Infomation At A Glance

This blog is only for sharing various information

Tips to Increase Facebook Fans for FREE

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on September 18, 2010


Facebook is a social networking site initiated in February 2004 that is controlled and privately owned by Facebook, Inc., which has more than 500 million active users in July 2010. This is equal to about one person for every fourteen in the world.

Facebook users can add profiles with photos, along with lists of personal interests, and other personal information. User can use private or public messages or a chat feature for communicating with friends and other users. Users can furthermore join his interested groups and “like pages” (formerly called “fan pages” until April 19, 2010), some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising.

As Facebook become one of the most populated social media sites in the world so it is the best social network sites to promote your online business and blogs.

Facebook fanpage is the best place to do online promotion if you want to promote any online business. Now so many companies are ready to give huge amount to increase their fan base. But just you have to know the trick of how to get fans in Facebook.

Invite your friends feature, in Facebook is the best way to quickly increase your subscriber.

Here get some tips…

a). “Fanpage Exchange”

Fanpage Exchange is the most effective way. Many bloggers and 3rd party companies raise their fan base for their blog and to their customers through this. It’s very simple but effectual way to increase your fans base.

For that ask your friends to suggest your fanpage to all of his friends.

Don’t forget – Select all Facebook friends in a single click

– Carry out fanpage swap over activity with your friends who are very active in Facebook so you can get more fans for your blog

– Don’t go viral because there is a chance of getting your account banned.  Now Facebook had tightened their privacy to add more friends in Facebook.

b). add “Like Box” in your Blog

If your blog is a popular, you can integrate like box or fanpage widget in your blog to get utmost attention to your fan page, so that it is easy for your loyal readers and visitors to become your fans.

c). Content Is King

If you want to attract many readers to your blog, then you need to post quality article. So you can get more fans to your fanpage. Having thousands of fans without quality content is totally useless. So try to make quality content in your niche.

d). Frequent Updates

If you update your fanpage regularly with quality article it will be published on your friends or fans wall so it can be read by their friends. Thus there is a chance of turning out your friends to become your fans easily. It increases your fans indirectly.

e). Organize a Competition in your Blog

You can host any competition in your blog, invite the competitors to become your fans in Facebook and share your post in their Facebook wall. Award the winners with any gifts or cash awards in return, this will definitely help for a new bloggers to create a good community around their blog.

f). Paid Service

If you think it’s not enough for your business or blog, then you can buy Facebook fans from trusted 3rd party services or companies. But I’m sure if you follow above tips, then you can get most out from Facebook fanpage

Having a Facebook fan page helps a lot on driving traffic and brand exposure.

Posted in Facebook | Tagged: | 4 Comments »

Online Video Marketing: Tips to Do Well

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on September 15, 2010


It’s a pretty notable stat that online video marketing is now rising. According to a Forrester Research survey, videos are 53 times more likely to become visible at the top of search results. Video marketing is the exercise of short, attractive and informative videos to promote awareness to a potential customer about a product or service and also entice them to purchase the product(s)/ service(s). Online video marketing is attractive way for many businesses to establish online present. Now days, creation of videos and posting them online is fairly inexpensive.  Plus, online videos stay online forever.  Lots of social media sites now encourage video posting and sharing. The benefits of viral video opportunities are endless, but you should use the right strategies to create and post your videos online.

The Four main foundations of Online Video

The following table is helpful to identify with who is doing what in the online video space:

CONTENT

Funny or Die, Generate, Howcast, Katalyst Media, Machinima, Mania TV, DECA, DBG, Eqal, Fora.tv, Next New Networks, Revision3, VideoJug, WatchMojo.

TECHNOLOGY

Adobe, Apple, Avid, JumpCut, Sorensen, On2, blip.tv, Qik, uStream, StudioNow, VMIX, Akamai, BitGravity, Edgecast, Brightcove, Feedroom, Justin.tv, KIT Digital, Livestream/Mogulus, Ooyala, Maven, Permission TV, Grid Networks, Limelight Networks, Panther Express.

ADVERTISING

Adap.tv, Auditude, Brightroll, Overlay.tv, Panache, Scanscout, Tidal TV, Broadband Enterprises, Freewheel, Tremor Media, Video Egg, Yume.

DISTRIBUTION

Hulu, Kaltura, MSN, Metacafe, Nabbr, Revver, Vimeo, Yahoo!, 5Min, AOL, Break, DailyMotion, YouTube, Blinkx, Cast TV, Clicker, Clipblast, Dabble, Everyzing, Google, Mefeedia, Pixsy, Truveo.

Some Immediate Tips to Optimize Your Videos

Follow these tips to make sure it reaches your core audience and gets the views it deserves.

a) Start with Search Results

Observe what people are searching for when you’re planning for your topics. The results might shock you. Howdini was appointed by Sony to create how-to videos for its camera site, for instance, and found that people didn’t desire tips on buying cameras, but on taking better photographs.

b) Use attractive title

Video titles can attract powerful traffic.  The main reasons why the title is so significant are- first, a great title can instantly capture a viewer’s attention.  Two, when you use the suitable keywords in your title, you are more likely to show up on search engines when people are seeking for your topic.  And remember Google owns YouTube, so there’s a story connection between video and searching.

b) Endow with excellent content

First identify your ideal viewer.  What they’ll find valuable in it?  What you want to teach them?  You can use “How-to” for videos as videos with “How-to” are really booming because not only do they put forward great value to your viewer, but also you’re able to showcase your knowledge and skill, by positioning yourself as an expert.  In this way you can also grow your brand.

But, videos should be short. No matter how good your content is, it won’t matter if your video is too long and you lose your viewer’s attention.

c) Incorporate your URL in your video

When you revise/edit your video, take benefit of the special editing features.  One easy aspect is to add a text box to your video, where you can show your website address and it’s a great way to get publicity.

d) Get benefit of video’s branding prospect

For branding uses, display your company logo significantly somewhere on the screen. You can demonstrate your logo throughout your video or only at key times.

e) Always use an HTML link

Write a short description of your video, when you post on YouTube.  Always put website URL (it’s the first thing you want to put in the box!) and the keywords as well as in the description.

f) Go further than YouTube

Most people submit their videos on YouTube.  Additionally to this, ensure to always embed your video on your own website.  This will amplify the amount of time people spend on your website and help grow a captive audience.

Also, Google’s algorithms regard as how many times a video is viewed, and embedded video views you get get added to the ‘views’ total on YouTube.  This is essential for showing up in Google SERP.

Tips to accelerate Your Videos

Here are a few approaches that will give your videos an extra boost.

1.     Generate a Campaign: To get observed, think away from stand-alone videos.  For greater achieve and spotlight, create a series of content-rich videos that you make public on a regular basis.  This will create a great synergy around your content. It will also allocate you to build upon your brand identity as each video is released.

2.     Include a Call to Action: At the end of your video, never ignore the opportunity to ask your viewers to take some type of action.  You can request them to sign up for your newsletter, or go to a specific website, or leave a comment about your video or visit your blog.  If your video is good, you’ll likely have their full attention; take care to take advantage of it!

3.     Don’t use a Sales Pitch: There is a lot of sales confusion on the web and you want to make sure you come out above this.  There is nothing erroneous with selling your products or services, but utilize your video to define a problem, discuss the solutions and support others—when you combine these three, your video will create a center of attention.

Video marketing has shifted to a new level and it can be used to get the message of the business to an audience. Video marketing can also build a trust in a brand or business among viewers. The video in reality give the viewers a visual of the business owner and brand.  It is essential for businesses to stick with the marketing trends because the way to market is always varying.

Posted in Video SEO | Tagged: , , , , , | 11 Comments »

Tips to Optimize a Dynamic Website

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on September 9, 2010


A web page that has been prepared with fresh information (content and/or layout), for each individual viewing is basically known as Dynamic web page. As it changes with the time (ex. a news content), the user (ex. preferences in a login session), the user interaction (ex. web page game), the context (parametric customization), or any combination of the foregoing, so, it is not static page.

One of the most popular examples of dynamic web pages is Google Earth™. Users input the address they are traveling to, and the page returns with directions and a map to the location.

Another example of a dynamic web page is a search engine. Web site searches, where the user is looking for information on just one site, are also dynamic pages.

Today, most dynamic web pages are created using various technologies such as DHTML, JSP, ASP (Active Server Pages), Cold Fusion technology, Perl and so on and so forth.

Therefore, for successfully optimize a dynamic website it is necessitate to have some complex search engine technology and ways that are significantly different and much more sophisticated than the latest SEO techniques used for ordinary, more conventional “static” web sites. So it becomes essential to know also about how to optimize a Dynamic Website?

In fact, it is difficult to get dynamic web sites properly indexed in the major search engines except they are professionally optimized. Even most search engines claim that they now index the majority of dynamic web sites but still only in some cases and it is limited to a number of URLs.

One of the most important reason behind having problem with dynamic sites to get indexed by major search engines is that Search engines often consider a dynamic URL as a set of infinite number of links.

There are two major problems with dynamic web site when it comes to search engines:

  1. Dynamic web page does not exist when search engine Robots are crawling the pages.
  2. The search engine Robots usually do not read character such as “?”, “%”, “$” “#”, “&”, “*”, “!”

The main cause behind it is because all dynamic pages do not even live until a user actually goes through a query or variable that generates the pages. Often search engine spiders are not programmed to select or choose any of query or variables. In this way, those dynamic pages do not get generated and that is why pages are not getting to be indexed.

As a direct consequence that most search crawlers have major problems “reading” any level into a typical dynamic database, most of these search engine spiders have been programmed to initially detect and then ignore most dynamic URLs.

Dynamic pages can be optimized by making database access well-organized, making page code more efficient, and performance testing while trying different optimizations.  This can involve quite a bit of work, testing, and analysis.

How to optimize a dynamic website to get it indexed by major search engines:

1. Convert dynamic URL’s to search-engine friendly URL’s-

Use some URL Rewriting Tools and software available on the web that converts a dynamic URL to Static URLs.

For an example- webconfs.com helps to change the dynamic URLs to static ones.

In this way, changing a dynamic URL to static URL assists it to get easily indexed by search engines.

2. Use CGI/Perl Scripts

You can use CGI/Perl scripts. By using CGI/Perl scripts your dynamic sites can get indexed by search engines easily. Path_Info or Script_Name is a variable in a dynamic application that contains the complete URL address. When you are using CGI/Perl scripts, the query part of the dynamic URL is assigned a variable.

3. Configure your web servers -

You can use Apache Server. Apache has a rewrite module that facilitates you to turn URLs containing query strings into URLs that search engines can index. This module is known as “mod_rewrite”, and it isn’t installed with Apache software by default, so you need to check with your web hosting company and see if it’s available for your server.

ColdFusion - If you are using Coldfusion to develop your websites, you have to reconfigure ColdFusion on your server so that the “?” in a query string is replaced with a ‘/’ and pass the value to the URL. So when the search engine spider approaches to index the page, it will not encounter the “?”, and go ahead and index the complete dynamic page.

4. Create mirror static web pages of your dynamic content, so that the search engines can spider them

Just create a static page linking to all your dynamic pages. Submit this static page along with all the dynamic pages in various search engines, conforming to the search engine submission guidelines. The search engine spider of course cannot index the entire dynamic page, but will catalog most of the content from it, because of this link on a static page.

5. Directly Submit Dynamic Pages through Paid Inclusion Programs

By directly submitting specific dynamic web pages to AltaVista, you can increase the chances of getting picked up by that search engine. If you submit your dynamic pages to AltaVista or Inktomi via their paid inclusion programs, it definitely ensures they will get in.

Only some Search Engines have the courage to stand up and say, “We Accept Dynamic Pages into our directory!” Two of the most popular search engines which allocate Dynamic pages are Infoseek and Hotbot.

If you are going to optimize a dynamic website then all above SEO tips can help you.

Posted in SEO | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Some Keywords Tools for Keyword Research and Trends

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on September 7, 2010


To focus on your website content, advertising, and affiliate links to improve your conversion, you can use free trend reports and keyword suggestion tools. These tools help you to find what people are looking for.

These are the best free ways to find the most popular keywords (on Google, Microsoft Live/MSN (Bing), and Yahoo) and trends.

Keyword selecting is the first step in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

You can use a variety of good methods to find the hottest trends of what people are searching for, buying, and doing. By using these free keyword reports and tools, you can not only improve your website or pages so they come up better in the searches, but also for coming up with the most searched for topics, thus leading to potentially more traffic.

Some of the coolest keyword tools are-

  • Google Trends
  • Google Search-based keyword tool
  • Google Search to Find the Best Keywords
  • Google Adwords Keyword Tool
  • Google Insights for Search
  • Google Keyword Suggestions
  • Google Battle
  • Hitwise
  • Wordtracker Free Keyword Suggestion Tool
  • Microsoft’s Keyword Forecast Tool
  • Trellian’s Keyword Discovery
  • Trends Buzz
  • Amazon Movers and Shakers
  • Ebay Hot Trends
  • Trend Hunter

Google Trends

Google Trends help you to find the latest searches for each day.

Google Trends evaluates a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. It will show you a graph with the results – search-volume graph – plotted on a linear scale.

Below the search and news volume graphs, Google Trends demonstrates the top cities, regions, and languages in which people searched for the first term you entered.

Hot Trends, rather than showing the most popular searches overall, it returns what people are searching for on Google today. Hot Trends show up searches that have sudden surges in popularity.

For each search, Hot Trends illustrates related searches, a search-volume graph, and the top cities. Hot Trends is updated hourly. You can also choose a date in the past to spot what the top Hot Trends for that date were.

Google Search-based keyword tool

Google Search-based keyword tool is based upon actual Google search queries.

As Google says, the tool “generates keyword and landing page ideas highly appropriate and exact to your website. This tool also helps you to identify additional advertising opportunities that aren’t currently being used in your AdWords ad campaigns. The tool goes one step further by tailoring the keywords and other data (such as the amount of competition for the keyword, the suggested bid, and more) based on your language or country/territory settings.”

Difference between the Search-based keyword tool and the Google Adwords tool

“The major difference between the Search-based Keyword Tool and the Keyword Tool currently in AdWords is that the former generates keyword ideas based on your website, and identifies those currently not being used in your AdWords account. Additionally, the Search-based Keyword Tool provides more detailed data for each keyword, such as category information, suggested bid that may place the ad in the top three spots of a search results page, and ad/search share. Both tools, however, offer the option of browsing all keywords across all categories.”

Google Search to Find the Best Keywords

The best tool to use is the Google search box. Not on Google’s home page but in your browser.

Use Firefox browser and use the Google search box (located in the upper right corner of the Firefox browser).

Begin typing any one letter. It will automatically fill the search box with first, all the searches you’ve made starting with that letter but under that will be “suggestions”, that’s what you want.

If you type “f”, then you’ll find “facebook, firefox, friendster” etc. These are the top searched for sites.

Next type in a second letter, you will see the most popular search terms that start with “fa”, like “family guy, fandango”, etc.

You can carry on using this method to find out the best keywords.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Google Adwords Keyword Tool is tied to data from Google searches, Google Adsense, and Google Adwords.

This is really one of the best tool. Adwords can suggest you more information. It will show you the keywords, but also suggest alternatives, and then will also show you how many clicks per month those keywords generate.

Google Insights for Search

If you want to compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties, then use Google Insights for Search.

Google Keyword Suggestions

Google Experimental Search -Google’s this technology offers alternative suggestions to your queries in real time. The keyword search suggestions will display beneath your current search.

Google Battle.com

A Google Battle between two keywords gives a comparison of the keywords and provides a smiley face representation, and a nice chart. It’s more entertaining than informative.

Hitwise

Fast Moving Search Terms

Although not hugely informative, there are some gems of information from Hitwise. This is from their Retail Section of Hitwise. Combine this with other trend and keyword research tools.

Wordtracker Free Keyword Suggestion Tool

An excellent keyword tool that is freely available from Wordtracker.

You can generate up to 100 related keywords and an guess of their daily search volume.

You can add the Wordtracker Keywords search to your browser, i.e., in Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 2.

Microsoft’s Keyword Forecast Tool

Microsoft’s Keyword Forecast Tool forecasts the impression count and predicts demographic distributions of keywords.

Trellian’s Keyword Discovery

This tool helps us to learn about keyword usage on the search engines. Try Keyword Discovery Tool .

Trends Buzz

Trends Buzz gives up to the minute information about top search and topic trends across multiple platforms. These include Google Hot Trends, Yahoo Buzz, Twitter, The New York Times, and Search.com.

Amazon Movers and Shakers

On Amazon, you can see the top sales for a variety of categories. These are the biggest gainers in Amazon.com sales rank over the past 24 hours. This site may be helpful for you as it provides you with great information as to what is selling and what is not. Not only that, but as you type in a search Amazon’s A9-powered search engine will give you top search suggestions.

Ebay Hot Trends

The eBay merchandising team searches trade magazines, gathers predictions from respected industry experts, and looks at eBay sales data to find out what’s in demand. Here’s the dig on which hot products will be sponsored on the home page, emails, and buyer catalog this season. Have a look here, Ebay What’s Hot and Ebay Pulse

Trend Hunter

Trend Hunter is the world’s leading community dedicated to trend spotting & cool hunting. The community was initiated in 2005 by Jeremy Gutsche, an innovation expert who wanted to build a community for new business ideas and creativity.

Trend Hunter is a resource of inspiration for industry professionals, aspiring entrepreneurs and the insatiably curious. By tracking the progress of cool, Trend Hunters generate ideas, stimulate creativity, and ultimately unlock cool.

Source : http://www.squidoo.com/Finding-The-Latest-Trends#module9110205

Posted in SEO | Tagged: , , | 14 Comments »

Cloud Tag

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on September 6, 2010


Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Why SEO Should Not Stop Working?

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on September 3, 2010


Search Engine Optimization [SEO] is the process of altering a document or website in order to improve search rankings of that document. SEO tends to focus on the organic (natural) or free listings.

Search engine optimization (SEO) can improve the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion.

Each search engine has a unique way of ranking or caching pages. By optimizing the structure of the website and improving its content, it’s possible to improve the website’s rankings for relevant keywords in search results. SEO has become an exact science as only when the website’s overall structure and content can be easily read and understood by the individual search engine’s programs, true optimization is achieved.

But some companies think that this is a one-time job and once done, it should last forever.  But this is not true. You need to make sure that you are keeping up with the changes your site undergoes.

The algorithm Google uses modifies daily in little ways but frequently in big ways.  To fight against spammers, all search engines run their own algorithm (Ask, Yahoo, Bing and Google) and modify the way they calculate rank correlated with keywords.  This means that a sudden dip in orders or visits may not be due to seasonality, but in fact a shift in where your site ranks for its desired keywords.  There are lots of programs that help to check ranking on keywords both free and paid for.  When changes happen, being immediately aware will help you pick up more quickly and save thousands in lost sales.

The search engines’ ranking relies on several factors. One of the aspects with most importance has been incoming links and their anchor text.  The act of “Google bombing” was when numerous links with specific anchor text were pointed at a page, and that page ranked for the anchor text.  One famous example is the White House ranking for “miserable failure”. Since this exploit was discovered, the value of links has been steadily diminishing. Due to changes to the way links are handled, your site suddenly stops ranking for a specific term.

Search engines regularly reward freshness and so keeping your website content fresh and constantly changing could help your rankings. These changes need to be carefully handled and should be overseen by an expert.  Simply inserting content is not enough.  The content needs to be marked, with proper optimization.  Adding the wrong content in the wrong way could damage your rankings.

Mistakes are sometimes made when changes are rolled out and it can often take an expert significant time to fix the mistake of mere seconds. This can affect rankings and depending on the frequency of your site being spidered, the damage could last months.  Monitoring ranking is necessary whether through searching manually, or automatically using a software package.

There are numerous things you can do without incurring significant costs to your business to monitor your site and be alerted when more SEO is needed.  For a roadmap of necessary changes, it can be beneficial to invest in a technical site audit however these can cost thousands.  They will often supply a roadmap of required changes as well as a severity ranking and guidance on what and how to make changes in the future.  For the long term, these are a solid investment.

Just register your site in Google’s Webmaster Tools.  If you get a penalty or if Google has a problem with your site, this is where they will leave a message for you.  It is free to register and validate your site and the interface is comparatively simple.  Once your site is validated, Google offers supportive pointers to dead/missing pages, problems it encountered or other issues.

Verify your web analytics at least once a week.  Ideally you should be spending an hour a day with your web analytics to support with the understanding of flow, conversions, bounce and related information.  Your web analytics may be where you first find out a problem.  Google offers an outstanding free web analytics package.

Read free online publications which talk important news and information about search engine changes.  As an example, a recent article alerted readers to a possible change to Google’s search results that may include “favicons”.  If search result pages incorporate them, it could have significant impact on click through rates in organic results.

Consciousness of changes to traffic and associated ranking changes for targeted keywords can alert you to changes as they happen.  These changes still require to be countered by professional search engine optimisation experts. By monitoring and having a roadmap of necessary changes in a site audit, you will be better placed to keep your SEO, and your site, always at the top.

Source – http://www.seo-chicks.com/1647/what-happens-when-seo-stops-working.html

Posted in SEO | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

NoFollow links Can Help a Site

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on September 2, 2010


The link that has an added attribute “rel=nofollow” towards its end, is known as A NoFollow link. This attribute notifies search engine spiders not to crawl that particular link. In order to control the handling of link building as a tool to increase search engine rankings, Google launched this attribute.
Though “No Follow” prevent Search Engine spider from crawling, but there are various small ways by which ‘NoFollow’ links can help.

1. ‘NoFollow’ attribute is not considered by all the search engines. Because this term was coined by Google. Some search engines do not consider nofollow guideline in their search engine algorithm.

2. You can get free traffic to your web site form a nofollow link. If a link of your site is added in some high ranking website, then visitors to that site can still see that link. Even though it may be nofollow link, the visitors can reach your website. Thus this link can help to drive direct traffic to your website. Hence sometimes when generating traffic is considered, a nofollow link can be as good as a ‘follow’ link.

3. NoFollow link can still assist you to get in touch with others and gain some traffic. Genuine commenting in other people’s blogs can slowly bring visitors to your blog or website articles. If they find something interesting to read, they will help in promoting your site by referring your site to others and by regular commenting, which will help you in making a brand image for yourself and your blog / website.

4. Think about two sites which are same in terms of quality of content and number of links they have. In this case a website having more ‘nofollow’ link will be given higher ranking. Thus, in a way nofollow links have high value with search engines.

5. A nofollow link does not mean that the link in itself is bad. A site having ‘nofollow’ links is any day better than a site having no links at all. Hence your site will not get any bad media hype by being a nofollow link.

6. A link with ‘NoFollow’ does not mean that it cannot be indexed by Google or any other search engines. NoFollow attribute will not prevent your site from being visible to readers in general.

Source : http://www.mrkeyword.com/blog/?p=441

Posted in SEO | Tagged: , | 1,942 Comments »

Be the Best Twitterer – Some tips for Using Twitter

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on August 31, 2010


Twitter is a micro-blogging service and it is very hot now.

By following tips, you can be the best twitterer.

  1. Set up a good profile: offer people a preview what your tweets going to disclose.
  2. Add a profile picture: to make your tweets more personal, add a profile photo of yourself.
  3. Use a simple and short Twitter name: If you use a longer Twitter ID then it will take more space, and a complex name can make it hard for people to reply or mention you.
  4. Add a link to your profile that notifies more about you: Add your blog, or an about me page, or any other page that recommends more information about the person behind the tweets.
  5. Post photos: Post photos on Twitter and insert some interest to your stream.
  6. Make use of correct grammar: make your tweets understandable and clear but occasional you can use abbreviations as passable.
  7. Specify your location: Many people will follow you if they know where you are, because lots of people use Twitter for local networking.
  8. Find out the lingo: try to know about what DM, @, RT, and other Twitter symbols stand for, look them up.
  9. Don’t be in hurry to build your network: allow your following to grow organically. Don’t follow hundreds of people right away.
  10. Use @ to Reply someone: Place a @ sign in front of someone’s name on Twitter to write to them specifically, or simply just mention them-they will be notified that you did so.
  11. Use smaller/short URLs: Use a URL shortener like TinyURL, bit.ly or is.gd etc.
  12. Use your mobile device: Tweet from your phone, iPod, or other mobile device to keep your Twitter updated on the go, using the mobile web or text.
  13. Find your friends: In order to find your friends, classmates, organizations, and others that you may want to follow on Twitter, you can use Twitter’s search option.
  14. Leave your profile and tweet public: maintain your tweet public so that people can get to know you before deciding to blindly follow.
  15. Use a hashtag (#): Make it easy for others to find your tweets Use a hashtag (#) to be a part of the most popular conversation.
  16. Use abbreviations: to save space and reading effort, use of codes like LOL, BRB, and NSFW.
  17. Use appropriate words: Use only the words that are completely necessary to get your message across.
  18. You can make your account private if you don’t want to share your updates with the world.

Tips for Finding Friends on Twitter

You need to build your own community and find people to follow.

  1. Find people with similar interests: Check out Twitter directories to find people in your niche and interests, as well as those in your location.
  2. Don’t be anxious in finding followers: focus on building good relationships with those you follows. Twitter isn’t about quantity, but quality.
  3. Follow genuine/real people: The people who want to game the system-build relationships with people, just avoid them.
  4. Keep an eye on Facebook statuses: Many Facebook users tie their status to Twitter-if you see any @ signs in there, chances are they are on Twitter.
  5. Share your passions in life: Discuss your hobbies and interests, and hash tag them so others can find you-and find others this way as well.
  6. Register yourself in directories: Make sure you’re easy to find by putting your Twitter name in relevant directories.
  7. Get out from behind the screen: Participate in meet ups to meet your followers face to face, and get connected with others.
  8. Be informative: Share links, video, and more in order to be interesting and valuable to the Twitter discussion.
  9. Follow influencers: Follow significant people on Twitter and interact with them to get lots of value.
  10. Follow the people that you think are interesting: Listen to people that say things you’re interested in hearing.
  11. Be funny and interesting: Make your timeline entertaining so that others will want to follow you.
  12. Make yourself an authority: Share invaluable knowledge that would be missed if you stopped tweeting.

Tips for Keeping Followers

Once you’ve got followers, be sure to keep them by following these strategies.

  1. Don’t spam: unnecessary DMs, repeated messages, and constant annoying information will get you unfollowed quickly.
  2. Follow back: If someone is following you, and they offer some value, go ahead and follow them back-you can always take it back later. For goodness sakes, just reciprocate.
  3. Don’t make Twitter an extension of your blog: Twitter isn’t RSS. Twitter about your blog, but go beyond it as well.
  4. Take it easy: Don’t tweet incessantly-or you’ll flood the windows of others so much that they’ll want to stop listening.

Tips for Tweeting

These are some of the ideas and things you can tweet about.

  1. Share your announcements: Let people know about your achievements-shows, interviews, big trips.
  2. Tweet useful links: if you found something interesting, useful, or funny then share it with your Twitter network.
  3. Have fun: Just be social, make connections, and use Twitter for good.
  4. Share multimedia: Twitter loves who share photos, videos, and more, so share good multimedia.
  5. Update daily: Update at least once a day so your followers have something to follow along with.

Tips for Developing Relationships

Try to develop a good relationships with your Twitter followers.

  1. Ask questions, give answers: invite others for giving their opinions to improve relationships. Reply on other’s queries, if you know the answers.
  2. Check your @ replies regularly: Make sure you know who is mentioning you by looking at your @ replies, and responding to them.
  3. Act as a team with others: Share information and work closely with others in your niche on Twitter.
  4. Show appreciation: If someone’s helped you out, be sure to thank them publicly.
  5. Be a human being: Share personal information too and show people that you’re a human being.
  6. Offer value: give people a reason to listen when you tweet by sharing your knowledge.
  7. Give shout outs: Mention your Twitter friends and give them the spotlight.
  8. Meet off of Twitter: Go to Tweetups and meet other users, or organize your own.
  9. Retweet: retweet,if someone shared a valuable information, and you can simultaneously share it with more people and show the person you retweeted that you appreciate them.
  10. Answer to every reply: If someone writes directly to you, be sure to acknowledge them by responding to their tweet.
  11. Be authentic: Avoid being false-stay honest and let people see yourself.
  12. Keep an eye on your reply ratio: track the ratio of normal tweets to reply tweets in balance in order to stay original while still actively engaging others.
  13. Take extended or private conversations to DM: If there’s a privacy issue involved, don’t Tweet in public-share via DM.

Tips for Getting Value

How you can get the best value out of Twitter? Here are the tips-

  1. Join the chat: Read what others are doing and reply to what you’re interested in.
  2. Ask for help: you can use Twitter to get your questions answered and find a lending hand.
  3. Try to keep your tweets short enough to retweet: If you want to be retweeted, make sure to leave extra space for at least “RT @yourname” to be adjoined.
  4. Keep up with the Twitter blog: Find out about technical problems, community issues, and more from the Twitter blog.
  5. Keep on active: Don’t use Twitter passively-be an active user to get the most value from it.
  6. Follow the news: Twitter is a great resource for breaking news-often beating typical media to the punch by hours.
  7. Try to tweet during peak times: People are most likely to see your tweets during US business hours, so time your usage accordingly.
  8. Stay on top of your friends: Use Twitter as a service to stay well connected with your real-life friends.
  9. Track mentions of keywords: Set up a service to inform you whenever certain keywords are used on Twitter.

But some actions that are best avoided on Twitter. They are -

  1. Remember to tweet like your grandma’s listening: Twitter is public, and even if you keep things private, you can never be too careful.
  2. Give information about links: Don’t just share links without any explanation-tell your followers why they need to visit.
  3. Keep it all to one tweet: You’re limited to 140 characters-keep it that way unless it’s absolutely necessary.
  4. Don’t share EVERYTHING you do: Don’t share useless details about your cat or grilled cheese sandwich for lunch-make things a little more interesting.
  5. Stop arguing: Debate is fine, but too much tense back and forth will turn followers off.
  6. Avoid automatic DMs: Don’t set up your account to send welcome DMs to new followers-it’s considered impersonal and bad form.
  7. Make sure your background doesn’t look like an advertisement: Many users choose to customize their background-just be careful not to take it too far.
  8. Keep your follow to following ratio fairly even: You should be following about the same amount of people who follow you-too far either way makes you look like a spammer or a snob.
  9. Don’t expect unrelated people to follow you back: If your Twitter is all about how you sell real estate in California, someone in Texas with no unifying interests to you is just not likely to want to reciprocate.
  10. Don’t be an island: Engage your followers, and show that you’re a part of the community.
  11. Don’t make it a following contest: If your main goal on Twitter is to amass as many Twitter followers as possible, you’ll end up turning a lot of followers off.
  12. Do not auto respond: Autoresponders take the personality out of Twitter-individually connect instead.
  13. Don’t always push your agenda: Twitter is a great marketing tool, but it will backfire on you if you abuse it.

If you’re a business on Twitter, then follow these tips -

  1. Don’t automate: Impersonality is the bane of Twitter-you’ll get more attention by engaging others and being genuine.
  2. Use a photo instead of a logo: Make your Twitter account more personal with a photo.
  3. Share your events: Make things interesting and possibly meet your followers through events.
  4. Be personal: Show character and enforce a friendly brand for your company.
  5. Share contests: Get followers more interested in what you tweet by holding contests.
  6. Create multiple accounts if necessary: Set up an official account and others for individual employees if you’d like.
  7. Follow relevant people: Connect with colleagues, journalists, competitors, and people who love your brand.
  8. Share your business culture with OHs (overheards): Let people listen in to what’s happening in your office by repeating fun moments and comments.
  9. Gather information: Ask Twitter followers what they’d like to see from you, and how you can improve.
  10. Monitor your brand: Use alerts to find out what people are saying about your business, and respond to them.
  11. Share your media: Link to videos, interviews, and more so followers can learn more about you and your business.
  12. Talk back: connect with those who engage you-and don’t be afraid to start conversations.

Tips that will help you to keep Productivity & Organization

  1. Use a client: Whether you’re on a mobile device or you’re on desktop, get some help from clients like TwitterFon, Twirl, or TweetDeck.
  2. Don’t feel like you have to read every tweet: You will miss some tweets, and that’s OK.
  3. Limit your Twitter time: Check in occasionally, but don’t let Twitter keep you from more important things.
  4. Don’t feel pressured to follow everyone back: While you generally should follow those who follow you, if someone offers no value to you, don’t feel guilty about not following them back.

What you can do Beyond Twitter? Some tips-

  1. Link your Twitter and Facebook: Use the Twitter app on Facebook to automatically update your status whenever you update Twitter.
  2. Put your blog posts on Twitter: Share blog post links on Twitter to reach a greater audience.
  3. Share your Twitter ID: Put your Twitter ID on your email, business cards, and other social media networks so others will know you’re on the service.
  4. Tell others about Twitter: Get people in your real life on Twitter, and you’ll have a great new way to communicate with them.
  5. Include a link to tweet blog posts: On your blog, place a link that allows readers to send out a tweet about your post.

Source : http://jimgrygar.byethost12.com/100-tips-essential-to-being-a-smarter-better-twitterer/

Posted in Twitter | Tagged: , , , | 5 Comments »

Google TV -The Marriage between Web and TV

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on August 30, 2010


After a quite apprehensive start, the marriage between Web and TV seems to finally be realized with the announcement of Google TV, scheduled for early 2011. It must be said that TV is a big market: This is the most influential medium, one where the marketing dollars are highest. Google already has a foothold in television with the TV Ads (Place ads on television with Google TV Ads), now he aims to put his second foot and leave no room for others with a wide-ranging offering: Google TV Is Ready to Change the Game.

Google Chrome + Android = TV + Search + Marketplace

In abstract, the main features of Google TV:

●      Based on the operating system Android ( already used by many smartphones ) which permits the browser to run Chrome as well as many widgets available on theAndroid Market ;

●      recommends search system that combines both TV programs , offering VoD content YouTube and which is indexed on your media center ( if you have one );

●      Will directly integrated into a range of Smart TV from Sony or through the Review Box from Logitech (around $ 500).

The big players have already tried to marry web and TV without success ( with Microsoft MediaRoomYahoo! with Connected TV, Apple Apple TV…) , but Google is offering more determined and enjoys several levers differentiation :

●      The offer will be available to all manufacturers who wish to equip their products offer Google TV ( thanks to a smart all- in -one produced by Intel );

●      Many synergies are expected with smartphones (used as a remote intelligent or as payment terminal );

●      A partnership with suppliers grilles universal programs ( as Dish Network) gives meaning to the video stream and will provide additional content and services ( sheets IMDB about the movie you are watching … ) ;

●      Google is embarking on an adventure with two major industrial partners such as Logitech and Sony (which produces TV content but also have high value- added film catalogs with MGM, Columbia and Tri -Star) ;

●      Google relies on its broad ecosystem of Android developers to rapidly expand the supply .

Google’s objectives for this offering are placed very high. In fact it seems that Google is trying to trick a preliminary decapitation , well known military to crush the direct competitors of small (Roku, Vizio, Vudu…) And significantly raise the competitive pressure facing the duo Apple / Microsoft. To learn more, I recommend the very comprehensive report by Forrester : Google TV Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think.

Google TV could revolutionize the market (like the iPhone in its time)

Television is a bunch medium perfectly ripe with a well -performing value chain, as the telecom industry was before the landing of the iPhone! With Google TV, the Silicon Valley giant’s ambition to transform the industry by applying the recipe (with the model more than free) and injecting the lessons learned with the iPhone.

The targets of Google are the following:

●      Disintermediation of the cable operator and other satellite packages offering a universal search interface that would allow viewers to à la carte menu rather than ;

●      Amassing large amounts of data on usage and program schedules (as it does with Google Analytics and Google Maps ) ;

●      Generate income with ad placement in its search interface.

A second wind for TVs connected

Connect your TV to the Internet is not new, but when Google is sticking there, as anticipated, is that they can disrupt our habits and in -depth definitely change the way we consume content via the small screen (actually rather large in some ) .

One hand there is a very good timing because Google is launching right into a phase of renewal where the TV is in the process of reinventing itself ( HD , 3D , TNT … ) and where consumers demand more flexibility and potential for equipment that costs the skin of knees … (The Future Of TV Is … TV) . We are also entering a period where content piracy practices are commonplace and where public authorities are not sure how to do (see the distressing awareness campaign HADOPI). Far be it from me to revive the debate on this subject, but there is one thing I know : You can not fight against the market and in the absence of a viable offer , viewers will offset weakness what they find on their TV (Google TV – If The Vikings Do not Deliver , The Pirates Will) .

Google TV is also an opportunity to popularize the use of digital video recorder and media center that stores photos, videos and movies from the family.

The challenges facing Google

Now they have industrial partners for the technical part, Google remains the difficult task of shielding the “content “. This implies in particular entering partnerships with content providers who are also distributors for the most (Either with their TV channels or offer Catch-up TV).

Unless … unless the examples of the music industry ( and locked by Apple iTunes) and the press ( destabilized by Google News) do not fear the giants of TV that could fall back on themselves and we do the coup d’ Asterix …

Last challenge for Google is Usability. For we must understand that Google TV is neither more nor less than a computer on which it is possible to surf the Internet , search content , installing applications … But how with a simple remote : By offering a simplified interface ? By marketing an improved remote control (like the Litl TV)?

The utopia of personalized TV

Early observers of the Google TV offers are already starting to fantasize about a principle of chain completely customized to the tastes of viewers who will be so dazzled by the fineness of behavioral targeting that prefer watch the ads which correspond perfectly rather than programs. Oops … I did not linger on these forecasts crazy.

We now know that personalization toward a utopia that has lost a lot of money and time to industrial web. The tendency is rather to focus on systems of recommendations or suggestions (Americans call it the curated lists). These recommendations could be made by a portal (ie Google TV), a medium (the list of programs recommended by the TV columnist for seven days ) or community ( with services like ROOF or Joost) .

Who could compete with Google?

Now that the wolf has pointed the tip of his nose into the fold, the question remains which could potentially compete with Google:

●      Sony – Because they have a great mastery of the consumer electronics ( it is a strong brand) , because they have a good base with the PS3 ( which also functions as a media center and a distribution channel ), because they have lots of content (movies and music ) . Sony could very well compete with Google’s plans, but nothing will happen since they just signed a partnership is very strong (they prefer to marry and share the profits rather than compete) .

●      MicrosoftBecause they have mastered the game software, because they are already present in many homes with the Xbox , because they have the means and ambition . Yes but Microsoft is currently engaged on many fronts (cloud computing , search , mobile …) to mobilize a large portion of its resources .

●      Apple – Which enjoy a great reputation among the general public ( and the favor of financial markets ) , the ecosystem of iTunes terribly effective , an offer that asks only to be dusted . Add to that the large ambitions Cloud entertainement (including the acquisition of Lala) .

In short , you can visualize about a hypothetical Apple TV that embellish your living room (and definitely would render your bank account) but it will not happen because it would imply a greater diversification in activities that Apple could worry financial markets ( Steve Jobs has just explain that Apple is a “mobile – device company“) .

Finally we can say that Google has virtually won the battle of the show. This signature piece of the home where members congregate, where you can relax / entertained, where there is so much money at stake for Google plans to capture a large part indirectly, just as it does with the web. Google recently said they generated nearly $ 54 billion of economic activity not only U.S. , imagine what it could be given with a mass medium like TV advertising revenues which totaled $ 70 billion Widely United States alone … enough to fill more boxes of Google and allow it to further increase its presence in our daily lives. I look forward to the Google Car!

Read More on http://www.fredcavazza.net/

Posted in SEO | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Google Analytics to Tracking Google Places

Posted by Dhrub Raaj on August 26, 2010


Do you use your Google Analytics to track visits and goals from Google Places, Google Maps, and from Universal Search? When you do quarterly or annual campaign ROI scrutiny, then tracking this click data can help you in understanding which referrals and campaigns produced the best results for you.

How to Track Google Places Data in Google Analytics

You can snap over to your Google Places account and get some eye-catching amazing insights, but this doesn’t help you create reporting and dashboards for your management team or for quick access to holistic campaign tracking. There’s no maps.google.com acknowledgment from those clicks.

Hence to understand which keywords, and from which placement in Google Maps and Google Places, produced a visit from our listing or from our Google Places page, you can use Google Analytics. The technique is fairly simple and is viewed in part at Blumenthals.com. These steps are:

  • Generate a custom tracking URL using the Google Analytics URL Builder
  • Redirect a short location-specific URL to any page you like with the custom URL appending it
  • Create two profiles in your Google Analytics account: Maps and Universal Search

1st Step is – Create a Tracking URL

You can use following link of the Google Analytics for URL Builder

http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578

You should build campaigns for just about any destination where you pay for advertising. But it is  recommend not to use a custom URL for tracking campaigns, mediums, keywords, traffic sources or content-specific attributes is when you are linking specifically to get keyword-rich links that will improve ranking in organic search results.

Here’s a screenshot of the tool in action and the parameters that are used for tracking visits and goals specifically from Google Places:

2nd Step is – Redirect a Location-Specific URL

This part gets a little complex. The file that exists on the root of most web servers called an .htaccess file tells the browser (and the search engine robots) how to interact and use your website. If your hosting is on a Windows web server, you may need to ask for a special configuration to be able to use .htaccess. Create a redirect for every location you have a Google Places page for. Here’s the syntax:

RedirectPermanent /location Full_Path_to_Custom_URL

Now do this for every location, changing only the campaign name in the custom URL and redirecting URL example:

yoursite.com/location1 > yoursite.com/location1/?…&utm_campaign=location1
yoursite.com/location2 > yoursite.com/location2/?…&utm_campaign=location2
yoursite.com/location3 > yoursite.com/location3/?…&utm_campaign=location3

3rd Step is – Create Two New Profiles in Google Analytics

1. Start by producing a Maps profile and a Universal Search profile. See screenshots below.

2. Choose Add a profile for an existing domain

3. Now for the tricky stuff. In the main Google Analytics Settings screen, click Edit next to the Maps profile.

4. Scroll down to filters and click +Add Filter

5. Use these parameters to create your filter:

Filter Name > Maps
Filter Type > Custom Filter & Include
Filter Type > Filter Field > Referral
Filter Type > Filter Pattern > ‘maps…google…’
Case Sensitive > No

6. Repeat steps 1-4 above for your Universal Search profile and use the following Filter settings:

Filter Name > Universal Search with Full URL
Filter Type > Custom Filter & Advanced
Field A -> Extract A -> Referral -> (.*)oi=local(.*)
Field B -> Extract B -> Referral -> (.*)/.*hl=([a-zA-Z-]+)&?.*q=([a-zA-Z0-9+]+)
Output To -> Constructor -> User Defined -> engine:.$B1 hl:$B2 query:$B3 oi:$A2
Field A Required > Yes
Filed B Required > Yes
Override Output Field > Yes
Case Sensitive > No

With these footsteps above implemented, you’re now all setup to start tracking Google Places in Google Analytics and Google Universal Search data from Google Analytics. To see the data without some of the odd parameters passed in your Universal Search profile, you’re going to want to drill down in your Google Analytics account to Visitors > User Defined.

Then you’ll want to use the search filter for Containing > local*.

For video tutorial click here

Source : http://blogs.myspace.com/seo_expert


Posted in SEO | Tagged: , , , | 7 Comments »

 
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