Better Mobile Integration

With more and more people using mobile smartphones and tablets that have access to the web, it certainly makes a lot of sense that Facebook is going to start paying even more attention to their mobile version of the social networking site. While they are not likely to try to make the mobile Facebook a duplicated of the one that you see on your desktop, they are likely going to start making more tweaks and changes to the app.

While the Facebook app for Android and Apple devices is convenient, many users claim that the experience is not a seamless as they would like. From the number of updates that the app receives, it is obvious that the company is putting quite a bit of work into making it work better for the users. This should be very good news for the marketers out there.

Marketers already know that more and more people are using mobile devices, so they want these apps to be as good as possible. It will make marketing easier, and it can mean keeping in touch with those users is easier as well.

Use of Facebook Graph Search

One of the big things to come out of Facebook in 2012 was the Graph Search, and it makes sense that this is going to be even more important in the coming years as it comes out of beta and rolls out to all of the Facebook users.

The search is going to make it much easier for users to keep in contact with people who have the same interests as them. By using the search function, it is going to show them which of their current friends might like some of the same activities they like. For example, typing in “friends who like hiking” would show you people who have an interest in hiking.

While the search function is still in beta, many people see this as the future of Facebook. It is going to be a faster way to find people who have an interest in your same niche or field. This means that focusing your marketing on the right crowd is going to be far easier.

Everyone who uses the site is going to have unique results, which shows that this is an intelligent system. In a few years, when marketers really start to be able to use this feature, it should prove to be interesting and helpful to everyone. No longer will people have to sort through constant requests and invitations from marketers when they have no actual interest in the product or service. If the tool really does prove to be as powerful as people think, it could make focused marketing much easier.

Better Management of Information

One of the complaints that you will find with many of the people who are on Facebook is that simply managing their information is no longer easy. One of the things that can make it seem more difficult is the mere fact that Facebook seems to change and update quite regularly. Those changes can make management of photos, videos, notes, and more quite difficult. Of course, the biggest issue with many is simply getting used to the change. By the time that you understand everything that’s happening with Facebook, they change it again.

Quite a few people do want to see some quality changes to the site though. They want it to be easier to manage their photos and albums. This is one of the reasons that many people are using Instagram today. People also want it to be easier to manage their friends. While we don’t know what the future holds, we can hope that some of the minds behind Facebook are listening to the users and starting to address some of these nagging complaints.

More Advertising Integrated into Facebook

Something else that you are likely to see in Facebook’s future is great integration of advertisements and sponsored ads. Currently, they are experimenting with different types of ads that you can find on the regular site as well as their mobile sites. While some users are not happy with the way that Facebook uses ads, they are necessary for the company to make money.

Something that marketers have to consider when they are using the site for marketing is how receptive users are to different types of advertisements. If you keep an ear out, you might hear that people are not fond of sponsored ads, or ads that only seem to come from their friends. What does this mean for you as a marketer? It means that you are going to want to think twice about using those types of ads for your marketing campaign. Instead, you can focus on other methods of getting your message out, such as better quality content marketing.

Watching the Future

As you can see, none of the “predictions” about the future of Facebook is too far out into left field. It is easy to see these more as the natural evolution of the social media site. Marketers who pay keen attention to these things will find that they can keep on top of the changes and start utilizing them for their own business before the competition does. Your brand’s future and Facebook’s future are intertwined, so make sure that you pay attention to see where things are heading!

My Bet on Facebook’s Future

I recently started a new site called SocialLinkmart.com – a marketplace for Facebook Shares and the Facebook Likes they help you get.  Facebook is only getting bigger and I am shooting for a piece of the action.

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For business owners and marketers, it often seems as though the parade of marketing tips and ideas, and changes to those tips and ideas is endless. The truth of the matter is that it really is endless. The techniques that you use for marketing today might not be effective tomorrow. That is why you always need to keep on top of things and be ready to make changes whenever you can. One of the newer tools to enter the fray is Google Authorship. While it might seem like a strange tool for marketing, you will soon see just why it really is so important.

What is Google Authorship?

With this too, you are going to be able to connect your online content to your Google+ profile. You will find that this can be immensely handy. Consider for a moment just how much content the web has and how much more it receives each day. With all of that content, it can be difficult – if not impossible – for people to find work from a particular author that they like. If you have a blog where you are writing all of the content, or you have it appear under your name, then you can see why you would want to make it easier for your readers to find your content no matter where it might be.

Google Authorship is going to be able to help, and is one of the most important things that you can add to your site today. When you use it, readers are going to have a much easier time finding your work through Google. The name of the author will go right along with the content, so readers looking for a specific author will not have to guess!

What are the Benefits of Google Authorship?

The tool is going to offer some nice advantages to those authors and brands that decide to use it.

One of the first things that you are going to notice is that Google Authorship actually has the ability to give your SEO a bit of a boost. While this is certainly not the only thing that you need to do to ensure that your site comes up high in the search engine results, it can help. Many believe that the importance of authorship is actually going to go up, and that means the search engines are going to give it more weight. For those authors who are active and who have a good amount of credibility, it can do wonders for the sites. In theory, it would add a boost to just about any piece of content that they create. This could help to increase the author’s value too.

Of course, you have to remember that this is still relatively new. As with anything on the web, and with Google in particular, you will find that there are going to be quite a few changes to it. It is a good idea to get started now though. Integrating it into a site is easy, as we’ll soon see.

Another one of the benefits that you will find from Google Authorship is the fact that it can help to spread awareness about an author and a particular brand. This can help to add a higher level of authority to your site. As you gain a name as an author who is an expert in a field or niche, you will find that your “web authority” rises. More people are willing to put their trust in you. With high quality content and keeping up with all of the changes in your field, it is possible to achieve that level of expertise. This new tool from Google could actually make it easier to help gauge your success too. Those who are using the tool should always strive to put out the best possible content and they should do so frequently.

Try to make sure that you receive the proper credit even when you are writing articles that are not for your own site. Doing so will help you build your number of credits, and therefore your authority.

Perhaps one of the largest benefits is actually going to be the increase in the engagement level the author is able to keep with the readers. This is a huge benefit for the readers as well as the author and marketer. Having great content is vital, but you also have to have great connections with your readers. Because readers are finding it easier to locate your articles, they can develop more of a connection than ever before. Of course, this means that the author has to be willing to engage with the readers through the site, as well as through various social networking tools.

Google Authorship is going to bring about a human face to the content that you create, and that’s a great thing! That human connection is what people online are really seeking. Adding personality can help to encourage the reader to interact, and this helps to build the trust level. Marketers will find that it is easier to gain leads in this fashion.

Setting Up Google Authorship on Your Site

If you have your own blog and you like to do things on your own, then it is going to be possible to set it up solo. Those who use popular platforms, such as WordPress, should find some great plugins that will be able to help them get the feature running quickly and easily. It is also possible to add the tool manually, but that requires a bit more work. If you don’t run the blog with your article it gets a bit more complicated.  I have figured out how to add Google authorship on 3rd party blogs but it took quite a bit of trial and error and much reading and re-reading of this how to post at Google.

Google really needs to make claiming authorship of you content easier, but those who figure it out will gain a leg up on your less informed competitors.

Is this the only tool you need to boost your blog’s power and credibility? No, but it is a new tool that has the potential to make quite a difference for you. It might just be worth your time to add it to your site today.

The post Google Authorship Benefits appeared first on Detroit, Michigan.

About 3 years ago this site was completely de-indexed by Google.  I figured the reason was I gave away two powerful WP plug-ins for blog auto content creation that gave me a plug-in creator link at the bottom of each auto post.

This was great for generating thousands of new links a month and really helped the site rank well.  However,  many people with thin websites and spammers started using my plug-ins and having this site linked from all those bad sites eventually triggered some type of penalty.

I stopped offering the plug-ins (and they stopped working), shortly after the ban.  I am thinking many of the garbage sites linking to me went 401 over the past few years so I lost those bad links resulting in this site popping back in the index.

I recently was just debating whether I should just take the site off-line for a few years, then recreated it from the ground up.  It seems that bad option is off the table.

Before my ban, I could rank well for almost for anything. It was a great feeling. For now, I notice I am not ranking well for much at all.  When the site was banned I put it on the shelf and worked on other projects so all the posts are fairly old.  I am going to start posting regular again to see if fresh content will start ranking like it did in the old days.  It was always nice to put up a post and get immediate search traffic and comments.

I am thinking it might take a while for the Lessnau Lounge to come all the way back but it will be interesting what happens.  This is the first post in a long time so I’ll be watching and if it ranks top 10 for “Google Ban is Over” I’ll throw a small personal party.  If this post ranks 20+ back I will have much work to do to get this site completely on track.  Either way, I am glad to be indexed again.  Because if your not in Google you don’t exist.

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What I do with these ideas as I get them is add them to my idea notebook – an ongoing rough summary of what I want the website or service to do and then add any new features it should have to my notes as time goes by.  My hope is that as things clear off of my plate and the idea fully crystallizes, I can start the wheels turning on making the dream come true.

Without giving anything away, one idea on the list is to build 100 sites that each make $100 per month.  However, there is no way for me to manually manage 100 different sites to the point of actually being good enough quality to make money for an extended period.  Therefore my idea hinges on a method of extreme automation to the point where if the 100 sites work, 1,000 sites will work even better. For now, I continue to fine tune this idea on paper before I commit anything to code.

Starting any new website service is always a risk.  No matter how great one may think an idea is you never know how it will perform until you get it up and running.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it works but in ways not initially considered.  This means before I take on a new “can’t miss” project, I need to have scoped out in great detail to give the project every chance possible for success.

I read a comment somewhere from a very successful Internet entrepreneur that he expects a 90% failure rate on all of his new ideas.  The problem is failed ideas are expensive and I don’t have a multi-million dollar bankroll, so I try to do everything possible to insure success before committing to starting any new project.

The post Website Ideas appeared first on Detroit, Michigan.

When I purchase my iPad I hoped that I could use it on short business trips instead of my laptop. I quickly found out that this was not realistic no matter what Jeremy Schoemaker says. Doing real work is just too cumbersome on the iPad.

Things I can get done in 10 minutes on my laptop take 3 or 4 times as long on an iPad (if they can even be done at all). As it is, working on a laptop is already slower than my desktop where I have access to 3 monitors and every email and document I have created or received over the past 10 years.

This is not to say the iPad is useless for business. Its best feature is the ability to quickly turn it on and check email on a nice readable screen without fumbling with a laptop. For example, when I land at the airport I used to sit down and fire up my laptop to check and reply to important emails. With the iPad, I can flip it on and check my email almost instantly. Of course, if an email involves doing actionable, real work  I often respond with an “I am traveling, I’ll get back to you on this when I can access a real computer” reply.

I do like to use the iPad at conferences. While moving from seminar to seminar, it is easy to follow the conference Twitter timeline, keep up with email, and to look up web pages mentioned by the speakers. The battery lasts forever so you won’t need to join the battle for one of the power outlets that seems to occur at the various tech/seo/marketing conferences.

So now rather than taking just my iPad on a business trip as I hoped, I am taking my iPad and Laptop. Fortunately the iPad fits nicely in the laptop bag and is about the weight of a good size magazine so it isn’t a big deal, and since it is great for reading magazines, newspapers, and books, my reading material total weight has been greatly reduced.

Business Pros

• Great Twitter App that actually makes Twitter enjoyable to use.
• Keep up with your business related RSS feeds on the go.
• Quick checking of email without firing up a laptop or working on a tiny phone screen.
• No need to carry several pounds of reading material to pass the time as you travel.

Business Cons (Just one big one)

• Doing real computer work is a pain and not worth the effort. Fire up that laptop if you want to get things done.

Don’t expect miracles but if used realistically, the iPad can make your business travel a bit more productive and enjoyable.

Do you need it – No. Will you like it – Yes.

The post Yet Another iPad for Business Review appeared first on Detroit, Michigan.

On May 20 I wrote this post and set up a new one page site. With the help of several web friends who linked to this page with only JavaScript links I was able to complete this test to my satisfaction. Result: It seems that Google can not or does not follow JavaScript links to any significant degree as the site has not been indexed or cached.

If I had standard HTML links pointing to this page from the same locations I am sure it would have been indexed within days.

So to reveal the site with yet another JS link here it is:

As you can see, the page is nothing fancy, easily spiderable but it still has not been indexed or cached (as of this moment). Now I am going to point the first HTML to this page and see if it gets indexed: XML Daily Test Site HTML link

IMHO Google would be wise not to follow JavaScript links in the future because guys like me could come up with all kinds of new ways to get LOTS of free links. Also, I figure Google has enough problems with using HTML links in there algorithm, they don’t need to add JavaScript links to the mix or they will have a really spammer mess on their hands.

I big thanks to everyone that helped out with this test!

Edit July 30: 

I just checked the test page and the single HTML link from this post got the site cached on July 26, just six days after the link was pointed to the page. So a single HTML link in a blog post did what several JavaScript links could not do in two months. 

Also, the site now ranks #4 for XML Daily – Not a hard ranking to get but it demonstrates the difference of an HTML link to your site compared to a JavaScript link. 

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Did Google Spill the Beans?

I might be a bit behind the curve on this but an associate recently pointed me to this Google video I somehow missed where MCs talks about how the Google spider is now following and indexing JavaScript links. He even seems to point out, like standard links, if you don’t want the search engines to follow, index, and “flow pagerank” through these links it is possible to nofollow a JavaScript link.

Of course, the big ad networks that use JavaScript to display their ads this is of little consequence since Google knows about and handles the these ads without a hitch (your not going to gain any authority from your Adbrite or Yahoo ads). But it got me thinking… what about the little guy who wants to get his links on formally untouchable web pages? Could simple JavaScript widgets and programs be developed that could easily put now valuable JavaScript links on any website, including student run .EDU sites, with very little effort that will allow the creator to get viral backlinks like never before?

I am about to do some testing to see how much JavaScript links from sites with decent pagerank will help a brand new standalone webpage with no HTML based Linkage. If I can get a keyword phrase to rank and eventually get pagerank on this page with nothing but JavaScript links, it will certainly be a game changer for those involved with text link building.

BTW: If you are interested in participating in my experiment and pointing a JavaScript link to this test website, let me know and I’ll get you the code to place on one of your webpages. There is nothing blackhat or personal gain involved here, after the test, the results will be published and the site taken down. At this time I can’t reveal the URL because I need to make sure no HTML links are pointed at it effectively ruining my experiment.

Edit: 5/23: So far 3 days and six JavaScript links to the test page and Google still has not found the page and cached it.