Showing posts with label Website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Website. Show all posts

Friday, October 5, 2012

Using RSS Feeds to Drive More Website Traffic

English: This icon, known as the "feed ic...
English: This icon, known as the "feed icon" or the "RSS icon", was introduced in Mozilla Firefox in order to indicate a web feed was present on a particular web page that could be used in conjunction with the Live bookmarks function. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera and some other browsers have adopted the icon in order to promote a de facto standard. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

RSS feeds are basically like keeping a constant eye on an aspect of a remote web page. You may want to know when your favorite website is updated. Perhaps you need the latest weather updates. Regardless of the desired information, you simply need to set up an RSS feed to the desired site. You then need to gather all of your RSS feeds so they will output their information in one place such as your home page. This allows you to continuously monitor a wide variety of pages without having to manually check them.

The other aspect of RSS feeds involves advertising. If you would like to increase traffic to one of your current blogs or websites, you can publish an RSS feed on another website. Consequently, all visitors to the site you publish will see the ad for your web page; they will know exactly what is happening on your site at any given moment. The goal is to have your RSS feed published on as many different pages as possible. If you convince enough people to add your feed, then you can create a large network that customers will come across often.

Regarding the technical aspect of RSS feeds; they are based on XML code. If you wanted a live feed from another page in the old days, you had to manually paste a large piece of XML code into the code of your existing site. This was very cumbersome and beyond the abilities of most bloggers at the time. RSS makes XML simple and easy to use. Nowadays, you no longer need to paste XML code. You can simply follow a series of links to have an RSS feed on your "feed aggregator" page or software, or have your feed published elsewhere.

The meaning of the term RSS tends to change occasionally. However, the term currently refers to "Really Simple Syndication", according to Wikipedia. To view a feed, you will require an aggregator. This can be a site such as FeedBurner, Technorati or Del.icio.us (pronounced delicious). These sites are very helpful to personal Bloggers, individuals who read many different blogs or feeds, and people who use their website or blog as a business. These sites refer to themselves as "communities", and they often function as both aggregators and feed publishers.

FeedBurner claims to be the "biggest and baddest" feed publishing network. Having your feed "burned" can result in a massive increase in traffic, almost instantly. Simply by choosing FeedBurner to publish your feed, you automatically gain access to many new marketing channels. Most likely, you will discover many channels that you didn't even know existed. Technorati is more of a blog-hosting site. However, its potential as a feed publisher and source of major traffic shouldn't be underestimated.

Del.icio.us markets itself as an "online bookmarking" utility specifically designed to attract end users, rather than publishers. This means that publishing your feed on this site will encourage more people to visit your site.

All in all, publishing RSS feeds from your site can greatly increase your web traffic and your online business. They are one of the most effective ways to let as many people as possible know what is happening on your website or your online store.

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/976529

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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Incorporate Facebook Into Travel Marketing Plan

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In addition to your marketing Web site, your CVB or tourism bureau has the opportunity to be seen by more than 250 million people all over the world at any given time. This idea of increasing your Web traffic may seem complicated and time-consuming, but it is much easier than you may think.

According to Facebook's statistics, more than 120 million users log in each day, contributing to more than 5 billion minutes being spent each day worldwide on the site. Despite what you may think about Facebook being targeted for teens and young adults, the current fastest growing demographic is people ages 35 and older. Combine that with the Domestic Travel Market Report statistics that the average age of a domestic traveller is 46 (and that 75% of Americans travel for leisure) and you don't need another reason to join Facebook.

Other than the statistics, Facebook brings a lot to the table:


  • A plethora of media devices at your fingertips. Uploading video, pictures, slideshows and easy posting makes sharing multimedia easy.
  • The ability to generate discussions easily. Direct messaging capabilities, wall postings, group networking and creating fan pages give your CVB or tourism bureau a broad range of tourism and destination marketing tools at your fingertips.
  • High SEO capabilities. Facebook can be placed high on Google results, especially if you customize your Facebook address.
  • High reachability. You have the ability to not only keep up with your clients, but give potential clients a taste of what they are missing. You have the ability to search for people who are interested in travelling, as well as the individual assets your destination has to offer, and you reach out to them directly.
  • Networking. Become a fan of similar pages to gather a bigger following. In turn, they have the ability to link back to your site.

All of these capabilities for tourism advertising and destination branding are not just limited to your company's Web site. These services are available in addition to what you may already have in terms of Internet marketing.


Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/2749292

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Saturday, September 22, 2012

WordPress Blogging Tool for Small Business

WordPress
WordPress (Photo credit: Adriano Gasparri)

Since leaving the corporate world, I have had many questions about what exactly I do. Questions arise every day, what is Word Press? What is Corporate Flunkie? What do you do as a blogger? What is affliliate marketing? What exactly do you do now? Well I am going to start with the first question and do my best to answer.

WordPress is a FREE web software that anyone can use to create and update a blog or even a web-site. You install the program on a web-server (or host account, such as Host Gator, which is what I use). Then with the user interface you can create pages, posts, write articles, upload images. Everything is managed from the administration panel that you have a user id and password too.

WordPress Functionality:
  • Create pages (ex: About Me, Contact Me, Shop, Latest Update)
  • Allows you to write your articles in chronological order, newest are always listed first.
  • Utilizing the Themes tool you can give your site personality with a design.
  • Visitors can leave comments to your articles or posts.
  • As the administrator you decide who/what comments you will allow.
  • You can create menus to make your site easier for visitors.
  • There are built in FREE Plugins that you can download which add extra functions to your site.
WordPress has been mistaken many times as a program utilized ONLY for blogging. This is not true. This misconception is because that is how it originated. However, today its users span a broad range from TechCrunch, to TED, CNN, and National Football League, NBC Sports to name a few. Companies from all over the globe are utilizing WordPress to update their websites. Over 350 million people view more than 2.5 billion pages each month. In addition, it hosts blogs written in over 120 languages. Below is a breakdown of the top 10 languages taken right from WordPress website.
  1. English 66%
  2. Spanish 8.7%
  3. Portuguese 6.5%
  4. Indonesian 3.5%
  5. Italian 2%
  6. German 1.8%
  7. French 1.4%
  8. Russian 1.1%
  9. Vietnamese 1.1%
  10. Swedish 1.0%
According to WordPress, as of 2011 over 100,000 new WordPresses are created everyday around the world. In addition, they show no signs of this slowing down. Publishers are using it to create all kinds of sites beyond blogs - news sites, company sites, magazines, social networks, sports sites, and more. Their showcase contains many interesting examples.

Top 5 reasons to use WordPress:
  • SEO-they offer many SEO benefits FREE of charge.
  • Content-you easily create and edit pages using a simple text editor, NO HTML to learn.
  • Extensions-FREE design themes, contact forms and cool features without hiring a web designer.
  • Support-Thousands of web developers found on Google to assist you with any issues.
  • One-Click Installation-many web hosting providers utilize the quick install system including HostGator and others.
Many have made comparisons of Facebook to WordPress and even going as far to state that it may be on its way to being the next Facebook. I'm not so sure that I agree with that and here's why. WordPress has an appeal to those who want to create a strong presence online. But not everyone has the desire to do this.

Blogging offers a way for individuals to have their "own place" online, if you will. Many of those using Facebook do so for social networking and promoting their own sites. In addition, Facebook has made their software so user friendly that the average person with very little knowledge of computers can utilize it. With WordPress it takes a certain level of skill to navigate the software as well as focus, to post blogs frequently.

Overall, WordPress is a user friendly blogging/website software to use. Not to mention a powerful tool for online business. As with any software it has some technical tasks that could be worked through but it's totally FREE and with that price, one can't find too much to complain about!


Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/7286059

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Monday, September 17, 2012

How To Make Money Online via Blogging

English: A tag cloud (a typical Web 2.0 phenom...
English: A tag cloud (a typical Web 2.0 phenomenon in itself) presenting Web 2.0 themes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Being an ambitious entrepreneurial-orientated guy (currently involved in the property business and also with a great passion about blogging and internet marketing), I am now enthusiastically looking to get the most out of blogging, RSS and kindred types of the available modern internet marketing strategies and techniques in order to effectively grow and profit from any business I might be involved in or alternatively the one I would like to start.

As you may have heard, blogs are a hot topic these days. A blog (which is short form for Web log) is nothing more than a public journal which is published online and can often represent the personality of the author or the Web site. Why are blogs one of the hottest trends today? They represent such tremendous potential for fresh original content being added to the Web and updated daily to the Web. Search engine spiders absolutely love indexing blogs and many blogs are being read on a daily and sometimes even on an hourly basis by a wide range of readership.

From a technical point of view, search engines love blogs because there are now literally millions of people writing fresh content, at least daily, sometimes several times a day. Millions of people all sharing their "points of view" on a variety of topics including philosophy on life, politics, health, travel, religion, business, entertainment and much more.

If you are not yet familiar with social media and/or Web 2.0, you can use this article as a start-up to get yourself up to speed.

Join the Web 2.0 Revolution! How Your Business Can Benefit from Hands-On Internet

So you’ve heard of Web 2.0, but you’re not sure what it is. Do you need to install it? Nope. Web 2.0 is what you’re using right now to read this blog. It’s the interactive factor of today’s internet. (I say this as if I sound like I know what I’m talking about. I’m actually still learning!).

Remember when the internet was a place you sent the occasional email or tried to look up information (only to be disappointed with the results)? It’s hard to remember those times, but the ability to find virtually anything we need online is only a recent phenomenon. I know that even just three years ago, I probably could not have run an internet-based company! People would have thought I was crazy to market to people across the country!

Today, the internet is completely interactive. You participate in chats and forums, you blog, and you get to decide what news stories are important to readers. It’s been called the “democratization of media.” It’s an exciting time! And what better time to implement these interactive tools to promote your small business?

Where in the past, your marketing efforts might have consisted of a television commercial, radio spot, or billboard, today’s technology lovers and entrepreneurs are putting stock in online advertising, which is more affordable and more effective.

Enough said. You’re sold. But what can you do right now to join the Web 2.0 revolution and market your company online?

Blogging

1. Start a blog. I’m not just saying this because I have a blog. Well, actually, I am. I wasn’t sold on blogging until my husband started this blog and I saw that people were actually reading it! I realized that today’s media offers something for everything, and ever piece of content has an audience. With an unlimited potential of readers, why wouldn’t you start a blog for your company?

The blog should relate to your business. I have a marketing company, Social Network Asia, so my blog relates to marketing. Make it enough to entice the reader to learn more about your company (you’re enticed right now, right??) and to build trust in your skills. It’s about building relationships. The next time a reader needs the product or service you provide, you can bet they’ll think of you first. If you want more information about the act of writing as a marketing strategy, you can check my previous post.

Press Releases

2. Use press releases effectively. Note that I did not say “blast out press releases helter skelter.” I personally don’t believe in throwing out press releases just to boost your ratings. In fact, you won’t find a press release about Egg anywhere out there. That’s because I haven’t had any newsworthy events I feel should be announced.

When you do have something newsworthy (your grand opening, launch of your website, major client secured), don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. And do it right. There are press release services that send your release to hundreds of websites, both well-known news sites like Yahoo! and Google, and smaller niche websites and publications in your genre.

What this does is not only get you in front of hundreds of pairs of eyes, but also boosts your SEO. Try it for yourself. When you distribute a press release, do a search for your company name on Google. I guarantee you’ll get multiple listings just from all the places that published your press release. The higher you are in your search engine results ranking, the more people will find your website.

Digg Digg Digg

3. Get Dugg. Huh? Digg.com and del.icio.us are just two of the social bookmarking websites available. What they do is allow readers to decide the relevance of articles, news, press releases and blog posts. Say MSNBC.com has the cover story on Saddam Hussein, and waaay, buried in the back is an article on the Postal Service changing their fee structure (see my previous post). Now, I realize that Saddam is front page news, but I think this Postal Service article is a big deal too, especially for marketers.

There is a little icon at the end of the article that says “Digg it” and another that says “del.icio.us.” By clicking on these icons, I have essentially voted for these articles to move up in importance. The more people that click on your press release or blog, the more people see it, and then more people click on it. You get the picture. It helps you gain more viewers who will end up on your website, buying your products or services.

You can even Digg your own articles so that they make it into Digg’s list!
Newsletters

4. E-Newsletter. While your electronic newsletter isn’t exactly online, it’s a great place to give access to all your online components. You have a newsletter, right? You’re sending it out every month to your contacts, right???

In your newsletter, on the sidebars or at the bottom, include links to your website and blog. Give teasers for your most recent entries on your blog: “Giving Away Free Information as a Marketing Strategy. Click here to read this blog entry.” If you have a recent press release, include a link to it. If you have coverage in local media (i.e. news program or radio) include a link to that. Give your newsletter audience every opportunity to connect with you.
Leverage Other People’s Eyeballs

5. Advertise. Guess what? You don’t have to advertise on the big players’ websites. It might not even be effective for you. There is a niche group in every genre you can think of (work at home moms, cat lovers, people who love Barbara Mandrell and toast). Find your target market online and advertise on smaller, more targeted websites. It’s much cheaper, and you’ll find that communities are very supportive of “their own.” So take the time to become part of online communities in your market, and you’ll see a big payoff.

Advertising on these sites can come in the form of banner ads, text ads, or mention of your product in a blog. Get creative and find your own ways to get your product name out there. As you can see, the sky’s the limit when it comes to marketing your company online. The great thing is there’s usually not a long-term commitment, so you can quickly pull out of any channels that aren’t beneficial for your company!

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Twitter Marketing: Growing Business Strategy

twitter logo map 09
twitter logo map 09 (Photo credit: The Next Web)

Do Twitter marketing really a good strategy to grow your business?

As one of many home based business entrepreneurs, I do this social media marketing to boos my sales. Twitter as one of the social media frontrunner, became as an avenue for business owners and solo entrepreneurs to advertise and to reach potential customers via the internet. It became one of the mainstreams when it comes to social media marketing.

The fact that Twitter rank as one of the ten-most-visited websites worldwide by Alexa’s web traffic analysis means a great opportunity to all business owners to promote their products and/or services on this platform.

Here are some tips on how to have an effective Twitter markting:

1. Know the basics and lingoes of Twitter.

2. Optimize your Twitter Bio.

Make sure to fill up all the required fields to set-up your twitter page. Make it detailed. Put your website URL to your profile to drive traffic to your website. This will also allow people to find out more about your business/company.

3. Schedule your tweets and interact.

If you’re a busy person, and don’t have a budget to hire a social media assistant, “automating tweets” is the best solution to keep your page active.

4. Build Active Followers.

There are a lot of sites nowadays that can give you tons of followers in a breeze such as twellow and twiends but twitter marketing is not just about following and having millions of dormant followers. It is about “interaction”.

In using twitter for your social media campaign, “interaction” is a must. The challenge is to give your audience reason to follow you back and engage in conversation with you. In conversing with your audience, you should talk about things that interest them aside from talking about your business.

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