I “Like” Facebook

CNN posted an article by Pete Cashmore this morning called, “Google's Nightmare: Facebook 'Like' Replaces Links,” and I would like to give my 2 cents about the article.

Unless you’ve been living under a bridge you’re probably aware of Facebook’s new social platform using the “Like” button. Websites that are willing to put a small snippet of code on their pages can now drive traffic from Facebook with the simple click of the “Like” button from one of their visitors. The “Like” shows up on the user’s Facebook page and more importantly their wall.

“Facebook announced Likes as a form of "social links" -- better than a link because it's related to a specific user. If Like buttons take off, that's really bad news for Google, since its algorithm uses links between sites to determine their order in search results,” said Pete Cashmore

I’m not sure how this is bad news for Google. I think the Like button will take off for certain segments of the web. For example, ecommerce sites and news sites have to be falling over themselves trying to get the code implemented. One of my colleagues brought up a good point about the Like button this morning. For the typical business website is a “Like” button really useful? I cannot see many people clicking on the Like button for an “about us” page.

“Facebook seeks to replace this open system of links between pages with the "social links" (or Likes) that it controls. Google and other search engines won't have full access to all these Likes, so the company best positioned to rank the Web will be Facebook,” explained Pete Cashmore

I can see certain segments of the web where Facebook could be in a better position to rank the web but as I said above the majority of sites as of today will benefit very little by Facebook’s new social platform.

Here’s something else to think about: Will all the “Likes” have the same “Like Juice”? LOL, I think I just coined a new term. Will a user who has one friend have the same juice as somebody that has say 300 friends? What about if they have influential friends such as Steve Jobs? What if they’re members of certain groups and pages? So much to think about…

Using CoTweet For Engaging With Users & Tweet Scheduling

I found a really cool Twitter tool this week called CoTweet, which is useful for businesses who want to use Twitter in a customer service way. CoTweet is a free service that helps companies reach Twitter users and engage customers. Many companies already use CoTweet such as Starbucks, JetBlue, Dell and Coca Cola. Using CoTweet, you can also schedule tweets in advance, which could be useful for upcoming events, or promotions.

I think CoTweet is great for helping customers or potential customers through Twitter. CoTweet sorts all the tweets that reply to you and put it in one place so you can easily go through them. There is even a feature that allows more than one person to access a Twitter account so replies are answered in a more timely manner. I find companies like JetBlue and Southwest to be great examples since flights can change due to weather, or answering customer’s general inquiries.

It’s currently in Beta, so the tool has growth potential. Also, since it's free, it definitely doesn’t hurt to try it out.

3 Tips for Optimizing & Improving Your LinkedIn Presence

LinkedIn has grown to over 65 million members in over 200 countries. Are you making the most out of your LinkedIn presence?

Aside from the basic housekeeping tasks such as keeping your profile as up to date as possible, continually establishing connections and filling out your profile in its entirety – there are many additional tasks you can perform to ensure you make the most out of your LinkedIn presence.

Below are three tips for you to apply to your LinkedIn profile:

1. Customize Your URL. This is one of the first steps to take when creating a profile. LinkedIn provides you with the opportunity to customize your URL, so for example, my URL is http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikabarbosa. Aside from the aesthetic benefits to a personalized URL, this will give you another chance to own more search engine real estate. Google sees LinkedIn in high regards and when performing a Google search for your name, a customized URL will most likely show as a result.

2. Weave In Keywords Within Your Profile. LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to include anchor text within the website section of your profile, so take advantage of it. Google not only gives you an opportunity to rank for these keywords, but also for keywords woven into your profile.

3. Answer Questions. Establish yourself as a thought leader or expert in your field by answering questions. Potentially earn the star of expertise by simply answering questions [via public responses]. You will then gain a point of expertise each time the questioner picks your answer as the best or most helpful. In turn, the more points you earn of expertise, the higher your profile will appear on lists of experts.

LinkedIn provides a lot of flexibility for optimizing your profile, but don’t feel overwhelmed. It is unfortunate that many create an account but then don’t really leverage their presence to its fullest potential. Set attainable goals for yourself to optimize your profile little by little. LinkedIn is not only a great place to network but it is also an excellent platform to help others within their own professional careers.

image credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bagaball/ / CC BY 2.0

Handling The Trailing Slash in Your urls

It has long been a topic of concern as to what effect having a trailing slash on urls (i.e. http://www.tengoldenrules.com vs. http://www.tengoldenrules.com/) has on search engine optimization. Although it is possible to have different content on both the url with a trailing slash and the same url without a trailing slash, this can be very confusing to users. Therefore, from a user perspective, it is not recommended to have pages with different content in which the only difference in url of those pages is including a trailing slash.

Now lets look at this from a search engine perspective. Having the same content on a trailing slash and a non-trailing slash version of a url can become a duplicate content issue. Search engines can see this as two separate pages, flagging one of the pages as duplicate content. This can, however be remedied fairly simply.

According to Google's Webmaster Central Blog, the best remedy to having duplicate content on trailing slash and non-trailing slash urls is to first choose a preferred version. Let's say we prefer the trailing slash version. Next, you will want to make sure that all links within your website and sitemap point to the preferred version of the urls (in this example it will be the version with the trailing slash). Finally, perform a 301 redirect from the non-trailing slash urls to those urls with a trailing slash.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents 10 Golden Rules for Building Your Personal Brand

Join Jay Berkowitz, Author of The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing Workbook, as he presents 10 Golden Rules for Building Your Personal Brand.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

- What is a Personal Brand? How can I obtain one?
- What is the best approach for selecting your brand focus?
- How to become well known and stay top of mind
- Tips for Speaking, Networking and Writing
- Strategies for utilizing various Social Networks to build brand awareness and powerful connections

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: 10 Golden Rules for Building Your Personal Brand

URL Destination Goal Tracking in Google Analytics

Google Analytics offers three types of goals you can setup to track what visitors do on your site. For today’s post I’m going to focus on URL Destination goals. A URL Destination goal lets you specify a page with its “own URL” as a goal.

Google Analytics offers three different match types for URL Destination Goals. You will be able to determine which one to use based on how your site was built:

1. Exact Match: An exact match is a match on every exact character in your URL without exception from beginning to end. Use this when your URLs for your site are easy to read and do not vary.
   For example, if your goal is http://www.domain.com/shopping/thanks.html, enter /shopping/thanks.html as your goal.
2. Head Match: A head match matches identical characters starting from the beginning of the string up to and including the last character in the string you specify. Use this option when your page URLs are generally unvarying but when they include additional parameters at the end that you want to exclude.
   For example, a URL visited by a particular visitor might be http://www.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&id=9982251615. In this case, the id varies for every other user. You could still match this page by using http://www.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1 as the URL and selecting Head Match as your Match Type.
3. Regular Expression Match: A regular expression uses special characters to enable wildcard and flexible matching. This is useful when the stem, trailing parameters, or both, can vary in the URLs for the same website page.
   For example, if a user could be coming from one of many subdomains, and your URLs use session identifiers, you could use a regular expressions to define the constant element of your URL. For example, checkout.cgi\?page=1 will match http://sports.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&id=002 as well as http://fishing.example.com/checkout.cgi?page=1&language=fr&id=119

One of the three match types listed above will offer you a solution to setting up a goal to track a URL. Remember, the page you’re tracking can be static, dynamic, or even on a subdomain.

Earth Day Applications For The iPhone

Earth Day shouldn’t just be for one day, we should respect the planet year round. Here are nice FREE apps that can help you do that. I only select 9, because I wonder what you think the 10th should be?

iRecycle
Earth911’s iRecycle iPhone app allows people to locate the nearest recycle facility specific to their items.

Coupon Sherpa
Want to forget about cutting coupons for the year? Shoppers can access in-store coupons through the phones without cutting or printing any paper.

GoodGuide
This app helps you find safe healthy food while shopping. Simply scan the bar code and get detailed rating for health, environment and social responsibility.

Carbon Calc
Want to know your carbon footprint? How much do you consume with your home, car, traveling? It may not be accurate, but it sure gives you an idea of how much energy you use. It also allows you to purchase carbon credits if you are using too much.

Cruelty Free
This is your guide to cruelty-free cosmetics, personal care and household products.

Greenpeace Tissue Guide
This free app gives you the power to make an informed decision when purchasing tissue paper. Experts rate products from "recommended," "could do better" and "avoid!"

Seafood Watch
Do you know where the seafood you eat is coming from? With the Seafood Watch app, you’rea able to tell the origination point of what you’re about to eat at grocery stores and restaurants.

iLocavore
Your community has people that are updating information about eating local foods. From events and products, you can receive notifications of local formers markets, gardening tips and more community functions.

Animal-Free
If you’re trying to become a vegan or part time vegetarian, than this app is for you. It will help you make smart decisions on what to eat and demystify what you thought you once knew about animals being in everyday foods.

Traveling With Google?

It’s difficult to keep track of all the projects Google has been involved with the past several years. Henry Harteveldt, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., was quoted saying, “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information…” What is Google rumored to potentially become involved in now? Travel.

From health records to email, one service Google currently doesn’t compete in is travel. If they carry through with this potentially billion dollar deal, Google will have the opportunity to take on Bing Travel head to head. I personally have booked my share of flights/hotels for business, and for the most part it tends to be a frustrating situation. I never really found a travel solution that was stress free and efficient. Now to be fair, I haven’t had much experience with Bing Travel, but I am interested to see how Google will approach travel, if they do.

Although argued by some, Google puts a strong focus on simplicity with their products. Are you interested in seeing Google’s take on travel too?

image credit: brettlider

TrafficWave - OceanSwell TEAM Update (#47)

What's the key to online success? That's what everyone wants to know! The truth is that there isn't one single 'key' because the rules to the game are always changing. That is why you must be flexible and adaptable at all times. Getting locked into one strategy or one method of doing things spells DOOM in this business. Like water, you must flow over and around obstacles on your way downstream. Obviously, I have decided to make a change and begin publishing my Team OceanSwell updates here on my blog, rather than through the autoresponder broadcast function.

Why? Because blog posts have far more visibility! Secondly, you can drive traffic to a blog post but you can't drive traffic to an email! Thirdly, my html template wasn't properly viewable through some email servers, so putting the updates here makes a LOT more sense. On top of that, it affords a whole lot more exposure for the affiliate link of the Team Member currently in the Rotator. In this case, that's Jim Blackburn. And now that his TrafficWave affiliate link is immortalized on my blog, people all over the world have a chance to see it and join TrafficWave and Team OceanSwell through Jim's link! This is a substantial improvement over the way I have been doing things since early November of last year. But we learn as we go, right? Remember what I said: flexible and adaptable

Here is something on the subject written by my late hero, Mr. Jim Rohn: "Over the years, I’ve been teaching kids about a simple but powerful concept: the Ant Philosophy. I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy. Here is the first part: Ants never quit. That’s a good philosophy. If they’re headed somewhere and you try to stop them, they’ll look for another way. They’ll climb over. They’ll climb under. They’ll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy—to never quit looking for a way to get where you’re supposed to go.

Second, ants think winter all summer. That’s an important perspective. You can’t be so naive as to think summer will last forever. So ants gather their winter food in the middle of summer. An ancient story says, “Don’t build your house on the sand in the summer.” Why do we need that advice? Because it is important to think ahead. In the summer, you’ve got to think storm. You’ve got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun. The third part of the Ant Philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, “This won’t last long; we’ll soon be out of here.” And the first warm day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they’ll dive back down, but then they come out the first warm day. They can’t wait to get out.

And here’s the last part of the ant philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter? All he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the “all-you-possibly-can” philosophy. Wow, what a great philosophy to have—the ant philosophy. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can." Speaking of which, the winner of last week's hit-count contest is Ms. Penny Cannon. Congratulations Penny, and THANK YOU for promoting. Your $10.00 prize is on the way!

So there you have it. If you are serious about Internet Marketing, you need an autoresponder like TrafficWave. If you are serious about TrafficWave's generous affiliate pay plan and promoting your affiliate link, then you need Team OceanSwell. You'll have both me and the entire Team promoting for you!

If you're reading this and have developed an interest in TrafficWave and Team OceanSwell, why not join us today? The newest Team member being featured in the Team Rotator is James G Blackburn and his TrafficWave affiliate link is: http://www.trafficwave.net/members/jimbee63

To be a part of the OceanSwell Team, you will need to enroll through his link and then contact me (twoceanswell@hotmail.com), let me know what your new TW username is, and I'll put you in line for our Team Rotator.

As always, take care of yourselves and your online businesses - and have a productive week!

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part XI

Social Networking: Shaking hands and making business contacts online

That's my definition. And if you don't know it by now, online social networking is exploding. In fact, this phenomenon is so huge and changing so rapidly, that to not be a part of it means being left behind as far as Internet Marketing is concerned. Yes, it's THAT important. Though it's 99.9% likely that anyone reading this knows all about the idea of online social networking, it's worth reviewing the basics - especially for those of you are are just getting started.

Social networking is an ongoing and never ending process in which you are doing four essential things:

1) Expanding your circle of influence

2) Building good relationships

3) 'Branding' yourself

4) Driving traffic

You have simply GOT to get your name, message and/or product out there for the whole world to see. And that's what the Internet is - the whole world! It doesn't matter what business you're in, you can never know too many people (especially the right ones) and you can never have too much publicity. You want to build a real and lasting online business that will grow enough to fuel all of your dreams, right? Well that's a long-term project, so it's not too early to start thinking about the months and years (yes, years!) to come.

One thing that is critical to your long-term strategy is to start building a branded presence within the Internet Marketing community at large. In short, your face and your name need to be EVERYWHERE - with both linked to your blog or other business website. Social networking sites are springing up so fast now, that there is seemingly one major new one every single week. If on the off chance that you have never seen one of these, here are two random links to explore (both old and new):

Direct Matches

Swom

The truth is that I am a part of many such sites and I seem to keep joining new ones every day. In time, there are probably going to be an infinite number of them! But guess what? That means that there will be an infinite number of ways to promote yourself.

Social Networking is very serious business. Ignore it at your peril!

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Ten Steps for Analyzing Website Traffic with Analytics

Join Marc Purtell and Stuart Smith of the SEM/SEO team of TenGoldenRules.com as they present, “Ten Steps for Analyzing Website Traffic with Analytics.”

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Setting up a Google Analytics account
• Setting up Google Analytics tracking on your website
• Understanding critical metrics such as Exit Rate, Bounce Rate and Traffic Source
• How to use analytics to improve website performance and identify trends
• Advanced tools such as Actions and detailed reporting

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Ten Steps for Analyzing Website Traffic with Analytics

Local Search Tip - Mentioning Local Landmarks

Local business listings in search engines are a great way to be found online, especially if you are a local business owner. Aside from setting up a Google Local Business Center account (which you should absolutely do if you have a physical business location), there are some on page factors that will help you move up the local business rankings.

It is very important to include geographic modifiers in the content of your website, paired with your targeted keywords. For example, if you sell widgets in Boca Raton, FL, then you should have a phrase like "widgets in Boca Raton, FL" somewhere on your website. This will have a big effect on the position your local business listing shows up on a search engine result page.

A lesser known tip, however, is to talk about local landmarks on your website. Google and the other search engines are very good at determining location based on the landmarks surrounding that area. For this reason, mentioning local landmarks will give the search engines a better clue of where your business is located. So if you have a business in Miami, you will not only want to mention Miami on your website, but also mention landmarks like Landshark Stadium, South Beach, or American Airlines Arena.

Mentioning local landmarks on your website is a subtle tactic, but can have a strong effect in your local business listings by reinforcing your location to the search engines.

Happy Foursquare Day!

If you checked into Foursquare today, you probably got a special "Foursquare Day" badge. If you are wondering where the idea came from, it was actually from a Foursquare user, an optometrist in the Tampa Bay area. He found the idea of Foursquare so engaging he decided that it would be cool to make 4/16 (because 4 squared equals 16) Foursquare Day. This was followed by a badge being created, and lot of buzz. It just shows how much social media can be so powerful!

There are many cities participating in Foursquare Day, especially businesses. Many of these participating businesses have Foursquare Day specials. There are even Foursquare Day shirts! It has been dubbed as the "first global social media holiday." As far as I know, I agree. What do you think?

Setting up a Funnel in Google Analytics

You’ve built the perfect website for your business. You’ve spent countless hours mapping out and creating the perfect paths for your customers to find the “pot of gold”. What happens if the paths you’ve created are not so perfect? How do you know where the barriers are in the paths you created? Google Analytics provides a tool called funnels to help you find the barriers.

Funnel tracking is used to measure how effective a path is at leading a customer down the process of completing a goal. A goal can be a sale, or a signup, or even a download of a UVP (unique value proposition).

The funnel is going to provide you with detailed information on where in the path the problems occur. You will be able to track your visitors from point A to when they leave the site. Based on the funnel analysis you can tweak your paths and pages to get a higher number of visitors converting the goals you’ve setup.

Google provides great instructions on how to setup a funnel . You will need to have at least one goal defined in order to setup the funnel tracking.

“After you've entered your goal information, define a funnel if you've selected a 'URL Destination' goal type:

1. Click 'Yes, create a funnel for this goal.'

2. Enter the 'URL' of the first page of your conversion funnel. This page should be a page that is common to all users working their way towards your goal. For example, if you are tracking user flow through your checkout pages, do not include a product page as a step in your funnel. Please note: Funnel URLs are treated as regular expressions. For this reason, you can include wildcard characters and use other regular expression methods if you want to match more than a single URL. Learn more about regular expressions.

3. Enter a 'Name' for this step.

4. If this step is a 'Required step' in the conversion process, select the checkbox to the right of the step. If this checkbox is selected, users reaching your goal page without travelling through this funnel page will not be counted as conversions. Learn more about the 'Required Step' option in a funnel.

5. Continue entering goal steps until your funnel has been completely defined. You may enter up to 10 funnel steps, or as few as a single step.

6. Click Save Changes to create this Goal and funnel, or Cancel to exit without saving."

As you can see setting up funnel tracking is a must if you want to improve your sites performance at converting the goals of your site. The funnel process is easy to setup and an excellent way to find the barriers in the paths you’ve created. Once the funnels are setup you’ll be on your way to a higher conversion rate.

Twitter’s Latest Announcements

With Facebook stealing the majority of the spotlight lately, it couldn’t be timelier for Twitter to unveil the new projects they have been embarking on within the past couple weeks. From a sponsored tweets business model to tweet preservation at the Library of Congress, Twitter continues to innovate and grow around the world. Let’s take a look at some of their new developments:

• @anywhere. Announced yesterday, @anywhere integration is now available to the public. Some of its early users include Google, Foursquare and The New York Times. This now gives a user the ability to interact with Twitter without leaving the website they are on to actually visit the Twitter site. By using hovercards, there is now a seamless integration between a Twitter account and a user – without ever having them leave the original site.
• Tweet Preservation. Announced yesterday, for preservation and research purposes, Twitter is donating access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress. Twitter notes the tweets can only be used after a six-month delay. To learn more read Twitter’s tweet preservation announcement.
• Promoted Tweets. Announced earlier this week, Twitter is launching the first phase of what they are calling “Promoted Tweets.” The tweets should hopefully not be too intrusive since only one promoted tweet will display on a given search results page. The great thing is that if a specific sponsored tweet does not appear to resonate with the user, this will be taken into account and will not be served again.
• Tweetie. Announced late last week, Twitter entered into an agreement to acquire Tweetie, a highly regarded iPhone Twitter client. This means the app will be renamed to Twitter for iPhone and made the official Twitter app. And yes of course, they are working on a solution for the iPad as well.

It’s exciting to see Twitter continue to innovate and not fall off the map. I look forward to seeing Twitter continue to grow as I don’t think they are dwindling away as many do believe. Are you still a Twitter believer?

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Ten Strategies for Building Links TO Your Website

Join Margie Schneider, VP Operations and Susan Cruz of the SEO team of TenGoldenRules.com as they present, “Ten Strategies for Building Links TO Your Website.”

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Why links to your website are so important for Google and for site traffic
• Content and link building strategies
• What is link bait? And how to make it work for you
• Leading edge strategies including co-citation, social media links, articles and PR links
• How to utilize link building tactics
• New and different types of websites you can get links from

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Ten Strategies for Building Links TO Your Website

Facebook RSS Feed

Here’s a cool way to add your Facebook News Feed to your iGoogle or Google Reader. The technique shown below will actually work with any device you use to read your RSS feeds.

Step One


Step Two


Step Three


Step Four


I live in my Google Reader so for me this was a great way to incorporate Facebook into my Google Reader World. I still have to log into Facebook if I want to comment on something but getting my social news fed to me through an RSS feed in the simplest terms, rocks!

Bump API Launched for Android and iPad

Founded in 2008 in Mountain View, CA, Bump Technologies has been gaining momentum in their “bump” mobile technology and APIs. Their data exchange platform has now launched an API for the Android and iPad, with one of its most appealing attributes being that it works across multiple platforms.

What does this mean for you?

You can bump your iPhone to another person’s Android phone and exchange information.

The concept of their technology is simple: open the Bump app, select what you would like to exchange (phone numbers, photos, or compare friends) and tap the two phones together. Open in private beta for the Android, for all of you iPad developers the API is currently open as an extension to the iPhone API - so you can start developing immediately.

Featured in The New York Times, Mashable and VeatureBeat, Bump appears to have a bright future ahead of them. The app was built with security top of mind and they appear to have a solid management team.

Although iPads are fairly small and compact, I’m not sure how comfortable I would feel bumping iPads together though; seems a bit awkward. What do you think about the concept? Regardless, the technology definitely seems worth trying.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents How to Get Your Press Releases Picked Up On the Web

Join Jay Berkowitz, Founder of the Internet Marketing Club and PR Professional Michael Gustman to learn all about how to get your Press Releases on the first page of Google and the other search engines.

This presentation will cover the following topics:

- 8 things your traditional agencies don't do with your press releases
- Which wire services will power your press releases
- 10 free wire services
- How to web optimize a press release
- Where to post releases for optimal performance

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, April 7, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: How to Get Your Press Releases Picked Up On the Web

Advertising on iPads

With the recent release of Apple’s iPad, one may wonder how to ensure their pay per click ads will show on this device. Since it is indeed a mobile device, your pay per click campaigns must be set to run on mobile devices, rather just on desktop or laptop computers. In Google Adwords, this can be set in the “Settings” tab of each of your campaigns.

The current problem, however, is that if you are running ads on an iPad, you will also be running your ads on mobile phones. The issue with mobile phones is that since the screens are so small, pay per click ads are often clicked by mistake, therefore costing you money.

Google intends to resolve this issue, however, by including an option to run ads specifically on iPads, rather than all mobile devices. So for now, if you want your ads to show on an iPad, set your ads to display on “All mobile devices” in the Adwords settings. If you don’t want to take the risk of running ads on phones, however, you may want to wait until Google updates the settings.

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part X

Some people (like me) only have one business blog. Others have many. But the first step towards having a useful and productive blog is to ask yourself the question, 'What am I blogging... ABOUT?'

Too many blogs wander from one subject to another, or are cluttered with a visually irritating amount of advertising banners or icons, to really achieve any purpose. If your blog isn't about one specific thing (or if it lacks a theme) then it can't really be called a business blog. What I mean to say is that you must always be mindful of your blog's ultimate purpose while adding content to it. Ask yourself, 'Why would anyone read what I'm writing?' You need a good answer to that question before you start adding any kind of blog content! Remember the basic goals of any business blog: 1) To build brand awareness. 2) SEO. 3) To act as a newsletter and improve customer relations. 4) To establish credibility.

But at the end of the day, a business blog has only one function:

SALES

Nothing happens until something is sold. If somebody comes to your blog, then they probably came there for a reason. If (for whatever reason) someone is exposed to your business blog and comes away having their want or need met, then there is chance that you've made a sale - or at least established the kind of author/readership link that might lead to a future transaction. Bottom line: You're blogging for your visitors and not yourself.

Lastly, always, Always, ALWAYS drive traffic to your blog. Do it in every conceivable way. A couple of free programs are TweetTrafficRush and ExitFire. Those are free to use and they are merely two ideas for bringing viral traffic to your blog. Blogging is a vast universe and becoming an expert at it is something that will serve you well when it comes to online business. Just remember to never stop learning and never stop growing. Most important of all, never, never, never quit!

iPad Lessons for Marketers - My First Take

Like most tech geeks I had to get my hands on the new iPad today, launch day April 3, 2010.

When I first held the iPad it was a bit heavier than I expected. Even though I had heard it was heavier than a Kindle it looks so much like an iPhone it feels heavy when you first pick it up.

Apple always amazes with their marketing, which is exciting given that we have been thrilled by them so many times in the recent past. The lines at the store were well organized and the store itself had a nice new clean fresh look. These iPad signs (below) are remarkably simple, yet incredibly clean and communicative. Apple hired four new employees for this store to manage iPad demand, I was very excited to see our summer intern started his first day at the Apple Store! Congrats @Zobey

The 1st lesson for marketers - launch new products with a bang! Make it special. Make it exciting. Make it a big deal!

Lesson #2 - think through the executional details. How are you going to handle lines, calls to your customer service department, FAQ's on your website. Apple hired new employees and set up speacial bootcamp training well in advance of launch. The 'Genius' who handled our purchase was well versed in iPad and familiar with the options and gave us a great demo.




















The 3rd lesson for Marketers - look at your site on the iPad. When I looked at Ten Golden Rules (below) I found out that our Flash intro did not show up - oh yeah I heard that iPad doesn't run Flash -doh! (Note to self - create an iPad friendly version of intro.)

If your site doesn't work perfectly check out this Apple page getting Sites Ready for iPad.



The 4th lesson for marketers is that a lot of people might use the iPad vertically. Most of us trying it in the store start out this way. Why? Well you hold an 8 1/2 x 11 page vertically. You hold an iPhone vertically. The screen is incredibly crisp and clear and our site read very clearly. But we design most websites for a vertical layout. This may change for iPad users.








The 5th Lesson for marketers - think of everything. Apple has learned their lessons the hard way. The early iPods scratched a lot, now they launch with a full slate of accessories. The store was well stocked with cases, Bluetooth keyboards, and stands that double as chargers. The ingenious case also can hold your iPad in two angled positions one for typing and one for watching movies.



Lesson #6 - Be prepared to tie in to big events. The iPad launch is a big event for marketers. YouTube recognized this and launched movie rentals about ten days ago. iTunes Store also features movies very prominently. What can you do with iPad? Can you develop a cool App to bring your product to your prospects? How can you make it easy or fun to do business with you?

More thoughts to follow once I listen to our Internet Marketing Podcast and play with some Apps :)

Here's a demonstration of why FourSquare will continue to grow in Importance

I recently discovered a great coal fired oven pizza place called Tucci's. I really like the oven based wings. When you checked in on FourSquare you'll see a 'Special Here' button. The special offers everyone a Free glass of wine on their 5th check-in. I'm drinking white wine free on my next visit :)

If you own a restaurant or a retail location, or if a friend owns one, this site/app is exploding. This is a great opportunity to make an offer early on while there is still buzz and amazement happening.

(originally published on Internet Marketing Club Blog)

A Facebook Contest Marketing Idea

Are you looking for a way to get a huge influx of new fans to your Facebook Fan Page? A contest (giveaway) is a great way to get the new fans. One of the simplest mistakes marketers make when they decide to run a contest on Facebook is how they go about marketing it to their current fans. I’ve seen plenty of contests that are posted on the wall of a fan page and that’s all they do. Come on Fan Pages, you have to get a little more creative than that.

I’m going to give you an example of a cool way to market your contest (giveaway) on Facebook. My creative juices are flowing this morning so prepare to be wowed!!!

1. Create a new event for your contest.
   
2. Choose a Title: make the title what you’re giving away.
3. Choose a location: putting your website is perfect.
4. Choose a start and end time: base it on how long you want to run the contest.
5. Choose a picture.
6. Provide the event type.
7. Provide a description about the contest.
8. Enable the event wall, event photos, videos, and links.
9. Invite all of your friends to the event.
10. In order to add an entry for the giveaway, your fans will have to share this event on their Facebook page by clicking on the “share” button to the right of this event.

It’s that simple and if you have something interesting to giveaway new fans are going to come out of the circuit board in droves...

Foursquare Fever?

We have it and our office is a buzz about it! We have declared war on becoming Mayor of TGR.

First, Foursquare is a new location based social networking app that allows you to share location with friends. From going to work, the mall, dinner and more, you “check-in” with your mobile device and your friends are notified. After so many check ins and points, you are able to earn badges or even become the “Mayor” of different locations.

Here at Ten Golden Rules, we are all using Foursquare and we are all trying to be the “Mayor” of the office. How fast does it change? Well, as you can see, Susan was once the mayor. She accumulated so many check-ins that she was the leader.

That was until our CEO, Jay Berkowitz, took that over. But as of today, Stuart became the mayor ruling over our CEO....

who has now declared Forsquare WAR!

Now, I'm trying to catch up and review my stats. I need to see how I'm going to be able to pull off becoming Mayor. If you have any tips, please send them to me :)

How is this applicable to businesses?

Everyone wants to be the Mayor! Certain locations like Starbucks is testing out a loyalty program and using it for reward points. Other restaurants are offering a free drink or discounts on dinners to the mayor’s of their locations.