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Wall St Unable To Engage Social Media

We baffle them. There are so many of us, networking, twittering, blogging. It’s a way of life for us. With disposable income in the billions, Wall Street advertisers are willing to knock down the walls clamoring for our attention and wallets.

What is it that they want?

The last couple of years Web 2.0 has been invaded with advertising. Major corporate players began showing up on MySpace. Movie trailers are now commonplace for the over 100 million registered users of the social networking group.

Corporate America is so fascinated with all our disposable income so that they’ve increased online spending.

$920 million was spent in 2007 just to get products in front of bloggers, social networkers and other Web 2.0 participants. This according to btobonline.com. The magazine even reports that 2008 will see an even bigger increase in advertising spending of 12% over 2007.

All of this just on social media advertising.

Look around you; big business wants to be more engaging, they just haven’t figured out the most direct route yet.

Can you imagine Verizon Wireless ads on Twitter?

Right now, I love Twitter. It’s as addictive as blogging and it’s cool. A Wall Street invasion would make it uncool, like MySpace is now.

On the other hand, a corporate invasion may be welcomed by the owners of these social mega-networks. Their sites are businesses too, and businesses are sold everyday.

So what does this mean for the Web 2.0’ers?

Do we seek out the next latest and greatest thing, and keep it a secret for as long as we can? Or do we just roll with the flow and watch social networks become ad laden and junk filled?

Corporate giants are aware that growth means money, that’s why there is more talk daily about the potential sale of other social media upstarts (Facebook included).

Advertisers come bearing chests of gold for the chance to get in front of gadget equipped-educated-flexible to change social media audiences like ours. A lot of people will stand to make a lot of money when advertisers figure out how to market to social media.

When they do, it will be like selling your subscriber lists back in the golden days of internet marketing. Only now, those lists may be worth millions.

Posted by Teasa’s Tips

Breaking The Digg Code Trial

I recently read “Breaking The Digg Code” by Khalid of Invesp Blog. And my eyes were opened to a social bookmarking technique that many of us are not using. If we used this technique, we would all have the traffic we desire. Here’s some info I picked up:

(I’m applying this to Digg and StumbleUpon, although Khalid did not.)

Reciprocal Diggs & Stumbles don’t carry much weight. It’s like your family giving you a good job recommendation, of course they’ll say good things about you. So they don’t count.

That’s why when we request reciprocal Diggs & Stumbles they don’t get us very far. At least not as far as we would like to go. We want traffic in the 40,000-70,000 range on a daily basis. Many of us are using lots of social bookmarking sites to accomplish this task.

But, did you know that if you mastered the behavior of just one social bookmarking site, you could relax, post less and watch your traffic go through the roof?

That’s why I’d like to extend an invitation to one blogger who would like to participate in a 30 day study. A study that will reveal if Khalid’s and my techniques yield similar results. The blogger selected will use a tracking system via a spreadsheet, we’ll report back to you letting you know of our findings, and what’s better, you’ll have first hand knowledge of a cutting edge web/blog traffic technique.

Unraveling Digg and or StumbleUpon is as popular as discovering the Google algorithm. All three use algorithm, so our findings will be as successful as our efforts.

If you’re interested in participating in this study, reply to this post.

You’ll need to dedicate 1.5 hours per day, 4 days a week for 4 weeks to the project. In addition, at the end of each week, we’ll need to do an IM recap of our efforts, findings, etc.

There is no blog requirement as far as PR, Alexa, IZEA Rank goes. Just a genuine interest in the project and seeing what it yields. The worst thing that could happen is nothing gained nothing lost. However, if this experiment holds true, you may yield 40,000-70,000 visitors every 3 days.

Reply back if you’d like to be considered for the assignment.

Posted by Teasa’s Tips

Top 10 EntreCard Droppers In April

Drum Roll Please!!!

Here are my top 10 EC Droppers for the month of April. These Entrecard users dropped their card on this site the most in the last 30 days. Entrecard accounts for a huge portion of my traffic as it shows relevant, like minded users stop by the most.

Turnip Of Power
Lee Doyle — Contains Nuts
Karlonia.com
Worth The Popcorn
Technically Easy
Orangeinks
Foolsville 2.0
John’s Tech Blog
Bitter Sweet Music
Brain Stimulant

These next four sites gave me the most clicks when my EC widget was shown on their sites. I’ll definitely purchase advertising from them again!

Fruit Species
Popular Wealth
JTPratt’s Blogging Mistakes
About Blog Contests

Thanks to all of my EC Brethren!!

Posted by Teasa’s Tips

Mother’s Day Gifts

By Beverly Blankenship

Who does not have a mother to buy a gift for! If your mother has passed away there is someone that deserves to be honored and respected by you this Mother’s Day.

As we approach Mother’s Day, what can we give as a gift and what significance will that gift have to the recipient that receives it?

My mother has been gone for two years and I don’t get to wonder and ponder the gift list that I once did. Now, I have someone that I adopted as a mom and I had wondered what she might like. Finally, I hit on something that she always enjoys-a gift card to her favorite candy store!

If you are creative you might want to put together a personal gift basket. Choose a theme and decide on a budget. There are quite a few themes that women of any age would love in a gift basket.

Chocolate baskets can include cheaper candy bars and more expensive chocolates depending on the individuals like or dislike. Include with the chocolate a gift card to her favorite coffee shop.

Bath baskets are great for women who enjoy soaking in the tub. You can purchase bath salts, bombs, nice exclusive soaps, and other bath accessories for the basket. Be sure to buy a beautiful teacup and some relaxing tea for the event. A woman’s magazine is a nice addition to the gift.

There are a lot of home based businesses on the internet that cater to people who are looking for gifts out of the ordinary or something a little more special. Be sure to check them out and purchase the “just right” gift this year for Mom!

Beverly Blankenship

http://www.internetmarketingfreetraining.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Beverly_Blankenship
http://EzineArticles.com/?Mothers-Day-Gifts&id=1125190

Today Is RSS Awareness Day…

How has it benefited you?

To be honest with you, one year ago, I did not know what RSS was. Nor was I aware of the power of it.

Sure I knew that it stood for Really Simple Syndication, but it still hadn’t clicked on why I should be using it.

Apart from getting traffic, RSS can expose your writing to a larger audience, more people who may be interested in what you write about.

I am always amazed as I travel throughout the blogosphere at the sheer numbers of readers many blogs have. My hat goes off to you, because I know it took a lot of hard work to get where you are.

That’s why it’s important that we recognize the impact of RSS.

Sharing information is what the internet is about. Being able to find relevant information makes the internet even more powerful.

Here’s the thing, to celebrate RSS Awareness Day, for everyone who comments and have either Feedblitz or Feedburner, I’ll subscribe to your feed. I’m not asking that you subscribe to mine, you can if you like, but I’m more in a giving mode. And if you’re a Site Hopper or Entrecard member I’ll hop your site and drop a card. Just let me know in your comments if you are.

The great thing about this offer is that you’ll get link love in addition to a new subscriber. Even though this isn’t part of this offer, if you are commenting and you feel generous, you can even revisit this post or link back to it to show some of your fellow bloggers some RSS love as well.

There’s only one catch, if I’ve already subscribed to your feed, then LOL.


I’d like to do my part in increasing RSS Awareness, many blogs don’t use it. Maybe they don’t see the need for it.

I appreciate your comments and participation in this. Thanks everyone ahead of time!

Posted by Teasa’s Tips

I Bought 3 New Houses (Or Am I Renting?)

Either way it sure feels like I just moved into 3 different locations.

I’m talking about the re-design of all 3 of my blogs, Celebrity News, Funny Offbeat News and this one. (Funny Offbeat News is currently in Blogger jail. So, I am transitioning it to a WP blog, it’s almost complete.)

Working with Blogger is simple, and for all intensive purposes, it’s how I cut my teeth blogging. The simplicity spoiled me, and did nothing to prepare me for my new task - WordPress.

For me, WP is like Geometry, I hated it, suffered through it for an entire school year. Geometry was the most painful class I had in my life! I couldn’t figure out why I needed to understand the spatial relationships of lines. Hey, I’m a writer, the typewriter/computer does most of my interpreting.

Maybe if I had of excelled in Geometry, WP would be a breeze? Naw.

WP, I didn’t know is CSS based, and Blogger is HTML based, kind of like the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. It’s a huge significance. One that made me blind last night and I had to go to bed with dreams of CSS Code.

I did purchase a domain name though, through Yahoo, it’s pretty cool because I’m comfortable using their site building tools. Choosing a known path felt like cheating, but what the hey, it’s my money. My grandfather always said, “go where you know.”

So, today I’ll resume EC dropping, forum participation, and general money making things.

Tomorrow I’ll try and tackle WP upgrades, theme selection, etc. But, today, let me know what you think of this new design. And if you’ve got any suggestions on my other 3 designs, let me know.

My skin is no longer thin, constructive criticism is not my enemy.

Posted by Teasa’s Tips

I Was Tired But Social Spark Called

Just as I was about to call it a day, I received an email from Social Spark. It stated I had a reservation created. And I only had 12 hours to do it. Oh boy, now this. After a day of making my transition to my wordpress blogs (this blog will soon be there), I was mentally exhausted and only wanted a nice warm glass of Merlot.

But instead, I wanted to let you know about Social Spark. (I feel so privileged to tell you)

Currently in Beta, Social Spark, is determined to be the premier site for bloggers to post and get paid. The powers that be have invited certain blogs to participate, so if you haven’t received your notice, don’t fret, it’ll be there.

Social Spark is brought to you by the folks who run Pay Per Post. To me Social Spark is easier to navigate through, maybe it’s the cool colors that are appealing to my eye.

Maybe it’s the way you can easily understand the color codes for opportunities. Instead of three (as PPP had) there are only two: red or green. If you drive, you know what these colors stand for.

Social Spark wants to help us monetize our blogs while driving traffic to them.

I was amazed at the Code of Ethics, simple yet direct:

• 100% Audit-able In-Post Disclosure

• 100% Transparency

• 100% Real Opinions

• 100% Search Engine Friendly

Pretty cool. It’s all laid out on the table in plain sight, no further questions.

The biggest improvement over PPP is the option to add friends, just like a real social network. Oh, and I forgot to mention the potential for bonuses. That’s right, extra loot.

When you create a post on behalf of Social Spark, they throw in some nice, ‘if your post is this, then you may receive an extra $100 bonus!’

Now, that caused a spark in my typing fingers. An extra bonus for writing a great post, not just some mumble jumble, but a post that gets attention. Hey, I’m in. Let me pull out my old copy of Roget’s and be as creative as possible.

But check Social Spark out. They’re open for business.

Posted by Teasa’s Tips

9 Steps To A Successful Online Community

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of requests to join Online Communities that my subscribers have set up with Ning.

If you’re not familiar with Ning, it’s a site where you can start your own social networking community based upon your likes an dislikes. So, I searched high and low for some tips to make an online community a success.

View my page on Social Promo

Visit smoothjazzspace

KickApps, had a white paper on it, and here it is reprinted, for your resource.

1. Define your community’s purpose and audience.

Matt Haughey, founder of the legendary online community MetaFilter, said: “There are lots of possible reasons to start a community, but generally it’s good to focus on a specific topic. Having a specific topic means you’ll have an easier time explaining your site’s purpose, and quickly finding like‐minded people to contribute their thoughts and content….” If you already have a website and an audience, you probably have a good head start. But if you don’t, pick a topic and get to know the people for whom you’ll be building the community. If it’s for chefs, spend some time where chefs hang out—both online and off. Talk to people and cultivate relationships. The better you understand what drives your audience, the more likely you’ll build a community they find valuable.

2. Get a Community Manager.

Every party needs a host. Your Community Manager should be your most active, high‐profile member—accountable to everyone and responsible for setting the tone for the community experience. He or she needs to be patient, well spoken, and inspiring. The goal isn’t for this person to control the community, but to curate it, and the work done up front will pay off later in spades. For many large communities this can be a full time job, but as your community flourishes, other hosts will emerge from your member base to share the work.

3. Choose the technology that’s right for you.

New technologies have put robust community‐building functionality within everyone’s reach. When considering a vendor, ask yourself the following questions:
What social media features map to my specific objectives?•
How will these objectives evolve over time?•
Will this solution scale with me?•
What technical expertise/resources will it require to launch and maintain?•
How long will it take to implement?•
What are the solution’s community management and reporting capabilities?•
How much will it cost?•

4. Seed your community with great content.

Prior to launch (and for as long as it takes to gain momentum) seed your community with high‐quality, relevant content. Consider inviting a good core group of people in to help. When you launch, this seed content will spark discussions, give visitors a sense of what your community is all about, and send the message that it’s a happening place to be.

5. Customize your community’s look and feel.

Almost everyone who joins your community will evaluate it before becoming a member, so it’s important to make a good first impression. In addition to great content, your community’s look and feel will heavily influence a potential member’s decision to join. Tailor the aesthetic to match your brand and appeal to your audience. If you’re integrating your community into an existing website, keep your design and navigation consistent throughout. Not only will this increase the flow of traffic between your site and community, but it will show visitors that your community is an important part of your website.

6. Promote it!

Unlike the movie Field of Dreams, just because you’ve built your community doesn’t mean people will come. You’ll need to market your community as you would any other product. This can include raising awareness among your website’s existing audience, reaching out to bloggers and traditional media, creating incentives for people to join through contests and promotions, inviting influential people to become members, and even purchasing advertising.

7. Encourage active participation.

The most active and passionate members are your community’s lifeblood. Recruit and reward them immediately—it’s as much their community as it is yours. Highlight their contributions wherever possible, and ask for their help and feedback. Contests and promotions are also great for driving ongoing participation among current members. Radio stations have been doing this with great success for decades!

8. Part of community management is keeping the site free of trouble‐makers and offensive content.

The trick is to strike a balance between order and openness. Stay active and lead by example. Most people will follow your lead. But when you do run into someone who’s acting like a jerk, speak with them as quickly and as nicely as possible. Tell them what they did wrong and why it’s something you don’t allow, but make sure to keep your tone courteous and professional.

In the words of Kathy Sierra, the most successful communities are single‐mindedly committed to enforcing one rule: “Be Friendly.” Also, consider posting a plain‐language set of community guidelines (like these from Café Mom) and invite your members to make suggestions about how to improve them. Lastly, if you’re building your community around a company website, don’t get defensive when members make negative comments about your products or services. They’re going to do it somewhere, so it might as well be in your community. Allowing them to do it there indicates confidence, which members will respect.

9. Listen and optimize.

Listen to what your community says, both directly and indirectly. Don’t just pay attention to members’ words (i.e. comments and message board posts), also keep an eye on the highest‐rated and most‐viewed content. Everything reveals something about what your members want. Also, have a message board in the community where people can talk about the community (another gem from Mr. Haughey). This will be a great place to see what people are thinking and to test out your ideas. Lastly, measure your community’s traffic and statistics from the beginning, so you can judge your progress as you go.

Posted by Teasa’s Tips

SEO Toolkit Can Save You Time And Money

Here is an opportunity I recommend. This product automates the process of promoting your web pages. There are quite a few website owners I know who use this and they enjoy the fact that it saves them hours of time. We all know how invaluable time is in our business. Here’s a little info about the product, if it sounds like something you are interested in, just click on the links and sign up.

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Posted by Teasa’s Tips

Can Google Find The Money In Social Networks?

If Google Can’t Who Can?

That’s the question being asked lately referring to Google’s attempts at monetizing social networks.

Google has a deal with MySpace through the 2nd quarter of 2010 worth $900 million to place advertising throughout the network on over 100 million users pages. It’s a revenue sharing agreement made with the giant social network that is supposed to tap into the behaviors of MySpace users.

So far, Google is losing the battle. It has cost them 1.5% off their gross profit margins and that is totally unacceptable to Google according to estimates from Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay.

No one has been able to crack into the social networks advertising nut, primarily because social networks don’t work off of searches and intent, they work on actions.

Users in social network communities search for like minded individuals and groups, not specific content, as in traditional search methods all of which Google is famous for. But, one advertising specialist says he knows how to monetize the networks and claims Google is doing it wrong.

Andy Monfried thinks he can help publishers do it. Monfried, a former Advertising.com executive and current CEO and founder of Lotame, says he’s discovered the secret sauce for monetizing social networks…

“You can’t put up contextual ads against user-generated content,” Monfried says. “It’s irrelevant, and advertisers don’t want to risk their brands on user-generated content.”

In essence, expect to see more attempts at ads popping up in social networks. Primarily because they mean money for the owners of such networks and everyone needs to earn a living. Or maybe Google will just go ahead and purchase Yahoo, call it Yahoogle and tap into some of the social networks Yahoo owns — like Flickr.

Want to monetize your social network, check out my sponsor below…

Posted by Teasa’s Tips