Introduction to Google+

Posted on 18/07/2011 by Anita

Ever since the outburst of social networking in 2006, Facebook continues to dominate the global market. After a long wait, the globally renowned search engine Google, has decided to enter this potentially large market with Google+, a new social media site with much more to offer.

Google is used world wide and has the strongest algorithm to fetch results. It’s the fastest SE of all the search engines in the market. Google has been dominating the market from a very long time. Now, Google has decided to spread its wings in the social media market also. It is going to launch a new social media site called Google+. Currently, this social networking site is in the testing phase and was launched on 28 June 2011 for a small group of people to test its usability. On June 29, 2011 the existing users were allowed to send invitations to friends for creating their own account, but that was closed the same day due to the large demand for new accounts on this buzzing site.

With the advent of various companies providing software development services, the social market has become very much competitive. Every now and then these offshore software development companies want to go for their brand promotion using social media sites. Google has tried to combine all its social services at one place in the Google+, such as Google profiles etc. Some new terms have been introduced in Google+, such as Circles, Hangouts, Huddles and Sparks. These are basically the features of this site which makes it different from its rival Facebook. Google is also going to launch this as Desktop as well as mobile application for different operating systems such as Android and iOS operating systems by following mobile application development activities. By doing so, Google has tried to attract as many customers as possible, by providing them with the ease of accessibility and connectivity.

Google+ Features:

  • Circles: This is a rather an old thing with a new name, it enables users to manage contacts as per their choice. One can add any number of circles to one’s profile and add people to these named circles such as family, friends, best friends, etc. by drag and drop interface. A user can share anything with the circles, such as Google services, videos, snaps or some important information.
  • Huddle: It is a feature that is available to Android, iPhone and other devices to interact with the people added in different circles.
  • Hangouts: If one wants to chat with a group of friends or family members or say colleagues, then he can do the same through this amazing feature called group video chat, wherein all the group members (maximum 10 are allowed!) can interact with each other at a single hangout point. “Instant Upload” is specific feature for Android for storing photos or videos in a personal album for sharing or safe keeping.
  • Sparks: Like the “Share” option on Facebook, Google’s development team introduced “Sparks”, where users can find and share topics that they find interesting. It will recommend you what you like so you never get bored.
  • Streams: This feature is similar to “notifications” on Facebook; thus users can see updates of people in various circles. There a user can add status update, image or video.

Google has tried its best to organize everything as per the user’s requirements. The rest now depends on the users worldwide and their taste. But it is quite certain that Google is going to capture the market in a similar manner it has been doing since the past decade.

Author’s bio:
David Frankk is the author of this article. He has been writing articles for many software product development companies like Q3 Technologies. Moreover, he has been involved in providing useful content writing material related to Gaming engine architecture.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Frankk

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Google+ Could Be the Biggest Online Conversation in the History of the Internet

Posted on 17/07/2011 by Anita

What is Google + ?

Most people are wondering what are  the main differences between Facebook and Twitter ?  Shall I part  of it or  start spending more time on the new Google+

Google+ is the biggest online conversation since the internet was available to the public. It is still in Beta version and you need to be invited to join by someone already in it.

In Google+ you can potentially make a conversation with every single user of Google, not of Google+ only but Google, so if there are millions in it, you have potentially millions to exchange ideas with. Why? and How?

Google+ allows you to add to your circles everyone on Google+ and anyone with a Gmail account and they don’t even need to accept or add you in their circles to receive your status updates. In Summery everyone you add to your circles (and you can potentially add everyone) will receive your status updates in their “Stream” and they can add comments and likes.

This is a total new way of social interaction, online conversation and online sharing.

Many of us don’t believe Google can have a successful Social Network because of all their previous failures, but Google + is not competition to Facebook or Twitter, it is a whole new version of the capabilities within Social Media.

Do companies actually see the potential of what Google+ is? I am sure not yet and like many new ideas and it will take a while before most people see it. Basically you are able to reach your target market and potential clients without them even knowing you are there, but they will receive your posts about your business so you can reach everyone you want.

You can make the biggest market research ever imagine for your business by reaching as many people as possible and sharing the questions, they don’t need to have  your  contacts but they are still able to answer your questions.

This will create a whole new level in the way marketing is done online. Like we have been saying for a long time now… the news, services and businesses will find you, no longer you will have to look for them.

How will this affect Facebook or Twitter? That remains  to be seen, all the attention is going to how Facebook will react about Google+ but what about Twitter? While not having all the eyes on them we might be giving the space they need to be the real threat to all social networks around.

 

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How to Optimize a Google Places Local Business Listing

Posted on 13/07/2011 by Anita

Google Places, formerly Google Local, is easily the most powerful free marketing tool available to local businesses. Introduced in March 2004, Google Local displays local business information at the top of many of Google’s organic search results accompanied by a map. As of June 2010, Google Places listings consist of 1, 3 or 7 businesses for most searches. Considering that most localized searches provide millions of organic search results, showing in the top 7 of Google Places can be invaluable to a business.

Breaking into the top 7 takes knowledge and time and staying there takes effort. It all starts with claiming and optimizing your Google Places local business listing.

Visit Google and search for Google Places. Register for an account. Follow the bouncing ball until you can click on the button that says “Add a Business”.

As a quick aside, it is assumed that anyone who would read this knows that Google Places only allows one listing per phone number. While you can in fact create multiple listings with the same number and reap the benefit for a short time, eventually you’ll find that all of your listings have disappeared into the void. Don’t play games with Google Places. It isn’t worth the time and effort it takes to undo the damage should you cross the dozens of arbitrary, invisible boundaries that Google has in place to try to make the entire process “fair” for every business.

The first page of the submission form is mostly fill in the blank, but there are 3 important opportunities to optimize the listing.

Company/Organization: Choose your business name wisely. No one audits the listings to verify that the company name matches your incorporation documents, but be careful. If you company’s legal name is “Paul’s Professional Services, Inc.”, you need to carefully tweak it for the purposes of Google Places optimization. Two common methods are to add a keyword descriptor or your primary city. For example: “Paul’s Professional Painting Services” or “Paul’s Painting Services of Dallas”. Monkey with your company name too much using obviously manipulative methods for cramming keywords into the field and you’ll eventually find that your Google Places listing has been relegated to a black hole by Google. Typically, this is the direct result of your competition reporting your listing to Google. Simply conduct a Google search for “locksmith Google spammers” and you’ll find some insight on why you do not want to get on the bad side of Google Places.

Description: Carefully craft a 200 character description of your business focusing almost exclusively on your key products and services. Do not waste space here for marketing speak such as “Proudly serving the DFW area since 1974″. Do not waste space here by including geographic references. The geography is almost entirely controlled by the city you list for your address. Inclusion of additional cities does virtually nothing when it comes to optimizing your Google Places listing.

For our hypothetical painting company, Paul’s Professional Services, an optimized description would go something like:

Residential and commercial painter specializing in interior and exterior painting. Services include wall painting, ceiling painting, textures, faux finishes and color matching. Free estimates.

Note that the example include not only the company’s top services, but also includes multiple uses of the primary keyword in various forms – “painting” and “painter” are the top two keywords in searches according to Google’s Keyword Tool. In addition, “free” is a top search word for virtually any search phrase.

It is important to remember that the description is designed to reach a broader search audience – not win awards on Madison Avenue. Keep it simple and include your top keywords. 200 characters is not a lot of room, so make sure not to waste space.

Category: Google Places requires the use of at least one standard category. Begin by typing your top keywords and choose the most relevant category. Google Places provides the ability to include 5 categories. Use them. If your top keywords are not standard categories, then use one or two closely related standard categories and use the remaining three slots for specific keywords.

For our hypothetical company, the categories might look something like:
Painter (Standard)
Painting Contractor (Top keyword search / Custom Category)
House Painter (Top keyword search / Custom Category)
Commercial Painter (Top keyword search / Custom Category)
Handyman (Standard, but an extremely popular related search term)

NEXT. Page Two of submission form.

The Service Areas and Location Settings options are relatively new and are designed to allow a business to establish a service area if the company does not have a storefront of some sort. Initially, choosing a service area (“Yes, this business serves customers at their locations”) appeared to hinder the optimization process. While the jury is still out, Google continues to tweak this feature. If in doubt, complete the option accurately for your business.

Business hours and payment options are purely optional and serve little if any value to the optimization process. Potential customers certainly will find the information useful.

Google Places provides the ability to add up to 10 photos and 5 videos (from YouTube.com). Make sure you always use keywords to name your photos and take advantage of the “tag” functions provided by YouTube.com. The impact on Google Places traffic is limited, but any impact is good.

Additional details: Google’s examples are virtually useless and very misleading. To optimize your listing, create a table of your key products and services using as many keywords as possible. Each detail consists of two fields with a maximum space of 200 characters each. An example of an effective use of these fields for our hypothetical company would be:

Interior & Exterior Painting Contractor specializing in: Wall painting, Ceiling painting, Floor staining, Epoxy Floor coatings, Texture paint finishes, faux finishes, color matching, proper surface preparation

The colon is the separator between the two fields. Include as many additional details about your company, your products and your services as possible.

Feel free to include service areas as one of the Additional Details for informational purposes, but do not expect it to cause your Google Places listing to show in those cities.
SUBMIT.

The new Google Places local business listing will not be active until verified. Usually, verification can be completed by triggering a phone call from Google’s computers to the phone number of record for the listing. In some instances, Google requires verification via a postcard mailed to the address of record for the listing. Postcards can take up to 5 weeks to arrive. Once verified, the real work begins.

Paul Dumas has provided Internet marketing, website design and SEO services to local businesses for over 13 years. He is founder and owner of Optimized Local Search Services. Additional articles related to local SEO and Internet trends for local business are available on the website: http://optimizedlocalsearch.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_J_Dumas

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Website Tips

Posted on 12/07/2011 by Anita

This post has attracted a lot of  good feedback, so I thought I will post it again for someone  has not seen it before. Enjoy.

If you have a website the chances are it’s not making you much money. Because statistically, some 90% of businesses’ websites DON’T make a penny. Truth is, making your website pay its way is not quite as simple as your website designer might have led you to believe.

Here’s why: in the same way you can’t build a profitable and solid business just by printing a glossy brochure and waiting for it to magically pull in the business, you can’t simply throw a few “brochure” web-pages onto the Internet and score an immediate success.

And if you’ve been to a typical website design firm for your site, that’s what you might have: an online-brochure which has virtually zero marketing effect. Website designers are basically a new breed of graphic designers – and they are NOT marketing experts. That’s why most websites don’t make any money.

The good news is, making your website profitable can be achieved fast, as long as you stick to some simple but very powerful fundamentals. And you can start right now.

And it all starts with your home page, because that’s the first thing people see when they hit your website.

Here are 3 tips to help you maximise the results you get from every visitor to your home page:

1. Ensure your Home Page passes the 8-second test. Research shows that you have just 8 seconds to grab your website visitors’ interest. They don’t call it “web-surfing” for nothing: if you don’t grab your visitors’ attention and break this pattern of behaviour, then they will hit your site, stay for a few seconds… and then they’re gone. Usually forever.

So when they do hit your home-page, you need to present them with a clear and pressing reason to stay. And that means a headline. Don’t let your website designer or your graphic designer sell you on the idea of logos, pretty pictures and whitespace – that’s just a “brochure website”. Trust me, they don’t work. No one cares about your logo, the picture of the anonymous businessman in a suit at the top of the page, or empty space devoid of any meaning.
A headline is text, usually black, bold, and big which gives your visitor a big, exciting and compelling promise that if he or she continues reading, you’re going to give them some significant reward for doing so. In other words, you’re going to have one of the few websites that keeps people for more than 8 seconds.

So think of a great headline for your home page, one which really sums up the “big promise” your business makes and encapsulates the overriding reason why people would want to do business with you and not your competitors.

2. Structure your web page copy according to the AIDA formula. Follow this classic rule and you can’t go too far wrong. Your home page should follow on from your headline and tell your “story”. It’s got to be interesting enough to keep them riveted to the page long enough to get them over that 8-second “hump”.

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, and all of your copy, whether it’s a letter, brochure, email, or your home page should follow this simple formula:

You get their Attention with a strong, compelling headline offering them a clear benefit for reading further.

Then you get their Interest with strong opening paragraphs which spell out the problems they face and the benefits your product or service offers.

You then fan the flames of their Desire by “twisting the knife” of their pain and really showing them how you can ease it and make their lives better.

Finally, you get them to take Action on your offer with a strong call to action. On your home page, that will normally involve people giving you their name and email address in exchange for a Free report or video etc (see below).Every single page on your website should have a single purpose to justify its existence, and should therefore follow the AIDA formula.

It seems too simple and too good to be true – but it’s used by the greatest copywriters and marketers, simply because it plugs into our natural human psychology, and it WORKS.

3. Use the lead generation model. Too many business owners look at the Internet as nothing more than a virtual shopping mall. But we’ve already seen how your average visitors to your website are gone again within just 8 seconds.

Do you really think you can persuade your visitors to become a paying customer in 8 seconds? Most of the time, it just doesn’t work.

The trick is to switch from a sales model to a lead generation model. When someone hits your site, your sole intention should be to get them to give you their name and an email address.

Once you’ve got their email address you can start emailing them with a targeted, relationship-building and, ultimately, money-making sequence of personalised, friendly, and informative emails.

So there you have it: 3 very simple changes you can make to your home page right now to boost your website profits.

www.eBusinessproduct.com

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Stephen Covey- 8th Habit

Posted on 30/06/2011 by Anita

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My monthly mentor- Raymond Aaron

Posted on 20/06/2011 by Anita

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6 Minutes to Success

Posted on 16/06/2011 by Anita

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Virta Pay

Posted on 29/05/2011 by Anita

There has been a lot of controversy about Virta Pay over the last few months , is it real or is it a scam?

Well , the company has opened for business 2 weeks ago, and I have purchased a few great products using the money I got from Virta pay  and if you follow the link to sign up,  http://bit.ly/eCf615

There is still a chance to collect $20 each day free for education , http://bit.ly/eCf615

You can also keep up with the development by reading the blog each day as you collect the $20,  hope you enjoy and find good use of the new currency  http://bit.ly/eCf615

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Facebook Fan Page vs Group

Posted on 28/05/2011 by Anita

Facebook has become one of the most cutting edge platforms to grow your business. Lets face it…there are a lot of people spending a lot of time on there! And best of all its FREE. But it can be a little confusing as to how to best set up a business on Facebook.

There are 2 main options for hosting your business presence on Facebook ~ a Fan Page or a Group. In some ways a group and fan page are similar, but there are some distinctive differences to be aware of.

Fan Pages

Fan pages are used to promote people, celebrities, groups of people, businesses & more. They are created to increase promotion, attract supporters, and generally increase awareness & online presence and of course interaction with customers and potential customers. The ‘Marketing’ of the person or group being promoted through a Fan page happens in a variety of ways.

1. When a person ‘likes’ a fan page, that connection is posted on their wall and then shown in the Home Page feed for others to see. Then friends of that person click on the page just connected with…and so the number of followers grows.

2. You do not need to be a Facebook user to view a Fan Page. A person may follow a link from somewhere eg. a website and look you up on Facebook from anywhere in the world.

3. These pages are not private pages…so anyone can access the information on a particular page even if they haven’t ‘liked’ it as such. (If you aren’t sure what all this ‘liking’ is its Facebook’s new way of ‘becoming a fan’ of a page. Where a person once became a ‘fan’ they now become a ‘liker’).

4. Its easy to post a link to a fan page across other Facebook pages…putting the pages name in front of different groups of people.

A page is easier to manage and has less limitations & more options to customise & increase functionality than a group. A page is run by ‘admins’ who can be changed when required, and allows those who’ve been added as an admin to make changes and post on the wall of the page & generally manage the page and its happenings.

Facebook Group

As the name implies, a Group is more designed for socialisation and interaction between Members who have been brought together for a purpose. A group is run by ‘Administrators’ who can change information, photos etc and accept Members.

There are a number of options with a group, including making it a Private Closed group where Members can discuss sensitive and confidential information. People would need to request to join these kinds of groups.

There are a few benefits of creating a group for your business. One benefit is that you can send an email to group members. This is especially handy if you are offering free training, specials, events etc.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be careful how much information you send. You don’t want to SPAM someone’s mailbox so much that they remove themselves from your group. None of us like spam, so make sure what you have to say is important. I would recommend no more than 2 messages a week, so make them count!

Facebook Advertising & Promotion.

When it comes to paid advertising on Facebook, you cannot advertise a Group. You will need to refer people to an outside BLOG or website and send them back to your Facebook group from there. A Fan page though can easily be linked to Facebook advertising. Many times people will need to be invited to join a group (though some people will just join if they like what they see).

Make an informed Decision.

Before making a decision for your business on whether to create a Fan page or Group its important to review what you’re objectives are for the page…what you want to achieve. A lot more can be done with a Fan Page in regards to adding functionality, where as a Group may be the answer if you don’t need any of that, and its just a means to bring people together for one purpose.

One of the best ways to help determine the differences between a Fan Page and Group, is to actually go check some out. See how they work, how they look and how they function..and make an informed decision from there.

Nicole Jones

For FREE Weekly Marketing Training from one of the most powerful marketing communities in the world, register at http://www.freebusinessmarketingtoolsfortoday.com 

Nicole Jones ~ Leader in Online Marketing, Mentor in Online Business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicole_Liz_Jones

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How To Get Free Traffic?

Posted on 10/05/2011 by Anita

We all need free traffic to our blog,unless you have lots of money to spend!
For the last week I have been looking at ways to do this–
I presume you make posts with great content?  Think about are people going to read my posts and how long will they be on my blog-Is it interesting, do I say what I do?
How do I come across to readers of my blog? I am learning one great factor here-BE HUMAN. What I mean by that is we need to relate to others- Always be honest and from the heart when you post.
Enjoy your niche or subject you post on,otherwise it becomes a pain to write posts—
Enough Arm Chair Philosophy– Here are a few ways it will help to  get traffic to your Blog or Website—

(1) Join Twitter-my link to join me is http://twitter.com/anitali  , it is free to join and it is  the best way to get yourself noticed.
How to Twitter is really easy-People love to know what you are doing in your life-”Having a coffee by the sea” “just found a great movie”,”Enjoying my workshop today” etc-you understand what I mean!
You are only allowed 140 characters  which is great, no  long 400 words to write on posts to your blog.
Then find friends on your niche by searching-Videos to follow.
Try Tweetdeck to be able to post from your desktop to Tweet with the ability to cloak links and make them short-No more people hacking your affiliate links.

A small fee to join a great program to get followers is  Twitter Traffic Machine.  Have a look but you do not have to join,you can get huge followers for free just spending time finding the correct friends you want-Always post interesting comments do not spam your Affiliate programs,build rapport with people so they will look at your posts-Send direct emails to people you like-be honest! Again this is all free.

(2) Make a newsletter which I still in the process of getting it done. Always direct people to my blog when sometimes it is so important to give your experiences away for free and help others.  They in turn will trust you more and will look more highly on what you are promoting-FREE Help!

(3) You will need an Auto responder to send your Newsletter out to readers-I use Fusionhq

(4) Free Ads sites try Craigs List -be careful here do not spam or post ads without fair and good websites or email address.

(5) Traffic Swarm Will take a bit of learning but free-look at the videos how to set up your ad website-again free.

(6) More Free Ads-USFREEADS

 

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