
2009
How To Use Flickr As a Marketing Tool!
5,419 uploads in the last minute, 71,248 things tagged with jump, 3.0 million things geotagged this month. Do you still need a reason to get yourself a Flickr account?
Flickr is quickly becoming a popular online marketing tool for it allows creative agencies to market their products through a visually appealing medium. It can help you generate traffic to your website and ensure that your website ranks higher on the major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing too. Consider this, according to Nielsen or NetRatings, Flickr is the fastest-growing photo sharing site on the web. It is the 7th most trafficked social media site overall.
Flickr is primarily a photo-sharing community, owned by Yahoo!. You can use your Yahoo! Login ID and password to log onto Flickr and use your account to tag your photographs, share them and participate in the community discussions as well. The photographs, which you post on Flickr, might leave a lasting impression in the minds of the millions of Flickr users and some of them might end up being your potential customers as well. By networking actively on the community forums, you can build your contacts and build greater awareness about your business and services as well. You could use the links from Flickr to further your link popularity too!
Video is for everyone too! As a member of Flickr, you can upload and share videos (business videos and presentations too!) just like you do with photos.
To avail the benefits of SEO through Flickr, you need inbound links, which you could obtain in the form of links from other blogs and websites. Ensure that the photo title matches the title tag or element. You are assured higher rankings for the phrase. Most importantly, you should only try to sell unique and noteworthy product or services-related photographs through Flickr.
Quick tips for marketing your business on Flickr:
* Use your business/website name as your Flickr display name.
* Use the best, relevant photographs to advertise your business.
* Actively participate in the Flickr community. Find groups relevant to your business and join them.
* Tag your photographs with terms that are relevant to your business or service. Provide a link to your Flickr account on your website.
However, don’t post advertising messages on the discussion forums or stuff keywords in your tags. You could end up turning “off” the community and users, and not being able to generate any interest in your photostream too. To top that, Flickr added “nofollow” tags to links placed within its website last year. Flickr implemented these tags for the same reason as a number of other social-media sites – to prevent misuse and spamming.
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28
Oct
2009
How To Be A Successful Web 2.0 Puppetmaster
One of the key characteristics of Web 2.0 is participation, collaboration and moderation through the use of web applications. Web 2.0 sites derive their power from the human connections and network effects from this characteristic that is made possible, and grow in effectiveness the more people use them.
The idea of “participation, collaboration and moderation” can take many forms. If you look back history, bulletin boards are one form, online forums are another, online multiplayer games, content management systems (e.g. Wikis, Joomla), dating sites and classifieds as well. If not for features that enable multiple users to create their own space within a website via registering accounts or at least leave a message (like a comment in a blog), the communication culture would have been one-way (from the webmaster to the visitors) and remain stuck in 1.0.
Why would a webmaster want to go Web 2.0? We learned that social networkers want to expand their personal network of online friends. On the other hand, the webmaster desires to build up a core group of active participants who unconsciously help to sustain the ‘liveliness’ and therefore the longevity of the website and its agenda or interests while the overall database of users expand. In this manner, a lot of the effort that goes into building the database (or list) becomes very much hands-off for the webmaster. There’s leverage. This is also where moderation comes in. The role of the webmaster naturally becomes that of the moderator, whose job is to maintain some semblance of order (but not to the point of creating a restrictive environment) and general site maintenance. It gets better when the webmaster can promote participants into moderators themselves, and more and more s/he becomes the “silent puppetmaster” behind the scene without doing much. It may not be easy, but the whole mindset of being a moderator is to gain confidence in just “letting it be” and letting his/her site runs by itself.
Now that the webmaster’s motivation is addressed, s/he must find ways to avoid competition by finding new twists to contribute to the Web 2.0 bandwagon. Much as new sites keep popping up in recent months, somehow no 2 sites are made the same and they certainly enjoy a good amount of traffic anyway. It would be better when you can boil down social networking to the context of a specific niche, like a site to exchange Mexican recipes or talk about Ferrari car accessories or business opportunities in Central Asia. You can better target the type of people you are looking for and it also gives them a sharper sense of purpose to engage with and within your site.
At the end of the day, social networking is all about sharing valuable content and making friends. The successful Web 2.0 webmaster is one who knows how to tap on this human desire to the fullest and consistently encourages such a desire to grow within the culture of the social network he has created by offering further privileges for more prominent members. Really, there’s no better way for them to build up credibility and make their personalities known than to be consistently ‘alive’ and ‘happening’ on the Net. From the SEO standpoint of view, you can also accumulate more backlinks and subsequently more traffic to your social networking site.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at Internet Mastery Center
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27
Oct
2009
Can Social Media Help You Sell More?
Can social media really help your business build it’s brand or sell the products you have to offer? With more people using these web sites on a daily basis, there must be a way to turn followers into purchasers. I believe its possible with a few simple strategies. Consider the power of social media as communicator, leader, and sale person. Follow these guidelines for social media success.
Social media is all about building a dialog with like minded people or people who are in your target audience. Social media has impact when it is focused on the market you serve. If you are in shoes and you’re trying to build a following in the area of automotive, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Create a social media plan. How are you planning to use social media? What are your goals? Who is going to help you manage the dialog? Take some time to consider all of these questions and others related to how you are going to manage your social media plan. It’s important to know who can support your social media needs and how you are going to succeed online.
Share your expertise. What are you good at? Others want to learn from those with experience in a given area. Do you have a skill that you can teach others? Take time to share what you know and do it in bite sized pieces. This can keep others engaged and allow you to communicate within your comfort zone. The more experience you can share the better.
Consistent communication is important. Posting information one day or one week and not the next doesn’t do much to build a following. Those who are most successful communicate just the right information at the right time. Striking a balance is important to your successful over the long term. Start with small, consistent communications that provide value and you’ll see results.
Invite conversation with others around specific topics. Take a stand and choose a side. By serving to create dialog, others want to be part of the conversation. The more people that weigh in the better your content as it represents many different points of view. This enriches the content and attracts others to your conversation.
Succeed by not selling. One of the biggest turn offs of social media is that a lot of people, businesses included, jump in and start selling. Just like the used car salesman, some individuals focus on selling without first creating value. This is one of the most important things you can do within the realm of social media. Start by creating a dialog and providing value to your followers. Once you do, they will want to use the products you’re using and try the services you recommend.
The area of social media is in full force. By developing a list of followers or fans, you can quickly improve the opportunity to build your brand. To sell your products however, you’ll have to create value for your followers. Don’t try to sell directly. You’re best bet is to mention products in a subtle way. This has more power than the direct approach when it comes to social media marketing. Followers can leave you quickly so don’t push your luck. Create value and they will return the favor.
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18
Oct
2009
Building Your Social Network To Improve Search Engine Rank
If you’re thinking about better exposure online then you’d probably start putting more time and effort on social networking. Social network sites are the new user created content hubs that can offer large amount of traffic to any website that can properly pitch online user’s interest. MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, and Facebook are just a few of the well know social network sites that can offer a great start-up niche for any marketing campaign. These websites rake in millions of users per day. Thousands more join social network sites daily, and you can expect the number of online users, flocking social network sites, to triple or quadruple in no time at all. With this premise, social networking sites can certainly prompt web marketers to utilize the technology to improve search engine placement for their websites.
Understanding the potential of social networking can help lead your business exposure to greater heights and can help improve search engine rank for your website. For those who are starting up on the social network groove however, here are some tips to help you setup a formidable start-up campaign.
Tip # 1: Be one of them
Before you can start marketing your products or services on social network sites you will need to setup an account. Multiple accounts are preferred, although they can be very time consuming to do. You always have an option of using pseudonyms to help protect your personal privacy. An email address will be required to create and confirm your account. If you’re planning to setup different accounts, and the social network site you’re planning to join in is limiting users to only one email per account, the best approach would be to create different accounts, but bearing identical business names. That way, you can open multiple identities on the social network and still leave online visitors a way of recognizing your product or service.
If you are successful at this step, you will be provided, by email, a system-generated URL towards your online identity profile. Some websites however require users to personalize their web address and profile content.
Tip # 2: Don’t forget the Images
One of the first things that online users will notice or probably check out is the image section of your account. Visual flavors will certainly set the visitor’s moods. Personal images won’t just do if you have multiple accounts. You need to have a lot of stock photos to share, or probably borrow some pictures from friends or use corporate images to display on your site.
Tip # 3: Fill up your Profile
One of the best ways to get searched on social network sites is by filling up your user profile. Some user information might probably be filled up the moment you register your account. Still, there are some details which social network sites leave for the user to fill up later on. Make sure that your user profile contains personalized information. Social networks use this information to categorize users by location, age, gender, interests, etc.
Tip # 4: Don’t Put up too many Ads.
Be careful about putting up too many marketing ads on your user profile since most users do not like visiting a spammy or advertising-packed website or social account. Make sure your user profile can reach out to your online visitor’s interests. Do not make a user account just for the sake of building a marketing hive. Put some effort to make your account more personalized, and it will lead more users to visit it. And more traffic should mean users knowing more about you and your products or services.
Social networking is truly a marvelous technology that can provide web marketers some leverage and give them, not only traffic, but also better search engine rankings for their site.
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17
Oct
2009
Social Networking Trends Around the Globe
Never in the history of mankind there was an opportunity for individuals and families to be connected and communicate in such a cool, easy and dynamic fashion. This new media has allowed individuals a chance to connect with people from across the world. The top resources within the new media movement is social networking sites.
Social networking sites were created to allow individuals to communicate with others who share similar interests/activities, or information or friends. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.
At present the count of active members in the popular social networks has increased a lot when compared to the past year. Social networking has become something more interesting and useful. Many people use social networking sites on a daily basis.
Social network visits increased 82% year-over-year and the average time spent per person at such sites increased by 67% year-over-year in May 2009.
The earliest social networking site was classmates.com which was established in 1995. It introduced the concept of user profiles and of short messages sent and received by friends on the website. The basic purpose was to keep in touch with old friends. Sixdegrees.com came in 1997, and is considered to be the first social networking website to have all features in one complete package.
But now there are so many social networking sites evolved today. Among them the top are Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, MySpace, Linked In, Tagged, Friendster and so many.
In USA top social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo so on.
In UK top social networking sites are Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter so on.
In India top social networking sites are Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, Linked In, Twitter so on.
In most of the countries Facebook, Twitter, MySpace are popular and are used by most of the people.
The main trend changes in today’s social networks:
The Mobile Social Networking: Mobile social networks are in fashion especially with the rise of the iPhone. Facebook is a leader in mobile social networks. Since social networks are started in the online space, social networking software has been developed.
Instant messaging software is now available for the mobile phone users. And this instant messaging is welcomed by the public. Most of the popular social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Orkut have developed social networking software for mobile phones. Hence without doubt, the social networking software for the mobile phones will be a great trend of this year.
Social Networking for Business: Now a day, Social networking is commonly used for business, like promoting business on social networking. Classified sites like AdsGlobe.com allows its users to update their social network profiles on various social networking sites automatically on posting an ad opening door for the social ads.
Social Networks for Older Generation: Another interesting fact was the growth of older generation users. 2 to 3 years back social networks was considered a marketing tool for the young generation but with the growth of the LinkedIns, Xings of the world, there has been a major shift. Facebook serves as a good example, it added twice as many 50-64 year old’s visitors (13.6 million) than under 18s (7.3 million).
Social shopping is also becoming popular as online shoppers are sharing their ideas, opinions and reviews with fellow shoppers in sites like DealsGlobe.com
Check out social ads on AdsGlobe.com. Check out hot deals, coupons on DealsGlobe.com.