Social Bookmarking

Try social bookmarking. Maybe you have seen all those cute little icons at the bottom or middle of the page on websites and blogs. What are they?

They are links to social bookmarking sites. These sites allow you to submit articles that are ranked by other members. Content that is ranked high has a chance to be featured on the front page to gain even higher visibility.

To get the ball rolling, you can sign up for these accounts for free. Some of the most popular are Digg.com, Facebook, Twitter and Delicious. Facebook and Twitter are actual social networking sites where you can post links to articles posted on Digg, Delicious and your own website.

With an extensive network of friends (and their friends), you can create a ton of backlinks in no time.

Here, quality does count. Votes will be cast for the best content that meets the needs of your peers. You can achieve a high status here for consistently great performances. That, in and of itself, can multiply your backlinks as everyone will be looking for your latest creation.

So, what are you waiting for? If you feel that your search engine ranking is not what it could be, it could be your backlinks or the lack thereof. Social bookmarking can help catapult you onto the front page of Google and Yahoo when you and others submit your content on those sites.

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To put it in the simplest terms, backlinks are links from other websites and blogs back to your website. They increase your visibility on the web and also make the search engines really happy with you. It sounds easy, but getting links can take some time and effort.

Also, did we mention the spiders and bots? They work on behalf of the search engines. These technological marvels crawl not just content but also inbound links (backlinks) to your website.

So, you’d probably figure that you can go to every website you can and post a link back to your site, wouldn’t you? In the grand scheme of things, this is not always a good idea.

Here’s why. Those bots are smarter than you think. They even evaluate the types of backlinks you get. For instance, let’s say that you are just beginning and are trying to establish yourself.

You go to other sites and ask to exchange links with them for free. Some are readily eager so you do it. As it turns out, these sites are offensive, plagiarize content and don’t know the first thing about keyword optimization.

Now, all of these things won’t be true at the same time but it goes to prove a point. A poorly kept website or even a trouble making one can lower the quality of your backlinks and thus your favor with the search engines. What you want is backlinks that are of the same or preferably better quality as your site.

Quality Backlinks

How do you determine quality? One way is to look at their following. Do they have a lot of readers? Are their articles rated on the first page of search engine results? Does everyone know their name (just like “Cheers”)?

Keep your links within your chosen niche. While there may be some gardening websites with a high search engine ranking, linking here won’t do you any good if your website sells crafting supplies. The bots look at that too.

So, what criteria do you need to consider when approaching the subject of backlinks?

• Choose similar or better quality websites to use for your backlinks.
• Choose websites and blogs with similar topics of interest as yours.
• Ask friends and family members with websites (of good rep, of course) to exchange links with you.

Get the word out about your website. Use any resources you have available to you first and then go searching for other high-quality sites to bring you more traffic.

Building a new website, backlinks, and an online reputation may take some time. However it is certainly worth it in the end.

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This year at Girly Blog Designz we are putting on a Cyber Monday deal of our own!

This year for ONE DAY only we are offering $97 Three Column Custom Wordpress Designs.

Since blog designs is a time consuming task, and I’m sure my kids would like to see me some time, we are only offering this to only 5 people, and it’s only good for today!

Our Cyber Monday $97 Three Column Custom Wordpress Designs include the following:

• Our 3 Column Middle Custom Design Layout.
• Custom Header Design.
• Background Design
• Matching Colors Throughout the Design.
• Up to 10 Image Credits to use towards your image of choice at istockphoto.com to use within the custom wordpress design.

Some examples of our 3 Column Middle Custom Design Layouts are below (click on image to view larger):

To take advantage of this awesome Cyber Monday deal just click on the PayPal button below to get scheduled in our design queue!

All designs reserved today will be scheduled to start next Monday (12/7/09) pending we receive all the information from you promptly this week.

If you have any questions you may contact us here!

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Our Cyber Monday sale will promptly begin on Monday 11/30/09 @ 12:00 am and end on 11/30/09 @ 11:59 pm, or when we are sold out, whichever happens first.

Since blog design is a time consuming task we can only offer our Cyber Monday deal to 5 lucky (fast!) people.

So you will want to stay tuned to our blog via email delivery or RSS feed.

Hint-Hint: Our Cyber Monday Deal includes a custom blog design for UNDER $100!

So stay tuned…

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If you intend to connect to people who will purchase your products or services or enhance your business in some other way, indiscriminately following anyone who follows you isn’t going to cut the mustard. As with any other marketing strategy, you need to develop a targeted group of followers on Twitter if you expect to earn any money from them.

So how do you decide who to follow and who not to follow?

There are a few tricks you can use to choose your followers in a more selective manner in order to market your business most effectively.

Look at a potential follower’s Twitter stream. Go to their home page and read their Twitter stream for a page or two. What do you see? Are they constantly promoting themselves? You may want to take a pass.

Do they provide useful links to other people’s websites? They could be entertaining as well as helpful to your business. Do they talk about things pertaining to your expertise? Common interests are a definite plus when choosing a follower, so you may want to give those with similar interests a chance.

Look at who is following them. Every profile page has a list of the person’s followers. You can click the link on the upper right hand side of the page that says followers or you can move through the grid of photos further down the page. Look for followers you have in common. This can be a good indicator of mutual interests.

Use Twitter search. At the bottom of the page is a clickable link to Twitter search. Once there, you can enter in a key word or phrase and click search. You will find all the recent replies using the term. If you use a relevant key word, this can be an excellent way of finding followers interested in your business.

While none of these methods of finding followers on Twitter is fool proof or offers any guarantee your business will increase, they are all great ways to find some interesting new people to meet and potentially do business with in the future.

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Some things to consider when planning out your new website:

• Domain Name – New Online Entrepreneurs want their domain name to be something they can stick with for as long as they plan to work their online business. Changing a domain name in which your website is hosted through can be time consuming and not an easy task to achieve.

  Keeping a domain relevant to your website is just as important as sticking with something that can easily be converted into something different in case your focus shifts in a new direction down the road. Thinking through a domain name before starting a new website will certainly save the online entrepreneur time and a big headache later on.

• Choosing a Website Host – Just like switching a domain on your website host isn’t easy, neither is switching website hosts. Especially if your website has scripts like Wordpress or a forum, switching your website host can again be very time consuming and confusing.

  Choosing a website host that can accommodate your websites growing needs, and who can provide a reliable service is certainly important to an online business.

• Platform – Choosing what type of platform your new website will run on, again is something that should be planned ahead of time.

  By platform I am referring to whether or not you will be building an html website, or will you be using a script for your platform like a website builder or Wordpress?

  Deciding now what platform your new website will be built on is essential when starting a new website. This information is needed in order to know what type of design will be needed for the new website.

  Also changing platforms later on, again, is very time consuming. We all know, in the online business world especially, time is money.

Planning a new website is not an easy task. Taking short cuts to choosing a domain name, a website host, and which platform to use can certainly stunt the growth of an online business later on.

Putting a lot of thought and research into planning out these three things will certainly save the new online entrepreneur time and money.

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What is networking?

Networking is simply a matter of getting out there and letting people get to know who you are. That’s it. All there is to networking is to meet the people.

You learned it all in kindergarten: Play nice, share and make new friends.

Based on its exponential growth, Twitter is the number one place to get out and network. All you need to do is create a Twitter account and start using it. Use your business name or your real name for your Twitter username and upload a real picture of yourself. Plug in the link to your site or blog and create a quick little bio that tells folks who you are and what you do.

Next, post a few tweets saying hello. Offer up a pearl or two of wisdom relating to your expertise. Then, start following people. Don’t know who to follow? Use Twitter search (the link is at the bottom of your main page) and type in a keyword or two describing the topics you’re interested in. For business, it’s often easiest to begin by following people in your own field. Type in your industry and step back while you watch the results start pouring in. Click on the usernames you see and start checking people out until you find some you like, then follow those people and start interacting.

Do NOT go on Twitter and start posting link after link about your business.

Instead, share some of the insight and wisdom you have about your business. Good, juicy, useful information. Just give it away! Heck, it’s only 140 characters, you can spring for it. Share links to great stuff you find on the web. Cut and paste someone else’s post with “RT” in front of it. This is called a Retweet and it’s an easy way to share and make new friends. We all love to be re-tweeted because it makes us feel important and special.

Yes, there are all kinds of tips and tricks to using Twitter (and other networking sites) effectively for marketing your business. A lot of the teleseminars, books and programs are worth every penny you pay for them, some even more. However, you don’t need even one of them to get started using Twitter to network for your business.

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Today, just about any subject you can think of uses hashtags in order to follow a particular stream of tweeted data. They are used for promotions and contests, as well as groups of people communicating together. One common hashtag seen on Twitter is #gno, which is Girls Night Out. This group is growing every week and you can join in the fun simply by searching Twitter for #gno.

Your business can also utilize this nifty symbol in order to announce new products or projects, keep customers informed of current events going on throughout your company. You can even build your business by providing clients with a useful way to keep track of you and your brand.

Hashtags also force you to keep certain key words (such as #SEO or other searchable keywords) your business might be working to develop as optimized search terms in your text. Since all Twitter messages can be indexed by Google, the use of these key words will also help your business in developing their search engine rankings.

Here are a few things to remember when creating hashtags for Twitter.

Availability – Check places like www.hashtags.org to see if the hashtag you want is already in use. If your term is available, make sure you are following @hashtags and just input the hashtag you wish to use preceded by the # mark, of course.

Relevancy – Make sure your hashtag is relevant to what you are trying to track. For instance, do not use #newyork if you are trying to sell watches in the New York area. Use something a little more specific to your business such as #FossilNY.

Memorable – Keep your hashtags memorable so customers can find them easily. Remember, the longer your hashtag, the fewer characters you will have to use in your actual text. Keep it short, simple and to the point.

Branding – Use your hashtags to help develop a business brand. By using your tags to enhance your search engine optimization terms, your brand will be more visible to customers searching for what you offer. Remember to keep your hashtag in line with your business and business goals.

As you can see, hashtags are a great way to help build your business. Give them a shot and let your customers know you are using them too. The easiest hashtag to use is your business name. If you tell your customers to search for your hashtag they are guaranteed to have the most up-to-date information about what is going on with your business. Happy hashtagging!

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There are a few different rules businesses must follow when networking on Twitter, but for the most part, things work the same as they do for an individual user. Here are a few things to think about when using Twitter as a business tool.

Update your profile – Keep your profile updated and current with any new developments or projects currently in the works. This helps your customers understand where you are going as a business and it also makes them aware of any changes you have planned.

Stay professional – While it may be fun to get into a heated debate over who will win the Kentucky Derby, keep your tweeting business oriented. It is not a bad thing to express your opinion every once in a while, but do make sure that it falls directly in line with the mission statement and operating procedures of the company under whose name you are tweeting. If you are a sole proprietor, obviously you have the decision making power here, but if you are in business with others, develop a policy for how individuals will tweet.

Be personal – People like to know they are talking with actual people. In this age where digital voices prompting our actions are standard, people find great delight in the ability to communicate with intelligent human people who can actually listen and respond rather than deal with canned impersonal messages that don’t meet their individual needs and desires.

Use tracking devices – Implement the use of hashtags and other tracking devices as searchable references for your customers. This makes it easy for them to follow you and your business developments. The easier it is to follow you and what you are doing, the better chance you have they will actually do it. Let your customers know when you have initiated a new search term and what those terms mean to them. Your business is about helping the customer get to your product as easy as possible. Hashtags are a great tool to help this happen.

Make their life easy – While conversing with your prospects, make sure to ask if there is anything they believe your business can do to improve – and then listen. Customer feedback is one of the most valuable tools to a business. You can develop customer loyalty simply through listening to and responding to their opinions.

The biggest difference between a business account and a personal account on Twitter is the language and posture you present while socializing. Don’t be a machine, check your replies and messages, respond to questions and be human. Follow these simple rules and your business will develop a new social networking tool that can be used to reach thousands more clients in no time.

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Like other social networks, millions of people use Twitter. It is a micro-universe of potential visitors just waiting to be tapped. The question is how to get them to take a look at you.

First of all, sign up for an account. You can’t find the right people unless you get in the game. Don’t worry about creating a business account at this point. You are only concerned with connecting with people now.

Next, get involved. Read other people’s tweets; join as a follower for popular tweeters. You can use Twitter applications to track the tweets of others and also do keyword searches for interesting tweets. Comment on current tweets and get a feel for how it works and who everyone is following.

The best thing about Twitter is that it works in real time from your PC. You can ask questions to find out any type of information. If you are looking for followers (Twitter friends) interested in gardening (if that is what your blog is about), pose the question in a tweet and wait for responses. You’ll be surprised what you hear back.

Posing questions is one way to find suitable traffic for your blog. You want more visitors but the kind of visitors who are likely to come back and buy from you if you are selling a product. It is a research tool that returns immediate results.

More advice…

There are a few things to observe. In your tweets, use keywords. It might be hard with so few characters, but you want to include searchable words that anyone will enter into a Twitter search engine to find your tweets.

Don’t be a spammer. If your tweets always include links to your blog or your work on other sites, people will get the idea that you are not there to connect but just to fill the site with links. Use the site to find others with similar business interests or to pose interesting views and get feedback. You can link to your blog when appropriate but don’t overdo it or people will get that fishy feeling about you.

It takes time to build up a following of followers on Twitter just like any other social networking site. The plus with Twitter is that the results are more immediate that with other social sites. Find the targeted visitors you are after with a few questions and then join in the twittering to build a rapport that translates into more traffic.

P.S. Be sure to follow Girly Blog Designz on Twitter!

Premium Wordpress Themes vs. Custom Wordpress Design: What's the difference?