These days, getting a website of your own is easy…but getting the visibility you want is much harder. While the Internet is home to intense competition, there are proven strategies to help you stand out from among the crowd, creating an audience that will share your content and return to your site again and again.

It’s All In The Name

Choosing a great domain name is your first – and most important – step in creating an online presence. Creative names are cute, to be sure, but choosing a name that speaks to your site’s content can be a true benefit. Basic SEO points to the importance of owning a domain name that is optimized for search and clearly communicates the site’s content. Online research has shown that the average online searcher will spend three seconds or less deciding whether or not to peruse your site. Choosing an appropriate name for your site can help your chances the customer will click-through to evaluate your site’s look and content.

Name.com and other site registries let you run searches to check the availability of your chosen domain name. You can check for various extensions, such as .co, .info, .net, .me, .org or .tv. If you can, it’s best to reserve the same domain name with varying extensions, as this is best for the expansion of your online presence.

Partner Up

It’s no secret that content is king. Consumers want to search your blog or website to be educated or entertained. Using relevant tags and keywords will boost your search engine rankings, as will frequent content. This is often where newer bloggers and website owners miss the mark. Setting up a site to talk about topics you’re passionate about gives you a powerful voice, but too often, blog owners have a strong showing for the first month, posting frequently. And, somewhere around their 20th or 30th post, they’ve run out of steam, hit the brakes and never look back. You can avoid this using two important strategies.

• First, don’t focus so much on frequency that you miss relevancy. Having a new blog post or Web article every day is not as important as having good, solid, reliable, entertaining content on a regular, predictable basis. In other words, two to three strong posts this week trumps mediocre posts that go up daily.
• Second, find a partner. They always said two (or three or four, but who’s counting) are better than one. Yes, you have a voice, and you should stick with it as your online signature. But offer others the opportunity to submit relevant guest posts. It doesn’t matter if they speak regularly online about the same topic or not, when another person submits an article or post, you get a fresh voice and different perspective, and readers love variety. Beyond that, if the person who writes for your blog has their own, their followers are likely to hop over to your blog and browse around a bit. This is all due to the credibility and relationship they’ve built with your guest blogger. Finally, it takes a ton of pressure off of you, the site owner, to constantly approach your topic from different angles.

If you follow these rules, you will effectively begin optimizing your site, introducing increasingly more visitors to your special place in cyberspace.

Zach Buckley is a freelance writer who is interested in exploring the intersection of culture, science and education.  He lives in the Midwest USA and enjoys music, literature and good food.

Contest Domination is a new WordPress plugin that makes is incredibly easy to run viral contests on your blog.

It has had a lot of hype over the past couple of weeks and rightly so as it is a fantastic plugin.

We all know how effective contests can be in growing a blog, so a plugin that makes contests as simple as this is always going to be a massive success.

I don’t just want you to take my word for it, I want you to experience it..

That is why I am running a contest here on my blog for one of my readers win a copy of Contest Domination, you also get the chance to see how good the system is as I am running the contest using the Contest Domination plugin.

How To Enter

Head over to the competition page and follow the instructions:

http://davidshawblog.com/contest/win-copy-contest-domination/

When Does It End

The contest will run until 4pm on June 1st. A winner will be selected shortly after.

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Have you used Contest Domination yet? What are your thoughts? Have you enter the contest, did you find it easy to enter?

With so many social networks available to people these days it is becoming harder to understand what content works well in each arena.

Although it feels as though it has been around for an age, Social Media is still a relatively new concept, which in turn means that best practices are still being crafted.

I believe that there will never be a golden bullet for Social Media success as there are so many users all with different goals. I do believe that there are a few tricks that you can use to increase your exposure though.

I am going to run through a few tips on how I believe you can increase your exposure on the two main social networks – Facebook & Twitter.

Twitter

I have used Twitter for nearly three years now and am as addicted to it now as I was when I started. I follow a lot of interesting tweeters as well as experienced bloggers and internet marketers. By following these users I have picked up a few traits that have helped me to increase my exposure.

Here is what works well on Twitter:

1. Numbers/Facts – People love short bursts of knowledge and easy to understand facts. They also love to share them, I find that when I post up stats they get retweeted by my followers.
2. Following on from my earlier point. If you have written a link-bait style post on your blog such as a list post they make very good Twitter content as people like to share them and they tend to generate the most clicks back to your blog.
3. In general I do not believe images work very well on Twitter, however Infographics tend to go down very well. I believe they are the best form of Twitter ‘link-bait’ at this time.
4. Questions – Ask questions of your users. You will find that people love to share their views and get involved in a conversation.

I hope these tips will help you to get more out of Twitter.. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!!

Facebook

I am involved with many Facebook pages for businesses and blogs and I have managed to learn a few tricks for how you can get more exposure on Facebook.

1. Pictures/Videos – Since Facebook introduced EdgeRank it has been harder to get greatest exposure as even if you have 10k fans on your Facebook page, chances are only 10-15% of them will actually see your posts! One way to get round this is to use pictures/videos. It appears that Facebook gives a little more exposure to these types of media so you can be sure to hit more people by using them on your next update. Why not include pictures in future updates to see what effect it has on your exposure.
2. Ask for likes/shares – How many times have you seen Facebook updates that have said ‘Like & Share’ this post? I used to look down on it and was a bit sceptical about how effective it is as a strategy. However, after testing it out on a few of my pages it seems to be a very successful tactic and a great way for generating viral content.
3. Questions – As you do in Twitter you also need to ask questions on Facebook. The aim is to get people interacting with you or your brand. If you can get users to interact with you they are more likely to see your future updates, which will lead to an increase in your exposure.

I hope that you find these tips/techniques useful and that they help you to increase your exposure on Twitter/Facebook.

Do you have a great technique/trick for boosting exposure on Social Media? Feel free to share it below.

This is just a quick informal post to say a big thank you to all my followers who have stuck with me during my short break from blogging and I hope you will all enjoy the content that is to come in the coming months.

As the post clearly indicates, today is my 25th birthday so I am only writing this short post today as a thank you to my followers.

Tomorrow I will be back to full writing duties with hopefully another great post for you… Until then, enjoy the rest of your day..

One of the biggest challenges for blog owners is content. We are always hearing how content is king in the blogosphere and that is a sentiment that I totally agree with, you cannot run a successfully blog without great content.

There are many bloggers out there who find it easy to come up with new ideas for posts on their blog but there are also those that find it incredibly difficult to keep coming up with new ideas.

During my recent break from blogging I spent a lot of time keep up-to-date with the world of blogging, social media, SEO and business by participating in online forums. They are a great way of finding out the latest trends in an industry as well as hearing other people’s opinions on these trends.

However, I also found that they had two other vital roles to play for bloggers.

Firstly, they allow you to find questions being asked be people in your niche. An example of this for a blogger in the ‘golf’ niche might be users asking on a forum: ‘How can I drive the ball further off the tee?’ – As a blogger in the golf niche you could turn this into a post on your blog: ‘How to drive a golf ball further from the tee…’. Instantly you have a great post idea that answers a question posed by someone in your niche, once you have written the post you can then share it with the user who asked the question in the forum.. This means you can drive instant traffic to your posts as well.

The second vital role that forums can play for bloggers is that they allow you to show yourself as an authority in your niche. If you carefully and thoughtfully reply to questions on forums then it wont be long before people begin to respect your opinions and come to you for advice. The trick here is to make sure your responses and relevent and well written, try not to simply post a few words followed by a link to a post on your blog. Write a short summary of what you mention in your post and then include the link at the end for people who want to read more.

By establishing yourself as an authority in your niche you will find that others will begin linking to your blog when answering questions on forums as well.

I am 99.9% certain that there is a forum for every niche imaginable, if people are blogging about it then chances are people are chatting about it in forums as well. Take some time to immerse yourself into a community of people who share your love for your niche, engage with them, answer their questions and build yourself into an authority.

So, next time you are stuck for your next blog post idea, head over to your favourite forum and find a user who needs help and  help them..

Have you used forums as a source of blog content? Do you regularly partake in forum discussions? What are your thoughts on using forums to grow your authority? Feel free to share your views below.

I thought I would start my return to blogging with one of my regular features: Sunday Link Love.

Every Sunday I post up links to blog posts and articles that I have enjoyed throughout the week.

Below are my favourite reads this week, take some time to enjoy them yourself:

• 4 Tips To Build Backlinks And Traffic Using Tools And Widget – We Blog Better
• 10 Excellent Examples Of Facebook Brand Timelines - Econsultancy
• 14 Fantastic Scrolling Websites That Tell A Story – Econsultancy
• How To Develop A Routine To Manage Social Media – Kikolani
• 4 Ways To Improve Your Email Marketing Campaign Through Testing – SmartBloggerz
• How Your Blog Can Generate More Pageviews – Net Chunks

I hope you enjoy them and enjoy your Sunday.

As many of you will have noticed there has not been a lot of activity on the blog for a few months.

This is down to several factors the most prominent of which is my involvement in a couple of small businesses. Many of my long term readers will know about the Puxee Advertising Network that I launched back in January 2011 with my brother, this business has been growing nicely over it’s first year and there will be some exciting developments to be announced soon.

I am also the co-founder of Elite Darts, an on-line darts retailer which launched at the end of 2011 and has had substantial growth in its first couple of months.

Through both of these experiences and through my previous business ventures I believe I have gained a substantial knowledge of what it takes to run a small business in the current climate, but more importantly I understand how to build and grow a successful e-commerce website.

I will now be looking to share this experience with my readers via the blog. I will continue you provide blogging and social media tips as well as this is also important for small business owners.

I believe the introduction of small business and e-commerce tips to this blog will be of benefit to my readers and I hope that you all agree.

I look forward to sharing my first small business/e-commerce posts with you in the coming days.

Surely, you must have heard many online marketing experts advising several entrepreneurs to join social communities. And, this has you wondering why. What exactly is the reason for creating your own profile page on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter?

Now, you will not have to wonder anymore because this article is going to talk about the top advantages of social media profiles for businesses. But before we get to that, let us have a quick look into its capability to build relationships.

Many people, communities, and organisations make new connections and honestly share opinions, experiences, and ideas through social networks.

Yes, that is the reality these days.

And, most of the time, such participation entails the following aspects:
- Listening and comprehending
- Contributing value
- Building relationships
- Creating new approaches to measure marketing effectiveness

On the other hand, the objectives of brand involvement in social media usually includes…
- Gaining deep insight about target customers
- Cultivating and managing better influence over consumers

But why should you aim for these?
- Accordingly, the customers’ level of satisfaction helps them in determining whether to buy or not
- Around 87% of shoppers trust their friends’ suggestions more than critic reviews
- Many social network users tend to rely three times more on their peers’ opinions than on advertising, whenever they make purchase decisions
- The impact of a word-of-mouth discussion is similar to the effects of 200 TV adverts
- Compared to other Web categories, the fastest growing are social media sites, wherein their traffic the previous year has doubled

After looking into its increasing popularity, the next aspect that you should learn is…

Social media’s greatest advantages to businesses

1. Strengthens brand
In most cases, social profiles rank in search engines without too much boosting. This means that you can increase your presence online just by creating a page on networking sites. It also indicates that you can reach out to your audience and relay your marketing message.

Additionally, social profiles serve as ideal platforms, where you can enhance brand personality. It is where you can interact with customers based on their terms, gather brand ambassadors, and create lasting connections with loyal buyers.

2. Directs targeted users to website
Your profile or fan pages attract and filter Web traffic for you. Then, they drive interested users to your blog or official business domain, where customers can check out or learn more about your offers.

3. Endorses content for more links
The more your Web content appears on bookmarking or media sites, the higher its value to search engines (that is, from an SEO viewpoint). On the other hand, according to marketing perspectives, the potential of your webpage increases as more users share it on social networks.

4. Great public relation
Social media has revolutionised the method of sharing and disseminating news information. This means that you can provide updates on your business or offers in real time, while the changes have just happened or are still happening. Additionally, you can get in touch with the press or local journalists to provide them access to your company’s events.

Judging from these benefits, you can see the huge importance of creating profile pages for your business. So, if you have not established one yet, you had better start today. But if you have several pages set up already, find out how you can get the attention of more followers or members.

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About the Author: Emma Tomlinson is the Head of Retail at Smart Traffic, a UK-based specialist company providing SEO management to SMEs and major brands.

This is a guest post by Jeff Gross. Jeff is a consultant and content contributor for new Queens homes community.

Social networking has become a treasure trove of new clientele for the companies that know how to do it the right way – doing it right involves creating natural conversations and targeting an audience that is interested in your product. However I’m sure the “how” of social networking will be covered at another time. For now, which is better, the new Google social network adventure or the tried and tested Facebook?

Google+

You may not have heard of it yet, but chances are you will. Yes the end-all be-all of internet, Google, has created a social network platform with the somewhat lofty goal of rivaling Facebook. For those who track what’s going on in the online world, this is not Google’s first attempt at this. The last was remarkable only in its utter lack of success in comparison to everything else Google tries. Will this time be better?

As with most consumer based products—and it is a product despite their insistence that it be called a “project”—it is nearly impossible to tell at this point, but it has potential. Here are some positives to creating a Google+ page for your company:

1. It is backed by the most powerful company on the internet, and they seem committed to making it work this time.
2. They claim much of their software is better than Facebook. Is it possible for a multibillion dollar internet corporation to create code better than a few college kids living in a dorm? We’ll see.
3. They do have a lot (we’ve been notified) of new free stuff not available on Facebook. That might be worth checking out at least.

Facebook

The real victim no matter what happens is MySpace. Whatever happened to that site? Facebook has become the most popular social network, exponentially out performing other social networks. It is second in overall visits to any site, only Google gets more visits… and a bunch of people visiting Google are probably looking for one Facebook page or another. Here are the somewhat obvious benefits:

1. Tons of users
2. People are used to it, they’re not used to Google+
3. Proven natural traffic
4. Simple to setup and to use
5. Well-known and used worldwide

Conclusion

You need a Facebook page, and you need to learn how to market your product or service the right way using social networks. There is a right and wrong way, and a series of ads and hard sells aren’t going to get the traffic you need. There are tons of helpful articles that can show you how to promote your Facebook page the right way. In addition, though not mentioned here, Twitter is a great “gateway” to both your Facebook and website, and there are a number of programs that allow you to make simultaneous updates to both your Facebook and Google pages so this may be something to look into.

As for Google+, right now it is too early to say. It is not harmful, so if you have the time making a page is a good idea. How much time you spend on updates etc. is up to you, but right now Facebook should still be the priority.

This is a guest post by Michael Stevens.

Blogging is a popular profession and hobby which is becoming increasingly more so as new media gains importance. As smart phones become increasingly pervasive, they are developing into rich blogging gadgets in their own right. If you are a writer or photographer, consider adding a new dimension to your posts by blogging on the go from your phone.

Of course, blogging apps include all the features you might expect to find. Writing, tagging and categorizing posts may be a bit awkward from a tiny touch screen, but a Bluetooth keyboard can make typing on your phone almost as comfortable as using a laptop or desktop computer. However, many popular blogging apps include features simply not found on desktop or web-based interfaces to your blogging platform of choice.

In particular, photo and video sharing is incredibly simple when blogging from your smart phone. No longer waste time transferring media to your computer, creating a new post and then uploading the result. Instead, capture video or photos as you write, or share them from your phone’s gallery. If your blog is primarily concerned with visual media, this time savings may make the smart phone your blogging client of choice.

Image via Wikipedia

Some smart phone blogging apps aren’t just limited to posting. The WordPress app for Android and IOS devices not only lets you post, but also enables full management of many blogs directly from the client. Busy blogging professionals and casual hobbyists alike will appreciate the convenience of editing posts, moderating comments and changing settings for multiple blogs, all without needing to access the full web interface on their smart phone browser.

If smart phone blogging becomes a popular or necessary part of your routine, you may wish to consider a SIM only plan for your phone. Many cell phones are part of a package deal, including everything you need to get online. While this is convenient in many instances, some bloggers don’t need another handset. A SIM Only deal is great for freedom as they offer anything from a month to month plan to 12 or 24 month contracts.

This means, as long as your phone is unlocked, you can change network providers if the signal is not good in your area, or if you find a better deal with another provider.

Whether you blog to make money or simply enjoy sharing your experiences with the world, mobile blogging apps are a great way to blog on the move. Combined with a SIM only plan you have a great and safe platform for blogging your experiences with distant family and friends. Head over to your favourite market or app store and consider adding a blog client to your home screen today.