The WordPress sidebar is a helpful tool that gives site owners a chance to engage readers, direct them to content and other pages, and read prior entries. With an extensive sidebar widget system, there are lots of great options for blog owners who are looking to take their design — and their readership to the next level. Subscription Options Offered as an optional plugin for the standard WordPress installation, the Subscription Options widget allows your readers to subscribe to your site’s blog entry or comments RSS feed. That means they’ll always have your freshest entries in their RSS reader of choice, and they’ll be alerted to new content. It’s a great way to keep people coming back again and again every time you post new content to your blog or other website. Users can also use this handy widget to subscribe to email updates, like a digest of your site’s weekly entries, as well as post your entries to Twitter – Read the full article
In mid-March, Google launched a social sharing tool called “+1.” Similar to the Facebook “Like”, +1 was added to search results to improve social relevance for users. It was noted last week that +1 will make its way across the Web in addition to (simply) search, with a widget that allows Web pages to allow +1 sharing. This will link Google profiles to content and websites, and the +1 now aims to put Google in a space where they have strived to be in for the past 5 years: social. Now, what exactly is +1? And why does it even matter? Essentially the +1 button is Google’s version of the “Like.” With hopes to capture a bit of Facebook market share, Google looks to take the world’s information and make it publicly available (according to their mission statement). So what does this mean for you? Well, besides the fact that it’s another way to draw traffic to your blog, the – Read the full article
While the concept of online marketing can seem strange and almost unnecessary for the food and drink industry, there are a whole range of benefits that can come from having a good online presence. In this post I want to cover some of the most useful options available and how these can be applied to your business to help increase your exposure and ultimately lead to more customers coming through your doors. You’ll need a website Before you attempt any sort of Internet marketing you are going to need a website. This shouldn’t be a problem as most businesses nowadays have realized the need to have a website and have already got this step covered. But after investing time and money into a website to represent your business, doesn’t it seem wasteful not to get it in front of your potential customers? That’s where the next step comes in. Try out search engine marketing Millions of people use search engines – Read the full article
Social media has garnered a great deal of attention for big business. Corporate budgets are able to integrate complete marketing campaigns and promote them on social media. If you are a small business looking to be the next social media influencer, you are probably finding out how tough it is to engage with users on social media. However, there is some good news for you and for other small- and medium-sized business owners. The 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report saw that SMBs who used social for local marketing saw boosts in exposure, traffic, and sales. Whether you are a late adopter or consider yourself a social media pioneer, chances are, if your business is doing some sort of social media marketing, you at least understand its significance. Over 90 percent of small business owners and Internet marketers believe that social media is important to their business. Depending on the industry you operate in and how “brand-heavy” you are influences – Read the full article
Happy February LSB readers! Well now it’s February and hopefully, you haven’t abandoned your 2011 resolutions. For us entrepreneurs, goals are important as ever on our road to global domination. Two of my goals: Be consistent in the gym, and grow the business. When I was in the gym last week, it occurred to me that most exercising tips directly relate to growing your business. Confused? Read on to see how these muscle growing or slenderizing (for you ladies) tips can strengthen your business. 1) Don’t Overexert Yourself What’s going to happen if you lift too much weight? Injury. This rule is the same for your business. Rack up too much debt, take on too many clients, you’re going to hurt your business. A rule in exercising is to ensure you master the lower weight before you move up. Be real with your company’s capabilities and realistically conduct your business. 2) Don’t Follow the Other Guys Just because the people at – Read the full article
Looking to get ahead of the social media marketing game? Sure, Facebook and Twitter are still the king and queen of this kingdom – just as reported in a recent StrongMail survey of online marketing budgets in 2011 – but the New Year also heralds a number of new social media darlings that are certainly worth keeping an eye on. Last year, it was Foursquare and Posterous leading the pack. This year is just as promising – if not more promising, thanks in large part to the continued expansion of social media and to the crazy range of new sites, apps, and startups out there. Here are our picks for social media websites to watch in 2011. Quora Last March 2010, Quora reportedly received $86 million in funding from Benchmark Capital (also a Twitter investor). It didn’t make any million-dollar noise the rest of the year, but this 2011 just might be the year Quora really makes waves. As a – Read the full article
There’s a lot of hype in the social media realm over the dozens of new tools and dashboards that help you keep an eye on what people are saying about your company. Indeed, online reputation monitoring and management is quickly becoming a must-have for your marketing strategy. It is every business owner’s dream to be able to keep tabs on their brand name. Now, they can swoop in and clean up after a dirty situation. Likewise, they can reward or thank people for good mentions. Social media is growing at an enormous rate, but it still makes up only a relatively small portion of the Internet. There are billions of websites and blogs that also like to talk about things. Many of those sites have a reach comparable to or larger than the social mentions that are happening around your brand. Reputation monitoring goes beyond social media: you should be monitoring the whole Internet. Before you spend money on expensive – Read the full article
As mentioned here last week, 2011 is about to bring lots of hotness on the World Wide Web. One of the things that we mentioned was the emergence of HTML5, a new markup revision of the HTML standard, and which is expected next year to extend its reach even wider. While HTML5 is still under development, developers, programmers, and tech companies are already adopting a number of its features. Even some of the world’s most popular websites are enabling support for HTML5. How fast it will replace Adobe Flash – if HTML5 will replace it at all – remains to be seen, but just in case you’re keen on checking out what the HTML5 buzz is all about, we’ve compiled a list of websites whose HTML5 features you can test-drive – right now. Dive into HTML5 Authored by Mark Pilgrim, this book explains and demonstrates HTML5 in a no-BS language that’s easy to understand. In the introduction, Pilgrim notes how – Read the full article
