June
28
2010
Blogging as we know it today began about 1994 as an online diary which was simply an online running account of one’s personal life. These online diaries were created by updating the components of a common website which required much technical skill. The writers of these journals were known as diarists, journalists, or even journalers. Two of the names associated with earliest bloggers include Justin Hall and Jerry Pournelle. Dave Winter’s Scripting News is recognized as one of the oldest and longest running blogs. An early blog which combined text, video, and pictures as an online shared diary of a personal life transmitted live was Wearable Wireless Webcam.
As blogging evolved, tools were created to facilitate the creation and maintenance of posting the articles in reverse chronological order. This resulted in the publishing of blogs that we readily recognize today. The tools, requiring much less technical skill than updating the websites, made the creating of blogs much more feasible and appealing to a much larger population.
Being quite technical in its early beginnings, blogging got off to a slow start but rapidly gained in popularity. It was during 1999 that blog usage began to spread rapidly. In 2002 blogs were recognized for coverage in breaking news stories and political news. Bloggers, the modern journalists, join in sharing passionately about many issues at hand, whether political or social. Eventually blogging was finally accepted and given credibility by the mass media as a means of applying political pressure, as well as a logical news source. Bloggers have been recognized as a way to bring key information to public light forcing mass media to follow their lead.
For the most part rather than setting the trend, blogs tend to be a reaction to mass media news accounts. It is these reactions to the mass media news that sometimes generate an in-depth analysis. It was in 2004 that blogs became increasingly acceptable. Political consultants, newscasters, and political candidates began using the blog as a tool for outreach into the political arena. Blogging by politicians is a means of connecting with the constituents which they serve. It was just in January 2005 that Fortune magazine listed eight bloggers that business people could not ignore. Thus, an interest in blogging was generated in the business world. Even some of our national governments have an official blog with Israel being one of the first.
Blogging has had a dramatic impact on mass media in recent years and blogs are being recognized as a way to generate interest, expose an issue, keep others informed, as well as generate a group of followers. Many are acknowledging the emerging influence that blogging has placed on society today. However, as we leap into the blogosphere, we must remain open-minded as we consider the facts and the context of the issues at hand rather than relying on blogs as factual information. We must learn to differentiate opinion versus the logical presentation of factual information.
Today the growth of blogging in our society is extraordinary. In 2007 it was estimated that 112 million of the 250 to 300 million websites were blogs as tracked by Technorati. This number continues to increase each year. Will you be joining this blogging society to increase your presence on the worldwide web? Click here for help in getting started today.
June
12
2010
So, you have just made that momentous decision and you want to share it with the world. You make a few phone calls, send a few emails, and even post it on Facebook but even then you cannot begin to reach everyone and express the true joy and excitement that you want to share. Each day you have new thoughts and ideas and you want to be able to document the whole wedding process including your engagement, wedding, honeymoon, and/or even your first home, as well as including all the details that fall in between.
Your wedding planning would not be complete without a blog to share this once in a lifetime decision with your thoughts and ideas, events, as well as your photos and videos and more. Preparing for your big day requires much planning and preparation and it should be shared with the world. By having a blog, you can provide a journal of your engagement and share many of the details as you plan the showers, the rehearsal, the wedding, the reception, as well as your honeymoon. Not only can you share your thought and ideas, but you can also include pertinent information and even maps.
Upon your return from your honeymoon, I am sure that you will be hooked on blogging. Simply change the theme and continue journaling about your new life together. Friends and family will enjoy reading about your experiences as you share on your blog. Imagine sharing your first home or your first dinner at home with your friends and family. What a special way to share your thoughts and ideas as you experience your first pregnancy and finally the life of your newborn child.
Blogging can be addictive. You will find that it is a lot of fun to share your thoughts and ideas via a blog with your family and friends as well as others. You will be amazed as you watch the statistics on the blog increase almost daily as you gain additional readers. Create one blog for that special day to get you started and you are well on your way to becoming a blogger for the rest of your life.
For assistance in getting your first blog started, click here.
June
10
2010
Starting a new business, whether a brick-and-mortar business or an online business, requires much planning and preparation. Once you have everything in place for the official launch of your business, you are totally dependent upon an unknown factor — the customer. Advertising, whether by traditional or online means, will get some results. The secret of building any business is in building your list of customers, as well as potential customers. This list will prove to be invaluable to your business.
List building is nothing new. Although list building has a huge potential in both online as well as the brick-and-mortar businesses, savvy brick-and-mortar business owners have utilized customer lists for years even before the onset of online marketing. A dynamic duo is combining the online business concept with the traditional brick-and-mortar business concept.
A trick of the trade in today’s business world is combining your list of customers with an auto-responder. By using an auto-responder, potential customers can subscribe to your list on your website. The list of resulting subscribers provides you with a list of potential customers to keep informed with new products, updated information, an interesting study, or most anything providing value to your subscribers. By establishing your credibility with these subscribers and providing value in the information received through your newsletters, they build a relationship of trust with you and the result is repeat customers. You have the potential to retain them as customers for a lifetime.
When you use an auto-responder you must be able to show how your product or service can provide your subscribers with a solution to problem in order to get results. Customers today do not want to be sold. Rather, they are looking for solutions to a problem.
Besides using your list for future customers, there are a variety of other uses of well-built lists, as well. Often the number of subscribers can be an enticement for paid advertisements on your website, sponsorship of your website, or even a joint venture. This can allow you to offer a wider variety of products to your subscribers and entice them to visit your website more frequently.
As always, Connect and Assist is available to assist you with all your internet needs.
June
8
2010
There are many techniques for marketing online and building that invaluable list of potential customers. A couple of the most effective techniques are to have a web page with an embedded link to capture the subscriber’s information or an independent capture page where the customer is enticed to enter their information generally with the promise of something free. This is most effectively done by using an auto-responder, which is an automated electronic mailing list, although you may capture the information by other means and create your own email list.
Once you have your web page with the embedded link or capture page, subscribers will not immediately visit your website or capture page and automatically subscribe to your newsletter. You must create and direct traffic to your website or capture page by creating interesting articles with a cliff-hanger at the end that can only be answered by clicking to go to your website or capture page. These articles can be generated at various online writing websites such as Ezine Articles, HubPages, Squidoo, and Go Articles. Once you have generated the interest on your website, the resulting traffic must be enticed in some way to subscribe to your newsletter. Readers can be enticed by a variety of freebies including an e-book, software, video, coupon, resource report, and various other offers.
An opt-in email is when a subscriber is signing up for the option to receive bulk emails sent to many people at the same time. It is critical that permission has been received to send these emails or they may be classified as spam or unsolicited bulk email. Many of the auto-responders utilize a double opt-in where a confirmation email is sent to verify the email account. Then the subscriber must again confirm that they did subscribe to the newsletter. There is also an opt-out email where a subscriber is automatically added to the email list and must opt-out after receiving the email if it is unwanted.
It is important that you avoid overkill as you continue to build your list. Only so much will generally be tolerated before a subscriber will unsubscribe. Be diligent, provide valuable information, build a rapport of trust and confidence, and continue building the list that will be invaluable to your future sales.
As always, Connect and Assist is available to assist you with all your internet needs.
June
1
2010
Internet presence is so important in today’s business society, but many business owners are overwhelmed and do not know where to begin. To create a presence on the internet, one must create a website and/or blog, implement an email marketing campaign, join the social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, create landing pages, create numerous directory submissions, and more.
This is only the beginning or the first few steps in creating an Internet presence. After having a beautiful website created, then comes the task of generating traffic to the website and getting listed in the Google Local “7” Search Box. Attaching a blog to your website is probably one of the most effective ways to begin getting your website ranked in the top 500,000 or above. With over 250 million websites, that can be a quite a feat in itself. After having done the proper keyword research, content creation must be diligent and consistent. After posting, blog posts must also be submitted to various bookmarking websites to help generate additional traffic.
After creating a Facebook page or a Twitter page, these sites must also be updated frequently in order to be an effective tool for creating a presence on the Internet. In addition, traffic must be generated to those pages to generate fans and followers. Email marketing campaigns can be set up via an autoresponder but the content must be initially generated and consistent follow-up is a necessity. Email newsletters are a valuable means to build a trust with customers and potential customers by providing consistent updates, thus keeping them informed.
As you can see, creating an Internet presence is not an easy task. There are a variety of tools available to help with email campaigns, Facebook and Twitter presence, social bookmarking, and much more. It is often easy to let the vastness of the Internet appear to be overwhelming, however, with diligent, consistent work, your presence on the Internet will increase and your customer base will continue to grow.
Connect and Assist — the KEY to UNLOCKING your INTERNET PRESENCE
May
29
2010
Autoresponders are an integral part of Internet marketing that is currently sweeping the nation and is a valued tool of many network marketers. An autoresponder is an email marketing tool which incorporates an electronic mailing list. The purpose of the autoresponder is providing information to customers and/or prospective customers in a timely manner on a regular basis.
By utilizing the autoresponder, the user can embed a link on their website for prospective customers to subscribe to their promotions or newsletters. Such a link is generally referred to as a squeeze page or a capture page. These subscriptions are then added to a specified list. It is possible to have more than one capture page with the subscriptions to each capture page directed to different lists. It is also possible to add your current list of contacts into an autoresponder. However, it is important to note that those contacts must have opted in to your mailing list. Most autoresponders use an electronic mailing list to confirm subscriptions to the newsletter, to unsubscribe, to provide timely information to clients, and other activities associated with list building.
Email templates can even be created to match your website. Then Internet marketers can create emails, send the emails, and actually track their opening by utilizing the features available on the autoresponder. Undeliverable emails are referred to as a bounced message and the sender is notified of the delivery problem.
Many internet marketers believe that email marketing campaigns create long-term income success. They believe repetitive contact helps to build a trust with the customer who in turn may eventually respond favorably to the offer after recognizing their need for the product or service. However, one must be careful not to overdo the power of the autoresponder. If you continually swamp your client with emails, he may interpret it as spam and unsubscribe.
There are a variety of autoresponders available which may offer additional features. AWeber, iContact, and Constant Contact are a few of the most common autoresponders. Connect and Assist can set up your autoresponder account, get you started building a list for the future, and help with all your autoresponder needs. Get on the band wagon and start building your list. The number of potential clients on your list is the key to your success. Start building your list today.
May
22
2010
When one commits to becoming a part of the internet community, they become an integral part of a challenging numbers game. Depending on what the numbers reveal, you may or may not gain status in the internet world.
Facebook, Twitter, as well as MySpace and other social media networks, are increasing in popularity as many venture to the internet in search of increasing traffic to their website or business. Each social network focuses on attracting and increasing the number of friends or followers. Increasing the exposure of your business to your friends and followers by the regular posting of subtle messages allows you to gain credibility in your field of expertise and create a bond of trust. Ultimately, by increasing your internet presence using social media networks, you can become recognized as an expert. Your increased internet presence along with this bond of trust and sense of expertise can lead to increased traffic to your website and additional customers.
Blogging is another numbers game. With the number of blogs increasing dramatically each year, blogging has become increasingly popular even in the business world as a means of establishing one’s credibility as well as increasing internet presence. Bloggers must also be genuine and create a bond of trust with their readers. Interaction via comments creates a sense of community with others and increases that bond of trust. At the end of the day, it’s all about the number of page views and the number of comments that bloggers rely on to help them track the effectiveness of their blog. Each blogger wants to watch the numbers continue to grow steadily as the traffic to their website increases.
Another numbers game which is quite interesting to watch is the Alexa page rank. When you begin blogging, initially when checking your Alexa page rank, you will view “no page rank.” You must submit your blog to Alexa for ranking and be recognized by Google, then you will begin to have an established page rank. Initially it will probably be 15 to 20 million. Your realistic goal is for your Alexa page rank to be below one million and continue to decrease. To be ranked in the top one million means that you are in the top one-half of one percent. Posting or writing articles on your blog consistently helps to improve your page rank. Key words are an important link in being recognized by Google. Posting numerous articles helps as long as you continue to be consistent with your posting.
Once you begin your online writing, the more articles you submit, the higher level of authority you can attain. Article companies such as Ezine, EHow, HubPages, and other online writing websites, often encourage the writing of numerous articles through the use of contests. Each article should be linked back to your website thus providing a backlink. Increasing the number of backlinks to your website is a important link in the numbers games as it drives traffic to your website.
Each blog post and article should be bookmarked on several of the social bookmarking websites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Propeller, and many more. Do not overdo this on a new blog as it can result in being slapped by Google or rather knocked down in rank. Often times it is difficult to recover. This is an important step but you must gradually increase the adding of bookmarks so that you do not endanger the ranking of your website.
As you can see, increasing your internet presence is a numbers game. You must increase your presence on the social networking websites and build your friend and/or follower base. Once you have created your blog, it should be linked to your website to help improve the page rank of it as well. A blog is one of the best ways to help drive traffic to your website. Be consistent in your blogging and create backlinks by writing articles for some article directories. Don’t forget those social bookmarks. By following these simple steps, you will be well on your way to increasing your internet traffic. Click here for additional information.
May
18
2010
In today’s society, we often hear many references to a blog. Just what is a blog and how can it be used? The word “blog” is a shortened form of “web log.” According to Wikipedia, a blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly referred to as posts and are generally displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
The two most common uses for blogs are to increase the internet presence of a business to help them increase the number of customers or secondly to function to inform others whether it be business, church, civic organization, friends, or a network marketing team. There is so much potential when using a blog because you can readily connect to others worldwide.
Although a blog may be used as a personal online diary, today many are created by businesses as a means to increase their internet presence. Blogs commonly combine text, images, videos, and links to other websites or blogs. Blog topics may be on such topics as technology, news, weather, photos, business or personal blogs. The list of blog topics often seems endless. By leaving comments, readers can interact with the author and other readers creating a sense of community. Many readers subscribe to their favorite blogs and anxiously await the next post.
It is very difficult to determine the number of blogs on the internet. Wikipedia reported that as of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs. Currently in 2010, it is estimated that there are between 250 to 300 million websites and many of those websites are blogs. Since 2007, the exponential growth of blogs has been outstanding.
The word “blog” either excites individuals and makes them curious or causes them to cringe in fear. A blog is really not that difficult to create but the idea can be a somewhat intimidating and requires a little computer savvy. Once your blog is created, it is easy to post your personal thoughts or business articles. However, if you want to be recognized by Google and increase your page rank, then there are some tricks that you need to know. If you want to start a blog but lack the expertise or the time required to learn how, then contact Connect and Assist and let them help you get started. At Connect and Assist, your needs become their deeds.
May
15
2010
If you are new to blogging, you may be wondering what is the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? There are many similarities as well as a variety of differences but each blogging platform fulfills a need for the bloggers in today’s society. WordPress.com is a great introductory website to start blogging and learn the intricacies of blogging unless you plan to monetize the blog. If your intent is to monetize your blog, then you should definitely begin on WordPress.org and not risk the chance of being banned from WordPress.com and possibly losing access to your content. Some have been banned and lost their content, however, I was requested only to remove the links. This may be a new policy, but I would not want to risk it. Many may consider WordPress.org for the seasoned blogger. However, if you are not intimidated by the setup, there is no reason that you could not begin there.
When I began blogging, the main difference that I knew was that at WordPress.com, all I had to do was create a free account and get started. In contrast at WordPress.org, the blog had to be self-hosted. I had no earthly idea at all what that meant at that time. However, after beginning on WordPress.com, it wasn’t long until I made the move to WordPress.org.
WordPress.com is a good choice if you only wish to share you thoughts, photos, and other information with others. As stated above it is not the best choice if you intend to monetize the website. WordPress.org, on the other hand can be monetized without any problems and would be the best choice for business use. Therefore, if the website is for business purposes, it is not worth the risk to begin on WordPress.com.
WordPress.com, as stated above is a free account and the hosting of the blog is included. It is simple and easy to set up and the website is available instantly. Since the blog is actually hosted at Wordpress.com., you will be given a web address which is “your user name”.wordpress.com. If you wish to have a specific web address, you may purchase a domain name and forward to it. Creating an account on WordPress.org is also free, however, the hosting of the blog is not included. Therefore, it is not quite as easy to set up and can be quite intimidating at first. It is necessary to purchase and register a domain name and create a hosting account through a reliable online marketing service such as Go Daddy or Host Gator, or another hosting company. Some of the hosting companies offer a one step set up which makes it much easier. Once you have created the account, there is a waiting period of up to 24 hours before you can set up your WordPress.org blog.
Once the account is set up and you are ready to begin, selecting a theme is the next step. The theme selection is basically the same with the exception that WordPress.org offers almost an unlimited number of themes. There are free themes available through WordPress.org and there are numerous paid themes available as well. The themes on WordPress.org tend to be more sophisticated and a wider variety than WordPress.com. However, it is possible to find a great workable theme on WordPress.com.
Once your theme is set up and ready to go, WordPress.com does not offer options to customize the theme. Customizing options are available on many themes on WordPress.org. The customizing options depend totally on the theme selected. Widgets are available on both blogging platforms allowing some additional customization. Both blogging platforms have identical features for creating a new post including the insertion of images, videos, and audio. Links may be created on each platform as well as inserting embedding media.
WordPress.com does not have the option for plug-ins. However, they are almost unlimited on WordPress.org. You will find plug-ins available to track website statistics, to filter spam, to optimize your blog for the search engines, to create a poll on your website, to utilize for social bookmarking, to help with keywords and links to similar websites, and more. Since many of the themes in WordPress.org are search engine optimized or have a plug-in for search engine optimization, they are generally more recognizable and generate a better ranking in the search engines.
As you consider your intent and evaluate your options, just remember that both blogging platforms serve their purposes in the blogging world. You must consider your intent as you consider the needs that each will fulfill. Careful evaluation of each blogging platform will help you choose the one that is right for you. Why not let Connect and Assist help you get started blogging and increase your internet presence?
May
10
2010
When searching on the Internet for a company or a product, many customers are taking advantage of the opportunity to click on the video to learn more about the product or company. By simply clicking on the arrow and watching a brief video, a company can present an appealing introduction to their company or product and entice the potential customer to want to know more.
According to Wikipedia, a video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion. Today’s society is infatuated with the video bug. The video has become an integral part of our lives from infancy until the day we die. Video is one of the first media that an infant relates to. What would a mother do without videos to entertain her children while she attends to the necessary household chores? In addition, the movie industry has made everyone video conscience and comfortable with this media source. The third most popular website on the Internet today is a video site called YouTube. The popularity of the YouTube website has dramatically impacted the use of videos in business.
National research has shown video presentations enhance a website and increases customers which means more dollars to the business. In other words a video tends to create a higher conversion rate. If a picture says a thousand words, then a video can easily say millions or even billions of words. Imagine how much text it would take to create the same amount of information which a potential customer probably would not even read.
A video on your website, not only makes the site more appealing esthetically, but it also gives a more personal insight into your business or product as well as keeping potential customers on your website longer. The longer you can retain a potential customer on your website, the greater the chance that the potential customer will become a real life customer. A video gives you that potential by appealing to more senses and creating an urge to fulfill an emotional need.
Today thousands of businesses are wisely using their advertising dollars by producing videos. Video production requires a little Internet expertise to develop but there are many vendors that can produce one inexpensively, if you do not have the time or desire to learn. Not only can a video be uploaded to your website, but it can also be shared via a variety of video sharing websites. Thus, creating another means of directing new customers to your website.
If your customer base is shrinking and you feel like you are wasting your advertising dollars, you may want to consider using videos on your website. Click here to learn more about using videos to increase your internet presence and your potential customer base.