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- Grow Your Online Business with Social Media
- The Common Misconceptions of Owning a Website and why Sponsored Links are Good
- Why Internet Marketers Love The Rain
| Grow Your Online Business with Social Media Posted: 19 Jun 2009 12:46 AM PDT
According to a release at Nielsen Online (PDF), social media is eating up more and more user time online and is truly becoming one of, if not the biggest online activity. According to Nielson, “In the U.S. alone, total minutes spent on social networking sites has increased 83 percent year-over-year”. In the past 12 months Facebook has seen the total time spent in minutes on its social networking platform grow by nearly 700% compared to April 2008, pushing it far above second place’s MySpace. In April of 2008 MySpace saw usage around the 7.2 billion minute mark with Facebook trailing at 1.7 billion minutes. In April 2009, MySpace dropped by 31% down to 4.9 billion minutes with Facebook growing incredibly to 13.8 billion. When it comes to Social Media there is no denying that Facebook is occupying more and more users time. Relative newcomer Twitter came in at around 300 million minutes for April 2009, up nearly 3700% from 2008’s meager 7 million. So how do these numbers impact the average site owner? Well, with this high injection of internet users flocking over to social media platforms, you have to ask yourself - why aren’t you there? Top search rankings at Google still dominate when it comes to search and traffic delivery overall, however, with so many millions of potential customers loitering around these social sites, you need to get your site into the action. By becoming an active member in networks like Facebook, Twitter, and the others, you can drastically increase your online exposure resulting not only in more traffic to your site and possibly increased sales, but also increasing the chances of people linking to you - which in turn, will result in higher search rankings and even more traffic. There are a number of things I recommend to just about anyone with a website. First, get a good grasp of what your competition is doing, and do the same, but better. Often I will recommend to a client that they create a blog, and I will get the response “but my competitors aren’t doing it”. That right there should give you the incentive to be the first in your industry. If you competitors aren’t doing something, and it’s a known contributor to rankings and a healthy website, then you need to do it to put yourself one step above them. The same goes for Social Networking. Blogs have become a mainstream way for companies to provide information to their users and Social Networking is starting to take this over. The beauty of these social media websites is not only the speed in which you can communicate with your customers, but also the interactivity and relationship you can start to develop. It’s much like going to a mixer through your chamber of commerce, but at a much larger scale. It’s not too late to jump on this social media bandwagon. While the user base on these platforms is growing considerably, the number of businesses taking part is still relatively small, at least in comparison to how many business based websites are out there. So if you haven’t already, go out there and open that Twitter and Facebook account, and if you have a stagnant account already existing, start increasing your activity. You’ll be surprised at the positive impact your efforts will have. Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can read more of Scott's articles and those of the veteran StepForth team at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at http://www.stepforth.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources Grow Your Online Business with Social Media |
| The Common Misconceptions of Owning a Website and why Sponsored Links are Good Posted: 19 Jun 2009 12:37 AM PDT There is a common misconception that a website automatically catapults a business to global stardom. This could be true - with a lot of time and money spent on it - but in isolation, a website is next to useless. No doubt all you SEO experts out there will think I’m teaching grandma to suck eggs but there are literally thousands of people starting out who just don’t realise what it takes. The truth is, a website on its own is akin to opening a new shop at the bottom of a dark, gated alleyway - with no signage or advertising. Passers-by will do exactly that, pass by, never knowing what wonderful products you are selling. Without the brightly lit signs, local press, opening launches, special offer flyers and other advertising, nobody will ever know your shop is there! It’s the same with a website, unless people know it’s there, they will never visit it. So what does it take to get noticed? Well, for a start, you should register your URL as early as you possibly can. Put up a page stating “website under construction”. Google rates websites, amongst other criteria, for how long they have been up and running. A new website will take many months before Google’s bots will start giving your site any credence. Next, when you build your site you need to ensure it is built to be optimised for search engine spiders. There is a lot of information out there about how to do this but unless you are a web developer my advice would be to find a reputable company to do it for you. You get what you pay for. In my experience, a cheap website will end up costing you more in the long run. Better to employ a company with a proven track record than to to spend months messing around with a sub-standard site. Then you will need to be constantly updating your site with fresh content so the spiders know you are a live business and so that your readers or customers have something to keep them coming back . Establish links to your website from other sites that are high page-ranked. There are a number of ways to do this.
Okay so all this takes time. What about getting business in the meantime? Well this is where we come to sponsored links. Sponsored links can give you the immediate exposure that you need. This is where you and your competitors essentially bid to be seen on the right hand side of Google’s Results Page. I read all sorts of articles about the pros and cons of using this facility and I get the feeling that the overall message is a negative one, that somehow paying to be at the top of the listings is cheating. Well I don’t subscribe to this. The organic listings have created a situation that is very similar to the rise of the supermarkets and decline of the greengrocer and butcher and fishmonger. It is hard to compete with their buying power. This is not so different. To get a good flow of visitors on your site you need to be on the first page of Google for your chosen keywords. To be on the first page is not easy, as I said before it takes a lot of time, effort and money to get there and stay there. Most small businesses, particularly those who are just starting out, don’t have the time, money or know how to do this. But they may well be offering a really good service, product or whatever. It isn’t cheating; it is just a way of getting noticed by your target audience while you gradually develop your SEO skills. Michael Jillions is a Director at Mill House Data Solutions Ltd, specialists in the design of professional grade, bespoke database applications. http://www.millhousedata.com\ Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources The Common Misconceptions of Owning a Website and why Sponsored Links are Good |
| Why Internet Marketers Love The Rain Posted: 19 Jun 2009 12:32 AM PDT There have been more rainy days in the northeast than one can possibly imagine. The weather is obviously playing a role in the way internet marketers approach their daily tasks. But, this article has nothing to do with the effects of global warming. Instead, I realized today that rain is the best friend of the internet marketer for several reasons. Many of these reasons relate to my six year old son but let me explain… As an internet marketer myself I walk around with a little blue pad with a list of daily, weekly and monthly tasks written down in order for me to be sure to complete certain tasks on time. Now I know I should be using some kind of PDA instead, but the blue pad is just annoying enough, sticking out in my pocket, to make sure that I don’t forget it’s there. PDAs etc are just too easy to ignore. So, what are the reasons rain is the best friend of an internet marketer? Reason #1: The Sun Isn’t Shining - Usually, I would be at my computer trying to finish all of the items on my little blue pad trying to ignore my six year old son’s pleas to play in the yard. Kicking a soccer ball or taking a swim in the pool on a hot, steamy day is difficult to deny. Rain sort of puts a stop to all of this frivolity. Reason #2: Watching The Media - Rainy days are days for the movies…or so I was told when I was a kid. Now that I’m all grown up, rather than heading to a movie theater, I relaxed with a mug of coffee and reviewed a video directly on my computer screen. OK, it’s not as much fun, but sometimes watching great videos can be a great way to spend time on a really rainy and story day. Reason #3 - No Distractions - As most of you, there are always distractions when you work out of your home. Postman, FedEx, gardeners, pool guy etc. all have a real need, for some reason, to ring my doorbell to tell me something I really have no reason to hear. On rainy day, no such thing. They all stay home! Reason #4 - Creativity - Somehow, when all of these distractions; six year old son, no postman, no gardener, no delivery guy etc to bother me just when I need to really dig down deep and be creative. Now, I fully realize that there may be many other businesses that may also do better in the rain while others may not do as well. However, anyone that works at home and needs to be fully focused can easily relate to this rainy day phenomenon. On my little blue pad are numerous tasks that seem to just get done a bit better when the sun is hiding behind those dark black clouds. A perfect case in point occurred today (which may vary depending upon when you reading this article) when I was finished with my blue list tasks (a topic for another article) and I still had some time to spend since in no way was I going out to play in the rain. So….I decided to develop a quick web page, create a free ebook for my loyal subscribers, add a post to my autoresponder and send out an email offering this free ebook to my entire list of subscribers. Conclusion - This may not sound like much but if the sun was shining no such free gift would have been created and my loyal subscribers would have lost the positive information contained within that report. Plus, rainy days are just perfect for reading free reports….. Get your own copy of , “Profiting From Web 2.0 Sites” - Leverage Your Business and Marketing Power On The Latest Wave on the Internet - written by Cary Ganz, Creator of the Newbie Phenomenon Click Here Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources Why Internet Marketers Love The Rain |
When it comes to operating a successful online business these days the key is traffic to your website. In order to generate traffic there are a number of sources one can tackle. The first and most obvious is an increase in your search rankings over at Google. But what about all those social media websites floating around out there - are they worth your attention?| You are subscribed to email updates from SiteProNews Recent Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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