Continue reading »]]>

You’re starting to gain traction in your quest to build a social network, now it is time to think about, how to be a great social media friend. The definition of a friend is, “A person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard …a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter…”. The important thing to remember is the social media friendship just begins at the acceptance or friend request. Once the lines of communication are open, it’s what you say and do that counts; and a social media friendship is about communication: liking, commenting and sharing with others. To be a great friend you have to have a good balance between listening and talking. My friendship formula is: two-thirds my time is spent promoting my friends; and one-third the time promoting myself.

I like the two-thirds to one-third formula because it allows me to learn about others and share their interest with my friends, while giving me time to talk about my interest; and that is what a friendship is about.

Twitter -

• Re-tweet the things you find interesting.
• Mention and thank new followers.
• Mention or Direct Message a friend that has shown “a lot” of support. You don’t need to do this after every re-tweet or mention, just special occasions.
• At least one or two times a week, “go beyond the re-tweet.” Get to know a friend better. Visit their site or blog and tweet what you find with others.
• If a follower, friend or fan are active on another social network, tweet a link to their “public profile.”
• Watch for specials or events friends are promoting and do your best to tweet the news. If you know someone in your network is hosting a radio show (or going to be a guest), tweet the show.
• If a twitter connection uses LinkedIn, tweet their public profile.
• Tweet friends Facebook Fan Pages.
• Use hash tags to help tweets get found on searches. The hash tag is the number sign on the keyboard. This is important because a lot of people use Twitter search to find subjects/people they are interested in finding/meeting. If you are not familiar with Twitter Search go take a look and search for something you are interested in. click here >> Twitter Search

Facebook-

The coveted Facebook Fan! Wan’an be a good fan …or a GREAT FAN! Come on don’t be shy. Get involved. Share. Comment and like what you see. This does two things:

1. Fan interaction makes a page interesting and fun.
2. Facebook’s live feed algorithm loves to see comments and likes on a fan page. The more the better.  And (not everyone knows) that when a status update is posted on a fan page, not all fans will see the update. To determine what fan page updates will be posted to a fan’s news page, Facebook first must determine if the content is something “the fan” will be interested in. The fan pages with a large number of fans will get priority. But, the more comments and likes a post receives, the better chance that update will be seen on a fan’s wall. So commenting and liking status updates is very important.
3. Also, if the situation is appropriate, make sure to use the Add to My Page’s Favorites. This is very easy to do: When you are on a fan page you like, in the left sidebar is a link, Add to My Page’s Favorites. Here is a screen shot for those not familiar with the link:

How To Be A Great Social Media Friend -

Do you have a GREAT social media friend you want to brag about. Give us a little professional background on them and why they are such a good friend. Make sure to post a link to their profile so we can get to know them too. Please, keep it to one link. Thanks for sharing.

Continue reading »]]>

The internet is getting bigger and social media has become a powerful marketing tool. While the future seems to be clear -the internet is not going away and social media will continue to grow- many business owners are still unsure how to use social media to promote their brand and generate sales. The good news is understanding how these new marketing tools are used does not have to be difficult. Although developing an online social network takes a lot of time and a decent understanding of social media tactics, the role social media plays in today’s marketing plan is a relatively simple concept to grasp.

A Websites

1. A website is similar to a store-front that is open 24/7.
2. A website can also be described as an online brochure.

Google:

1. Google is like the Yellow Pages (Phone Book)
2. A search engine can also be compared to the Library. Remember that place?

LinkedIn:

1. LinkedIn is similar to using a Chamber of Commerce to network with other business owners.
2. LinkedIn can also be described as a modern, Referral group (like BNI).
3. All the old timers out there will appreciate this comparison, LinkedIn is like the Rotary Club.
4. LinkedIn can be thought of like the White pages of the phone book.

Twitter:

1. Twitter is like a cocktail party -Lots of short conversations flying around the room.
2. Or, tweeting is similar to driving by a billboard on the freeway. You only get a glimpse to get the message.
3. For all those raised when newspapers dominated, tweets are like headlines. The goal is to get the reader to stop and read the story (click your tweet if there is a link ..etc.
4. For those who like videos, here is a classic video about twitter. It is from the Late Night Show with David Letterman interviewing Kevin Spacey. Great video. Lots of fun.

Facebook & Fan Page:

1. Facebook is like hanging out at the Barber Shop or Beauty Salon, only you can’t get a perm or color with facebook, yet -maybe there’s an app for that???
2. Coffee shop or Diner. I’m not just talking about Starbucks.

Email Signature:

1. Adding a signature at the bottom of your email with links to your social network accounts and website/blog is like a modern day business card.

Blog:

1. Blogging is like giving a presentation.
2. Blogging is also like a press release (depending on the content.)
3. Some people might compare blogging to sending a letter to the editor of their local newspaper. Imagine that, sending a letter by mail.

When social media and the internet are described in these terms, confused business owners might get a better idea of how modern marketing tools are similar to traditional methods. If you have any comparisons you would like to share, be sure to  comment below. I would really like to read your ideas.

See Ya Read ya soon,
Gary

Continue reading »]]>

Facebook can use your photos in ads. Specifically, facebook has the default set to use your friends photos in third party advertising -Yikes! To prevent facebook from using your photos follow the instructions below:

1. Log in to facebook
2. On the top right (in the blue bar) roll over “settings”
3. The fly out menu, click “privacy settings”
4. Click, “News Feed And Wall”
5. Click the “Facebook Ads” tab
6. There is a drop down menu next to “Appearance in Facebook Ads” -click “no one”

Please pass this information on.

thanks

Continue reading »]]>

Submitting To DMOZ – The Open Directory Project

Open Directory Project (DMOZ)

If you are going to submit your site to the DMOZ directory (Open Directory Project), it will require studying the DMOZ rules on how and where to submit your site. When I say study, I mean …STUDY. This is no exaggeration! Sure the DMOZ dragon (Their Logo) looks cute, but don’t be fooled. This little DMOZ dragon will eat you up, spit you out and never look back after rejecting your website.

So if submitting to the Open Directory Project is such a terrible experience, why bother? Who cares? Is it just pride and bragging rights, or are there other reasons? Yes, pride and bragging rights are always motivation, but there are a other (perhaps more important) reasons why submitting to DMOZ is worth your time:

• Search engines, like Google, use it as part of their ranking system that can help grow traffic to your site.
• Organizations take advantage of free access to the directory’s content to populate their websites, providing additional exposure across niche communities.
• A listing in DMOZ will get you listed in the Google Directory.
• And yes, bragging rights.

Is Your Site Listed In DMOZ?

Since it is not my goal to unnecessarily torture you, before you begin this process go to DMOZ to search for your domain. To do this, search from the DMOZ home page for your domain excluding the “www”.

If your site was not found, but you are still interested in getting your site listed in DMOZ, the first thing to understand is DMOZ is a human edited directory. That’s right, a human editor. An editor who I imagine is ringing their hands together as they pick-a-part the submitted website for typos, missing graphics and broken links. These editors are not just glancing at your site, but evaluating the sites content, or lack-there-of. So “take your time” and double check your sites links. Make sure to go through your site, removing under construction pages and symbols. From this warning comes my advice: start by reading the rules on how to submit to DMOZ; and don’t submit unless you have a few hours.

DMOZ Rules To Submit

Free Link Checker

Once the official DMOZ rules have been read, take a moment to reflect on your site and what needs to be done. As you begin to prepare your site for review, do not assume anything. Check you site with a link checker and use a spell checker to review your site’s pages.

W3C Link Checker

Free Browser Checker

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but overflowing text that makes navigating a site difficult will hurt your chances of getting approved. The best way to ensure your website is displaying properly cross browsers is to use a free browser checker. One note on using BrowserShots, select only the primary browsers or it will take a long time to receive your results (screenshots).

Check Website Pages

The Open Directory Project

I’m sure you are beginning to see that submitting to DMOZ is not a 1-2-3 process. However, hopefully any issues regarding your site are addressed and fixed. Once your site is ready, it is time to concentrate on actually submitting your site. As you may have guessed this process is also filled with potential pitfalls, so make sure you are well rested before proceeding.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, you are ready for phase two -information gathering. Luckily, in the fight to get your site listed I found an online quasi insider who has shared some great tips. Our informant is an editor of DMOZ, whom provides some tips on submitting to DMOZ.

Finally, here are a few other DMOZ resources:

DMOZ blog

DMOZ forum

Lastly, if you have a teen or kids specific site, on November 14, 2000, the Open Directory launched the Kids and Teens directory. DMOZ Kids and Teens

If you have a story about submitting your site to DMOZ we would enjoy hearing from you. Or, if you know of any other resources please comment below.

Continue reading »]]>

Blogging and Affiliate Marketing

I want to start by stating the obvious, to make money blogging you need visitors. But once you get visitors what is the best way to make money? One method is to provide relevant ads on your site. You can do this by using affiliate marketing programs and advertising marketplaces. These services pay publishers based on:

• When an ad gets clicked (CPC)
• Or, when an action is performed (CPA)
• Or, an ad gets displayed a certain number of times (CPM)

There are a number of different services available that use different methods. Some offer video advertising, while others use images, banners or in-line text that a publisher can use to advertise.

Using a variety of advertising methods is usually the best way to make money blogging.

As a “publisher” (someone who puts an ad on their website) signing up is usually free, fast and easy. Once you sign up for an ad network or affiliate advertising community, your site is reviewed for approval as a publisher. If approved you can pick advertisers and how you want to display the ads that you feel fit your content.

This list of affiliate programs and advertising marketplaces is provided with short descriptions and links for more information on each advertising network and their advertising programs.

CPC ads / Text link ads / Image ads

Google Adsense
Google’s AdSense is probably the most used advertising network on the internet. To start publishing ads all you have to do is sign-up. It is free, fast and with a little knowledge placing the code into your website or blog is easy. Website publishers of all sizes can display relevant Google ads on their website’s content pages and earn money. This is a pay per click type ad that pays you as visitors click the links.

Chitika
Chitika is another popular ad network for making money on your blog. Sites looking for an AdSense alternative or AdSense compatible solution can use Chitika for their full-service on-line advertising network. One cool thing that Chitika offers is the ability to only “…display an ad when a visitor finds your site in a search engine”.  So if a repeat visitor comes to your site via a bookmark, or they type in your domain name directly, the Chitika ads will not be displayed.

text-link-ads
Text-Link-Ads supports websites that use server-side processing. You can use it on a static site (htm), but TextLinkAds is really well suited for any site that uses PHP, ASP, PERL, Ruby on Rails, etc. To ensure that only relevant links appear on your website, you can choose to approve or deny any Text Link Ad prior to the links being published on your website or blog.  You can display Text Link Ads on the same page with Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network, and… other contextually served ads.

Kontera (contextual advertising for your blog or website)
Kontera has a wide variety of ad formates: ContentLink Flex, ContentLink Video, ContentLink Billboard, ContentLink Image and ContentLink Text. All these methods of advertising are displayed in a small to medium sized pop-up window that is displayed when the in-line text link is rolled over.

LinkWorth
I want to mention two products LinkWorth offers to publishers: LinkAds and LinkWords.  LinkAds is a text based advertising that directs a visitor to a specific advertisers. LinkWords are embedded directly into a keyword depending on an advertiser’s preferred keyword strings. When a visitor to your website mouses over the “double hyperlink”, an in-line advertising window is launched to display information about the advertiser’s product or service.

Blogs RSS Feed

Feedburner ads / Google AdSense
Since Google bought Feedburner, you configure your blogs feed via Google AdSense. There is some flexibility on how the ads are displayed: each feed item, every 2 feed item, every 3 feed item or every 4 feed item. Among other settings you also have the option to display on top or on the bottom of the feed item.

Affiliate Networking

Commission Junction
Get paid for every sale and lead you generate. Commission Junction is the largest affiliate network in North America, powering almost 50% of the top 500 web retailers affiliate marketing programs and operates worldwide. Commission Junction has a network of advertisers they call the, “CJ Marketplace” using a text link and image style advertising.

Link Share
Link Share is another affiliate marketing and Lead Generation Network. Link Share offers a number of products for publishers: Merchandiser Product Feeds; Dynamic Rich Media (DRM); Flex Links for video, widgets and Flash content; and Mobile Links. You get paid a commission when a sale is made or when a lead is acquired. The sale can also be tied to a specific action such as filling out a form or downloading a trial.

Google Affiliate/ DoubleClick Performics Affiliate
First, the Google Affiliate Network (affiliate network) is separate from DoubleClicks DART for Publishers (DFP). The Google Affiliate Network provides a network of advertisers and publishers. To join you have to submit an application that is reviewed by a Google Affiliate staff member. If you are approved, you can apply to a variety of advertiser programs. Advertisers must first accept your offer to advertise their products or services. Once an advertiser agrees to accepting your site, you will have the ability to add the advertiser’s banner or text link on to your web site or blog. You’ll be paid on a cost-per-action (CPA) bases for leads or other action.

DoubleClick
“DART for Publishers is a comprehensive Web-based technology that enables websites and networks of websites to manage online ad serving and reporting. The system architecture, hardware, and software are maintained and updated by DoubleClick. DART for Publishers uses DART technology. -source, Google employee”

Affiliates -independent Cost Per Action (CPA)

Amazon Associates
Advertising Amazon products by using links or banners. When you add these links and banners to your web page and visitors click on them from your page, you can earn up to 15% on all purchases (CPA) made during their shopping session.

Ebay / eBay Partner Network
Getting paid from eBay is on a cost per action (CPA) bases. So you need either a bid, purchase or registration.

Product promotion posts

payperpost
Do you like to blog about products? Get paid to write about web sites, products, services, and companies. An advertiser will post an “opportunity” and if you qualify for the opportunity you can submit “take this opportunity”. If your post is accepted, you earn $15.00 for each post that provides your opinion and feedback to advertisers and consumers.

blogsvertise
Blogvertise is a pay per post type system that pays an average of $5-$15 per post. If your blog is approved, the blogsvertise administrator then assigns writing tasks they want you to mention in your blog. Your blog post does not have to endorse the product or service, just mention the advertiser in your blog and link to the advertiser’s website in the post.

Advertising Marketplaces

buysellads
Buysellads is an advertising marketplace for small to medium sized website owners/publishers. I feel this service is best suited if you have already established some traffic and you want to sell ad space on your blog.

ShoppingAds
ShoppingAds focuses on displaying products on your website. When your visitor clicks on the ad you can make money on a CPC (cost per click) or CPA (cost per acquisition) basis. You can run with Google AdSense and is compatible with all other ad systems.

BidVertiser
BidVertiser focuses on merchants bidding for ad space on your site or blog. They offer: Banners, Buttons, Inline Ads and Skyscrapers Displays.

Banner Advertising, Picture Advertising and Video Advertising

adbrite
Adbrite is like most advertising networks offering a variety of display ads, text and banner ads. But they also have a few interesting products like Full Page Ads and BritePic ads that allow you to monetize photos on your site with interactive text ads.

valueclickmedia
Display Advertising – ValueClickMedia runs an ad network of advertisers. They are also an affiliate type network with a variety of standard banners, pop-unders and rich media that you can use in a CPM and CPC payout structure.

Continue reading »]]>

Social Networking

Social networking is changing the way people work and play online. Social networking sites are nothing new to the internet, in fact you probably heard of Geocities and Usenet, two early social networking websites. But unlike Geocites and Usenet, today’s social networking websites like: mySpace, facebook, digg and the recently popular LinkedIn and Twitter, appeal to a broad range of users that go beyond teenagers.
From the graph below you can see a sharp increase in “social networking” based on search volume.

Social Networking Trend - source, compete.com

What is social networking?

Generally a social networking website is an online community that is based around either professional or personal relationships.

If you visit a social networking website, you will find the majority of sites are created around a niche and membership is usually free. Once you join you will create a profile based on both personal and professional information. When your profile is completed,  you can:

• Join groups.
• Chat.
• Discuss topics in a community forum.
• Post news or articles.
• Search for other members with similar interest.

Why do people use social networking sites?

The appeal of social networking is different for everyone. On a personal level it is a great way to meet interesting people with similar interests. On a professional level, social networking sites have become a great way to:

• Expand a company’s online brand.
• Promote business articles.
• Promote blog posts and blogging.
• Keep current on the latest news.
• Watch the competition …ok “spy” on the competition.
• Meet colleges.
• Find employment.

From the points above, I want to discuss blogging. Blogging is huge online and social networking websites are a great place to promote a blog. But to really understand how big blogging is, I’ve gathered some information starting with the three most popular blogging platforms WordPress, Blogger and Typepad.

popular blogging software: Blogger, WordPress and Typepad

Interesting stats:

• Unique visitors Blogger -#28,147,310 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “blogger”: #1,716
• Unique visitors WordPress -#22,147,374 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “wordpress”: #6,466
• Unique visitors Typepad -#9,611,366 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “typepad”: #11

Note -The Unique Visitors metric only counts a person once no matter how many times they visit a site in a given month. Unique Visitors are typically used to determine how popular a site is. (stats from–compete.com)

Now add those statistics to the an estimated 175,000 new blogs every day; the total as of 8:23 CST on June 27, 2008 is: 209,593,000 (source -Technorati’s count on February 11, 2008 via: youdesignit.blogspot.com)

So with social networking you can promote: a blog, yourself, find contacts, find a job, promote articles and meet interesting people …and more.

Most popular social networking sites

The recent serge in online social networking also has a lot to do with how social networking sites are adding new features and languages. Sites like Facebook have seen a huge increase in popularity as they expanded internationally, while simultaneously improving user control over content.  Recently facebook’s efforts have resulted in huge growth, overtaking mySpace.

Facebook and MySpace unique visitors

Interesting stats:

• Unique visitors Facebook -#73,787,766 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “facebook”: #355,929
• Unique visitors mySpace -#53,066,785 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “myspace”: #366,765

To help demonstrate how big facebook and mySpace have become, here is a graph the compares the unique visitors of mySpace, facebook and Google.

Unique Visitors For Google, Facebook and mySpace

Interesting Stats:

• Google unique visitors: 130,285,302 (2/08-2/09)
• overall daily search estimate for keyword, “google”: 445,684

Two more popular social networking sites used to promote articles, blogs and news are Digg and Stumbleupon. I’ve also added a niche site that focuses on developing business contacts, the social website is called LinkedIn:

Unique visitors to Digg, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn

Interesting Stats:

• Digg unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #33,433,760
• LinkedIn unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #11,228,746
• Stumbleupon unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #4,418,609
• Daily estimate for keyword, “digg”: #1,204
• Daily estimate for keyword, “LinkedIn”: #4,204
• Daily estimate for keyword, “stumbleupon” : #1,074

Flickr, Photobucket and Webshots are three social networking sites related to photo sharing:

Unique visitors for: Flickr, Photobucket, Webshots

Interesting Stats:

• Photobucket unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #24,470,242
• Flickr unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #23,769,885
• Webshots unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #4,565,611
• Daily estimate for keyword, “photobucket”: #27,828
• Daily estimate for keyword, “flickr”: #24,227
• Daily estimate for keyword, “webshots”: #5,392

Two social networking sites for blogging communities are BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog:

Unique visitors for BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog

Interesting Stats:

• blogCatalog unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #1,898,783
• MyBlogLog unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #955,648
• Daily estimate for keyword, “blogCatalog”: #53
• Daily estimate for keyword, “mybloglog”: #49

Finally, “at this time”, the hottest social networking site is called, Twitter.

Social networking site, Twitter

Interesting Stats:

• Twitter unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #7,935,441
• Daily estimate for keyword, “twitter”: #8,074

There are many reasons why someone will use social networking. For business it can mean additional exposure to brand and products. As an individual, a social networking web site may offer an online community with other people who share common interest. Either way, the social networking style website has become very popular with men, woman and childrren …the numbers don’t lie.

Continue reading »]]>

The Better Business Bureau is warning about schemes that target many cash-strapped Americans during this tax season. According to the BBB,

Jobless claims in January reached the highest level since 1982 in the U.S. as more than 2.6 million jobs were cut in 2008. With more families facing financial hardship, the promise of a tax refund is a welcome sight. Unfortunately, some schemes tied to the tax season will leave consumers even worse off in these tough economic times.

Here are three common schemes used by theives:

• Beware Tax Reduction Schemes -Some companies claim that they can help consumers reduce the amount of money they owe in taxes or fines to the government.
• Just say No to Refund Anticipation Loans -Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) are cash advances offered by a tax preparer based on a taxpayer’s anticipated refund.
• Don’t Take the Bait on Phishing E-mails -Phishing e-mails around tax time
  usually tell the recipient that there’s an issue with their refund, that they are being audited or that there is a problem preventing their taxes from being processed.

If you think something is too good to be true, it probably is. If you are not sure and you live in the South Carolina area, call the BBB at: 803-254-2525 | 843-766-9616

If you live outside of South Carolina go to the BBB website.

Continue reading »]]>

How can you tell if your website was hijacked, or if your domain name expired. The first step is to find out who is on record as the owner. There are a few websites that provide this information. Many people use Whois.net, but my favorite is a site called, DomainTools. Domain tools also pulls their information from Whois.net, but they also offer some additional information on a domain.

To use domaintools.com, type in the domain name and hit search. Toward the bottom is the whois information. If you see your name as the registrant, and your website is showing something you have not approved, contact your webmaster or host. If you were tricked into transferring your domain name, call your host; you might also have cause of getting the name back. However, if you let your domain name expire and someone else is now the owner, you have fewer options as nothing illegal has happened.

In the case of an expired domain name there are different options that depend on how long the domain name has been expired. One option to regain ownership is if the domain is in redemption. A domain will enter a redemption period 30 days after a domain expired. Getting a domain out of redemption can be done by contacting the holder on record. However, the purchase price will be at a premium, usually around $150, or maybe even higher.

However, not all domains go to redemption. If you find that your domain was on “backorder”, you will not have the extra 30 days of redemption. Backorder will take priority over redemption and takes effect immediately after your domain expires.

A domain might also go to auction. In this case, the registrar has up to 45 days to ask VeriSign to delete its record.

This short “grace period” varies according to the registrar. For example, Go Daddy has a 12 period while Network Solutions offers a 35 day period. However, no registrar is required to give a grace period; it is just a courtesy.

Auction is a practice by domain registrars of trying to auction an expired domain name before deleting it within a 45 day period. If the expired domain name is not renewed within the registrar’s grace period, the registrar will try to sell it and transfer its ownership to whoever made a “bid”. In the case of an auction the domain will be awarded to the highest bidder. If no one is interest in the domain it will go back to the open market.

Losing a domain name to a hijacker implies an illegal situation. On the other hand, it is not illegal for another person or company to purchase the name in an auction or in redemption do to an owner letting the domain expire.

Continue reading »]]>

Better targeted ads are great, but I think the price is too high. Let’s remember the bottom line, we are allowing Google to gather our personal information so they can serve better ads. The bottom line is revenue, the all mighty buck, mooola; not world peace -your personal info is not being used for some altruistic endeavor, but for serving ads.

On June 17, 2008 The New York Times reported,

…Nick Fox, a director of product management who looks after ads on Google’s search site, said the company was now testing the use of more search queries in its ad targeting. He did not describe how it was doing that. But Internet experts said that it was most likely using its cookies.

Let’s all step back for a moment and keep in mind exactly why we are allowing Google ( and other online companies) access to our personal information. Personally, I will sacrifice my user experience for a little privacy!