Social Network Marketing

Social Network Marketing

My Space, Classmates, Friendster, and Linked In are just a few in a large range of Social Networking Sites. Meeting New Friend, Catching Up with old friends and Networking is the name of the game

What are Social Networking Websites?

Social networking is as old as the ages – people have been meeting friends and networking since the dawn of time. The birth of the Internet, has allowed people to meet new friends and old in different places and in larger quantities than ever before. Create an account, add a picture, share likes and dislikes and a little history and away you go.
Myspace.com is the most popular example of this type of site. Started in 2002 this site utilizes a networking technology that creates networking circles of friends. Create a site on the network, and people you know can find you or people who would like to. You can then see their friends, and perhaps make new friends and acquaintances from among this circle.
Here is a list with links of every social network site I could find:

Advogato
Free and open source software developers
ANobii
Books
aSmallWorld
European jet set and social elite
Badoo
General, Popular in Europe
Bahu
General, Popular in France, Belgium, Poland and Europe
Bebo
General, Popular in UK, Ireland, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands
BlackPlanet
African-Americans
BookCrossing
Books
Broadcaster.com
Video sharing and webcam chat
Buzznet
Music and pop-culture
Cake Financial
Investing
Capazoo
General (blogs, photos, music, videos)
Care2
Green living and social activism
Classmates.com
School, college, work and the military
Cloob
General. Popular in Iran.
Consumating
"Consumeetings"
CouchSurfing
Hospitality
Cyworld
Young South Koreans
Dandelife
Collective narratives or "shared biographies"
DontStayIn
Clubbing (primarily UK)
Experience Project
Life experiences
Facebook
General. Popular Worldwide.
Faceparty
General. Popular UK.
Flickr
Photo sharing
Flixster
Movies
Fotolog
Photoblogging. Popular in South America.
Friends Reunited
UK based. School, college, work, sport and streets
Friendster
General. Popular in Southeast Asia.
Frühstückstreff
General
Gaia Online
Anime and games
Gather
Article, picture, and video sharing, as well as group discussions
Geni.com
Families, genealogy
Gossipreport.com
Anonymous gossip
Grono.net
Poland
GuildCafe
Online games
Habbo
General. Over 31 communities worldwide. Chat Room and user profiles.
hi5
General. Latin American and Asian teens. Popular in Cyprus and Romania.
Hospitality Club
Hospitality
Hyves
Most popular Dutch social network, especially for students
iLike
Music, Video, Photos, Blogs
imeem
Music, Video, Photos, Blogs
IRC-Galleria
Finland
iWiW
Hungary
Jaiku
General. Owned by Google.
Joga Bonito
Football (soccer). Owned by Google.
kaioo
General, nonprofit
Last.fm
Music: streaming radio; personal profiles track users' listening habits and link to artist & label pages
Lds.net
LDS, Mormon Network. Owned by More Good Foundation
LibraryThing
Book lovers
lifeknot
Shared interests, hobbies
LinkedIn
Business
LiveJournal
Blogging
LunarStorm
Sweden
MEETin
General
Meetup.com
General
MiGente.com
Latinos
Mixi
Japan
mobikade
mobile community, UK only
MocoSpace
mobile community, worldwide
MOG
Music
Multiply
"Real world" relationships
MyChurch
Christian Churches
MyHeritage
family-oriented social network service
My Opera Community
General (blogs, photo albums, forums, groups, etc.)
MySpace
General. Popular Worldwide.
myYearbook
General
Nasza-klasa.pl
School, college and friends. Popular in Poland.
Nabuur
Online Volunteering
Netlog
Formerly known as Facebox.
Nettby
Norwegian Community.
Nexopia
Canada
Odnoklassniki.ru
General. Popular in Russia
OkCupid
Social networking and dating
orkut
Owned by Google. Popular in Brazil and India.
OUTeverywhere
Gay/LGBTQ Community
Passado
General
Passportstamp
Travel
Phanfare
Family photo and video sharing
Plaxo
Business
Playahead
Swedish teenagers
Pownce
Websites, files, and short updates
ProfileHeaven
British teens
RateItAll
General (consumer ratings)
Ravelry
Knitting and crochet
Reunion.com
Locating friends and family, keeping in touch
Ryze
Business
Searchles
Social search and networking
Sconex
American high schools
Sermo
Physicians
Shelfari
Books
Soundpedia
Music
Sportsvite
Recreational sports
Stickam
Live video streaming and chat.
Student.com
International teens and colleges
StudiVZ
University students, mostly in the German-speaking countries
Tagged.com
General
TakingITGlobal
Social action
TravBuddy.com
Travel
Travellerspoint
Travel
tribe.net
General
Tuenti.com
General. Very Popular in Spain
Twitter
Micro-blogging, RSS, updates
V Kontakte
The most popular social network in Russia.
Vox
Blogging
WAYN
Travel and lifestyle
WebBiographies
Genealogy and biography
Windows Live Spaces
Blogging (formerly MSN Spaces)
Wis.dm
Questions and answers about anything and everything
Woophy
travel & photography, photo sharing website
Xanga
Blogs and "metro" areas
XING
Business
Yahoo! 360°
Linked to Yahoo! IDs
Yahoo! Mash
Yahoo's new SNS - Still in beta
Yelp, Inc.
Local Business Review and Talk
Zooomr

Local Marketing Online

When the internet was in its infancy everyone was excited to reach around the world. It was easy to communicate globally from the comfort of your home or office, but as the internet reaches it adolescence we begin to realize it is its local appeal that may be its true strength.

Yahoo and Google both offer local search sections. They both offer free listings as well as sponsored listings. I love local search. Below are the links to list your site locally.

Yahoo Local http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/local/lbl.php
Google Local http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?gl=US&hl=en-US

Turning Website Traffic to Sales

Its All About Conversion
Turning Your Website Traffic Into Sales

How many phone calls do you receive from excited marketers trying to sell you traffic to your site? Probably quite a few. Now, how many phone calls do you receive from someone wanting to show you how to convert the traffic you are already getting? Our guess is very little or none.

Unfortunately, someone selling you traffic could typically care less about your conversion rate: They delivered the traffic they sold you - and in their eyes, their job is done. If it fails to convert, it must be your site's fault.

The truth is, over a period of time, traffic to your site will always fluctuate, but with a little work, your conversion rate can steadily increase. Sadly, most internet business owners are satisfied with a one percent conversion ratio when, in fact, one percent is already the general conversion ratio for online sales. Can you imagine any bricks and mortar business content with this rate of conversion? Certainly no car dealership, department store or Mom & Pop. They simply could not survive with anything less than 10%.
Bottom line: Instead of spending money on traffic, focus on conversion and in particular, on the following points to make it happen:

Create Trust - Creating trust means much more than just offering your customers a secure checkout. A professional site with no dead links and no missing products is the biggest credibility builder you can have. A well-designed site utilizes good use of color, space, and navigation techniques to communicate experience, commitment and customer service. In addition, think of including testimonials, client lists and independent reviews to educate your visitors. Yes, prospective customers really do read those things!

Pay Attention to Presentation - You have one chance to present your product: Make it outstanding. Professionally photograph items, optimize your pictures for quick download and show multiple angle and zoom shots of important details. Make it easier for visitors to read about you and your company by keeping your web site content in short width lengths. One of the fastest ways to lose visitors is forcing them to read a wall of text that goes across the full width of your pages.

Write Killer Copy - Write descriptive and detailed copy with an emphasis on benefit and remember to remain user friendly. Don't bog your readers down with unnecessary words, such as ecommerce when Selling Online can get the message across faster and more simply. Utilize clear, bold headlines on each of your pages to draw in your readers and encourage them to read on. Remember the two-second rule: you really only have two to three seconds to grab the average users' attention.

Disturb the Buyer - You want the buyer to take action immediately and the easiest way to accomplish this is to associate a negative consequence with not buying now. Low inventory, limited price availability, competitors buying remaining stock and missing the peak trend, are all effective ways of conveying this message.

Entice the Buyer - Clearly define your products' most positive attributes and communicate the benefits of owning your products. In most cases, people are looking to buy the feeling your product creates. SELL THE FEELING. Speak directly to your visitors and ask them questions that make them think about what benefits you are offering. For example, do you want to improve the conversion rate of your web site? What will happen when you succeed in improving it - More sales? Pride of ownership? A trip to Hawaii?

Ask for the Sale - Most important is your call to action, and remember, your site's most desired actions could be any number of things, including a quote request, free gift or brochure download. A buyer should never need to look for an "action" button. Name your buttons with assertive buying terms such as, Buy it Now, Add to Cart, Make it Mine, etc. Be sure to place these buttons liberally throughout your pages.

Make it Easy - How many of your prospective customers are computer whizzes? Your buyers need to be able to view their carts easily and check out quickly. Attempt using a one-page checkout to streamline the process. Allow customers to see the contents in their carts and the purchase amount. Clearly define your shipping policy and offer a variety of shipping methods and times

The Many Ways Of Advertising Online

The Many Ways Of Advertising Online
What is the difference?




Many businesses want to advertise online , but fear of the unknown may have caused them not to take advantage of an outstanding way to share their business locally and worldwide. Listed below are 7 of the most popular ways to advertise online.

1. Pay Per Click - Search engines place your website on their front page and you pay a set amount per click-through. Sites like Yahoo, Google, and MSN also run bids for certain keywords - the more you bid, the higher your site appears on the first page of the search results. Properly run, these campaigns can bring a lot of extra traffic to your website.

2. Search Engine Optimization - This is an online advertising service provided by many web media companies. They will look at your target audience, your competitors and the keywords for your business and optimize your website content so that it has a much better chance of appearing on the first page of the search results. You will pay a fee to the consultants for this service. Studies have shown that many searchers prefer to use the "natural" listings provided by the search engines, rather than the paid-for listings.

3. Banner Ads - Usually horizontal bars across the top of a web page, they offer color, graphics and often animation, together with the ability to click through to the advertiser's own website. Banner ads have been reducing in popularity lately, as research shows that users don't stay interested for long enough to read all the animation, although static ads with a simple message are still effective.

4. Sky-scraper Ads - Similar to banner ads, these ad spaces run vertically down the left or right hand side of the page, allowing the ad to stay in view as the user scrolls down the page. They can also be animated and employ click-through to move users to the advertiser's site.

5. Sponsorships - Website sponsorship can come in two formats; regular sponsorship where the advertiser has a space to place the logo and company message, and content sponsorship where the advertiser has limited control and submits their own content to the site as well as having an advert on the page. These sponsorships will be for fixed periods, and need to be on targeted websites to reach the right audience.

6. Online Directories - The online equivalent of Yellow Pages, or Industry Directories, these give you basic or enhanced listings on the website. Your details will come up if your sector, location or company name is searched for. Enhanced listings will allow users to click-through to your site. Online directory listings are often offered in conjunction with an entry in the printed version of the directory. Before paying to be included in a directory find out how the site is advertised to your target clients.

7. Pop-ups and Pop-downs - These are the small windows that appear when you first get onto a website. Pop-ups appear on your screen in full, pop-downs appear on the bar at the bottom of your screen and you have to open them to get rid of them. Surveys have found that most internet users find pop-up adverts intrusive and annoying.

Are there more ways to advertise online.
You bet! Web 2.0 allows businesses to share their skills and services throughout the web in creative ways.

Welcome Technorati

Technorati Profile

Why I Love Search Engine Marketing

Search engine traffic is highly targeted. In B2B offerings through search engines are even higher than B to C. In B2B and B2C clients are looking for your products and services on their own, so they are ready to hear your business’s message. It is difficult to find a more qualified client than one that has search you out. These are my favorite reasons that SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is the best ROI for B2B:

• Non-Intrusive: Search marketing is a non-intrusive marketing tool. Most advertising, both online and offline, interrupts consumer behavior. If a user goes to a web site for info, up pops an intrusive ad. Reading a newspaper? Ads dominate and force articles to be continued on another page. With search engine marketing, the user is actively seeking your products, services, and information. They are delighted to be driven to your site.

• Voluntary: Search marketing is the result of user-originated behavior. Your visitors from search engines and directories have voluntarily clicked on your listing rather than any competitors, thus they are motivated to explore your offerings.

• Tracking: ROI is a easy to track with Pay Per Click. If you sell a product or service online than it can be tracked much easier than print, television, or radio

SEO and Blogging : A Match Made In SEO Heaven

I am going to share a secret today. I don’t just blog because I love to write. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great way to share my knowledge which I love to do. I also blog because it is good for my site’s SEO. Yes , it is true blogs can really help your SEO. Here are some ideas to keep in mind while you blog away:

Frequency: I blog seven days a week and because of my frequency the search engines have put a higher weight on my blog. They tend to come by more often to see what may be new in the content department. Blogs in general tend to be updated more than average website pages so they are a great source of new content for the search engines.

“Themed” Blogs: My blog is Online Marketing. All of my listings have the same theme. Search Engines know that they will find consistent content. Try to stick to a theme in your blog.

Links: Once you have interested the Search Engines with your blog, start including links within your blog. If you notice in my blog, my footer has a link back to my website. I also include my link within my blog on some days.

Optimize:

1. Submit: Start submitting your blog, just like you submit your site. Google and Yahoo offer abilities to submit RSS feeds as well and your site.
   
2. Key Terms: Think about key terms you would like to target. Make a list of key terms you would like to show up on the first page of, start writing articles that include those terms. Make them interesting and informational. Make sure you always include your key terms in your labels.
   
3. Titles: Include your key terms in your title. Don’t go black hat and title article that don’t fit. Write the article and then write the title.
   
4. Images: Title your images to match the blog. Don’t name the image “picture1” . You want to name it “Seo_Blog_Secrets”.
   

Warning: Don’t stop blogging for fun! Make SEO a part of it, not all of it. I still have a side blog that I talk about being a Mom and another blog that I share my knowledge of Training Management. I suggest keeping them seperate.

SEO Content

Search Engine Optimization Content is writing valuable articles or “content” that inform users and target Search Engines. Great SEO Content is meant to be informational to your site visitor as well as being a gold mine of search terms for the Search Engines. When SEO Content is written everything needs to be considered.

- Title
- Article Content
- Descriptions
- Keyword Tags
- Image Description
- Image Title

Before writing content, create a list of 20 key terms that you would like to appear on the first page of Google and Yahoo. Then write “article” titles that would include these key terms. Choose two article titles and set a goal to write those two articles in the next two weeks. Keep your list and return to it after you write your first two articles. If you continued this practice, your site would have 52 key word rich articles on it by this time next year. This will also make your site “sticky”, visitors will want to return to it again and again to find out what you have to say. If you have a Content Management Website you can create an RSS feed out of this valuable information and submit that feed to the Search Engines.
SEO Content takes the idea of the forbidden “Black Hat” doorway pages (Doorway pages would be filled with key terms and nothing else) and turn them into a valuable resource for website visitors and a great way to climb the Search Engines. These pages also tend to be a more stable for staying on the Search Engines. SEO Content Articles do not need to be long. I like to keep mine to about 300 – 350 words. If you read my daily blog or visit my website you will see I tend to always stay in that range. Great content also seems to weather the storm when Search Engine algorithms are changed.

Did you know that your site can be BANNED?????

It happens everyday to websites big and small, one day they are at the top of the search engines and the next day they are GONE. What happened? What can I do?

What Happened? Have you really been banned?
Sites get banned everyday, but with the millions of sites online it is still a rare occurrence. It would be odd that you would not be slightly suspicious, but it does happen.

You first might notice that your page rank has dropped. The next sign may be a drop of your search results to the 2^nd page or worse.

The best way to tell if your site has been banned go to the Google search bar and type

site:www.yourURL.com

This would normally show you how many of your pages have been indexed by Google. If there are no results, now may be the time to really start getting nervous. The finally test is your address. If your site still does not show up after previous Search Engine success. Yikes, It might be banned, but still lets hold out a little hope.

What might have happened?

Did your webmaster set your robot.txt to repel search engine bots? There is a chance that someone accidently set the robot.txt incorrectly and you are shutting out the poor little googlebot.

Was your server down when the googlebot came around? It is the world’s worse timing but sometime your server may go down while the bot is checking your site. Unlikely but it can happen.

Have you lost some pages? There is a chance that some of the pages you removed were your best indexed pages. If the googlebot comes around and finds them missing you may drop.

Did Google have an issue? Yes, as wonderful as Google is, sometimes stuff happens. They index over 4 billion pages a month and sometimes the spider may send a faulty result.

What can you do?

Contact Google. Yes, there are really people there to help you. Remember 4 billion pages when you contact them. E-mails can take over a week to be answered. Be nice, be naïve, and ask kindly what the issue could be. Remember they have your site in their hands.

help@google.com

If that doesn't help contact ME.