I spoke with a business owner today and he said that he had the capability to make 5000 pieces of his product a year, but he was only currently able to sell about 1000. Sounds like a marketing opportunity to me! So…should he trade me a piece of his underachieving company for my marketing knowledge? Stop and think about it for a minute….he has been stuck in a bit of a rut at 1000 units. If I can help him grow to selling 5000, wouldn’t it be worth it?

Maybe, maybe not…he might be perfectly content being his own boss, and making a decent living. But…if he wants to grow the business, he may need outside help. Most times, that doesn’t come cheap. Plus, he would still be able to be his own boss in the workshop, but may love the idea of having someone else worry about things that he is not very good at. 

Let me know what you think, and how you would handle the situation. 

1. All in One SEO Pack – this is the industry standard with over five million downloads. It’s the first plugin that you should add to a new blog.

2. Contextual Related Posts – This plugin displays a series of related  blog posts

3. SEO Smart Links – Helps you to interlink  your posts (hyperlink to past posts on a related subject)

4. WP-DB-Backup – This is not really an SEO tool, but it will email a file of your database so your SEO efforts don’t ever get lost

5. Google XML Sitemaps – This plugin lets Google know when you add new posts and pages to your site

Successful SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Get started now, and your efforts will pay off for a long time!

The impact on how you will need to update your content will be significant. The new results will be an environment where more universally acceptable content such as videos, images, audio content, and reviews will be available real-time, and prominent in Google search returns. This should really make your Social Media efforts pay off in a big way!

Twitter has supercharged the information exchange. Every tweet you make is public. You can choose to follow just about anybody, and anybody can follow you. This has created the possibility to build networks of like-minded people in very little amounts of time. With every 140 character tweet, you can send out information that positions you in a way to get responses by complete strangers.
Job hunting used to make people feel lonely. Via Twitter, connecting with friends or total strangers in the same position is quickly done. At times, knowing that you are not the only one searching for a job is comforting. The community that is present on Twitter can give you support and point you in the direction of recruiters or job opportunities.

Through using Twitter’s hashtag, the # sign in front of a keyword, you instantly connect to thousands who have used the same keyword. When you are looking for a job, you may use such hashtags as #jobsearch, #career, #networking, or hashtags that would describe your skills. Other job hunters, recruiters, and career coaches can find you and be found by you.

By following people who are relevant in your industry and replying to their tweets, you can build a personal rapport. Before you send your full resume to a recruiter, you can send a tweet that builds value. In your tweet, mention the resume being on its way, but also what you did for a similar company before. Measurable successes such as increased sales are a perfect thing to mention so your resume gets more attention. A tweet is also a great tool to follow up a few days later.

More and more people are using Twitter as a tool to find work, promote their skills, and connect with people in their industry for collaboration. Many have found new jobs and started new careers by using Twitter as part of their job-finding strategy.

The typical FaceBook user stays in touch with peers of their own age, their parents, and exchanges news about the kids. The lines between friends and co-workers blur as we communicate by wall posts as much or as little as we are willing to share with our friends, or “friends of friends.”

How do businesses benefit from this? Instead of paying huge amounts of money for advertisement on TV, corporations use word of mouth. Traditionally, word of mouth was limited to the people you could physically get in touch with in person or by telephone. Now, you can voice your opinion to hundreds of friends at once.

There are plenty of days when you are invited on the sidebar of your FaceBook account to RSVP to an event in your area that promises free drinks, free pastries, or other benefits. As those events get announced, your friends will remind you of those. A buzz is created around an event, or product launch, and it is entirely consumer-driven.

The little icons for such social media sites have become omnipresent all over the internet. A vast majority of companies maintains at least one account on all of those to keep their name present in your mind. True to the old mantra that there is no bad publicity, companies have the ability to get their name out and into your home whether you want to or not.

Just as a friend may love a product, another may hate it. Both brought the product to your attention. They directly influence what your next internet search will be. As you investigate to find more information, you create web traffic for those companies. A constant cycle of information and free advertisement is created.

Each long url is associated with its own key which is the portion after http://domain.tld/. There are many different techniques to creating a shortened url. Keys can be numerically generated in base thirty-six assuming twenty six letters and ten numbers. A random number can be generated in order for the key sequence not to be predictable. Users can even suggest their own keys.

The first noted url shortening services was called TinyURL and was launched in 2002. The idea, however, has been around since the year 2001 at least. The existence of Tiny URL influenced about one hundred other similar websites. Many were simply domain alternatives. Some offered additional features such as NotifyURL which sends an email when the link is first visited. SnipURL introduces social bookmarking features such as usernames as well as RSS feeds. DwarfURL generates statistics. Adjix, XR and Linkbee are ad-supported models of URL shorteners that share the revenue with their users. Om.ly provides real time, multi-dimensional analysis of click-through statistics. Bit.ly offers free click-through statistics and charts. J.mp offers free click-through statistics and charts.

More shortening services include Runs on bit.ly platform and is owned by bit.ly. Digg offers a shortened URL which includes not just the target URL, but an i-framed version that includes a set of Digg-related controls called the Digg bar. Doiop allows the shortening to be selected by the user, and Unicode can be used to achieve really short URLs. For example http://doiop.com/w redirects to Wikipedia’s main page. UrlShort is an open source shortening project. qu.pe offers password protection and the opportunity to add a comment (displayed in a separate frame or page). Sl.ly offers limited statistics, password protection, expiration date, bulk submission and also lets you see what URL’s have been created.

In today’s fast paced society, not many people have time to remember an extremely long url or list it down, letter by letter. Url shortening is essential to meet the demands of today’s time constraints. Read each url shortening provider’s website and see which one seems to offer you the service which fits your needs. Many offer more than just url shortening and have other features to benefit your website. The important thing is to be clear with what you need and find the proper provider.

If Twitter allowed more than 140 characters for its posts, then it wouldn’t be a micro-blogging site. Technically, Twitter’s 140 characters is a blessing and at the same time a curse. Hence, knowing how to make use of your 140 characters is a crucial technique you must learn. Below are six tips that can help you use your 140 characters wisely.

1. Utilize your user profile. Always start off with the basics. Upon registering on Twitter, you are given the option to add details about yourself through your user profile. Tweeting isn’t the only way to invite people to your website or to your services. Utilize the ‘About Me’ portion of your profile and fill in as much information as you can. You just saved yourself 140 characters by doing that.
2. Keep it Short and Simple. Since Twitter only allows 140 characters, keeping your statements short and simple is a must. Whenever you post a statement, go straight to the point, mention only what needs to be mentioned and don’t be redundant. Remember the initials K-I-S-S when formulating posts.
3. Make your posts catchy. With 140 characters, you won’t be able to post an entire blog on Twitter; hence, try to make your posts catchy when linking to a site where your blog post is. This is the most common technique used by bloggers. Instead of posting the main thought of your blog post, use headlines in this case. Other than quotes and daily updates, 140 characters are best used for headlines. Whether you are posting about something intriguing on the news or about a new blog post you made on your site, make your updates on Twitter catchy in order to get clicks.
4. Use common acronyms when writing a post. The internet lingo has a very dynamic vocabulary that will never run short of acronyms and abbreviations. The use of acronyms is very common on the internet and a lot of people know the lengthened form of these commonly used letters such as BRB, LOL, BB, ASAP, BTW, as well as other internet acronyms.
5. Make use of emoticons. Smileys or emoticons are very useful when tweeting. Instead of spelling out a few words, why don’t you use an emoticon instead? Common emoticons such as the smiley face “ : ) ” or “ ^__^ “, or perhaps the sad face “ : ( “, can show your followers more than what words can say. With only three characters, you can express 137-characters worth of statements.
6. For links: There are various Twitter tools on the internet that help in shortening links into 20 characters or less. TinyURL and Bit.ly are the most popular services on Twitter; however, there are other websites out there that also offer the same service for free.

twitter birds

Wow! I got an invitation to join this program this morning from Michael Martine of Remarkablogger. He wrote a blog post at 2 am to get this invitation our to his list of subscribers because he feels that this is such a great offer. He also wants to have more of his list sign up that Chris Garret from ChrisG.com. Nothing like a little friendly competition from some of the A-List bloggers!

Anyway, the thing that got my attention on this is that it wasn’t an affiliate link that Michael sent. It’s just an invitation to a product that he himself is signed up for, and really believes in. Sooo…I’m thinking, if it is good enough for him, it surely has to be good enough for me too! And I’d also like to pass an invitation along to anyone else that feels that a $2500 course for free is a good thing. I know that I am learning every day, as evidenced by my enrollment in Michael’s blogging courses and coaching.

Please take a trip over to PyschoTactics and take a look at their offer. I am not promoting this for any fees; I am just doing what they asked, and paying it forward. It’s kinda like a chain letter that is actually worth your time and effort! So go sign up, and pass it on!