Not long ago, one might have thought that communicating with business partners in different locations is very difficult, or that imparting education to students spread out in a nation or abroad is impossible. The usual hue and cry at home over elders not being able to communicate with their beloved ones studying or working elsewhere has also abated, clearly indicating that the field of communications is witnessing yet another revolution. This time it is through webcasting, which in simple terms is broadcasting over the Internet – facilitating one-to-one or one-to-many interaction – and taking everyone by storm. Television and radio stations engaged in broadcasting programs suddenly look conventional, and are being overlooked with the availability of Internet-enabled computers that bring the whole world before you in no time. The growth of webcasting has been so phenomenal that people belonging to all walks of life have come to realize its importance in effectively promoting their varying interests – be it business, – Read the full article
The online advertising arena is just about to get a lot more interesting. In an announcement made Thursday on the Inside AdWords blog, Google says it is launching a new type of online advertising that will appear in its search results – called Product Listing Ads. States Dan Friedman, Google spokesperson: “We wanted to introduce a basic ad format that makes it easy for (advertisers) to promote (their) entire product inventory while still providing potential customers with high-quality, relevant results.” While Google’s text-only search ads – AdWords – have served as its bread and butter for awhile now, Product Listing Ads work slightly differently. First, they’re a lot more visual: advertisers can now list specific products with accompanying images/pictures, instead of just lines of text (“Sponsored Links”) that are placed next to the search results that are based on the keywords that people enter into their search queries. According to Google, people are twice as likely to click on these – Read the full article
Not long ago we published a blog post with essential tips on how to use LinkedIn for your small business. Since then, Facebook and Twitter continued to rise and flourish under the social media spotlight. But it doesn’t mean that LinkedIn had not gone through its own evolution, because it did. Just check out the stream of activity on the official LinkedIn blog. Or take numbers as proof: today, 80 million professionals – and counting – have signed up to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities through the social networking site. After all these new LinkedIn features and developments, we thought it would be a great time for an update. Here’s a list of tips on LinkedIn for small business – tips that may not have occurred to you just yet, but which will certainly give your online presence a huge boost. Upload that picture. Okay, we did mention this in that previous article – “brand your profile” – but judging – Read the full article
Writing content for your website, company blog, and social media networks? Unleash your inner comic. If you don’t have one, hire a writer who has one. That’s because a great sense of humor will go far in helping you get noticed on the Web. Sure, your brand may be as serious as serious can get. Maybe you’re in the business of selling insurance, or dental services, or something of the sort that makes you sit straight up in boardroom meetings, wear a crisp suit to work every day, and conclude that funny does not bode well for the bottom line. But in the age of the Internet, in the vast and competitive landscape known as social media, it’s probably a good idea to take a cue from those who can make people laugh. Why? Because humor lengthens the attention span: Thanks in part to Twitter and to our link-clicking habits, Web content has been reduced to a matter of 140-character – Read the full article
So you’ve heard the stories of how affiliate marketers made thousands – millions! – from the basements of their homes. Yes, thank you, Internet. If you haven’t come across any such success story, suffice it to say that they’re all pretty inspiring stuff: stuff that you, as an affiliate marketer, will want to carry with you as evidence that there’s no better, more effective, more independent way of making money on the Web. Indeed, affiliate marketing is an amazing opportunity. There are loads of easy-to-join programs, endless lines of hot, trendy products to sell, great resources and tools to use, and desirable amounts of commission to earn. There are just as many horror stories, though. In the mad rush to leverage the power of the Internet and sell products via the affiliate marketing platform, many have lost more than they gained. Many did not become millionaires. Many quit. Many just took their talents to South Beach, or to the local – Read the full article
When it comes to blog design, there are several common design mistakes that scare away your visitors (or worse, your profits). Here are seven of the biggest pitfalls. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! 1. Too Many Ads. Though you want to make money off your blog, usually through advertising, an overload of ads will be the surest way to turn off potential readers. Do not let ads overwhelm your content — people are not visiting your site to see advertisements, they are visiting it to see what your blog has to offer. If all it has to offer are ads, don’t expect a return visit. Instead, pick a few tastefully placed ads in high traffic spots, such as under your banner or one on the sidebar, and leave it at that. Ads in and of themselves are not the turn off, but if that’s all your site appears to be, that will be. 2. Large Blocks of Text. If – Read the full article
Twitter and Facebook: yes, sure, everyone’s heard of these social media giants. But there’s another name that’s slowly but steadily catching the attention of media companies, businesses, and celebrities – and one which you, as an Internet marketer, business owner, or startup, might want to check out for yourself. It’s called Tumblr. Tumblr has actually been around for awhile – it was launched nearly four years ago – but it’s only now that the potential of this easy blogging service is being recognized and realized by the world of social media users. In a nutshell, Tumblr is a platform for blogging, much like WordPress, Blogger, Movable Type, and Posterous, but what makes it different from these other platforms is its ability to “socialize” its service. Tumblr isn’t just for strictly “writerly” bloggers or Dear Diary writers; it’s for anyone who wants to share anything, from text passages, quotes, photos, links, music videos, etc. at the click of a button. In – Read the full article
Do you have your favorite WordPress plugins? I have a list of more than 10 ones that I install on every blog. Some help me backup easier, some improve the site speed and other plugins show me detailed stats of what people do on my blogs. All these plugins are great. But they are not the most important ones. The most important plugins for every serious blogger are these which help their blog generate revenue. Of course they can’t magically turn your blog into money machine – you still need to work hard and create great content. These plugins however can significantly boost your revenue – by improving the SEO and user interaction, by helping you to sell more ads, or by letting your users share the blog on social networks. Here is a list of the best ones you can install right now: 1. WP e-Commerce Now it’s easy to turn your WordPress blog into a shopping cart. The – Read the full article
