Twitter is a micro blog and until recently, it was like one day I liked it and one day I didn’t. In fact, in the beginning when a friend first told me about Twitter, I for one thought that it was one of the most useless things that I had ever seen.  I mean come on, who really needs to know that I am having for breakfast or watching on TV?

Things Began to Change

Then all of a sudden one day out of the blue, I realized of purpose of Twitter.  When used correctly Twitter can be very powerful, but only once you understand what it is and how to use it. Now one thing I want to clarify here is that when I say use Twitter, I’m talking about from a small business standpoint.  There are many ways to use Twitter even if you don’t have a small-business, but being a small-business I’m talking about it from a standpoint of growing your business.

It was when I realized the power of Twitter as a promotional tool that I realized the power of Twitter.  You see, although you can occasionally use Twitter to promote a product and even make a sale, Twitter is best used to get yourself and your business noticed.

Twitter is best used to develop your brand and then solidified its reputation.  Do so and not only will you be a lot less frustrated, but with 10,000 new people a day signing on to Twitter, you will be using Twitter in a way that will grow your business.  You would be amazed at how many people will notice you!

A Few More Practical Tips

And to really get the power of Twitter make sure that your followers know who you are.  Do this by using the same username across all the web 2.0 communities that you belong to especially – Twitter.

Also make sure that you use a name that establishes brand identity.  For example, if you are selling vitamins, be the vitamin man or woman or the vitamin Pro or anything that connects you with your product, by doing so you will eventually grow to become known as the expert in your niche.  This is the real power of Twitter! And remember to make your posts interesting.  You want your posts to be capable of solving a problem that your reader may be experiencing, not self-serving.

Like any of the other Web 2.0 sites, Twitter is a social tool.  And being a social tool it takes time to get noticed and make friends, but once you understand this you will be making customers for life!

How do you use Twitter?  Is it a promotional tool, a way to connect with friends or do you have some other use?

Tags: Twitter, twitter.com

Have you learned who your customer is?  Do you know who uses your products?  Most people do not realize the importance of this, but it cannot be overstated.  Then once you have established that there is a living breathing customer out there and you decide how you are going to communicate with them based on knowing who they are, the next thing that you are going to need to know is how you are going to reach that customer.

Of course there are many web 2.0 strategies that will get you noticed.  But, with all of the competition online you are going to need to know how to use them to your best advantage.  Wouldn’t it be nice to see exactly which keywords people who are looking to solve a problem that your product can fix are putting into search engines, especially if you are using Adwords?

And once you know what keywords people are using to find your products, taking it one step further and seeing exactly how much competition you have with those words.  This kind of information would allow you to reach your customers while avoiding keywords that are too heavily used and only focus in on words where there was less competition and you had a better chance of getting noticed.For example, let’s assume that you are selling home improvement products and from previous research you know there is a market for your product and you know who our customer is.  But this research would not let you know if people are looking to purchase hammers or screwdrivers, sheetrock or ceiling tiles.  What you need to find is this information and then exactly what kind of competition that you are facing in the marketplace.

The difference between you and your competition is having the ability to see what the market needs and then finding out exactly how much competition there is for that particular need.  You then market to the need which is the greatest which has the lowest competition.

Of course you could do all of this research yourself but, it would probably take you several hours to research just a few niche segments and you would have to subscribe to a keyword site such as Keyword Tracker or Keyword Discovery.

To quickly and easily find this information and get on to the next task of creating content I use a program called Micro Niche Finder.  Realizing that time is my most precious resource, I cannot overstate how valuable this product has been to me and the countless hours that it has saved.  By simply inserting very broad keywords, the program will return keyword suggestions that allow me to see how often people research them as well as how often my competition is using them.  Then based on this information I am able to make a decision on how to target my customer effectively.

When trying to make money on the internet it takes more than finding a product and setting up a web site to sell it.   Research and planning are what will set you apart from your competition.   Unfortunately in the competitive online world it is not always easy to find the extra time to do this.  Micro Niche Finder will significantly reduce your research and planning time and get you on to the valuable step of creating your content.

Tags: micro+niche+finder, seo, web+2.0

Marketing on the Internet, even opening a brick-and-mortar business takes a lot of work, a lot of hard work.  It is not uncommon to see someone who just started a business working 15, 16 or 17 hours a day.  And the last thing that you want to do is open a business that is doomed to fail.  When you open a business you want to make sure that the deck is stacked in your favor, you want to have the odds on your side.  You want to make sure that your business is going to be profitable.

But how do you make sure that the business you open is going to make money.  Well, unfortunately you can’t, but you better make sure that you have done everything possible to give yourself a chance. Listen, being in business is difficult enough even once it begins to become established, why not make it as easy on yourself as possible.  The obstacles that you can avoid now will only make your life easier in the future.

Along with finding something that you really love, you had better be darn certain that it’s something that other people will appreciate as well.  Because remember, no customers equals no profit.  Then once you know that there will be customers for your new business it is vital to know who your customers are going to be.  And this is even more important and more difficult in an online business then in an off-line business because your customer contact is so much more limited.

Only once you know what type of person will be interested in your product will you be able to market to them effectively.  Men versus women, old people versus young, college educated versus non-college-educated, they all have different buying habits.  Today content on the Internet is more important than ever and the competition is fierce.  It includes all kinds of Web 2.0 stuff including articles, videos, web sites and a whole lot more.  If you want to be successful you had better know what type of customer that you are going to have so that you can set things up to appeal to that kind of person.

Here is how I go about it.  First, I put the keyword for whatever niche that I am considering into a browser to look for competing sites.  If I want to sell furniture, its furniture, if its jewelry, I put in jewelry, you get the idea.  Then once I have located the same type of sites within my niche I go over to Quantcast.com.  By putting the site’s address into Quantcast.com you will get much of the information needed to see who your visitor’s to your site are going to be.  Remember to only use larger more established sites, smaller ones will not be listed.

Establishing yourself online is not an easy task. Taking the time to plan and establish a strategy cannot be underestimated and knowing who your potential customer is should be part of that plan.  It may seem like a trivial thing to do, but in today’s fiercely competitive world whatever can give you an edge over your competition can make the difference when it comes to your success.

Tags: business+strategic+planning, business+strategies, business+strategy, customer, internet+marketing+strategy, internet+marketing+strategies, know+your+customer, marketing+plan, online+market, online+marketing+research

Being a blogger I can very much relate to this situation.  You see, I entered the world of Web 2.0 because I had been surfing the Internet since 1996, loved being online and was ready for something new.  It also seemed like a good way to maybe make some extra money.  If you read my post “What’s All The “BUZZ” About Web 2.0?” you will see that the Internet has become a very different place than it used to be.

The online experience has now made it very easy for anyone to say, do or upload almost anything.  It’s this reason that we have seen the explosion of sites like You Tube and Twitter.  Anyone that has anything to say can now say it in a multitude of formats.

This is also why we have seen such a rapid growth in the world of blogging.  But, what happens if you want to come online, because like for so many including myself the Web 2.0 experience looks like something that you would like to check out, but you do not know where to begin or what message you want to deliver?

For the masses coming online today this is the number one challenge.  Fortunately, there is only one question that once answered will get you past this point.  This question will unlock the door to success, but what is it.  The question that you need to ask yourself is “what is it that I love more than anything else to do”.  You can be successful on the Internet, but you will not be successful until you find what you love to do or your “passion”.

Web 2.0 and blogging in particular takes work, lots of work.  However, the good thing about working when you are doing something that you love is it does not feel like work.  It feels like fun, it feels like something that you cannot wait to begin each and every day.

In blogging it means blogging at regular intervals because you want to even though there may be no one reading your posts.

So how do you find your passion, what will get you to sit down at your computer and begin your labor of love?  That is the magical question – find that and you will be successful, get his one wrong and you are sure to fail.  Be assured that I do not intend to sound negative here because the answer is there it’s just a matter of finding it.  Sometimes it’s a matter of trial and error, but you need to pursue!

For some people finding what they love to do comes easy.  Maybe they recognize their passion and taking it online is very easy.  For many however it’s a struggle.  For me it was months of soul searching including a lot of trial and error.

If you have not yet found your niche online here is what I suggest.  Begin by understanding that you are already knocking at the door.  You are here at step one so do not get discouraged and give up.

The second thing that I suggest is just to begin with something.  Many people begin with a blog that is set up the way that blogging was first intended to be – as an online diary.  Often it is called something like daily rants and ramblings or something like that.

If you find that this is your real passion, that’s great you found it right at the get go.  There are many great blogs like these and they can even be monetized.

However, if you are uncomfortable with a blog that is so personal which was the situation for me at the time, just begin with something that you enjoy doing or interests you.  If you are a golfer, begin with a blog about golf if you like to cook begin with a blog about recipes.  The important thing is just to begin.

By just blogging about whatever is on your mind you will get better.  But, something much more important will happen.  As you begin to begin to get into what you are doing, your mind will do an interesting thing, it will search for an answer.  You may have to take a few detours and make a few wrong turns along the way, but you will find where you are going and your passion as well.

Tags: blogging, web+2.0

Here is a look at some of your choices.

1.Hubpages - First I would suggest that you get your article published over at Hubpages.com.  It’s FREE and drives a lot of traffic.

2.Squidoo - Squidoo is similar to Hubpages, but instead of creating a single article, Squiddo allows you to create a page of articles, videos and a bunch of other cool stuff which is called a lens.  You could consider this a mini blog.  Squidoo was one of the first sites that I began to use when I came online.

Always make sure that you have at least one link back to your blog or web site.  You want to make sure that you have a way of leading your prospect back to your product.

3.Article directories – also known as ezines are an excellent source of traffic.  There are many article directories out there and like anything else some are good and some are let’s just say not so helpful.  As long as you meet their criteria the article directory will publish your article for very little or no cost.  The trick is knowing which ones to use and the quickest way of getting your work online.

I would suggest that you use all three of the options that I have mentioned above.  Now that doesn’t mean that each one of your articles has to be uploaded to all three, but that your articles should be distributed amongst the three.

If you decided to do all this work manually for each article that you write you would spend more time uploading articles than actually writing them.  Uploading your work to Hubpages and then Squidoo  is not going to take very long.  It’s all the various article directories that are going to consume a great deal of your valuable time and time is money.  Of course you can hire someone to do this for you, but there is a simpler and more cost-effective way.

Article submission services are a great way to write your article and then get it syndicated to all the various article directories.  An article submission service will take your individual article and distribute it to which ever directories you choose – you only uploaded your article once.  Some directories receive more attention than others, but get published in as many as possible.  This will drive constant traffic to your site and save you a considerable amount of time and build your business in the process.

One other thing that is very important to remember when publishing articles online.  You do not want to publish duplicate content, that’s why I recommend Submit Your Article.com.  There are many services that you can choose, but Submit Your Article.com gives you an advantage that other article submission services do not.  When you upload your article with them you will get the option where if you take just an extra 15 minutes per article every one of your syndicated articles will be different.

If you do end up publishing duplicate content you can be hit with what is known as the Google slap.  A reduced page rank resulting in reduced traffic – not what you want to do.

By using Submit Your Article.com, your articles will receive better page rankings and more attention from the search engines resulting in more traffic to your site. Have fun writing!

Tags: article+marketing, article+submission+services

If this sounds like you, have you ever considered article marketing to drive traffic?

Article marketing is a terrific method of bringing in more potential customers to your Internet business than almost any other strategy that I have seen. Once this approach is understood and after some practice it isn’t hard to get people that are intrigued by your product knocking at your door, or in this case your blog or web site. And one of my favorite things about article marketing is that I can upload it and forget it! Once you have finished your article and uploaded it to an article directory, you will get traffic for a long time.

Recently I came across a really good example of just how long an article will drive traffic when this past January I wrote an article about golf. Now January is probably not the best time of year to write an article about golf because if your golf course is like mine, it’s usually covered in snow. Yet writing an article doesn’t cost anything, so although I enjoyed writing my article on golf in January, no one really noticed it. Until Now! It’s now June and much to my surprise my article is very popular. All anyone interested in golf has to do is put the key word which in this case is golf into their browser and it will still appear.

Article marketing has existed for a very long time and has recently become very popular online since when it’s used it’s a win-win situation.  By finding a keyword geared towards your niche and targeting your audience, your content will get noticed and in turn bring you potential customers.  Of course you will have to do some search engine optimization work first, meaning that you will need to research a keyword that people are searching for.  Then it’s just a matter of creating the written work and then having the article directory publish it which they usually do for no cost. People will see your name and you’ll appear to be an expert in whatever niche you’ve chosen. From a publishers point of view it’s also a great idea because it’s free content.

Your articles should be brief and to the point. You want to keep the reader interested. One strategy that I find very effective is to make the reader aware of a specific problem that they have within the article.    Ideally you’re looking for your reader to get so compelled that they are at the point of shaking their head in agreement.  You do this by asking leading questions. When you have convinced them that there is a problem, you then guide them to the solution through the resource box.

Beyond writing outstanding information, the main ingredient in making an article work is a great resource box. A resource box usually consists of several lines at the end of the article that gives information about the author and most significantly tells the reader what steps they need to take next.  The resource box may also include a sales pitch, an offer and your web site or blog address.

Another strategy that I find very helpful is within your resource box to offer something for free. A free report that can be down loaded will work just fine.   Just remember to build value to your description of whatever it is that you are giving away for free – make it so compelling that your reader has to have it.

Article marketing can be advantageous when used consistently not only to the article directory’s publisher, but also to the business owner.

Tags: article+marketing, internet+marketing, ppc+search+engine+internet+marketing

The Internet redefined the phrase “intellectual endeavor” as we know it, and led to the birth to the information age. Amongst the most profound mediums within the Internet that influence the direction of information is something known as social book marking. Social book marking allows a kind of democratic selection of what is considered hot or not amongst the masses of people who utilize the Internet everyday.

If you are familiar with Digg, Reddit, or Del.icio.us you are familiar with social book marking. Social book marking allows anyone who enjoys a particular piece of media on the Internet, be it article, news feed, video, or even audio clip to bookmark the piece and essentially make an open announcement that they suggest it for the review of all other bookmark users.

For example, if I was to read a particularly article on a news site, and felt that everyone on earth needs to read the same article or that it just didn’t get enough coverage in my opinion, then I can use a social bookmark to call it to the attention of all the other people who frequent book marking lists everyday.

The Abuse of Social Book marking

With time, a given book marking list becomes a display of mass opinion of the information on the Internet. Unfortunately, however it’s this information that has caught the attention of many relatively unscrupulous web users.

One of the problems with social book marking is its propensity for disuse and abuse. If you are wondering how a social book marking site could be misused, think about the millions of viewers who check book marking lists everyday. Many companies and even governments would love to take advantage of such a rich flow of consumers of information.

Many of the social book marking sites are attacked by web users who would like to recommend a particular idea or product by making a false buzz around a particular piece of media. Fortunately many book marking administrators have become keen to such abuse, and have thus developed more stringent algorithms and policies to attempt to curb it.

The Users of Social Book marking

Some of the book marking sites that are more well known had interesting beginnings and appeal to a particular segment of web users. Del.icio.us for example is a social book marking web service that was developed by Joshua Schachter in 2003, and because of immense popularity was bought near the end of 2005 by Yahoo for a substantial sum of money.

Del.icio.us appeals to a relatively wide range of users, unlike Digg which seems to draw an on average younger populace of web users. Digg has been accused by many critics of drawing much abuse including the idea that much of Digg is controlled by an elite few.

Even more interesting is the bury option, which allows users to vote to bury a particular piece of media that appears high on the link list. The bury option has the potential for groups of users to control the flow of information by covering up specific pieces of media. Also, Digg has been found to have an air of the mob mentality and a seemingly juvenile flair. Reddit, another huge book marking site is extremely popular and seems to have a more moderate distribution of information.

The tremendous influence of social book marking on the flow of information and media on the net cannot be underestimated. Chances are, if you are reading this article you too utilize one of many of these utilities.

Tags: social+bookmarking

The term Blog which is short for web log originally became popular back in the 1990’s. Blogs evolved from what used to be called online diaries and were nothing more than people’s day to day accounts of what was happening in their lives.

Blogs which are displayed in reverse chronological order can still have any kind of content but are usually written on a particular topic such as political blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs and niche blogs just to name a few. Blogs are setup in many formats including writing, art (artlog), photography (photoblogs), links (linklog) and sketches (sketchblog). Blogging has also become very popular with businesses and marketers for commercial reasons.

One of the most important parts of any blog and a good demonstration of web 2.0 is the ability for readers to leave comments in the comment section in an interactive format. Other parts of the blog include:

* Header: The top section that contains the title and often a short description and picture to tell the reader what the blog is about. A very important piece.
* Post Title: This is the name given to each blog entry. It’s very similar to the name of a chapter in a book.
* Post: This is the individual entry itself. Can be any length, but professional posts usually consists of about 400 to 700 words. A post also can consist of pictures and/or videos.
* Hyper link – Is a link within a post. Its main purpose is to establish connections to other sites and therefore what is known as the page rank.

There may be other sections such as a list of the categories, recent comments, recent posts and archives.

One of the best things about blogging and what makes it interesting is that each blog can be set up according to the needs and wants of the individual blogger. Every bog is different and represents the individual bloggers unique style.

History of Blogs

Early blogs were nothing more that just extensions of existing web sites. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College is considered to be one of the earliest bloggers. In 1998, Jorn Barger coined the term “web log” and by 1999, web sites such as Blogger, which is now part of Google, began to create easier ways of blogging for the average person with no knowledge of HTML.

By 1999, after a slow beginning, blogging quickly gained in popularity. By 2001, manuals on blogging techniques began to appear and tools began to appear to help people build better blogs.

Since 2002, blogs have become increasingly popular for their views on politics and 2003 saw bloggers voicing their opinions on the second Gulf War. By December 2004 the word “blog” was named word of the year by Merriam-Webster. One study found that 32 million Americans read blogs by 2005.

How To Use Blogging to Build Your Business

For anyone starting a business, a blog can be a valuable tool. Blogs have many purposes including:

*Establishing your business as an expert – Blogs are a great way for your business to talk about anything going on within your niche. If your niche is golf, you may want to give your opinion on the latest clubs or golf balls or some other piece of golf equipment. Go ahead, give your expert opinion, before long readers will be coming to you to answer questions on the latest products.

*Promote customer relations – Got a new product or some other piece of information that you want your customers to find out about fast? Post it in your blog.

*Generating leads – Blogs are great for finding new prospects. When someone comes to your blog to read your post, it usually means that they are interested in whatever it is that you sell. The trick now is just to capture their name and email address for further communication.

* Sell your entry level product – What I mean by this is either use your blog to give something away or sell something very inexpensive. By doing this you are establishing a relationship with your prospect without them taking much risk.

* Your blog is also a great traffic director – If you have several products, your blog is a great place to mention them all with not actually having them for sale. If your reader is interested, give them a place to go for more information and maybe even a sale.

As you can see blogging has many purposes and that’s why the blog has come such a long way in such a short time.

Tags: blog, blogger, blogging

If you ever thought about starting a business on the web you probably asked yourself the question “where do I begin?” You probably thought that you needed a web site, but did not know how to construct a web site or how to go about getting one built for you. Many people never get past this point, but building a web site is not that difficult and I can point you in the right direction, feel free to contact me. The biggest problem selling online is that a web site alone is not good enough to do the job anymore.

Web sites have sprung up all over the Internet since they first became popular back in the mid 90’s. Back then, because there were so many less than there are now and the World Wide Web was so much less crowded web sites worked well. However, now your web presence needs the ability to interact or have a dialog with the reader. You need your web site to speak to the reader and the reader to be able to speak back – you need to communicate. The Internet is now all about socialization.

Enter web2.0

Socialization is taking the Internet by storm. Now instead of just listening to what the site has to say and not being able to reply back, you can now speak to the voice behind the site and say what ever you want. You can give your opinion or ask a question. There can be meaningful conversation between not only you and the voice behind the site, but you can speak to others who visit the site as well.

Web sites such as My Space and Facebook are two popular examples of interaction on the web. At first these sites were only uses for personal reasons, but even these sites now are being used for product promotion. The popularity of web logs or blogs is also another example of web 2.0.

One reason that this concept works so well is because the consumer of today no longer just wants to be sold. They do not want a product put before them and then and told this is it – take it or leave it. No, today’s consumer needs dialog or a relationship before they buy anything. There are too many products out there and the products, up until now have been sold to hard.

This is what today’s Internet is about – relationships by creating conversation. This is how today’s consumer buys.

In the Internet marketing industry it is very easy to spend a lot of money following a lot of people’s strategies. Everyone is trying to sell you something! That would be fine if their ideas actually worked and you did make money. Unfortunately, it is very confusing and difficult to figure out whom to listen to. Almost everyone that I talk to knows somebody that has invested large amounts of money only to get nowhere.

The other problem is even if you do find good information; many of the experts out there have forgotten exactly how difficult it is for the person first starting out. If you are just beginning, you need to focus on the very basics and not have who is instructing you assume that you have the basics down and take you directly to the next step. You’ll become frustrated and loose interest quickly.  Also, many of these experts began their businesses several years ago and still teach the way that they did it. With the Internet, what worked last year probably will not be as successful this year.

Be assured that I am not one of these “gurus” selling their stuff.  I am still learning myself (I think you are always learning), but remember what it was like when I was first starting out.  I didn’t know a blog from a web site, I had never heard of article marketing or social book marking or Squidoo.  And believe me it was more than a little frustrating.  This is my blog – my story of what I have learned……so far.