Tinu Abayomi-Paul is the co-owner of Leveraged Promotion, which
provides many solutions for companies who prefer to out-source
their online promotion needs. At
http://blog.leveragedpromotion.com you can find out more about
how RSS, Blogs and Podcasting can increase your online
visibility.
Is a Blog Better Than a Newspaper?
November 18, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Blogs officially hit popularity around the beginning of 2004 and it was then that the newspaper giants started doing everything they could to discredit blogs and bloggers as reliable news gatherers and reporters. There were a great many cartoons in the winter and spring of 2004 that depicted the media “dinosaurs” trying not to step on the little cavemen bloggers who were scurrying around beneath their feet.
So ask yourself this: which do you trust more—the newspaper or a blog?
Don’t let yourself feel bad if your first thought was “obviously a newspaper is more reliable than a blog.” Most people still feel this way, even as blogs have gained notoriety. The truth is that because of the history we all have with newspapers, most of us are more likely to trust one of them than we are to trust an independently run news-based blog. It is mostly out of our need to cling to tradition that many of us feel this way.
This does not mean that there aren’t news blogs out there that are worth paying attention to. It also doesn’t mean that you should change your mind about starting a current events or political news blog. Here are some things to keep in mind if you want to compete with the newspaper big boys:
1. Slow and Steady Wins the Race. Unlike the calls placed by a famous newspaper reporter, most of yours will not be returned…in the beginning. It is important that you take your time to solidify yourself on the internet as a reliable and trustworthy source for readers and sources.
2. Ethics Are Important. One of the things many newspaper reporters pride themselves on is their ability to be ethical while reporting a story. In fact, once a newspaper reporter violates journalistic ethics, he or she is usually quickly shown out a back door and will have a horrible time finding a new reporting job. You must make sure that you follow the same ethics values that your newspaper competitors follow. In fact, yours must be higher than the competition if you want readers to take you seriously.
3. Check Your Facts. A good rule of thumb in newspaper fact checking is that if you can find three independent sources who confirm a story, the story is probably true. Bloggers have to be more careful—there is no such thing as too many sources or too much fact checking. This is the reason that some people are more likely to trust a news blog than they are to trust a newspaper: bloggers have to work harder to maintain credibility, so what they choose to report is probably trustworthy.
It probably won’t be long before news blogs are just as popular as newspapers. That said, newspapers aren’t going anywhere. There is just something satisfying one can get from sitting down to read the paper that can’t be gotten from staring at a screen.
For more information on blogs, visit http://www.micro-blog.us and http://www.newspapermicroblog.com.
Why Google Blog Search Matters to Your Business
November 13, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Copyright 2005 Tinu AbayomiPaul
According to Google, Google’s Blog Search is “Google search
technology focused on blogs”. It includes search engine results
specific to blogs not just in the Blogger.com community, but
across the blogosphere at large. You can access it at
http://www.blogsearch.google.com/
What the Big Deal Is
A lot of people have probably heard about this extra version of
search Google has added and are greeting it with a big yawn,
particularly since it’s still in Beta. So what is the big deal,
anyway?
The big deal is that the top search engine in the world, which
was already paying particular attention to blogs in regular
search results, seems to make a subtle statement with the
introduction of blog-specific searches.
Blogs are important enough to warrant their own special level of
search, and not just as an advanced search option, but in their
own search engine.
If search engines are paying attention to blogging that closely,
you should be too — if you want better search engine results.
Current fans of blogs will be able to search the freshest
results so that they can see what is being discussed right now -
information that is often as fresh as the news, and draws upon
sources that the media-at-large either doesn’t have ready access
to, or interest in.
So to those with even the most obscure interests or hobbies, a
blog search powered by a top search engine gives ready access to
fresh information on any subject that someone can blog about.
And if a blog doesn’t yet exist on these narrow themes? You can
be the one to start the discussion.
Why It Matters to Your Business
Speaking of the media, this is likely to become one of the many
tools that a journalist in the know would use in order to
research a story, or to find out more information about a
company, directly from the people who use its products or
services.
Technorati, is at present, arguably a better tool, but it’s just
not as well known as the Google brand. If you’re a power
searcher, you already know what Technorati is. But the key thing
to understand is that most consumers – even B2B consumers -
aren’t as deeply involved in the internet.
But even those folks know what Google is.
There’s an even more obvious advantage to this specialized
search.
Google Blog search has the unprecedented potential to bring the
mainstream surfer into blogging, even more than Yahoo’s RSS
Headlines pioneered the start of making RSS mainstream about a
year ago. Why?
While many of your clients will fall instantly in love with RSS,
it’s more fair to them to present its possibilities in a format
that’s easier for them to digest. It’s not as hard to explain a
blog – and if you can’t you can simply tell them it’s a more
frequently updated part of your existing site.
When Google’s Blog Search is brought more to the front in coming
months, if your site gets into position to be visible when more
of the internet population becomes blog-happy, then the traffic
potential for your site may prove to be enormous.
The proper use of one RSS feed in one of my content management
systems doubled my traffic, with most of the new users coming
from Yahoo, this time last year. Another feed increased my daily
traffic another 75%, and brought me additional return traffic as
well.
At the time the margin between Yahoo and Google was wider than
it is today — so the potential increase from being in Google
boggles the mind.
How to Get Listed
According to the Blog Search Help Page:
“If your blog publishes a site feed in any format and
automatically pings an updating service (such as Weblogs.com),
we should be able to find and list it. Also, we will soon be
providing a form that you can use to manually add your blog to
our index, in case we haven’t picked it up automatically. Stay
tuned for more information on this.”
This means that if you’re already blogging – and responsibly
pinging, you’re probably already listed.
If you haven’t been blogging, you’re in luck. This special brand
of Google search is still in Beta, so if you get moving now, you
still have enough time to start getting into position. And since
the search currently seems to be focused on freshness and
relevance, if you keep up the blogging once you start, and you
keep your theme narrow, you could still dominate your niche.
Do It Today
The mantra for blogging before was that, proper blogging is a
sure fire way to increase traffic, as well as build stronger
ties to your end users or clients, not to mention that it is the
simplest of the many implementations of RSS.
Now, with all three major search engines paying more attention
to both RSS and Blogging, you can get spidered more frequently,
get more of your pages indexed more deeply, and be included in
more searches.
You have absolutely no time to waste – if you’re not blogging
already, you need to get started quickly. Many webmasters are
hesitating because they haven’t been able to find a blog system
that fits well with their site, or find the most popular tools
too sophisticated for their needs.
There are literally dozens of free resources to help you decide
between the standard systems that were originally built for the
personal blogger, and the more robust solutions that are aimed
at the medium-sized or corporate company – but that’s another
article.
Whatever you chose, the important thing is to get started
blogging today. You’ll be missing out on targeted traffic from
the most dominant search engine, from the most sophisticated
surfers today, and sooner than you know it, the mainstream web.
Seo Wordpress Theme – Thesis
November 9, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
If you’re in the middle of choosing the best Premium Wordpress Theme for your blog, Thesis Wodpress Theme is the answer. I am using Thesis on my blog, TheWeblogZone.com, and boy it feels and looks great. Other big names in the Blogosphere like Darren Rowse, Neil Patel and Brian Clark are also using it.
Part of the reason why Thesis is a kick ass Wordpress theme is because it’s created by the best Wordpress Theme Designer. Chris Pearson’s experience as a web developer and extensive knowledge of SEO + CSS + PHP + HTML guarantee that Thesis is the only Wordpress Theme you’ll ever need.
Why Thesis Wordpress Theme?
Good question! That’s the same question I’ve asked myself before I finally decided to use Thesis on my blog. There are tons of reasons why you should use Thesis but here are some for your consideration.
THESIS IS FOR PROFESSIONAL AND NEWBIE BLOGGERS
If you’re new to blogging and you totally suck at SEO, CSS, PHP and HTML, Thesis is for you. Chris Pearson created Thesis with the users in mind. That’s why he did all the job to let you “DO MORE, CODE LESS”. After all, bloggers’ least worry should be the design of their blogs.
Take a look at my blog, TheWeblogZone.com. I did all the customization myself… the design and everything and let me tell you that I barely know CSS, PHP and HTML. That’s because Thesis is easy to customize. In fact, 90% of all your customization needs can be done through Thesis Options and Thesis Design. All you have to do is click and save. Thesis also has its own Support Forum where you can find solutions to all possible problems you might encounter.
Well, if you’re a professional blogger, Thesis is still for you. Thesis has unparalleled SEO, CSS+PHP+HTML optimized and inspiring typography. What else would a professional blogger need from a Wordpress theme?
THESIS TESTIMONIALS
Just wanted to let you know that The Bygone Bureau is a finalist for this year’s SXSW Web Awards in the Blog category. People started paying attention to our publication once we switched to Thesis last fall, and I think we owe much of our success to your design work.- Kevin from The Bygone Bureau
…. Thesis is the best out of the box solution I’ve seen in regards to a blog theme. Easy to use, pretty damn customizable and when you see them say over and over on the Thesis sales page that the support is awesome, they ain’t lyin’. And all future upgrades/releases of the theme are free.- Sugarrae from her Thesis Theme Review
Thesis is incredible…. One week ago, I wouldn’t have dreamed of paying money for a WordPress theme. Now, I’m seriously considering laying down $77 for the developer’s option.- Jordan from Elegant Digital
“Great, simple, effective SEO.” From my mate in Australia who’s a senior SEO guru for Yahoo, when he saw my site.- Mark McGuinness via email
The truth is, your personal attention to this and the Thesis theme in general is why I signed on. I know something good when I see it. Not only are your skills exemplary, but your heart’s in the right place. Please keep up the good work.- John Farr via email
Just want say you created a great theme! It’s very flexible, SEO-optimized and so simple to customize. Just 3 words: I love it! – FlepStudio via email
Just wanted to express my gratitude for Thesis…. and all the work that Chris et al. have done. I installed it this morning, followed instructions by the letter, and things went very smoothly. I had to familiarize myself with the hooks concept – it makes all the sense in the world! I like to tweak code here and there, and the hooks method as well as the whole Thesis framework/vision helps me do just that without having to get too engrossed in code! When I do have to know some code, the forum is absolutely the best place to go. I’ve been most appreciative for the support community…. So thanks for a great product and community.- Sister Julie Vieira, IHM from A Nun’s Life
Well I’m totally stoked with the latest release of Thesis and so glad I hitched my web aspirations to your talented little wagon; plus the support on the forum is superb.- Raquel from Growing Up Green
I really don’t see how any other wordpress premium theme designers can compete with you. I have been following your work since you started thesis as well as the other top wp theme designers, and the work you are doing is really 1,000 steps ahead of them.- Jake Summers
Thank you so much for your AWESOME THEME!! I have been trying to do it the “free way” for a while and I am blown away by how awesome this is.- Jamey from Miami City Diggs
Awesome! This is the best Wordpress theme I have ever used. I believed in this theme so much I bought it. I was nervous at first after investing money into this theme, but today, the support and community have made that decision a worthwhile one. I can only hope more people buy into this great theme. This theme is worth every penny! – Nightfall from Nightfall.net
What an adventure. I literally did not know a single thing about blogging or Wordpress two months ago. I’ve lurked on here for awhile and picked up the coding knowledge I needed. Thanks for the (affordable!) design and amazing functionality.- Michael from ICM-Bot
Chris, I get complimented on my blog’s design at least several times a week. I am SO happy I bought this theme! It’s been the best. And I agree with the others, thank you so much for taking the time to add all these tutorials. I feel spoiled.- Toblerone from Simple Mom
Thanks for the info… works great, instructions are very clear which is great for someone like me who doesn’t know a lot of coding. Just learning as I go along. Great theme, so happy I purchased it! – Sasha from The Slavic Bazaar %u2026People have told me I was crazy to pay for a theme, but at every stop you make it worthwhile with updates such as this and the thesis forum which I have found extremely helpful. – Lee from The Blissful Pixel
Not only does your Thesis Theme rock, but I am shocked how much effort you are putting into providing tweaks and very detailed tutorials after the initial development and launch.- Casper from Conscious Bliss
I however am not a top-notch WordPress designer, but rather am learning the trade. So I value my time highly enough that paying Chris P. $87 (less during intro phase) is ridiculously inexpensive to me. And the fact that Chris P. spends time here and in the forums answering questions, ….. priceless! – Rees from Women’s Memoirs
You know, I’ve waded hip-deep into a lot of Wordpress templates in the past 2 years, both for my own, and other people’s projects. Thesis was by far the easiest to work with, and with the best results. – Torideaux from MindTweaks
Everyone who sees it, loves the look. In fact, I got a small job out of it last week because the client believes I “Get it.” (his words).- Michael from The Editorial Engine
The thesis theme has been such a great investment. I am new to website design and wordpress, so I’m really glad I went with Thesis because of all the support. It’s been really easy to figure out how to customize things how I want, and I’ve gotten so many compliments on my site. – Eileen from Breathe
Hope Chris’s themes (both Thesis and his free themes) are much more well-crafted than the typical themes out there. It’s what’s on the inside (the code) in addition to what you can see (attention to details) that sets them apart. – Lisa from Hit Those Keys
There are not enough superlatives in the lexicon to describe this theme. It is SMOKIN’ HOT! – Jay from Phoenix Real Estate Search
Thank you for your commitment to excellence and continuous improvement. I love the theme, and love that you continue to improve it. Thanks! – Bruce from Keener Living
Name: Rocky John M. Tayaban
Graduate student (International Business) Durham University, UK.
I’m running my own blog at TheWeblogZone – Blogging and SEO
5 Tips to Make your Networking Work
November 4, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
As a small business owner and coach with lots of experience working with other small business owners, there is no doubt in my mind that networking is the single marketing approach that can produce the biggest benefit to you.
And like anything else in life, if you aren’t paying attention to the right things, it can seem like a total waste of time. So listen up, here are my top 5 tips to make certain that networking pays the rewards you’re looking for!
1. First of all, begin to think about networking less as a thing you do and more as a state of being. Networking is really a way of living, a way of engaging with anyone and everyone. Because you never know who is connected to whom in this world. That old notion of 6os of separation is not a notion. It is how the world operates! So the kid who packs your groceries, the guy who pumps your gas (if you’re like me and still are prepared to pay a premium for service!), that person who handles your dry-cleaning order may be connected to people who are just waiting to hear about you. Do you treat them all with respect and dignity? Do you let them know what you do and what kind of contacts you’re looking for? Treating everyone you meet as a potential source of business means that you can’t be one person with customers and another person with everyone else. It means that you must be willing to be authentically who you are at all times. It also means that you must get over any rules you have about sharing what’s important to you with relative strangers.
2. Second, be honest with yourself about what you have to offer to another person. If you are only interested in what you can get out of every interaction it is unlikely that you’ll achieve the success you seek. Great networkers know that they need to give to get. And what they need to give varies according to the person they are interacting with. Sometimes it is simply recognition that another person exists and makes a difference in your life. Sometimes it is a willingness to share your knowledge and information. Other times it is a willingness to connect other people with them. And your willingness to give need not be restricted to a specific moment in time. I can’t tell you how often I’ve met someone, made a note of a comment they’ve made in passing and then contacted them weeks later with a relevant article, business card or piece of relevant information. I know that I am building rapport with people and I know that it can pay handsome dividends. Just recently I acquired a new client who came to me through a third-party referral. I’ve never met this third party but have shared a few supportive e-mails and have referred this person to my web-site which I’ve designed to be loaded with helpful information.
3. Thirdly, join organizations which have a focus on networking as a marketing approach. Pick one that has a meeting format that works for you: time of day, approach to information sharing, rules of engagement, etc. Commit to showing up on a regular basis and being able to complete this statement “the kind of referral I’m seeking looks like x”. Be as specific as you can, e.g. “I’m looking for middle-aged women with a weight issue” or “I’m looking for someone who owns their own business, is successful and is looking for new ways to grow their bottom line”. The more specific you can be about who you’re looking for, the easier it is for those hearing you speak to call up an image of someone in their sphere of influence who might be the perfect candidate to match your description.
4. Fourth, maintain control of the networking process. When you are in a general meet ‘n greet session, at a party or any other sort of event, collect as many cards as possible. Note the date and event on the card; file them in an binder, you never know when they might come in handy. Connect with that person within 48 hours of the event. Offer them something additional in your initial contact: an article, a connection to someone else, to be put on your newsletter list. Find a reason for staying in contact longer term so that you can show them your reliability, your range of products and services, your willingness to make an effort and your ability to build a case for what you have to offer. Always make it easy for people to opt out of further contact if they don’t have an immediate need for your services. It is amazing how they’ll remember you in the long term if their needs change when you’ve give them a graceful ‘out’ in the beginning.
5. Finally, be willing to invest yourself in staying connected with a wide variety of people. If you aren’t willing to do this, be honest with yourself that networking isn’t likely for you and find a marketing approach that is more suited to your temperament (direct marketing, cold calling, web selling). This will require that you find yourself interesting, because if you don’t think you’re interesting, how do you think that others will find you so? You need to find other people fascinating and to temporarily be prepared to step into their world to understand their needs. Great networkers have a way of staying connected to a disparate gang of people and are typically interested in a wide variety of people, even if they don’t share the same worldview. For example, people who know me know that exercise is probably my least favorite activity in the world. But my networking list is littered with people in the fitness industry because as a life and business coach I am always connecting to people for whom fitness and wellness are issues they struggle with in life. Because I stay connected with those folks I keep up to date on trends and I can refer clients and other contacts on to professionals who love stuff that bores me.
Like anything else in life, networking takes time and effort if you are to be successful at it. However, if you have a bit of computer savvy and a modicum of authentic interest in other people, you can become a highly effective networker without exhausting yourself. I download all sorts of interesting articles I find on the Internet and happily forward them on to people I meet as I go about my life. I write many articles myself and send them along to people I come in contact with. I maintain a web-site that is resource rich and always being up-dated (www.ouicoach.com) as well as a blog about retirement lifestyle issues, one of my favorite topics (www.allaboutretirement.wordpress.com) I invest in creating a monthly newsletter and I participate in 5 different networking groups on a regular basis. Networking as a way of being has been a part of my life for decades and I can’t imagine a life without the large and diverse cast of characters I call into it on an on-going basis. Here’s to successful networking!
Successful networking needs a genuine interest in people; it is a way of living. Are you willing to give something to get something in return? Do you know what you have to give? Do you join networking groups and work their process? Do you know what you’re seeking from other people? Are you prepared to invest in long-term connections?
Gwen McCauley is a business and life transition coach who owns and operates Odysseys Unlimited Inc. and brings practical advice as well as great wisdom to her clients. Whether working one-on-one over the phone or e-mail or in her small group workshops and seminars, Gwen enjoys making a difference in the lives of those who seek her out. www.ouicoach.com
Affiliate Marketing â Article Writing Tips to Explode your Affiliate Earnings
November 2, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
If you really want to succeed in affiliate marketing, article writing is the way to go (especially for those on a tight budget). Itâs free, and very effective as long as you impart helpful information to the readers. So if youâre ready to start profiting wildly with affiliate marketing, the article writing tips written below shall guide you on the right path.
Article Writing Tip # 1 – Make it personal.
Write the article like youâre directly teaching the reader on a one-on-one basis. Use âyouâ or âyourâ more often because these words focus on the reader and grab attention.
Article Writing Tip # 2 – Write whatever ideas come to your mind.
Some people get conscious about grammar or structure when they write, that it hinders the free flowing of thoughts. To offset this, just write anything that pops into your head, without paying attention to grammar or organization. After squeezing the last ounce of idea from your brain, thatâs the time to organize, rewrite or edit your article to perfection.
Article Writing Tip # 3 â Make It Easy for the Reader.
Donât use difficult words. Some writers try to impress the reader with difficult or technical words; what they donât know is that they are only discouraging the reader from reading further because people want to avoid complicated matters at all cost. Remember the popular KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid).
Article Writing Tip # 4 â Never sell in the article itself.
Articles are effective pre-selling tools, meaning they can be used to successfully pre-sell something (through the author bio or resource box) if the content is quality or helpful. However, selling anything in the article itself will only turn down potential buyers. Give beneficial content in the article and use it as a pre-seller; then the author bio or resource box will do the rest.
Article Writing Tip # 5 – Articles should be based on facts or research.
If you’re going to give an opinion, make sure it does not go against any proven facts, figures or statistics. Facts are solid; opinions vary.
Article Writing Tip # 6 – The author bio or resource box should be related (or at least semi-related) to the article topic.
If youâre describing a persuasion website in your author bio or resource box, donât write an article about âhow to improve your basketball skills.â Instead, write an article related to the topic such as persuasion, negotiation, body language, or assertiveness. You may also write semi-related articles on topics such as public speaking or confidence building (these topic samples are all related to self-improvement).
Article Writing Tip # 7 â Maintain your focus.
The more articles you make, the more money you also make. Although an effective strategy in affiliate marketing, article writing is not a get-rich quick tactic; but when you consistently write articles as a habit and make them available online (by submitting to the top article directories and ezine publishers), you will reap positive long-term results.
Note: Please read the terms and conditions carefully. A few article directories like ezinearticles.com prohibit affiliate links in the resource box. To resolve this, create a website or a blog (using blogger.com or wordpress.com) where you can put details about the affiliate product youâre promoting. You can also buy a new domain name and redirect to your affiliate link.
Youâll be surprised to know that you can get unexpected long-term traffic now from articles youâve written weeks, months, or even years ago. Thatâs the power of affiliate marketing powered by article writing.
Hope this affiliate marketing article has provided you with profitable article writing tips to skyrocket your affiliate commissions!
Michael Lee gives highly profitable and free affiliate marketing tips, tools and resources to help you easily earn monster affiliate commissions at http://www.20daypersuasion.com/affiliateforce.html. He manages one of the top money making affiliate programs online.
Benefits of using Twitter
October 29, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the followers. That’s why information on Twitter is short, to the point and effective. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. You can access Twitter via Web, Desktop Applications and even SMS. While the service costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.
I started using tweeter some time ago. Surprisingly after few days of posting some tweets it started getting indexed in Google. While Google continues to dominate the world of “search”, it has a long way to go in offering real-time search capabilities.
Twitter is a powerful communication platform providing social networkers the opportunity to post updates in real-real time. The growth of twitter has been so phenomenal that Google also started paying attention and it is indexing Tweets. Many Twitter pages and individual tweets can be seen on the first page of Google.
Then I started learning more about it. Rather than using it just as a social networking platform, if used properly, it can benifit you in so many ways including by boosting your personal brand and enhancing website traffic.
I want to list down some of the methods by which Twitter can benefit us:
- A Powerful Tool for Obtaining Information / news. Twitter users often link to useful sites or articles and can be a source of scoops and alternative news. This is very useful for active social news participants as they can subscribe to Twitter feeds for specific websites/conferences, which allows them to receive and view content quickly.Twitter can be quite an effective search tool for researching any kind of information. The results can complement other methods or sources of information. Twitter has a wide range of users, who constantly update Twitter with new information on different niches.
- To reinforce Personal Brand and awareness. Twitter is a social media platform which has the primary advantage of developing a social brand that is well-connected and accessible. Due its vast usage, Twitter can be a used for promoting your products and services and establish your brand. If you have established business you can use Twitter to enhance your brand image. On the other hand if you have a smaller business with limited brand awareness then Twitter can be excellent for promoting and establishing your brand among enormous audience.
- Get Feedback. Twitter provides you with an opportunity to join a group of interest by following others who are influential within your niche. Twitter also allows businesses to communicate with customers and receive feedback in a casual and cost effective manner. It can prove useful in understanding and obtaining consumer opinion about new products or services or new ideas. You can also use Twitter to communicate new ideas with people and test public opinion. Bloggers sometimes use Twitter to discuss ideas for new posts.
- Use it as HR tool to Recruit People. Want to hire a good web analyst, web designer, or programmer? Send out a tweet asking for recommendations. This is a very quick and easy way to hire freelancers or even companies based on familiar recommendations.
- Marketing Opportunities. Twitter can be used in promoting your products and services. It is a cost effective method to increase awareness about your products or services. You can use it to inform customers about any new announcement or special offers. Twitter offers all the advantages of traditional text message marketing and more. It can prove to be a useful tool for conducting market research by better understanding of potential or existing customers.
- Boost your website traffic. Twitter can be used to direct traffic to your websites. If you tweet about your website, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up and re-tweet it. Bloggers often use Twitter to inform their audience of any new posts on their blog by posting links on Twitter. Thus Twitter can be seen as a traffic generation tool. The placement of links within profiles and conversations can direct visitors to a specific website and is especially powerful if you pitch to early adopters and influencers.
- Make new friends. Twitter has a built-in function for you to befriend and track the messages of other users. This is a simple way for you connect with like minded people outside of your usual circle. A Twitter association can be developed into a long term acquaintance.
- Spreading Social Network. Twitter is an excellent tool to help bloggers share links to content which is of mutual interest to like minded people. On a personal level Twitter allows one to communicate with friends and family or close network of connections. On an organizational level Twitter allows colleagues who are not co-located to communicate with each other or businesses to communicate with their customers. With Twitter it is also possible to target a specific niche or audience by following others from your industry. It can thus allow a business to build contacts within the industry. Communities have developed around many of Twitter groups or niches. Twitter can be used to establish reliable and long term relationships for future benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.
- Get Votes. Send a link to your stories you’ve submitted in other social news sites like Digg. Your followers might vote up the stories if they agree with it. This allows you to acquire more support for your efforts on other social media websites
- Event Updates. Twitter can be used as a means to inform event participants and latest event happenings/changes by entrepreneurs. This is a stress-free way to broadcast information. Businesses have also used Twitter effectively to measure the performance of campaigns.
- Promotion. Twitter can be used as a promotional tool to announce offline endeavors or upcoming online events (webinars, virtual tradeshows etc). If you are an e-commerce site, perhaps you have a deal of the day or seasonal offers where you can promote these deals. The fact is you do not want to be too promotional, but Twitter does present the opportunity to promote your products or service and brand to your friends.
- SEO Boost. If you have good content on your website and you want to drive additional traffic to this content on your website, you can use Twitter to do so. A quick tweet with the URL can help drive additional traffic to a preferred landing page on your site to help persuade the conversion on your site.
- Find future Prospects online. Twitter allows you to interact with potential prospects and your target audience. While you do not want to be in direct touch all of the time, Twitter does allow you to engage with your prospects by re-tweeting their posts or responding to something that they may have tweeted about. Discretion and tact is needed in this area.
- Twitter and Mobile. Since Twitter is very simple to use and is limited to 140 characters, mobile use with Twitter is also easy. You can both send and receive updates what you and your friends are doing on the go using a simple SMS. Twitter can be a great mobile communication tool. As we know in business, this can be a pretty powerful thing.
- Offer live exposure. Twitter’s message size limit prevents detailed coverage of events but it can allow you to provide real-time commentary which may help to spark further discussion or interest on the event as other Twitter users spread the message. Very useful for citizen journalism.
In short, Twitter allows you to monitor how influencers think or feel, you can also get into their attention zone via active networking. For businesses, Twitter is another channel which connects current and potential customers with your product or brand. It allows deeply infiltration into the lifestyles of interested participants, which helps to build brand persistence/loyalty. So twitter can be used a tool to achieve simple aim of tracking and directing attention from various groups of your interest and in turn drive business.
Shilpa Singh, Director Himshilp- Internet Marketing Consultants handling SEO, SEM, website designing and website promotional stratagises.
A Clean Twitter Is A Good Twitter
October 28, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Twitter has been called micro-blogging, or blogging for ordinary people. Basically they have provided a way for people who don’t want a full fledged blog to post about their daily happenings.
The downside to Twitter is the amount of people who sign up and make a post, but then never return. Currently these abandoned accounts are never deleted, so it’s up to you to update your follower and following lists keeping them clear of these abandoned accounts.
Finding Followers:
Besides being able to add your friends and email contacts to Twitter, they also provide a handy search box to help you find people to follow.
One of the best ways to get followers is to follow others first,. There is one check you must do before adding someone to your list, the most recent post date. Just adding thousands of people to your twitter list will not bring you followers. Twitter received a lot of buzz and attracted a lot of tire kickers, but if you aren’t paying attention then you could easily end up with the majority of your list being people who haven’t logged on to Twitter for a months, and they won’t be coming back to check out your profile anytime soon.
So step one to a clutter-free Twitter is to follow the right people. I will search for a particular term, and flip through the list, signing up to follow only people who have posted in the last 7 days. Also I will not follow anyone on their first post, I want to make sure they will be coming back on a regular basis.
Culling The List:
As your lists grow, you will want to check your following list and un-check those who have not posted for a while. I like to use a 30 day rule. Every time I log on to Twitter, I check 5 to 10 people in my list, and stop following the ones who have not made a post in the last 30 days. Many people don’t post every day, or even every week, but chances are if they have not posted in the last month, they probably won’t be posting again.
Following Followers:
Step 3 is returning the favor. Whenever you log in, check your follower list to make sure you are returning the favor to everyone that is following you. Unless they are just spamming the Twitter system with affiliate links posted every couple of minutes, there is no reason not to give back.
Posting With Links:
When writing a post with a link, whether to your site, an affiliate link, or just something cool you found, there is no need to place a full URL. Just using the www.sitename.com format will automatically make a clickable link.
While affiliate links are okay, try to post valuable content as well. Just putting up a bunch of obvious affiliate links will lose your following.
See Adam Kirby’s latest project. http://www.Opcot.com a free revenue sharing social networking site, for unlimited blogging, video/audio uploading, personal/business profiles and more. For more on Opcot check the official Opcot blog at http://blog.opcot.com or see the Opcot Squidoo lens at http://squidoo.com/opcot
SEO :- Offpage Optimization
October 26, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is something you should be aware of before creating a site. Make sure you’ve done careful researches on the best keywords to use. Using the wrong keywords would eliminate your site from search engines forever!
Offpage SEO works like this:
To improve your SEO rank and increase traffic to your site, you need to get more popular websites to link to you. This is called inbound linking.
As you know, specific criteria must be met in order to boost your SE rank using offpage optimization. So the big question might be: does article marketing pack the muscle to push you up the search engines… or is it just a waste of time?
Years ago it was simpler to be liked by search engines, more or less you had to understand how a web page had to be built, and how to optimize it for your keywords, placing the keywords in the title of the page, in the meta tags and in the body of the page, paying attention to the density of the keywords in the whole document.
Properly planned offpage optimization will make the difference between your website ranking #900 on Google, to ranking #1! So, what is offpage optimization anyway? Offpage optimization basically consists of all of the offpage ranking factors like
• Which websites link to you
• The number of websites linking to you
• The Google page rank of the website linking to you
• The page title of the website linking to you
• The anchor text used in the link linking to you
• The number and type of links linking to the website that’s linking to you.
I still carry out the standard onpage search engine optimization techniques, and offpage techniques such as getting keyword-rich text links from directories and other related sites, but I now no longer base my whole future profit model on obtaining top search engine rankings. My thoughts are that if they come they come, but whatever happens as long as I keep building a list of subscribers for each of my sites I know that I can always achieve good profits regardless of where I rank in the search engines.
Blogging – Nowadays everyone likes to leave comments in blogs. You can do it as well. And add your link with the comment. However remember not to spam blog sites, if you add a comment make sure that comment has something to do with the topic. It is also wise to post in blogs which you have some knowledge about.
Article submission, it’s easy and really effective, this article is actually written to boost my ranking for the pvmultimedia seo contest. If I wasn’t participating, this article would’ve never been written. The good thing with article submission is that you can decide what the article is about. So in some way you control the onsite optimization of your backlink, so you can make yourself a highly onpage optimized quality backlink that is related to your contest page
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