Listening
* Build ego searches using Technorati and Google Blogsearch
* Comment frequently (and meaningfully) on blogs that write about you and your posts
* Don’t forget the conversations hiding in Twitter (use Summize.com) and Friendfeed. Be sure to stay aware of those.
* If you can afford it, buy professional listening tools, like Radian6 or others in that category.
* Use Google Reader to store your ego searches.
* Use Yahoo! Site Explorer to see who’s linking to your site.
* Use heat map tools like CrazyEgg to see how people relate to your site.
* Listen to others in your area of expertise. Learn from them.
* Listen to thought leaders in other areas, and see how their ideas apply to you.
* Don’t forget podcasts. Check out iTunes and see who’s talking about your area of interest.
* Track things like audience/community sentiment (positive/negative) if you want to map effort to results.
Home Base
* Home base is your blog/website. Not everyone needs a blog. But most people who want to develop a personal brand do.
* Buy an easy-to-remember, easy-to-spell, content-appropriate domain name if you can. Don’t be TOO clever.
* A really nice layout doesn’t have to cost a lot, but shows you’re more than a social media dabbler.
* Your “About” page should be about you AND your business, should the blog be professional in nature. At least, it should be about you.
* Make sure it’s easy to comment on your site.
* Make sure it’s easy for people to subscribe to your site’s content.
* Use easy to read fonts and colors.
* A site laden with ads is a site that doesn’t cherish its audience. Be thoughtful.
* Pay attention to which widgets you use in your sidebar. Don’t be frivolous.
* Load time is key. Test your blog when you make changes, and ensure your load times are reasonable.
* Register your site with all the top search engines.
* Claim your site on Technorati.com
* Use WebsiteGrader.com to make sure your site is well built in Google’s eyes.
Passports
* Passports are accounts on other social networks and social media platforms. It’s a good idea to build an account on some of these sites to further extend your personal branding.
* Twitter.com is a must if you have a social media audience. It also connects you to other practitioners.
* Facebook and/or MySpace are useful social networks where you can build outposts (see next list).
* Get a Flickr account for photo sharing.
* Get a YouTube account for video uploading.
* Get a StumbleUpon.com account for voting.
* Get a Digg.com account for voting, as well.
* Get an Upcoming.org account to promote events.
* Get a del.icio.us account for social bookmarking.
* Get a Wordpress.com account for its OpenID benefits.
* Get a LinkedIn account for your professional network.
* Take a second look at Plaxo. It’s changed for the better.
* Get a Gmail.com account for use with reader, calendar, docs, and more.
Outposts
* Build RSS outposts on Facebook. Add Flog Blog, and several other RSS tools.
* Build a similar outpost on MySpace, if your audience might be there.
* Make sure your social media is listed in your LinkedIn profile.
* Add a link to your blog to your email signature file (this is still an outpost).
* Be sure your social network profiles on all sites has your blog listed, no matter where you have to put it to list it.
* Make sure your passport accounts (above) point to your blog and sites.
* Use social networks respectfully to share the best of your content, in a community-appropriate setting.
* Don’t forget places like YahooGroups, Craigslist, and online forums.
* Email newsletters with some links to your blog makes for an effective outpost, especially if your audience isn’t especially blog savvy.
* Podcast content can have links to your URL and might draw awareness back to your content, too.
Content
* Create new content regularly. If not daily, then at least three times a week.
* The more others can use your content, the better they will adopt it.
* Write brief pieces with lots of visual breaks for people to absorb.
* Images draw people’s attention. Try to add a graphic per post. (Not sure why this works, but it seems to add some level of attention.)
* Mix up the kinds of pieces you put on your site. Interviews, how-to, newsish information, and more can help mix and draw more attention.
* Limit the number of “me too” posts you do in any given month to no more than three. Be original, in other words.
* The occasional ‘list’ post is usually very good for drawing attention.
* Write passionately, but be brief (unless you’re writing a list of 100 tips).
* Consider adding audio and video to the mix. The occasional YouTube video with you as the star adds to your personal branding immensely, especially if you can manage to look comfortable.
* Brevity rules.
Conversation
* Commenting on other people’s blogs builds awareness fast.
* The more valuable your comments, the more it reflects on your ability and your character.
* Use your listening tools to stay active in pertinent discussions.
* Try not to brag, ever. Be humble. Not falsely so, but truly, because a lot of what we do isn’t as important as saving lives.
* Ask questions with your blog posts. Defer to experts. Learn from the conversation.
* Be confident. Asking for external validation often is a sign of weakness.
* Good conversations can be across many blogs with links to show the way.
* Try never to be too defensive. Don’t be a pushover, but be aware of how you present yourself when defending.
* Disclose anything that might be questionable. Anything, and quickly!
* Don’t delete critical blog comments. Delete only spam, abrasive language posts, and offensive material. (Have a blog comments policy handy, if you get into the deleting mode.
Community
* Remember that community and marketplace are two different things.
* Make your site and your efforts heavily about other people. It comes back.
* Make it easy for your community to reach you.
* Contribute to your community’s blogs and projects.
* Thank people often for their time and attention.
* Celebrate important information in your community (like birthdays).
* Be human. Always.
* Your community knows more than you. Ask them questions often.
* Apologize when you mess up. Be very sincere.
* Treat your community like gold. Never subject them to a third party of any kind without their consent.
* Knowing more about your competitors’ communities is a useful thing, too. Learn who visits, why they visit, and how they interact.
* Measuring your efforts in building community grows out your brand as a natural extension.
Face to Face
* Have simple, useful, crisp business cards to share. Always.
* Be confident in person.
* Clothes and appearance DO matter. WIsh they didn’t, but they do.
* Have a very brief introduction / elevator pitch and practice it often.
* Ask questions of people you meet. Get to know them.
* Don’t seek business relationships right off. Instead, seek areas of shared interest.
* Know when to walk away politely.
* Don’t try to meet everyone in a room. Meet a half dozen or more great new people.
* Never doubt that you are worth it.
* If you’re terribly shy, consider finding a “wing man” for events.
* Doing homework ahead of time (finding people’s most recent blog posts, googling them, etc) helps one feel “in the know.”
* Make eye contact. It’s MUCH more powerful than you know.
Promotion
* Use Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us and Google Reader to drive awareness.
* Promote others even more than you promote yourself
* Bragging isn’t useful to anyone besides your own ego
* Linking and promoting others is a nice way to show you care about people
* Don’t digg/stumble/link every single post. Save it for your very best
* Another promotional tool: guest blog on other sites
* Another promotion tool: make videos on YouTube with URL links
* Another promotion tool: use the status section of LinkedIn and Facebook
* Try hard not to send too many self-promotional emails. Wrap your self-promotion in something of value to others, instead.
* Sometimes, just doing really good work is worthy of others promoting you. Try it.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Google Jagger - good article to read
First, let's discuss Jagger... Just like hurricanes, Google updates have names. (A Google update is a change to the way Google determines its rankings. Google makes these changes periodically, and they're universally feared because they can impact dramatically on a website's ranking.) The latest update is called Jagger, and it has search engine optimizers (SEOs) all around the world in a state of panic.
Why was Jagger such a fearful update? Simple... With Jagger, Google once again outsmarted huge numbers of SEOs. You see, many/most SEOs spend their time (and their clients' money) trying to trick Google into thinking that their websites are more relevant and important than they really are. They do this mostly by swapping links, buying cheap links, and placing links on free directories. While there's nothing wrong with these sorts of links (i.e. they're not considered 'black-hat'), they don't really show that the site is relevant or important. All they really show is that the site owner has made a deal with another site owner. In these deals, the incentive for the linking site owner is a reciprocal link, money, or increased link volume. Google much prefers it when the linking site adds the link simply to enhance the value of their content or to increase their own credibility and authority.
In other words, Google wants its search results to contain relevant, important sites, not sites that merely appear to be relevant and important. To this end, Google invests millions of dollars and employs the world's smartest mathematicians to create algorithms which identify sites that are trying to trick them. And that's exactly what Jagger did; and when it found those sites, it simply adjusted their ranking to more accurately reflect their true importance. (Unfortunately, it also demoted some sites which actually deserve a high ranking. It is hoped that these mistakes will be ironed out with future minor updates, but that's a topic for another article...)
rom a technical standpoint, Jagger was well described by Ken Webster in his article, Google's Jagger Update - Dust Begins To Settle?. To summarize, Jagger:
1. Increased importance placed on IBL (Inbound Links) Relevancy?
2. Increased importance placed on OBL (Outbound Links) Relevancy?
3. Promotion of relevant Niche Directories (related to #1 & #2)?
4. More weight thrown back to PR @ top domain
?
5. Increased importance on AdSense placement relevancy?
6. Possible introduction of CSS Spam filtering?
7. Overall Blog demotions?
8. New and unresolved "canonical" issues?
Some more interesting effects were reported by WG Moore in his Jagger article. Mr Moore runs a number of test sites for SEO purposes. By monitoring the links to his test sites as reported by Google, he established that:
"all reciprocal links had vanished. We think that this is because Google is down-grading or eliminating reciprocal links as a measure of popularity. This does make sense, actually. Reciprocal links are a method of falsifying popularity. Sort of a cheap method of buying a link, if you want to think of it that way... During the second week of the Jagger Update, a few of our reciprocal links did come back up. However, we also noticed that these were from places where we had highly relevant content. They came from articles where we discussed our area of expertise: Web Analytics, or from forums where we had relevant threads. So we feel that these links came back because of content, not linking.
source : article alley
Why was Jagger such a fearful update? Simple... With Jagger, Google once again outsmarted huge numbers of SEOs. You see, many/most SEOs spend their time (and their clients' money) trying to trick Google into thinking that their websites are more relevant and important than they really are. They do this mostly by swapping links, buying cheap links, and placing links on free directories. While there's nothing wrong with these sorts of links (i.e. they're not considered 'black-hat'), they don't really show that the site is relevant or important. All they really show is that the site owner has made a deal with another site owner. In these deals, the incentive for the linking site owner is a reciprocal link, money, or increased link volume. Google much prefers it when the linking site adds the link simply to enhance the value of their content or to increase their own credibility and authority.
In other words, Google wants its search results to contain relevant, important sites, not sites that merely appear to be relevant and important. To this end, Google invests millions of dollars and employs the world's smartest mathematicians to create algorithms which identify sites that are trying to trick them. And that's exactly what Jagger did; and when it found those sites, it simply adjusted their ranking to more accurately reflect their true importance. (Unfortunately, it also demoted some sites which actually deserve a high ranking. It is hoped that these mistakes will be ironed out with future minor updates, but that's a topic for another article...)
rom a technical standpoint, Jagger was well described by Ken Webster in his article, Google's Jagger Update - Dust Begins To Settle?. To summarize, Jagger:
1. Increased importance placed on IBL (Inbound Links) Relevancy?
2. Increased importance placed on OBL (Outbound Links) Relevancy?
3. Promotion of relevant Niche Directories (related to #1 & #2)?
4. More weight thrown back to PR @ top domain
?
5. Increased importance on AdSense placement relevancy?
6. Possible introduction of CSS Spam filtering?
7. Overall Blog demotions?
8. New and unresolved "canonical" issues?
Some more interesting effects were reported by WG Moore in his Jagger article. Mr Moore runs a number of test sites for SEO purposes. By monitoring the links to his test sites as reported by Google, he established that:
"all reciprocal links had vanished. We think that this is because Google is down-grading or eliminating reciprocal links as a measure of popularity. This does make sense, actually. Reciprocal links are a method of falsifying popularity. Sort of a cheap method of buying a link, if you want to think of it that way... During the second week of the Jagger Update, a few of our reciprocal links did come back up. However, we also noticed that these were from places where we had highly relevant content. They came from articles where we discussed our area of expertise: Web Analytics, or from forums where we had relevant threads. So we feel that these links came back because of content, not linking.
source : article alley
Monday, November 9, 2009
Analytics Toolbox: 50+ More Ways to Track Website Traffic
Most analytics packages are now focusing on real-time tracking and graphical representations of visitor data. Below are more than fifty analytics tools to help you monitor and analyze your web traffic.
1) VisiStat – Real-time tracking with graphical and intuitive reporting features.
2) Google Analytics (Google Analytics) – Mentioned in our first list, Google (Google) offers free analytics software. Includes tight integration with AdWords (see also: 27 Features that Make Google Analytics Best of Breed). Unlike some enterprise apps, the stats are usually on a delay of a few hours.
3) mviSPY – Real-time analytics that track conversions and visitor identities.
4) Webstats BASIC – A free analytics program that tracks visitors and trends and has exportable reports.
5) Webstats PRO – A full-featured analytics package that includes click path analysis, campaign tracking, and complete traffic monitoring capabilities.
6) LoadStats – Provides two different packages that include basic page view and visitor tracking along with geo-location, ad tracking, and more.
7) Opentracker.net – Real-time visitor monitoring and web statistics.
8) eWebAnalytics – Comprehensive, free package that tracks unique visitors, conversions, average click-paths, traffic history, bounce rates, and virtually everything else that you could want in an analytics solution.
9) MetaTraffic – Web analytics program that installs quickly and has the ability to track ad campaigns, downloads, and multimedia file traffic.
10) Shinystat - Web analytics with three available packages that range from a free package that is basically a souped-up hit counter to a full-featured business edition with conversion and campaign tracking.
11) Lyris HQ – Analytics that include campaign ROI tracking and the ability to segment your historical data in any way you want.
12) W3Counter – Analytics that include a real-time visitor map to show where your visitors are coming from as they arrive.
13) Blizzard Tracker – Intuitive web analytics that include web stats in real time.
14) StatsAdvisor – Web analytics that help you track both online and offline advertising efforts.
15) Clicky (Clicky) – Shows you every action a visitor makes and offers a dedicated iPhone version.
16) Logdy.com – A free and paid analytics program with real-time reporting.
17) Pagealizer – Web analytics that actually suggest changes and optimizations for your pages.
18) Sometrics – Analytics that measure your social advertising efforts.
19) Piwik – Open source web analytics that you put on your own server.
20) FireStats – A downloadable web analytics program that’s free for non-commercial use.
21) Snoop – Analytics that give you real-time notification of events that happen on your website (like orders, unique visitors, comments, and more).
22) Yahoo! Web Analytics – Formerly IndexTools, this package provides real-time enterprise site stats.
23) BBClone – A PHP (PHP) based stats package.
24) Woopra - Analytics suite that includes click-to-chat functionality and real-time notifications.
25) MochiBot.com – Flash content analytics.
26) Grape Web Statistics – A free and open source analytics package that includes the ability to query historical data and is compatible with both PHP 4 and 5.
27) tuffed Tracker – Track form submissions, downloads, and other visitor actions, calculate conversions and ROI, analyze landing page effectiveness and more.
28) GoingUp – Complete analytics package with comprehensive visitor and performance tracking.
29) PHP-Stats – A complete analytics program built in PHP.
30) Shortstat Beta 3 – A simple analytics program that includes search engine keyword tracking and more.
31) SlimStat – Based on Shortstat but includes a number of other features including the ability to filter out search engine crawlers and showing visits and unique IPs instead of just hits.
32) Jawstats - A free, open-source analytics package that displays your stats using charts, graphs, and tables.
33) Histats.com – Free web stats in real time that include referrer information, detailed visitor information and more.
34) StatCounter – A highly configurable stats program that’s free.
35) Brandgrow Website Analytics – Analytics that include website segmentation, competitor analysis, industry benchmarking, and more.
36) Sawmill 8 – Analytics with real-time alerts and clickstream analysis.
37) XPLG – Analytics package that lets you monitor and analyze any type of IT data.
38) FuseStats – Web statistics that include customizable heatmaps, ad campaign management, multiple site tracking and more.
39) Enquisite – A search analytics program that includes visual search analysis and helps you optimize your site’s longtail search referrals.
40) clickdensity – Heat maps with real-time visitor data to help you optimize your link and ad placement and enhance your site’s stickiness.
41) nextSTAT – Complete analytics package that includes graphical visitor detail path reports.
42) ClickTale – Watch movies of what your visitors do while on your site, view heatmaps and every interaction that a visitor has on your site including hovers, hesitations, and even which form fields are causing visitors to leave.
43) ClickHeat – A free click heatmap generator.
44) WASP - Web Analytics Solution Profiler is a Firefox (Firefox) extension that helps you understand how your web analytics solution is being implemented.
45) SiteScan – A Google Analytics diagnostic tool that audits your Analytics setup to make sure it’s properly configured.
46) Fire Analytics – A Firefox extension that lets you view your Google Analytics reports from Firefox.
47) Cownter App – Shows visitors to your site how many people are currently on each page.
Source : Mashable
1) VisiStat – Real-time tracking with graphical and intuitive reporting features.
2) Google Analytics (Google Analytics) – Mentioned in our first list, Google (Google) offers free analytics software. Includes tight integration with AdWords (see also: 27 Features that Make Google Analytics Best of Breed). Unlike some enterprise apps, the stats are usually on a delay of a few hours.
3) mviSPY – Real-time analytics that track conversions and visitor identities.
4) Webstats BASIC – A free analytics program that tracks visitors and trends and has exportable reports.
5) Webstats PRO – A full-featured analytics package that includes click path analysis, campaign tracking, and complete traffic monitoring capabilities.
6) LoadStats – Provides two different packages that include basic page view and visitor tracking along with geo-location, ad tracking, and more.
7) Opentracker.net – Real-time visitor monitoring and web statistics.
8) eWebAnalytics – Comprehensive, free package that tracks unique visitors, conversions, average click-paths, traffic history, bounce rates, and virtually everything else that you could want in an analytics solution.
9) MetaTraffic – Web analytics program that installs quickly and has the ability to track ad campaigns, downloads, and multimedia file traffic.
10) Shinystat - Web analytics with three available packages that range from a free package that is basically a souped-up hit counter to a full-featured business edition with conversion and campaign tracking.
11) Lyris HQ – Analytics that include campaign ROI tracking and the ability to segment your historical data in any way you want.
12) W3Counter – Analytics that include a real-time visitor map to show where your visitors are coming from as they arrive.
13) Blizzard Tracker – Intuitive web analytics that include web stats in real time.
14) StatsAdvisor – Web analytics that help you track both online and offline advertising efforts.
15) Clicky (Clicky) – Shows you every action a visitor makes and offers a dedicated iPhone version.
16) Logdy.com – A free and paid analytics program with real-time reporting.
17) Pagealizer – Web analytics that actually suggest changes and optimizations for your pages.
18) Sometrics – Analytics that measure your social advertising efforts.
19) Piwik – Open source web analytics that you put on your own server.
20) FireStats – A downloadable web analytics program that’s free for non-commercial use.
21) Snoop – Analytics that give you real-time notification of events that happen on your website (like orders, unique visitors, comments, and more).
22) Yahoo! Web Analytics – Formerly IndexTools, this package provides real-time enterprise site stats.
23) BBClone – A PHP (PHP) based stats package.
24) Woopra - Analytics suite that includes click-to-chat functionality and real-time notifications.
25) MochiBot.com – Flash content analytics.
26) Grape Web Statistics – A free and open source analytics package that includes the ability to query historical data and is compatible with both PHP 4 and 5.
27) tuffed Tracker – Track form submissions, downloads, and other visitor actions, calculate conversions and ROI, analyze landing page effectiveness and more.
28) GoingUp – Complete analytics package with comprehensive visitor and performance tracking.
29) PHP-Stats – A complete analytics program built in PHP.
30) Shortstat Beta 3 – A simple analytics program that includes search engine keyword tracking and more.
31) SlimStat – Based on Shortstat but includes a number of other features including the ability to filter out search engine crawlers and showing visits and unique IPs instead of just hits.
32) Jawstats - A free, open-source analytics package that displays your stats using charts, graphs, and tables.
33) Histats.com – Free web stats in real time that include referrer information, detailed visitor information and more.
34) StatCounter – A highly configurable stats program that’s free.
35) Brandgrow Website Analytics – Analytics that include website segmentation, competitor analysis, industry benchmarking, and more.
36) Sawmill 8 – Analytics with real-time alerts and clickstream analysis.
37) XPLG – Analytics package that lets you monitor and analyze any type of IT data.
38) FuseStats – Web statistics that include customizable heatmaps, ad campaign management, multiple site tracking and more.
39) Enquisite – A search analytics program that includes visual search analysis and helps you optimize your site’s longtail search referrals.
40) clickdensity – Heat maps with real-time visitor data to help you optimize your link and ad placement and enhance your site’s stickiness.
41) nextSTAT – Complete analytics package that includes graphical visitor detail path reports.
42) ClickTale – Watch movies of what your visitors do while on your site, view heatmaps and every interaction that a visitor has on your site including hovers, hesitations, and even which form fields are causing visitors to leave.
43) ClickHeat – A free click heatmap generator.
44) WASP - Web Analytics Solution Profiler is a Firefox (Firefox) extension that helps you understand how your web analytics solution is being implemented.
45) SiteScan – A Google Analytics diagnostic tool that audits your Analytics setup to make sure it’s properly configured.
46) Fire Analytics – A Firefox extension that lets you view your Google Analytics reports from Firefox.
47) Cownter App – Shows visitors to your site how many people are currently on each page.
Source : Mashable
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Top Ten Ways to Use Twitter for Marketing
1. Use it to promote new pieces of content you or your company create to drive traffic to your site. From online articles to blog posts or from videos to webinars, each time you add something to the Web that is of value, tweet about it and include a link. (Most people on Twitter use www.TinyURL.com to take a long URL and make it short.)
2. Use it for learning new marketing ideas, strategies and techniques. If you follow the right people, and you have to be picky about who you follow, you'll get pointed to a good amount of useful tutorials, videos, e-zines and other things that teach you about marketing.
3. Use it to get new customers. Use Twitter's search to find people who may be interested in your product or service. There are many ingenious ways to search for people on Twitter. For example, if you sell red widgets you could go to http://search.twitter.com and find people who have tweeted specifically looking for red widgets. To do this, type the following into the search box: red widgets?
• You'll notice a lot of the results will be of others selling red widgets. These ones will all obviously have links in them to direct people to the site they're selling red widgets on. To weed these people/tweets out, use the negative sign like this: -http red widgets?
• Since every link has 'http' in it, using the negative sign in front of it will cause your search results to not include any tweets with links in them.
4. Use it to build your email list. Use Twitter's search to find people who may be interested in the monthly newsletter you send out to your house email list. Invite these people to join.
5. Utilize Twitter plugins or add-ons such as TweetMyBlog or The Twitter Updater, which both automatically make tweets of every new blog post you publish. Also check out TwitThis. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the Web page and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their followers on Twitter. Finally, look at TweetLater, a service that allows you to write lots of tweets at once and then schedule them to go out over time.
6. Use it to build buzz about an upcoming product or website launch.
[Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!]
7. Use it to better brand yourself or your business. Remember, when someone wants to learn more about you or your company, they are increasingly using sites like Twitter for research. You could easily use Twitter to establish yourself as an authority in your field.
8. Use it to update followers on breaking news regarding your company. If your company is mentioned in a new article, tweet about it and include a link to the article. Or if you're at a conference or trade show, you could tweet what you're doing and invite people to visit you in person.
9. Use it for business networking, master-mind groups (see Napoleon Hill), and getting yourself seen by high-profile people in your industry.
10. Use it as an instant messaging system to keep you and your team on the same page during projects. This is especially useful for those who work with teams spread out in different cities or countries.
You should note that this top 10 list is not in order of importance or in any particular order. I suggest that you give Twitter a try if you haven't already. See if you can apply a few of these techniques and tactics to help you take advantage of Twitter as a marketing tool.
And one more important thing to remember is that there is no silver bullet in marketing. You should always be trying and implementing numerous tactics when marketing your business. Don't only rely on Twitter or any other one thing. Instead, use Twitter (or any other Web 2.0 site) as simply one more tool in your entire social media and marketing toolbox.
Source : Sitepro news
2. Use it for learning new marketing ideas, strategies and techniques. If you follow the right people, and you have to be picky about who you follow, you'll get pointed to a good amount of useful tutorials, videos, e-zines and other things that teach you about marketing.
3. Use it to get new customers. Use Twitter's search to find people who may be interested in your product or service. There are many ingenious ways to search for people on Twitter. For example, if you sell red widgets you could go to http://search.twitter.com and find people who have tweeted specifically looking for red widgets. To do this, type the following into the search box: red widgets?
• You'll notice a lot of the results will be of others selling red widgets. These ones will all obviously have links in them to direct people to the site they're selling red widgets on. To weed these people/tweets out, use the negative sign like this: -http red widgets?
• Since every link has 'http' in it, using the negative sign in front of it will cause your search results to not include any tweets with links in them.
4. Use it to build your email list. Use Twitter's search to find people who may be interested in the monthly newsletter you send out to your house email list. Invite these people to join.
5. Utilize Twitter plugins or add-ons such as TweetMyBlog or The Twitter Updater, which both automatically make tweets of every new blog post you publish. Also check out TwitThis. When visitors to your website click on the TwitThis button or link, it takes the URL of the Web page and creates a shorter URL using TinyURL. Then visitors can send this shortened URL and a description of the web page to all of their followers on Twitter. Finally, look at TweetLater, a service that allows you to write lots of tweets at once and then schedule them to go out over time.
6. Use it to build buzz about an upcoming product or website launch.
[Forget Expensive PPC Advertising - There is an Alternative!]
7. Use it to better brand yourself or your business. Remember, when someone wants to learn more about you or your company, they are increasingly using sites like Twitter for research. You could easily use Twitter to establish yourself as an authority in your field.
8. Use it to update followers on breaking news regarding your company. If your company is mentioned in a new article, tweet about it and include a link to the article. Or if you're at a conference or trade show, you could tweet what you're doing and invite people to visit you in person.
9. Use it for business networking, master-mind groups (see Napoleon Hill), and getting yourself seen by high-profile people in your industry.
10. Use it as an instant messaging system to keep you and your team on the same page during projects. This is especially useful for those who work with teams spread out in different cities or countries.
You should note that this top 10 list is not in order of importance or in any particular order. I suggest that you give Twitter a try if you haven't already. See if you can apply a few of these techniques and tactics to help you take advantage of Twitter as a marketing tool.
And one more important thing to remember is that there is no silver bullet in marketing. You should always be trying and implementing numerous tactics when marketing your business. Don't only rely on Twitter or any other one thing. Instead, use Twitter (or any other Web 2.0 site) as simply one more tool in your entire social media and marketing toolbox.
Source : Sitepro news
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Great slide on - SEO Trends and Tips for 2009 and 2010
SEO Trends and Tips for 2009 and 2010
View more presentations from Hillary Bressler.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
List Search Engines
Major Search Engines
* Yahoo!
* Google
* Msn
* AOL
* Overture
* Excite
* Lycos
* iWon
* HotBot
* DogPile
* Ask Jeeves
* WebCrawler
* MetaCrawler
* Overture
* InfoSpace
* Netscape Search
* Alltheweb
* About
* Alexa
* Go
* Looksmart
* NBCi
* Search King
* Search.com
* Espotting
* EarthLink
* ScrubTheWeb
* Mamma
* Teoma
* AltaVista
2nd Level Search Engines & Directories
* WhatUSeek
* WiseNut
* ICQ
* Euroseek
* Go2net
* Enhance
* GigaBlast
* Vivisimo
* ExactSeek
* Nation
* Wired
* Surfwax
* ixQuick
* Infonetware
* Fazzle
* infoGrid
* ZapMeta
* Finger
* MetaEureka
* EntireWeb
* Jayde
* 100hot.com
General Search Engines
* Turbo10
* QueryServer
* CurryGuide
* ithaki.net
* B Central
* API Links
* CanLinks
* 2KCity
* Aesop
* Allestra
* Beamed
* Coyotesearch
* CozyCabin
* Goto411
* Hidden Street
* IDoFind
* IMarvel
* Info Apex
* Intel Search
* JBlue
* MixCat
* NerdWorld
* NetSearch
* Newwebstuff
* PrimeFind
* RAging Banners Search
* Search Ave
* Search It
* SurfGopher Directory
* TrueSearch
* Try America
* TurnPike Emporium
* Voyager
* Web Trawler
* 1CokeMKG Link Page
* 1HighSchElect Link Page
* 1TennPuters Link Page
* AdWebZone
* classified2000
* Cognigen Telecom
* Emailpromoter
* F10
* MultiLinks
* Netrogenic
* Submit One
* Super P
* The Rail Links
* Traffic Wave
* TrueMoney4u
* 911Hits
* FFA Farm
* Links2U
Country Specific Search Engines
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* Google Canada
* Canada.com
* AOL Canada
* Msn Canada
* Canada One Directory
* Canadien eh
* Montreal Plus Search Engine
* Sympatico
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* Yahoo UK
* Google UK
* Msn Uk
* Netscape UK
* AOL Uk
* Mirago
* Abacho UK
* Freeserve
* global.net.uk
* BBC WebGuide
* Doras
* FindOnce
* Excite UK
* Foundya
* Hotbot UK
* Official Site Register
* Search UK
* Spark Search
* SearchEngine UK
* Selu
* UkDirectory
Australia & New Zealand
* Yahoo Australia
* Google Australia
* Anzwers
* AOL Australia
* Web Search
* WebWombat
* NzExplorer
* xtraMsn.co.nz
* Optusnet
* NineMsn
* Looksmart nz
* Looksmart au
* Goeureka.com.au
France
* Yahoo France
* Google France
* Abacho France
* Msn France
* AOL France
* HotBot France
* Caloweb FR
* Voila
* TeleFrance
* Lien Utiles
Italy
* Yahoo Italia
* Arianna
* Google Italia
* Virgilio
* Msn Italia
* Hotbot Italia
* Motore
* Tiscali
* Skipper
* TGCOM
* ABCItaly
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* BmWeb
* Cerca In Lombardia
* Cercain Lazio
* Clarence
* Curiosare
* DominItaliani
* e-Shoper
* Libero
* ShinySeek
* Simpatico
* Sussidiario
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* Zibaldone
Germany
* Yahoo Germany
* Google Germany
* Msn Germany
* Abacho Germany
* AOL Germany
* T-Online
* Web.de
* Bellnet
* Freenet DE
* Hotbot Germany
* BlueWin
* Caloweb DE
* City-fux Germany
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* SpeedFind
* Dino-Online.de
* TigerSuche
* Web Wizard
* Search.ch
* AllesFinder
* Ameta
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* Hit Net
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* Sharelook
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* Witch
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* Baklanov
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* FindMe
* GoldenUrl
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* Pdv
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* Refer
* Susanin
* Top One
* Userline
* Yandex
* Zabor
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* City-fux Austria
* Msn Austria
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* Yahoo Norway
* Google Norway
* Msn Norway
* Msn Finland
* Google Finland
* Soneraplaza Finland
* Google Denmark
* Msn Denmark
* Google Sweden
* Msn se
Netherlands
* Vindex
* DeBeste
* Msn NL
Switzerland
* City-fux Switzerland
* Swiss Search
* Msn Switzerland
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* Google Poland
*
* Szukaj
S. Africa
* Google Poland
* Szukaj
Latin
* YupiMsn
* Google Spain
* Iguana
* Mexico Web
* AOL Argentina
* AOL Mexico
* Brujula
* AOL Puerto Rico
* t1Msn.com.mx
* HotBot ES
Brazil
* Yahoo Brazil
* Google Brazil
* Exploora
* Msn Brazil
* AOL Brazil
* NCanal
* Sisbi
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* Yahoo Asia
* Yahoo korea
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* WhatSite
Japan
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* Google Japan
* Goo.ne.jp
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* Goo
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* Japan-Guide
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* Yahoo China
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* Asiaco
* Search1608
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* Yahoo India
* Google india
* Msn India
* Khoj
* Yahoo!
* Msn
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* Overture
* Excite
* Lycos
* iWon
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* DogPile
* Ask Jeeves
* WebCrawler
* MetaCrawler
* Overture
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* Netscape Search
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* About
* Alexa
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* NBCi
* Search King
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* Espotting
* EarthLink
* ScrubTheWeb
* Mamma
* Teoma
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2nd Level Search Engines & Directories
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* ixQuick
* Infonetware
* Fazzle
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* Finger
* MetaEureka
* EntireWeb
* Jayde
* 100hot.com
General Search Engines
* Turbo10
* QueryServer
* CurryGuide
* ithaki.net
* B Central
* API Links
* CanLinks
* 2KCity
* Aesop
* Allestra
* Beamed
* Coyotesearch
* CozyCabin
* Goto411
* Hidden Street
* IDoFind
* IMarvel
* Info Apex
* Intel Search
* JBlue
* MixCat
* NerdWorld
* NetSearch
* Newwebstuff
* PrimeFind
* RAging Banners Search
* Search Ave
* Search It
* SurfGopher Directory
* TrueSearch
* Try America
* TurnPike Emporium
* Voyager
* Web Trawler
* 1CokeMKG Link Page
* 1HighSchElect Link Page
* 1TennPuters Link Page
* AdWebZone
* classified2000
* Cognigen Telecom
* Emailpromoter
* F10
* MultiLinks
* Netrogenic
* Submit One
* Super P
* The Rail Links
* Traffic Wave
* TrueMoney4u
* 911Hits
* FFA Farm
* Links2U
Country Specific Search Engines
Canada
* Yahoo Canada
* Google Canada
* Canada.com
* AOL Canada
* Msn Canada
* Canada One Directory
* Canadien eh
* Montreal Plus Search Engine
* Sympatico
United Kingdom
* Yahoo UK
* Google UK
* Msn Uk
* Netscape UK
* AOL Uk
* Mirago
* Abacho UK
* Freeserve
* global.net.uk
* BBC WebGuide
* Doras
* FindOnce
* Excite UK
* Foundya
* Hotbot UK
* Official Site Register
* Search UK
* Spark Search
* SearchEngine UK
* Selu
* UkDirectory
Australia & New Zealand
* Yahoo Australia
* Google Australia
* Anzwers
* AOL Australia
* Web Search
* WebWombat
* NzExplorer
* xtraMsn.co.nz
* Optusnet
* NineMsn
* Looksmart nz
* Looksmart au
* Goeureka.com.au
France
* Yahoo France
* Google France
* Abacho France
* Msn France
* AOL France
* HotBot France
* Caloweb FR
* Voila
* TeleFrance
* Lien Utiles
Italy
* Yahoo Italia
* Arianna
* Google Italia
* Virgilio
* Msn Italia
* Hotbot Italia
* Motore
* Tiscali
* Skipper
* TGCOM
* ABCItaly
* Lycos Italia
* BmWeb
* Cerca In Lombardia
* Cercain Lazio
* Clarence
* Curiosare
* DominItaliani
* e-Shoper
* Libero
* ShinySeek
* Simpatico
* Sussidiario
* Supereva
* Zibaldone
Germany
* Yahoo Germany
* Google Germany
* Msn Germany
* Abacho Germany
* AOL Germany
* T-Online
* Web.de
* Bellnet
* Freenet DE
* Hotbot Germany
* BlueWin
* Caloweb DE
* City-fux Germany
* German Fireball Directory
* SpeedFind
* Dino-Online.de
* TigerSuche
* Web Wizard
* Search.ch
* AllesFinder
* Ameta
* BlitzZuche
* CompuWeb
* Dasi
* Fixx
* Flix
* GratisWorld
* Hamburg-web
* Hit Net
* Ripley
* Schaufenster
* Sharelook
* Suchmaschine
* Witch
Russia
* Baklanov
* Aport
* FindMe
* GoldenUrl
* List Mail
* Lupa
* Lycos RU
* Pdv
* Punto
* Rambler
* Refer
* Susanin
* Top One
* Userline
* Yandex
* Zabor
Austria
* City-fux Austria
* Msn Austria
Scandinavia
* Yahoo Norway
* Google Norway
* Msn Norway
* Msn Finland
* Google Finland
* Soneraplaza Finland
* Google Denmark
* Msn Denmark
* Google Sweden
* Msn se
Netherlands
* Vindex
* DeBeste
* Msn NL
Switzerland
* City-fux Switzerland
* Swiss Search
* Msn Switzerland
Poland
* Google Poland
*
* Szukaj
S. Africa
* Google Poland
* Szukaj
Latin
* YupiMsn
* Google Spain
* Iguana
* Mexico Web
* AOL Argentina
* AOL Mexico
* Brujula
* AOL Puerto Rico
* t1Msn.com.mx
* HotBot ES
Brazil
* Yahoo Brazil
* Google Brazil
* Exploora
* Msn Brazil
* AOL Brazil
* NCanal
* Sisbi
Asia
* Yahoo Asia
* Yahoo korea
* Msn Korea
* Google Korea
* Msn Taiwan
* Yahoo Taiwan
* Yahoo Hong Kong
* Msn Hong Kong
* Yahoo Singapore
* Google Singapore
* Msn Singapore
* Msn Malaysia
* WhatSite
Japan
* Yahoo Japan
* Google Japan
* Goo.ne.jp
* AOL Japan
* Goo
* Infoseek Japan
* Japan-Guide
* Kansai
* Lycos Japan
* Webgate
* Msn Japan
Chinese
* Yahoo China
* Google China
* Asiaco
* Search1608
India
* Yahoo India
* Google india
* Msn India
* Khoj
Saturday, August 29, 2009
42 Million U.S. Women Use Social Media: Blogs Most Influential
Is the jury still out in your mind as to whether social media matters in business? If so, a recent survey might make you change your mind. In fact, it may cause you to re-think your entire marketing outreach, especially if you market to women.
The study found that 42 million women in the United States (roughly 53% of the 79 million adult women in the United States who use the Internet) participate in social media at least weekly. As they spend more time with social media, women are spending correspondingly less time with traditional media: 39% less on newspapers, 36% less time reading magazines, and 30% less time watching TV.
That’s according to a recent social media survey by BlogHer, the women’s blog network, along with iVillage and Compass Partners.
Of course, the flight from traditional media to social media has been reported before and may not be startlingly new to you. But this particular survey digs much deeper. There are 3 interesting findings that I would like to point out, that are worth spending time considering:
Interesting Finding #1: Social Networks Like Facebook Get the Most Usage
More women use social networks like Facebook and MySpace than anything else, with blogs their second choice. Forums and discussion boards come next, with Twitter bringing up the rear (remember that the next time you’re tempted to think Twitter is THE be all and end all of your marketing). Here’s a slide (slide 8 ) from the research study that shows usage:
Social media participation by women
If you were looking solely at raw numbers, you’d conclude the most important place your brand needs to be seen is over at Facebook or MySpace, right? Well … not necessarily.
Interesting Finding #2: Blogs Wield the Widest Influence
It’s not just about how much time is spent in an activity, it’s what women do in that activity and how much that activity plays into their purchasing habits. This slide (slide 10) from the survey shows the difference between reach and influence.
Influence versus reach of social media
The way I interpret this slide is that you would get the maximum reach in sheer numbers from social networks like Facebook (narrow point of the inverted pyramid), but you would achieve the widest influence from blogs (widest part of the inverted pyramid).
The women who post to blogs are the most actively engaged. They spend the most time online. Over 80% also participate in social networks like Facebook, and over one third of bloggers also participate in Twitter. But more to the point, those who blog are more likely to be tech savvy, on the leading edge of trends, and invest time searching for new products online. Those who participate in social networking sites like Facebook are motivated to spend time there more as a matter of staying in touch with family and friends.
Interesting Finding #3: Women Look to Blogs for Business, Politics, Cars and Technology
The slide below (slide 20) tells the tale of the difference in type of advice and information sought, and how the different types of social media come into play. Women are more likely to go to social networks for beauty, entertainment and dating advice. But for the majority of other categories they look to blogs.
Most likely source of information by topic in social media
Depending on the nature of your business, it might be worth it to focus on Facebook or MySpace — if, for instance, you are in the entertainment business. But for most things, such as if you are in a B2B business or selling technology, blogs could give you more influence.
For graphical information read the article here 42-million-women-use-social-media-blogs
The study found that 42 million women in the United States (roughly 53% of the 79 million adult women in the United States who use the Internet) participate in social media at least weekly. As they spend more time with social media, women are spending correspondingly less time with traditional media: 39% less on newspapers, 36% less time reading magazines, and 30% less time watching TV.
That’s according to a recent social media survey by BlogHer, the women’s blog network, along with iVillage and Compass Partners.
Of course, the flight from traditional media to social media has been reported before and may not be startlingly new to you. But this particular survey digs much deeper. There are 3 interesting findings that I would like to point out, that are worth spending time considering:
Interesting Finding #1: Social Networks Like Facebook Get the Most Usage
More women use social networks like Facebook and MySpace than anything else, with blogs their second choice. Forums and discussion boards come next, with Twitter bringing up the rear (remember that the next time you’re tempted to think Twitter is THE be all and end all of your marketing). Here’s a slide (slide 8 ) from the research study that shows usage:
Social media participation by women
If you were looking solely at raw numbers, you’d conclude the most important place your brand needs to be seen is over at Facebook or MySpace, right? Well … not necessarily.
Interesting Finding #2: Blogs Wield the Widest Influence
It’s not just about how much time is spent in an activity, it’s what women do in that activity and how much that activity plays into their purchasing habits. This slide (slide 10) from the survey shows the difference between reach and influence.
Influence versus reach of social media
The way I interpret this slide is that you would get the maximum reach in sheer numbers from social networks like Facebook (narrow point of the inverted pyramid), but you would achieve the widest influence from blogs (widest part of the inverted pyramid).
The women who post to blogs are the most actively engaged. They spend the most time online. Over 80% also participate in social networks like Facebook, and over one third of bloggers also participate in Twitter. But more to the point, those who blog are more likely to be tech savvy, on the leading edge of trends, and invest time searching for new products online. Those who participate in social networking sites like Facebook are motivated to spend time there more as a matter of staying in touch with family and friends.
Interesting Finding #3: Women Look to Blogs for Business, Politics, Cars and Technology
The slide below (slide 20) tells the tale of the difference in type of advice and information sought, and how the different types of social media come into play. Women are more likely to go to social networks for beauty, entertainment and dating advice. But for the majority of other categories they look to blogs.
Most likely source of information by topic in social media
Depending on the nature of your business, it might be worth it to focus on Facebook or MySpace — if, for instance, you are in the entertainment business. But for most things, such as if you are in a B2B business or selling technology, blogs could give you more influence.
For graphical information read the article here 42-million-women-use-social-media-blogs
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