Blogging News

Social media marketing is the very effective tool for marketing your products. There is no other alternative marketing strategy for social media marketing. Hence social media marketing is indispensable for any online business. Social media marketing needs a different approach when compared to the other online marketing strategies. For a social media marketing campaign to be successful, it is very much important to understand the tactics that work better. This article is all about the effective social media marketing tips.

1. Creating unique profiles in Social Networks

Social networking sites like myspace and facebook have great importance in business promotion. This part of social media marketing can get lots of traffic to your website along with building credibility among people worldwide. The social networks are now crowded with the online marketers and hence it is important to highlight your profile in the crowd. Though there are lots of customization options available in the social networking sites itself, it is always good to get some professional help for advanced customization. These social media marketing professionals will be able to provide you will very unique profiles which will get noticed by the social media crowd immediately.

2. Don’t try to sell anything in the Social Networks

Many social media marketers just advertise their products through their social media profiles. This is a wrong move. Social networks are for connecting to people and not for advertising the products, Hence your main motive in the social networks should be to connect to as many people as possible. The traffic to your website and the credibility to your services/ products will eventually increase as your networks grow.

3. Don’t leave any social media profiles unattended

Active participation is a basic necessity of any social media marketing campaign. Just creating some profiles in a handful of social media sites doesn’t do any good. You should post some content to the social media profiles frequently and make them look lively. Always remember the fact that Google crawls the profiles that are frequently updated. Moreover, the visitors of your profile will love to see many updates. You should also involve in activities like participating in polls, posting in forums, making comments and connecting with the people of similar interest.

Social Media marketing is a time consuming process and for the moment of truth it is really worth the time you spend. If you don’t have enough time for social media marketing in your tight schedule, there are professional social media marketers who are ready to help you. To the added advantage, these professional social media marketers can analyze your website and create the best marketing strategy. By paying them a nominal fee, you can just sit back and relax, watching your network grow along with the web traffic and business.

When we last left Yahoo!, Jerry Yang (CEO) and the rest of the board had just spurned Microsoft’s $44.6 billion takeover bid for the supposedly greener pastures of potential deals with AOL, News Corporation, and/or Google. The rejection of Microsoft’s bid also put the current board on a collision course with Carl Icahn in what looked to be a battle for control of Yahoo!’s board of directors.

Trials and Tribulations

After spending millions to buy 68.7 million shares of Yahoo!, Icahn was set to nominate his own slate of directors for Yahoo’s board at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Icahn would use Yahoo! shareholders’ fury over the botched Microsoft deal to win votes for his board nominees and take over Yahoo!’s board. Yahoo! made a preemptive strike however and managed to appease Icahn by granting him three seats on Yahoo!’s board of directors in July. But what of the purported deals with AOL, News Corp, and Google?

Well, to date, the AOL and News Corp deals never materialized, at least publicly. However, Google and Yahoo! agreed to a partnership whereby Google would deliver ads on Yahoo!’s network. The kicker in the deal was that Google would pay Yahoo! more than Yahoo! could make with its own ads, meaning Google was essentially buying market share from Yahoo!.

This deal would be investigated by the U.S. Justice Department and opposed by Microsoft and online advertisers, who were arguing that the deal would be anticompetitive and result in higher ad prices. In the end, Google and Yahoo! were unable to appease Justice Department investigators by offering to cap the number of ads that would be displayed on Yahoo!’s network and Google walked away from the deal rather than fight a lengthy legal battle.

Just before Google walked away from the deal, Yahoo! reported 3rd quarter earnings. Operating income decreased 53% and revenues were virtually flat compared to the same quarter in 2007. In addition, Yahoo! announced it was laying off 1,500 employees as part of its efforts to cut costs. All told, the Microsoft bid, Icahn ordeal, and proposed Google partnership cost Yahoo! $73 million in fees for outside advisors according to a filing with the SEC.

In the wake of this double-whammy, Yahoo’s stock tumbled to around $10 per share from its 52-week high of $30.25, which it reached when Microsoft was attempting to acquire the company. Yahoo’s share of the search market also continued to decline, falling to 20% in September compared to 22.9% a year ago, according to comScore. What is Yahoo! to do? In a word, grovel.

“To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo,” Yang said at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco, the Associated Press reports.

Still?!

To which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer replied, “We made an offer, we made another offer, and it was clear that Yahoo didn’t want to sell the business to us and we moved on. We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at $33 a share.”

Could Ballmer be using his public comments to further drive down the value of Yahoo!’s stock before making another bid? Or is he stating his actual beliefs on the matter and only interested in “some kind of partnership around search?” Only time will tell, but it certainly seems like Microsoft is moving forward with new strategies for challenging Google.

Microsoft Moves On

Several of these strategies include new or extended partnerships. One such extended partnership is with long-standing Microsoft partner Hewlett-Packard, where Microsoft will install its Live Search toolbar on all HP computers in North America starting in January 2009.

Microsoft is also negotiating with Verizon to become the default search provider on the company’s cell phones, according to the Wall Street Journal. Though the terms of the deal are still being discussed, early indications are that the two companies would share ad revenue generated from web searches made on Verizon cell phones.

Yahoo!’s Future

What does Yahoo! do to secure its future as a viable Internet property going forward? Well, it’s changing leaders for one. In mid-November, Yahoo! announced Yang would be returning to his post as Chief Yahoo! as soon as the company found a new CEO. In addition, over the last few months, Yahoo! has rolled out a number of initiatives, releasing its own analytics package (similar to Google Analytics), updating the design of Yahoo! News, launching the APT (formerly AMP!) digital advertising platform, and announcing the Yahoo! Open Strategy, which aims to make Yahoo! programs open source.

While the change in leadership and these initiatives seem like steps in the right direction, we believe Yahoo! will need to pick a new CEO that brings fresh strategic ideas to the table and the company will need to develop significant proprietary innovations in search technology that convince users to switch back to Yahoo! for web searches. Yahoo! will probably need partners in this turnaround effort too. Microsoft is open to a partnership and combining search algorithm, mail, and instant messenger research efforts would save both companies substantial amounts of money. Such a partnership could also make Yahoo! the default search provider in Internet Explorer, Office, and other Microsoft software products and web properties. Whatever course Yahoo! chooses, hopefully it won’t be too little, too late.

(C) Medium Blue 2008

How to Start Blogging – Steps for becoming a Blogger

1) Find your Niche – Now when I saw this Tip, I didn’t even knew what’s a niche. What it means to me is your interests. For Eg. -My Blog Realtrix is about Internet & Web and Computing Stuff. Similarly you should find your Interest about what you are going to Blog about. Some Ideas I think you can be blogging about are Blogging, Computing, Tech, Motivation, Entrepreneurship, Music, Bollywood, Parental, Personal & Education.

2) Find which Blogging SW you are going to Use – The are many. The most Popular is WordPress & Blogger. Lets be straight Wordpress is much better than Blogger. BUT is better as it not 100% free. Hence, Blogger is the Best Option. I am using Blogger as Its highly Customizable. Also Blogger is a part of Google Services.

3) How to Start & what to write – Before making your own blog see what other Bloggers are doing and writing about on the same topic you are going to write about. Then make a list of Stuff they are not Writing about but you think should be written about. Now you know what to write about in your Blog.

Tip : If you are a regular reader you might have seen that I use Images for every Post I write. So you can start collecting Photos for your Blog Post in advance.

4) Starting Your Blog – Check Out the Video here to know how to Get a Free Blog at Blogger.Com. Set Up the Blog there following the Video Tips. Read : How to Create a BlogSpot Blog for Free ? – Video Guide For Beginners

5) Search Engine Optimization – This is very Important when Starting a Blog… See Below “Tips for New Bloggers”

6) What Template to Choose and Where to find Them – Your blog Template, I think is one of the Factors which will keep bringing back Visitors. I means think it this way if you see a very Nice Looking Blog … Don’t you try to remember it and Go back to See what’s new going On there ??

Best Tips for New Bloggers

Do you want to increase traffic to your blog? Well, here are some ready tips to make a move in the world of success blogging. Get started with the following tips that make your task easy. Some of the Easiest Ways to Improve your Blog, SEO and its Traffic/Visitors.

Make a habit of posting regularly in the blog.

Choose a proper template for your Blog. You don’t expect people to like it if you have a cooking theme in a Technology blog.

Write a topic and post it in different sections and thereby create a series. This increases the curiosity of the web visitors who turn to the blog for the interesting follow-ups.

Optimize your blog to make it load Faster so that new visitor don’t get annoyed to sit idle while your blog page loads.

Try to blog out breaking news first. It increases the popularity and creates an authentic image in the web community.

Use right keywords in the body content. The placement of the keywords in accurate density proves to be search engine friendly.

It is very important to encourage comments of web visitors in your blog. Highlight the most relevant comments on the blog. Try to build a cordial relation with the web visitors so that they visit your blog over and over again.

Submit your blog in blog directories and the RSS feed in RSS directories respectively.

It will be fruitful if you use the Ping-O-Matic service. Enter your blog name and its URL and select the directories according to choice. Any updates in your blog are automatically updated in the directories. The web visitors in these directories will able to access your contents.

While designing your blog it necessary to make an email subscription button and form. This proves to be very user friendly.

Try to comment on other blogs. This will introduce your blog in the blogger community.

List your favorite blogs in the blog rolls. You must also try to list your blog in other blogs.

It is highly important to add your blog’s URL to your email signature and any profiles other social networking sites. This will also introduce your blog in the web community.

It is essential to use Digg, Stumble and other social bookmarking sites for your blog. Once you send a post in the aggregators, it will reach millions in no time.

Write on related topics. Post related Articles in a row. This helps in stirring up the interest of the web visitors.

Show the topmost posts in the your blog which received great popularity. This will bear evidence of your blog’s authenticity and significance.

It is mandatory to add “previous” and “next” post buttons. This helps the user to quickly and easily navigate through the Blog.

Try to build up inbound links in your blog. This will help the web visitors to access other important pages in your blog and thus enhance traffic flow.

Rework on the previous Old posts. Try to check out every detail in your post and make it exciting.

Track your Visitors. See where they Come From, Searching for What. When they leave. etc.

Use photos in your post.

Make a Translation Widget In your Blog to help foreign visitors read what you have written.

Utilize your Online time when Not Blogging.Find Important Things to Do when Not Blogging.

Also Read : How to Boost Blog Traffic – Must Read

Dina Brown asked:




Most Twitter users still don’t know the basics of the site. You don’t need to choose between Twitter and blogging because the social network is considered a micro-blogging site as well. You can blog about anything as long as you consume the 140- characters. The short blogs are more personal and you can post anything.

What can you do on Twitter? Once you’ve created your own profile page, you can now post blogs. You can do it every minute, every hour, or a few times everyday. You can also follow bloggers and other users, create conversations by replying to the tweets sent to you. Through constant conversation, you can easily build good relationships. You don’t need to log to the Twitter site all the time because you can also receive and reply tweets through your IM or mobile phone.

However, there are also bad points in using Twitter. Your blogs will be limited to only 140 characters. For those who want to post longer blogs, Twitter is not for you. You must also use the code provided in giving replies.

Many new users commit certain mistakes in using Twitter. Some of them don’t use real pictures, they send too many impersonal tweets, they use AutoDM wrongly, they spam, etc; don’t commit these mistakes so that you can have more fun in using the social network site.

If you don’t want to get bored, you should find friends on Twitter and get as many followers as possible. If you can find friends, try to encourage your friends to join so that you can start using the site. It’s very easy to join and it’s free. Now, you can send tweets at any time of the day.

For a more memorable Twitter experience, you can add Twitter to your browser so that when you see it, you will use it most of the time. Try to post useful tips and interesting articles. Reply to the messages you receive. If you simply give some of your precious time in sending tweets and in communicating with your followers, you will have a great time using Twitter. You can also add Google Talk so that you can follow your friends and check on your followers even without opening your browser. You can also post replies and new tweets through the Google Talk.

Micro-blogging is for people who want to write short blogs. Blogs are usually long and in Twitter, you will only write very short blogs. It is more personal and you can let everyone know what you’re doing. If you want, you can also post beautiful and carefully-researched tweets. There are also those who join Twitter to conduct online marketing. Well, whatever your reasons are, you’re free to use the site.

Aside from blogging, Twitter is also for social messaging. Its’ very easy to type status updates. You can follow as many individuals as you like and you can also maintain many followers. You can interact with them online or through your mobile device. There are also small groups on Twitter that helps you in coordinating activities or events especially if some of your friends or followers are from the same area.

All in all, Twitter is a business instrument, social messaging, micro-blogging, reporting service, and marketing utility. Twitter or blogging? Well, it doesn’t really matter. Everything you want is in Twitter.



Caffeinated Content

The internet is the perfect destination to search for everything. We would be able to get almost every single thing that we need. All that we needed to do is just search for it in the internet, and we would easily find the things that we need. When we needed some loans, we would be able to search for some loans as well. In the internet, there are so may easy to get loans that we would be able to get.

For some people, there would be sometimes that they needed some urgent money. In the internet, there are so many kinds of loans that they would be able to get such as the payday loan. This is the example of the easy to get loans. If we needed the urgent money, then the payday loan would be the perfect solution to handle the urgent needs.

So, if you need some urgent money, get the payday loan in the internet. You would be able to apply for it via the site, the Easyonlinepaydayloan.com. This is definitely the perfect destination for us to search for some urgent money. This is definitely the excellent solution for the urgent needs. So don’t wait till tomorrow, come right now and get it.

I have had a profile on LinkedIn for a while now, but as with my MySpace account, I let it languish for a long time. I wasn’t seeing LinkedIn as a place to make connections and find others in my niche. It also seemed heavily corporate, with people looking for jobs more so than small business services or products.

Originally, serving that more corporate-type population was why LinkedIn was established. However, I have recently noticed more activity among small business owners, entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. While Facebook offers a more personal snapshot of a person, LinkedIn has really become a good place to create beneficial professional relationships as well as be found by potential clients and customers.

If you are interested in finding out how to use LinkedIn to help grow your business and boost your visibility, here are a few ways to use this social network to do so:

Do a search for people in targeted fields and positions. Send them a request to join your network and be sure to personalize your message.

Create a thorough profile with your photo, websites and title. It is a good idea to include past experience, positions and education as well–the more information you supply, the more ways you allow others to find and connect to you.

Answer questions posed by other members in your community that fall into your area of expertise. “LinkedIn Answers” provides a place for you to view open questions that you may respond to. This is a wonderful way to promote your specific knowledge.

Ask for recommendations of your work and offer to provide them for others. The glowing recommendations you receive will be posted right to your profile.

Develop a targeted group of contacts in your niche and start connecting each other. Try to help others expand their own networks.

Look through your contacts’ networks. Select a few people each month you think would be good to know and request that your contacts introduce them to you.

As with Facebook, LinkedIn offers a way to feed your blog posts right into your profile. Add an application called BlogLink–this supports blogging platforms such as TypePad, Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org, Blogger and more.

Invite people in your network to ask others in their networks to a discussion group or an on-line networking event.

A great tip for increasing your search engine ranking with your website listing: when you go to type in your web address for your profile, you will have several choices in the drop down menu. If you choose “other” you have the option to type in any text you’d like which will then link to your site. Choose the keywords that you think would best get you found when someone searches in the search engines and voila, instant search engine optimization! (LinkedIn is ranked very highly in Google.)

Get some publicity. Many members of the media as well as some of the top bloggers have profiles on LinkedIn. Why not reach out to them and connect? You never know where the relationship will lead. Of course, don’t spam them. Send a polite and personalized message and you will have a spot on their radar.

Finally, don’t forget to add a link to your profile in your email signature. The great thing is that LinkedIn allows you to customize the link to your public profile to include your name. You should always include your social networking profiles in your signature so that every time you send an email, others have a way to connect.

As you know by now, connection is what it’s all about!