Whether you’re promoting awareness of a certain cause, want more traffic to your blog or are promoting your business, Pinterest offers a unique opportunity to get your message out there through the use of images.

Another great thing about Pinterest is that you don’t need have to have a lot of followers to be seen. Pinterest is a very open website and people are always searching for images and topics of interest, so it’s easy to get started right away.

Here are 8 ideas for marketing on Pinterest. Feel free to use them, adapt them and expand on them. There are so many possibilities.

#1 URL / Logo on Your Photos

Consider adding a little logo or URL to the images you place on your website. That way, when people pin your content or you pin your own, the source is immediately visible. Just make sure to keep it rather subtle. You don’t want to take away from the quality of your image as that may reduce the numbers of shares.

Here’s an example of pin someone made from retrojunk.com

#2 Suggest Gifts

One of the things you may have noticed searching around Pinterest is that they have a gifts category. You can pin a gift idea simply by putting a $ amount in the description of your pin. When you enter the dollar amount, it is automatically added to the image and it will be listed in the gift ideas too.

Then when you search for gifts in the price range, yours will appear at the top.

#3 Photo Contests

Have fun with Pinterest and try running a photo contest. For example, if you sell craft kits or some type of DIY project kits, invite your customers to post their results photos for entry into your contest. Display the photos in a special photo contest board.

Or if you’re promoting a cause, have people submit photos on what the cause means for them and display the photos.

#4 Sweepstakes

Many companies are creating “Pin it to Win It” sweepstakes giveaways.  In some cases, they, get people to repin an image with a specific description. In many of these contests, the winner receives the prize in the picture or you can come up with another prize if you’d like.

In others, companies are asking their customers to create a board of their favorite products and enter it for consideration in the contest. Here’s a pin board created by a LandsEnd.com contest winner:

If you’d like to learn more about how Lands’ End’s contest worked, here is a press release with the information: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lands-end-canvas-launches-pin-it-to-win-it-contest-on-pinterest-135591673.html

#5 Coupons

Create some attractive and hard-to-resist coupons that can be repinned and shared on Pinterest. You can create your own coupon and add a “Pin It” button to your coupon page. You can also look at sites like CouponNetwork.com who encourage the social sharing of coupons.

Here’s an example of a coupon available through Coupon Network:

Again, you can post your own coupons directly and encourage repinning. Have fun with your coupons by adding humor and more. Just make sure the images are relevant to your offer.

#6 QR Codes

If you have a collection or QR codes, create a board for them and add new ones when you have them. Just make sure to include a good description and categorize your board, so they’ll be easily found.

Or if you’re a blogger, who connects your followers with great information, collect QR codes from around the web that would interest them.

#7 Collaboration

Pinterest provides amazing opportunities for collaborating. You can invite people to contribute to your boards for a specific event or project. You can add contributors whenever you set up a new board or you can add them by editing your existing boards.

Why not showcase the development of your next product or slowly leak details about an important upcoming function? You’ll build buzz and hopefully get better results in the process.

#8 Holiday and Seasonal Marketing

Pinterest offers unique marketing opportunities throughout the year. As users prepare for Easter or Independence Day, they’re searching for recipes, crafts, entertaining ideas and more. Or if summer’s coming, they’re getting ready to go boating, camping and they start grilling more. Always keep seasonal needs in mind and create special boards for holidays, activities and more.

Here’s a Game Day Food Ideas example:

How can you incorporate something like this into your niche? What is your target market looking for?

Start Marketing…But Proceed with Care!

Now that you have a few ideas ready to run with, go for it. But before you run off, remember that just like with other social networks, your success will depend on your being a valuable contributor to the community. Focus on providing images that are useful, funny, inspiring, thought-provoking or aesthetically pleasing…rather than worrying about simply selling your products directly.

Speak soon!
Ralph

Part of the fun of Pinterest, is inviting and finding the friends you already know and finding new people with similar interests as well. This tutorial will show you how to find all those people and more.

Invite and Friends

Pinterest is by invitation only, so if you’re friends aren’t on Pinterest yet, invite them. In the top right corner, mouse over your name and a menu will appear. Select “Invite Friends”.

 Invite by Email:

You can choose to invite your friends by email and the form allows you to enter 4 email addresses. You can also enter a personalized message if you’d like. If you have more than 4 people to invite, you can fill out the form again when you’re done. Click “Send Invites”.

 Invite  and Find Friends Through Facebook

If you’d like to invite friends by Facebook, you can do that too. Just select Facebook from the left side of the invite screen.

Click “Find Friends on Facebook”. Now you’ll find a list of Facebook friends that you can invite and a list of Facebook friends that are already on Pinterest. I have blacked out the personal information in the image below, but you get the idea.

On the left, you can click “Invite” and it will automatically send a request to your friend. Note, you can’t send a personalized message using this type of invite. On the right side, you can select some or all your friends that are already on Pinterest and start following them.

Searching for People on Pintrest

To find people with similar interests, you can look under “Everything” and choose a category that interests you.

You can also look at the list of people who are following you to see if you might be interested in following them back. You can see their names, profile pictures and some of their recent pins. Just click “Follow” if you want to follow someone. You can click “Unfollow” if you later change your mind.

Search for Someone by Name on Pintrest

Pinterest has the ability to search for pins, but its ability to search for people is not always reliable. However, what you can do is enter a name in the search box:

On the results page, choose “People” to get your people results. In this case, we can easily find the person we’re looking for.

In the case where you can’t find what you’re looking for, one easy way to find specific people you’re looking for is by conducting a Google search of “[NAME] Pinterest.” For example:

If the person has a Pinterest account, you’re likely to see it near the top of the search results. In this case we see two results at the top and I’ll explain the difference between the two.

The first result shows a URL that has “source” in it. This link shows images that any Pinterest users have shared from Martha Stewart’s website. The second one that doesn’t say “source” and reads as pinterest.com/marthastewart is her actual Pinterest profile, so if you want to follow her specifically, use that link.

Follow People or Boards on Pintrest

You might find that you’re particularly interest in specific boards, rather than users in general. You can actually choose exactly what or who you follow.

To Follow a Person:

Go the person’s profile and select “Follow All” and you will follow all their boards and updates.

To Follow Board:

Go to a specific board and select “Follow Board” and you’ll get updates from the board only.

The nice thing about Pinterest is that it’s very open and you don’t have to worry about following a bunch of people to start with, just to start enjoying the site. There is a lot of interaction between people, even if they’re not following each other. So my advice is to find a few people to follow, start pinning and have fun.

All the best!

Ralph

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to start creating your boards, pinning, repining and more. Before you dive right into Pinterest, there are probably a few terms that you need to know, so let’s start with those:

• Boards: Think of these as cork or pin boards, much like you may have or have had in real, but now they’ve gone virtual. You can set up topic-specific boards and add pictures that are relevant to those boards. For example, you might create a “Places I Want to Travel Board” or a “St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Party” board. How general or specific you want your boards to be is completely up to you.

• Pin: The main idea with Pinterest is to “pin” pictures to your boards. Pin is used both as a noun (what you put on your board is a “pin”) and a verb (the act of putting a picture on a board is “pinning”). For example, you might pin a picture of The Great Wall in your “Places I Want to Travel Board”

• Repin: When you see someone else’s pin that you like, you can “repin” it and place the picture on an appropriate board of your own. It’s a way of showing appreciation for a great find by another Pinterest member and it also helps you create an even better board for yourself.

• Like : If you see a pin that you like, but it doesn’t necessarily fit into your own boards, you can click a button to “Like” it. It helps you show appreciation for other people’s pins and Pinterest also keeps track of all your “Likes”, so you can refer to them later on.

• Comment: You can also leave a comment on other people’s pins or respond to comments on your own pins.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get started.

Create a Board

You can add a board to your account anytime. To create one, click the “Add+” button in the site’s top right menu.

Next, you’ll get the choice of adding a pin, uploading a pin or creating a board. For now, we are just going to create a board.

Next, you can create a name for your board and select a category.

You can choose to allow others to pin to your board. This is useful if you’re working on a collaborative project, planning an event, trip or something else that requires input from others. If that’s the case, you can select “Me + Contributors”. Add an email address and then click “Add”.

You can also add people who are already following you, by starting to type their name and Pinterest will populate the field with potential choices.

You can edit your board at a later date, including adding or removing contributors later.

 Start Pinning

To make a pin, you can do it directly from the Pinterest website, add a “Pin It” button to your browser or using a mobile app. We’re going to demonstrate how to pin from the Pinterest website and using the Bookmarklet.

 Pinning from a Web Page using the Pinterest Website:

At the top right menu, click the “Add+” link.

You can add a pin from a web page or upload a pin from your computer. To a pin from a web page, click “Add a Pin.”

Now, enter the web page address that you’d like to choose a picture from. Enter the specific page you want, not just the website name.

Click “Find Images” when you’re done. Now, Pinterest will locate the images on the page you specified. Choose the image you want, specify the board you want to pin it to and add a little description. Click “Pin it” when you’re done.

 Pinning an Image from Your Computer Using the Pinterest Website

 After you’ve clicked the “Add+” button in the menu, this time you’re going to choose “Upload a Pin” instead.

Next, choose a picture from your computer, select an appropriate board and add a description. Click “Pin It” when you’re done.

 Pinning from the “Pin It” Button on Your Browser

The “Pin It” button is the easiest way to pin from a website, so I recommend you set it up. To add it, go to http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/ and find the “Pin It” Button. All you do is drag and drop that button into the bookmarks toolbar near the top of your browser.

Now the button is on your toolbar. To use it, go to a web page you want to pin from and click it.

Pinterest will find all the images on that page. Just hover over the one you want and click the “Pin This” button that appears.

It’s as simple as that.

A Note About Images You Find on the Web:

Before you get started, have a look through Pinterest’s Pin Etiquette page at: http://pinterest.com/about/etiquette/. They stress the importance of providing proper credit for the images you use. That means, go to the original source of the image,  rather than simply pinning from Google Images. If you are using Google Images to find your photos, click to view the original page and click the “X” at the top right corner of the image. That will bring you to the original web page and you can pin from there.

 Repin, Like and Comment

You can find great images, by viewing the pins of other members. Whether you look at the public timeline or people you’re following, you can participate in Pinterest by repinning, liking or commenting on their pins. Here’s a walkthrough of those functions.

Repin

Hover over any pin, you’d like to repin and you’ll see 3 options. Choose “Repin”.

Then you’ll be able to choose the board you want to pit in it to and you can also change the description if you’d like before repinning.

 Like

To like a pin, you just select “Like” option shown earlier and the pin will then be recorded in your “Likes”, so you can look at it again anytime.

 Comment

You can also leave a comment on anyone’s pin. Just click the “Comment” button and say what you’d like.

That’s Pinterest in a nutshell. As you can see it can be loads of fun to pin stuff. It can help you get organized, find your creativity and introduce you to people who share similar interests.

Sorry for the cheesy pictures but Kittens make the internet go round….

Till Soon Ralph

Pinterest is a relatively new social networking site with a twist. It’s all about creating and sharing collections of images that you find around the web or create yourself. They call it themselves a “Virtual Pin Board’ and their members use it to organize recipes, plan home improvement projects, share favorite books, plan weddings and more. You’re only limited by your imagination.

Currently, to join Pinterest, you need to be invited. Without an account, you can browse and search what people a “pinning”, but you can’t enjoy any of the functionality.

Below is an example of what you might see by browsing the site without an account. However, if you sign up, you can follow specific people with interests common to yours. So if you’re not interest in makeup or beading, you can choose to follow people with other interests.

Pinterest currently has about 4 million users and about 80% of their audience is female, but there is definitely male representation on the site. With this large audience, it’s relatively easy to secure an invitation and get started.

Here are two main ways you can get into Pinterest…

Method #1: Request an Invite from Pinterest

If you go to Pinterest.com, you can click the “Request an Invite” button.

On the next page, enter your email address and click “Request Invitation”.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll be greeted by this message.

How long it takes to get an invitation is unknown, so the best thing to do is actually try Method #2 and contact a member directly for an invite.

Method #2: Contact a Member Directly for an Invite

If you’re active on other social media sites, chances are, you know somebody who is using Pinterest. Have a look on Facebook and if you see something like this, ask that person for an invitation.

Or if you look at someone’s timeline, you might see a section dedicated to their Pinterest activity.

On Twitter, a Pinterest update looks something like this:

When you find someone using Pinterest, send them a message directly and ask if they don’t mind sending you an invitation. All that person has to do is log into their account, fill out the “Invite Friends Form” and then you’ll get the information via email. They can also choose to invite you by Facebook, so if that’s the case, you’ll get the invite through Facebook.

We’ll demonstrate the email process in the next section.

Accepting Your Pinterest Invitation

After your friend sends the invite, you’ll get an email that looks like this. The subject line will be “Check out my stuff on Pinterest”:

Click the link at the bottom of the email you received (we’ve blacked out the sensitive information in the link in our sample) and you can start creating your account.

Side note, if you’re invited through Facebook, you’ll see the invitation in your Notifications and it might look something like this:

But let’s keep going through the process of accepting an email invite.

Setting Up Your Pintrest Account

Once you click the link in the invitation email, you’ll see a page that looks like this:

In order to use Pinterest, you have to either register with a Facebook or Twitter account. They say they do this because they believe it makes it easier for people to find you, cuts down on spam and you can easily share your updates with those sites. It doesn’t matter if you start by registering with Facebook or Twitter, you can link both accounts at a later date.

We’re going to go through the process by signing up with Twitter, so we click “Or sign up with Twitter.”

Don’t worry about Pinterest doing things with your Twitter account that you don’t want it to. You have complete control and if you don’t want Pinterest to update anything on Twitter, you can set it that way too. If it sounds good, click “Sign In” as shown above.

On the next page, you’ll see that Pinterest automatically grabbed your avatar (we’ve blacked out this one for privacy reasons). Then you can choose a username, add your email address and password.

Click “Create Account” when you’re done. Next you’ll be presented with 28 categories that you can choose as being related to your interests. Pinterest uses this information to automatically follow people with common interests. You have to pick at least one category to continue.

When you’re done choosing, click “Follow People” at the bottom of the screen.

On the page page, you’ll be able to see who you are now following and remove them, if you prefer. If everything’s a-okay then you can start creating boards.

On the next page, you’ll see five suggested boards you can create. You can edit these, delete these or do whatever you want. If you’re not sure about all the boards you’re going to create, you can just start with one and add as many as you want later. You can also see further suggestions to the right. If you click one of those, it will automatically be added to your list.

Click “Create” when you’re done deciding on your boards. Again, you can add whatever you want or delete any boards later too.

Now you’re ready to get started with Pinterest!

Till soon,
Ralph

A lot of people (including myself) are trying to build mini / niche sites which rank very easily and to a very specific target audience. I have also larger blogs, such as this one, which have a more long term vision but that takes time and a lot more effort.

How To Start Niche Websites

I’m going passed the fact that you have to buy a domain name and set up a blog as that is pretty much the easy part. The trick is how to find the RIGHT domain and get the RIGHT traffic to your site which convert in affiliate sales.

The biggest trick is the right domain name. This is the keyword research part of niche websites. You need to know what keywords are used just enough to get you a decent amount of traffic, but are not too competitive so that more affiliate marketers are going for the same keyword.

One of the software products that can help is “The Long Tail Pro“.
This software is super duper (yes I said duper) easy to use if you compare it with Marketing Samurai. I own both and the difference is huge. The price of both products are the same but the Long Tail Pro is just easier to use.. which is a reason I will use it a lot more than Market Samurai.

I literally just bought the software today and I can’t wait to get going so see this as my early long tail pro review but keep an eye out on the site so you can learn as I am planning to release a few video’s to show you exactly what you can expect.

I’ll add a few screenshots here just to show you how easy it is to use and it does what it is supposed to do >> FIND MONEY MAKING KEYWORDS <<

When you first purchased the product this is the first screen you will see. You see on the top there are 3 different menu’s; Keyword Research, Competitor Analysis and Rank Checker.

Since I just purchased the software there aren’t any campaigns up that I can show you. But if you add one you get the following screen. You can set up various campaigns for every project you are planning on tackling. Make sure you fill in the right country you want to go in. If you do set it up incorrectly, you can always alter this along the way.

Once you have set up your campaign you should also have a peek on your competitors. This allows you to see how competitive the market is and how long it would take to get to the top of Google. You see how competitive it is and how many backlinks are to that domain.

So this was the Long Tail Pro Review but don’t worry, I’ll update my findings and share this with you. But if you want to have a look of what Long Tail Pro can do for you have a look.

Talk soon!

Ralph

Facebook Ads, where do I start?!

Many people have written about Facebook Ads and what works and what not. This is not really that kind of post but more a “head’s up” if you want to go down that route of having Facebook Fan pages to leverage your affiliate marketing income.

I’ve used Facebook Fan pages and Ads quite a bit and with a decent success rate. Most of my Ads have gotten a 0.03 CPC rate but an average of 0.2 / 0.3% click through rate.

Which apparently is normal.

The audience was very targeted but I guess it should be a bit more targeted as I made a mistake along the way. Here’s whats happened. I want to add a thing here as this is something of my own personal experience.

There is a difference between your target audience and the audience your page is for. (read that again)

For instance I have a few celebrity workout websites (yes I’m one of those guys) and I thought it would be great to attract fans of that celebrity to my fanpage. And it worked out great. Got over 700 fans for one of my pages without paying a lot for it and this continues to grow naturally by just interacting. If you want to know more on how to actually deal with Facebook Fans and how to engage with them which allows your Fanpage to grow naturally. I recommend this course by Lewis Howes and Amy Porterfield called FBInfluence

There is an upside and a downside to this.

The image below shows that there is an upward trend (so has the Actor) and it just keeps getting better and better which is great. I don’t have to spend any money on this site and it continues to generate traffic.

Downside: My fans don’t care about the product I am trying to sell.
They like the celebrity, not the product I initially wanted to sell them. Since it is a workout product it is designed for men (mostly). I’m very happy that the suites I build work extremely well in terms of SEO and have all reached the 100+ mark on a daily basis.

But a lot of the fans are Female…. So I had to alternate my strategy a bit.

Since a lot of them were Female, obviously marketing a Male product (buff dudes with six packs) wasn’t gonna work. Luckily the same product also had a Female version but till this day this has not converted yet. So I have to look at something else.

Because remember… they like the actor, they don’t like the actual workout routine or they are not interested in that. There are a few ways to determine what DOES fit. Here are a few tips to discover what kind of people your website attracts.

1. What are the Age definitions of your visitors?
2. What kind of tool do they use to surf the web? (Mobile, iPad, PC, other Apple products.. hint hint)
3. Where is your audience based?

All of these stats are available to you by checking your Google Analytics stats… which is free…

Upside: You can increase your SERP rankings!
Leverage your Social proof by referring to your blog posts via Facebook. I.e. I wrote a blogpost and ask them to read and share / tweet/ +1 it if they like that particular post. Which turned out to be a great move as THAT post made my traffic spike from 100 a day to 700 within hours. All this because of the social proof / share buttons available on the post and I asked my Fans who I interact with on a daily basis to have a read and share it.

In traffic wise, Social Media is great and Facebook contributes the majority of my traffic. Just from January the stats for referring traffic are as followed:

1) Google.com with 40.91%
2) Google.de with 14.88%
3. YouTube with 11.57%
4) Facebook with 10.75%

If I would do the total stats for my site (started 1st of Oct.) it is as followed:
1) google.com with 36.41%
2) Facebook with 30.91%
3) Google.de with 13.59 %
4) YouTube with 5.60%

On a different site (no YouTube) Facebook is 50% of my traffic and mobile facebook is 10%

But keep in mind that Fan pages are “hard” work. I have 4 of them and I interact with them on a nearly DAILY basis. It helps as you will gain new fans daily without spending money and keeps you top of mind. It also means that you are not only asking them to “like” something with suits you but also sharing other pages which fit their interest.

So instead of marketing a Clickbank (or other similar item) product I can try to do some Amazon products or even products that fit my market a bit better. What those are exactly I am not yet sure as that requires some more testing but will see.

Till soon,
Ralph

SEO is (apparently) the holy grail of traffic and a successful website. It provides the almighty Google a reason to rank your website and obviously you want your site to be higher than your competitors or just very high in the search results.

On page #1 and result number 1 obviously…

So how can you (the average website owner) get your rankings up without actually paying your SEO guy a lot of money?
I’m not saying it’s bad to have a professional to do your actual SEO but if you can do the legwork yourself for the majority … why not?

And if your niche / market is not dealing with other high SEO geared companies than you can do a lot of SEO yourself.

So what can you do yourself?

Link Checker; This plugin will check your posts, comments and other content for broken links and missing images, and notify you if any are found. Since Google hates bad websites where links that do not work this is the way to make sure your website had the right link directed to the right website.  You are able to re-direct the links that are not working or just simply “unlink” the links. All from one dashboard.

SEO Pressor; is a tool that is used by people all over the world for their on-page optimization needs. Simply put, this is a program that can definitely elevate the standard of your website, in the manner that it helps your website reach out on the Internet. If you run a blog, SEOPressor will look at your individual posts and suggest changes if anything is wrong. It also tells you the value of each of your existing posts.

Digg Digg; is a plugin which allows you to add all the social plugins you want / need. This is more an indirect way to increase your SEO as you are relying on Google to index your site on behalf of the social impact your website is making. We have seen Google’s launch of Google+ and the ability to +1 a website. Since its owned by Google you can bet your (…) that this is (going) to count for your indexing. So the more social proof (more share’s , tweets, etc) the better your rankings.

Yoast SEO is (one of) the God’s of SEO. He developed a plugin which can source all the things that are wrong with your SEO site. From the amount of key words you have in your blogpost and what you need to do more to get the maximum out of your website. WordPress SEO is the most complete WordPress SEO plugin that exists today for WordPress.org users. It incorporates everything from a snippet preview and page analysis functionality that helps you optimize your pages content, images titles, meta descriptions and more to XML sitemaps, and loads of optimization options in between

Pretty Link (light); is a plugin I use on this website to track my click on the website but also to have affiliate links which I can remember and which look better. Since Google doesn’t like affiliate links, this plugin allows you to add a “no-follow” tag to all your links but also to give the links a 301 permanent re-direct. If you click on a few of the links  can see a /go/nameofthelink which I can then. This is great to test various pages and the performance of your website.

So there you are, 5 tips you can implement straight away to make sure your website is SEO ready for Google to inspect

Some Extra Tips

Since i’m in the zone, sort of speak, I will give you a few more tips that you can continue working on your website and improve it where you can.

• When using images on your blog (which is a good thing for your readers) you are able to give the image a name and an alternative text. These two items are also counting for your SEO rankings. Since Google can’t read images (yet) but only the image name and alternative text this is where you can make a difference. Let’s say you write about “puppy training” you should name your image “puppy training” and also your alternative text “puppy training”. That way Google “knows” you are writing about “puppy training”. Every keyword counts right

One way to “beat” Google is to actually become less depended on Google all together. There are a few ways you can do this by for instance build an email list on your blog.

• One of the plugins that I am considering buying is the WP Subscribers Plugin. I know that you can have other plugins that sort of do the same but this plugins is one of those plugins that I wished I’d knew off when I started before I bought a few other ones. I know that Aweber recently added a “subscribe to my newsletter” optin box underneath the comment box but this is only recently. There are plenty ways to increase your email list and this plugin can do seriously all of them. So check out the features of WP Subscribers.
• Another way is to get Facebook fans where you can interact / leverage traffic from. The majority of my niche sites have Facebook as their #1 or #2 traffic sources. This might be hard for some niches as the “fans” might not actually be on Facebook… so yeah.. only use that one if you have a big enough audience for your websites.

Your Google+ Page promises to be a powerful tool in your marketing, but for now, information on making it so seems to be all over the place, as well as changing daily.  It’s easy to lose track of or miss opportunities, when setting up your Google+ Business Page if you don’t keep a few, core steps in mind.  This Action Plan will help you make sure no steps are missed, as well as assisting you to set things up quickly and easily.

Setting Up A Google+ Page for your Business

Setting up a Page for your business is simple — but it has to integrate with your Google account, so if you are setting one up for a client, ensure that client understands you will be using her Google account log in information — not yours!

What You Need to Have Ready:

While in the signup process, you will need to enter at least two of these three criteria, depending on the Category you choose:

• A valid phone number
• Your location
• Your profile photo or Logo graphic (preferably square, though Google+ allows you to not only drag and drop but drag and position)

When you’re ready…

1.       Go to https://plus.google.com/pages/create.  It will prompt you to log into your account, if you haven’t already done so.  (If you have already logged into your account, you can simply select the “Create a Google+ page” beside your stream.)

2.       Select the category most appropriate to your business.  Your choices are:

(Note you will only need your phone number for “Local Business or Place”)
3.       Select “Create”, and follow the prompts to add:

• A powerful tagline of 10 words that best describes your business
• Your profile photo or graphic

Inserting a photo is even more easy than usual:  Not only can you drag and drop your photo directly from your desktop, you can also select the area of the photo you wish to use, much as with re-sizing Facebook thumbnails:

Your end result — however the shape of the original — has to be a perfect square…

That’s all there is to creating your page!  (Took you just a few minutes, right?)

“But Wait… There’s More…”

If you stop at simply having created your Page, however, you’ll be disappointed in the results.  Even at this early Beta stage, there are a few vital tips and tricks that can significantly push your sites and Page up through Google search results.  Number one you’ve already taken care of — you’ve created the +Page.  Now you will need to amplify its power by installing a +1 Button on your site, so people can “vote” for you.  This includes not just subscribers and followers, but members of the general public who happen to organically find your site — helped by your strong Google+ listings, of course.

You see, Google+ Pages with real clout automatically open at the actual Page, if searchers are savvy enough to type “+YourName or Keyword” in the Google search box (Direct Connect)…

You can tell at a glance if a search parameter auto-connect and open up an existing Google+ Page:  The Page graphic and tagline will instantly appear in the drop-down Suggestions.  If you hit “Enter” on seeing such a result, that Google+ Page opens up.

The flaw?  Not all existing Google+ Pages open up or even show up, even if they exist!  However, you can weight your newly-created +Page to rise through the ranks and be eligible for Direct Connect by ensuring you employ a few simple strategies…

Step One:  Be Ready to Share!

As you finish creating your page, you’ll be given the option to share it.  Make sure you are prepared and ready to go.

(Google really does make it easy for you to cover many of the bases!)

Step Two:  Setting Up your Google +1 Button

The number one key strategy lies in setting up a Google+1 button on all your websites; then publicizing the fact you have one and directing people with a call to action to “like” it.  (Don’t detract from the value of Google +1 buttons, however, by using emotional coercion, or +1 buttons will soon sink to the level of Facebook’s value-less “Like” buttons.)

Setting up your button and choosing the icon size is simple, and you don’t need step-by-step instructions.  It consists of:

1.       Grabbing a snippet of JavaScript code. (Install this anywhere on your site.)
2.       Scrolling further down that page and customizing the HTML code generated.
3.       Insert the generated code in your web page at the spot you want your +1 button to appear

What the +1 button actually does is:

• Help people discover “relevant content” (including ads) — from personal recommendations
• Display your own profile photo, when you “like” a +1 button on someone else’s Page, site or Circle.  (You can choose to “hide” this, if you prefer.)
• Allows others to recommend your own sites or Page
• Allows others to see which of their own friends and connections has also personally endorsed your listings
• Allows others to see how many +1 ratings you’ve received.  (You can customize this not to show, if your business, website and/or Page is brand new.)
• Increases your sites’ relevance and value in Google’s eyes, upping your SEO status and rank
• Increase your visibility and prominence in search results

Remember, however, that any page or site you add +1 to will be public — even if your Robots.txt file or WordPress blog settings are set for “nofollow”.

Step Three:  Enabling Google+ Circles — This area of Google+ already plays a big part in Google+ Page engagement and promises to grow in importance, so you might want to adjust your settings to automatically add Pages to your own Circles.  Here’s how to do it…

1.       Click your profile picture in your Google+ menu bar, at the top of your page
2.       Select ”Account Settings”
3.       Select “Google+”
4.       Scroll to the bottom and customize your “Google+ Pages” settings

Here is where updating your page with fresh content really becomes part of a vital strategy.

Step Four:  Creating a Badge

Creating a Google+ Badge for your site is not the same as creating a +1 button, so don’t confuse the two.  You can simultaneously create your badge and your page; or you can copy-paste your page URL into the box provided:

Continuing down the page, you will select the size of badge you prefer…

Step Five:  Google+ Direct Connect

This is the ultimate goal you are aiming for, when it comes to boosting your Google+ and Google+ Page rankings.  Google freely admits eligibility is “determined algorithmically”, based on:

• Relevance
• Popularity

The most crucial defining factor is the number of links between your site and Google+ Page.   If you have followed the previous steps, you are already well on your way to becoming eligible.  All you need to do is:

• Regularly interact with Google+, supplying relevant contact (Links, posts, keywords)
• Pay diligent attention to ensuring your content is not only relevant, but original and valuable too
• Educate your audience (especially those you network with) about Direct Connect and how it works.  They’ll particularly need to know that the option to sign into Google+ so they can add your page to their Circles is only offered the first time they visit your Page — after that it has to be added manually, which reduces the chance they’ll do so

Once Google perceives your value, you stand a much better chance of being admitted to the hallowed halls of Direct Connect.

This brings us to our last step (until Google+ rolls out more features)…

Step Six:  Promote Your Page!

Television long ago learned the secret to engaging viewers and netting high conversions:  Namely, spelling out the obvious and telling viewers exactly what to do next.

And just as TV ads also employ the principle of repetition, you must realize that promoting your +Page is an ongoing responsibility.

Here’s how you can encourage your visitors and subscribers to spread the word:

1.       Share your posts — but remember, even if you share a post from your Google+ Page, those in your Circle will actually see it as coming from your Profile.) And keep your content as consistent as your daily involvement:  Remember your main area of focus and use your best keywords, as naturally as possible.

2.       Link your Page and your website or blog.  You may think you’ve already done this, if you’ve installed your Google+ Button on your site — but it’s actually a two-step process, to be effective:  You also have to add your site to your Profile!

Here’s how to do it, using a current browser such as Google Chrome…

• In your browser, find your picture and select it (the top right corner)
• Select “Profile”
  

• In your Profile, select the “About” tab
  

• Select “Links” and then “Add a Custom Link”
• Enter (a) a Title (b) your URL
• Save

(If you can’t see “Links”, selecting “Edit Profile” and placing your link in the “Introduction” will work just as well.)

3.       Link your Google+ Page to your AdWords campaigns — Do it by making sure you include your +1 button in your ads.

4.       Post Consistently — Regular updates and fresh content will add to your Google value. This will help build a firmer foundation for your +Page

Along the way, as you grow more familiar with your Google+ Profile and Page, you’ll discover other ways you can help boost your +Page popularity:  Enabling Google+ for Mobile (if you have the right type of phone, for example; as well as joining the Preview Platform so you can receive advance improvements ahead of the crowd.

Become familiar with the refinements available through Google Support Plus.  Be sure also to actively report bugs and provide feedback to Google+ (as well as never promoting your Page with the same dirty-pool, emotional blackmailing techniques that Facebook users quickly learned to employ).

The more you engage and bring quality to your Google+ Page, the more directly you will be rewarded in Google SEO.

It’s true that “you get out of it what you put in” — but fortunately with Google+ Pages, these six basic steps provide a solid foundation to help you easily and effectively get started.
Now that you are ready to take on the Google+ world you can download this Action plan as a PDF by pressing the “Share to Get” button below.

Ralph

Facebook Influence (FBInfluence) is the latest product by Lewis Howes and business partner Sean Malarkey. This time they have teamed up with Amy Porterfield who is a rock star at Facebook Marketing and how to generate more sales using Facebook.

This content is going to be long so grab your pen and paper and start taking notes and implement these. The post of 3700+ words long and details only a small section of the actual product. This is my FBInfluence Review.

Facebook Marketing Success on 7 Simple Strategies to Profit from Facebook Marketing.

The webinar covers the following topics, so in case you have missed it..

• Super Fans: What they are and why you need them
• Essentials of a Facebook Marketing Foundation
• Smart Strategies to grow a lucrative Fanbase
• Quick tips to get your talking and engaged
• How to move your fans up the ranks to Super Fan status.

The webinar (and this FB Influence review) will teach you how to use Facebook to grow your and attract action-taking raving fans who are eager to buy what you are selling… sounds good right?

So keep reading because I’ll be giving away some action items.

Facebook Marketing is becoming a huge business. There is no denying this. Everyone is on Facebook these days.. so that is where your audience is hiding.. but in plain sight. Google might own the search sphere but the social scene is still dominated by Facebook. While more people spend time on Facebook (mobile is becoming more and more dominant) than actually search for stuff on Google, the logical step would to target your marketing efforts via Facebook.

If you compare all the various generations, 95% and above are all connected on Facebook. This means Gen Y, Gen Z(18 – 22 years), Gen X, Baby Boomers and the Golden Generation (67 years and older)…

I mean this is a large range of demographics and nearly everyone is connected to Facebook.. mindblowing..

70% of small businesses using social media in increase in traffic.

This obviously makes sense as the more you are exposing yourself the more people will click… but still businesses don’t use social media or they think Facebook is just a phase… well whatever… why not join the hype and increase your business bottom line.

60% say social media has improved search rankings (2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report).

In relation to search, the search results, if you can’t find someone or a group on Facebook, are displayed by Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Bing might not be the largest search engine but my point is that the results aren’t powered by Google.

This doesn’t mean that the traffic generated from Facebook is not being measured and analyzed by Google. The more traffic you are able to send from various sources, the more weight (and rank) your business website will get. Google will see your more relevant than a competitor who doesn’t use Facebook (and doesn’t have the traction you have with your fan page).

Another huge items is social relevance and social reviews. You ask your friends what they think of a certain product you may want to buy, as they might have some experience with it or they know someone who had. You may have seen various websites showing social proof (Facebook likes, Facebook comments, comments, ratings, testimonials) to have other sell the product for them.

23% of consumers consult their Facebook friends before making a purchase.

You may see something like “Hey guys, I’m thinking of buying product x (with a link) but I’m not quite sure if its reliable. Who can tell me more about it??” And the comments flow right in..

But here is a kicker;

1 in 3 consumers say they’re likely to purchase from a company that they follow on Facebook.. can you see the potential?

So back to the webinar and the FBinfluence review…

Just to give you a quick look at a fan page that is developed by Amy is from the Social Media Examiner which is owned by Mike Stelzner.

Amy started with the Facebook page at the same time when the website Social Media Examiner was launched. And after a year the website topped 30,000 fans… Currently this is 68,394 (as of 3rd of December 2011)

I’ve mentioned the goal it to get Super Fans for your fan page but obviously not everyone is just as excited as you about your fan page. You are the #1 fan of your page but your friends may not.. so how do you become a Super Fan and what is the difference between a Super fan and normal Fan.

To give it some perspective here’s a football analogy.. you have your weekend fans, who go to the game or watch the game in their team’s jersey… and then there is the Super Fan.

The Super Fan is the guy how you see on TV and you watch and say.. OMG… did he really just shaved his chest into the team Logo? Or did she really just body painted the colours of the team on herself? You know the one’s I’m talking about right?!

They know every team member, their number, their favorite food, who they hang out with and even what their kids and partner’s names are. They won’t miss a game and are not available (unless you go with them) on game days…

So.. we’ve covered what you are aiming for but how do you really get there??

Amy gives a cool case study on the fast pacing world of… here it comes… bowling balls… (wait what?!?)

Yes.. Bowling balls.. here it goes.

So since there isn’t much less sexy than a bowling ball this would be one of the best examples out there. I mean, if it works with freaking bowling balls, then FBInfluence must work with anything right?

The ad was designed to get bowling fanatics updated about the latest bowling balls and where you could find them.

The ad featured only on Facebook and was to increase Ebonite’s status as an authority on everything revolving around bowling. The bowling balls in this case weren’t even sold by themselves only via resellers.

It was pure for the love of bowling that they were promoting this ad and bowling ball, with in return a large amount likes and followers.

So they gave you a rebate if you were interested in trying the latest bowling ball. It all seems very easy at the moment doesn’t it? They were able to capture people who not only were interested in the topic but who wanted to BUY too!

 So what did this campaign (on Facebook) actually return?

900 people filled out their contact details and were interested in trying the rebate and actually 300 people did. Now this is a very good campaign. You may think 30% is pretty good indeed, but remember that there are NO FREEBIES offered. Only a rebate / discount so people still have to pay a dollar amount.

Usually when there are costs involved the activation rate of campaigns drops significantly, in this case it didn’t. You can relate that to a few items which is;

1. They spoke to the right audience
2. They offered something unique
3. They offered something which was in demand

I hope this gave you some ideas for your own business, if not then here is another case study.

 Case study 2. fitness

4 Simple Steps to Facebook Success Formula

Step 1. Set up your Foundation for Facebook Success

If you were ever searching for the right platform to give you or your business some good exposure, I hope you can agree with me that Facebook is the place to be. It is the best location to brand yourself and also one of the cheapest to get yourself connected with over 800 million people.

Branded Wall Image

• Use the maximum amount of pixels in your Facebook photo, this is 180×540 pixels so make sure you cater to this.
• Add a company name and image
• highlight your company’s website URL, people want to remember your URL so show it to them. Even if it’s not clickable
• Create a short tag line to explain what you are about and what your company actually does!

How not to do it

Don’t miss out on promoting your business

• Images is not him, it’s just a girl (so different gender to start off with).
• The tab is just an image and it’s not clickable.
• Doesn’t say who he is, what he does and what the company stands for.
• It doesn’t stand out at all.
• The click like feature on his welcome page is a good start but do you feel compelled to click on it or do you feel you are going to miss out if you don’t? The 7 Secret Insights of…. what?

The Right way to do it - Amy’s Facebook

• clear picture of herself and what she does and can do for you.
• Amy is her own Brand, so she needs to show HER and her Name as much as possible which she does very well.
• She uses the maximum amount of pixels in her Facebook photo, this is 180×540 pixels so make sure you cater to this.
• She added here company name and an image / logo
• She highlight your company’s website underneath her image. People want to remember your URL so show it to them. Even if it’s not clickable
• She made it clear that you know what she is about and what she does.

A few others great examples of profile pictures which have that super engaging effect.

Well, what would you do?

If you read this you are probably wondering, well how am I going to get the increase in leads in the first place? I need a lot more traffic to 400% more leads as usually only a certain amount of traffic turns into leads and then an even smaller amount converts into sales.

There are a few ways you can go about this.

To make sure you have the right amount of traffic which can give you the 400% leads increase you need to make sure you are increasing your traffic. There are actually quite a few ways you can do this. But from a business point of view you also don’t want to spend a lot of money on paid traffic as that will only lift the target of the amount of leads you need.

So “free” (time in this case is free) traffic it is.

A) Organic Traffic

Make sure you site is SEO optimized. This is the starting point for many sites who rely on exact keyword domains and are focused on type in traffic. So better get your site updates. When I started this blog a while ago I had no idea about SEO. I sort of knew what I was going for but looking back I made so many mistakes.

Just a rundown on a few mistakes I made;

- No clear goals of topics I would write about after 6 months or so.
– No investment in a good WordPress Theme for optimal visual attractiveness
– No solid idea about affiliate marketing
– No keyword optimized domain… i mean hothitmedia? really?

These are just a few mistakes I made but I am glad I made them. If someone tells you that you have done something wrong without explaining the reason I’m not always convinced. I would like to know why they think this is wrong. This gives me an understanding of the bigger picture but also makes me curious on how to possibly improve it.

I’m not stuck with the “because I said so” argument which I totally don’t get and can’t work with.

B) Recurring Traffic

Now we are beginning to get somewhere as this is the traffic that you don’t need to pay for or not supposed to pay for. This is traffic that keeps coming back via the various sources. And there are a few sources which make up for my top referring sites and I do not pay for.

I’ve put a few screenshots below just to show you what each site brings in:

This is a screenshot of my running website and the traffic that it brought in from February till November.

The following sites have only been up for a very short time, the longest for 4 weeks but just to give you an idea of what traffic it brings in. I’ve had to blur some websites as those are my other websites as these are interlinked.

Niche Site 1

I was lucky enough that I found a tumblr.com account which was relating to my website. I’ve posted there once and got some excellent referrals and continue to get so.

Niche Site 2

This site hasn’t been up that long but is slowly getting indexed by Google which is great. I’m expecting that this site will start getting some traction from Google in the near future so that I am not relying on Facebook but also get some other sources in.

Niche Site 3 (This one has been up for about 4 weeks)

As you can see these sites are scoring quite well in Google but a lot of traffic is generating from Facebook. I’ve used the method by Brian Moran, from get 10.000 fans.com to optimize my Fanpages and to get the most out of my fanpage.

I’ve recently added a Google+ business page for Niche Site #3 but I did this yesterday and it does provide some good ways to drop your keywords with a backlink to your main site. Perfect for SEO from a Google owned website..

Just to explain a few of the websites and how I was able to get some good solid traffic from that over that.

- LinkedIn;
This is a true gem if you know how to use the LinkedIn system. I’ve written a few posts about LinkedIn which should help you perfectly. Being the linked Linkedin person that I am it will help a lot of you can actually make all that that traffic for you and establish yourself as an authority.

- Facebook;
One of the ultimate time wasters in the world. Well maybe not time waster, but procrastination for sure. It also is a great source of traffic for many of my niche sites as you can see above. The trick is also to stay relevant by posting on your Fanpage and interact. This will help you get additional fans and make sure your fans still like to be associated with your Fanpage. This all thanks to Brian Moran from get10.000fans.com.

- StumbleUpon.com;
Now this is a weird one. To get traffic from StumbleUpon.com (SU) is excellent, there is one downside. It doesn’t stick.
If you you have ever used StumbleUpon yourself you will notice that you look at the website in an iFrame of sorts and you just press “like” in the SU navigation bar.

And then you move on.

So people don’t actually view your site more thoroughly or increases your subscriber rate. If you had a different opinion about this, please let me know. But this has been my experience with SU on various sites with the same outcome. 

- Email Capture;
Nearly everyone says “the money is in the list” , “email is king” etc. Which is true. If you have subscribers who you can reach via email than you don’t have to pay for them to visit your site like you would have via Google Adwords. It also allows to build an extra relationship with your readers and give them some extra tips / tricks etc. which are not on the website.

When you visited my site you saw a popup called “Popup Domination” which is one of the easiest tools on the market today and it also works seamless with WordPress.

When you use Aweber as your preferred email client (like I have) you can also add the tick box at the bottom in the comments section without any hassle. It is done automatically so you can really increase your subscriber list with a press of a button. Which is one of the best places since visitors who leave a comment need to tick a box anyway for the CAPTCHA check.

I’d recommend you have a look at your website and check what you can optimize to generate more traffic or leads or even both.

Till next time

Ralph

Now I highly doubt that I have to explain to everyone what Facebook is about.

But in the past few weeks I’ve been trying to get some niche sites up and running (more on that in a later post) and getting (paid) traffic by just using Facebook. Now within a very short time I’ve managed to gain over 1500 fans which cost me about 150 dollars, which I am quite happy about as the competition is quite high and every fan is (apparently) worth over 300 bucks. I haven’t seen that happen to my sites yet but there is plenty of time to change that.

Enter the world of Facebook Influence. 

For a few of you, I’m very excited about Lewis Howes and his latest project; Facebook Influence. This product is really going into the details on how to generate fans (without wasting money) and getting your money back (so don’t loose out).
Business / Sales people should begin to realize that cold calling doesn’t work and nobody likes it.

People like to be more involved these days so why not match them to your brand and leverage (keyword leverage) your fans to either sell product, improve your products or gain new clients.

This product will show you how and a lot more…I encourage you to sign up for a special Facebook marketing webinar.

Sign Up Here For the Free Webinar:  http://www2.onlinemeetingnow.com/register/?id=9f0aa2f3da

Here’s what guest speaker and Facebook Marketing thought leader, Amy Porterfield, will cover:

• Super Fans: What They Are and Why You Need Them
• Essentials of a Facebook Marketing Foundation
• Smart Strategies to Grow a Lucrative Fan Base
• Quick Tips to Get Your Fans Talking and Engaged
• How to Move Your Fans Up the Ranks to Super Fan Status

Register Here: http://www2.onlinemeetingnow.com/register/?id=9f0aa2f3da

You are already spending some of your time on Facebook chatting with friends, uploading pictures, and staying in touch…but it’s time you leverage Facebook the Right Way so you can reap the benefits of it from a business point of view as well.

Amy is one of the top Facebook Marketing experts in the world and she has some brand new information she wants to share with you. Make sure to register for this week’s webinar as you won’t want to miss out!

Register Here: http://www2.onlinemeetingnow.com/register/?id=9f0aa2f3da

Ralph

If you were unaware of StudioPress (This is a StudioPress website) they make some great tools and plugins. StudioPress runs on the Genesis Framework which is used by Darren Browse … the legend…

I can try to convince you about all their products but this really don’t mean anything if you are not in the market or just not interested… so I won’t.

What I will do is just summarize what you could be apart of.

Design  >> StudioPress.com

• 43 awesome themes and highly customizable for any type of website.
• 11 StudioPress designed and optimized plugins
• 48 3rd party plugins specificly designed for StudioPress websites

–> Save 40% this week only using the promo code ” SP40 ” when you check out. <–

**This deal ends promptly at 5:00 pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28, 2011**

Traffic >> Scribe.com

**This deal ends promptly at 5:00 pm Pacific time on Monday, November 28, 2011**

So head over to the sales and get your bargain right away before the offer runs out.

Ralph

Exciting times at Google — not only have they just released Google+ to the public in open Beta (working model), but they’ve now added Google+ Business Pages.

So how can you, as an internet entrepreneur, take advantage of this new internet resource… and should you?  Before you rush to set up a page, it may help to take a look at the pros and cons…

Comparing Facebook Pages with Google+ Business Pages

Google+ is still very much in beta mode.  Its Pages feature has only just been launched, so any comparison with Facebook pages will probably be redundant by the time you read this, since new features are being added to Pages on an ongoing basis.

Your biggest reason for setting up a Business Page in Google+ should be not only to take advantage of powerful Google SEO, but to reach targeted customers or clients who hate and avoid Facebook — and this number is growing daily, thanks to Facebook changes such as the inability to prevent Facebook from broadcasting what you are doing online, moment by moment!

Facebook’s relevance is also taking a downslide at the moment, thanks to all the changes it recently instituted.  Friends are “disappearing” thanks to involuntary settings changes (and most aren’t even aware you now can’t see them).  Irrelevant posts seem to be on the increase.  And there’s generally a lot of confusion.

The worst part about Facebook pages?  “Out of sight, out of mind”, says V. A., Isobel Henderson.  “You really like somebody’s page, but then you get busy, and forget they have it.  Seems like you have to manually visit a page, to connect with it again, and that means making a conscious effort.  Who has the time?  Too busy!”

Early reactions gleaned from the net about Google+ Business Pages:

• “Google+ page is way better, simple and clean than Facebook pages”

• “Stop comparing them: G+ is not Facebook.”

• “I think the positive thing is actually that the Google+ IS SO SIMPLE AND USER FRIENDLY to users and customers. Google gets what maybe only Apple gets also… No stupid irrelevant stuff.”

• “The biggest disadvantage I see to the Facebook Business page is that I don’t use Facebook. So if the WWE wants to reach me socially, they’re going to have to do it through G+ regardless of how uncluttered it is.”

• “If you like the big mess in FB, maybe is because you live that way. I don´t need a bunch of ads in my screen. I like to choose whom I want to follow and from [whom] I want info. FB to me, is a bunch of teens shouting the world they´re there. I really hope that G+ never turns into another Facebook. Maybe FB need to learn a lot from G+.”

• “The addition of Pages will be a big boost in G+ usage IMHO.  I know I’ll likely be using G+ a lot more now that I am finally able to set up a Page.  For personal use though, all my family and friends are on FB, not G+, so G+ holds little to no value for me in that respect.”
• “I really love how Google allows for non-profits to set up a Page!

• “…NASA got amazingly cool timing because of the asteroid coming towards earth has gotten lots of coverage and NASA’s profile already is very useful source on that topic. The interaction is amazing in Google+ especially because the You Tube interaction is so relevant often on discussion about recent news and future news.”

The underlying point of these comments seems to be that Facebook is losing control and turning into another MySpace or Yahoo.  In fact, seeing “disturbing or controversial Yahoo headline links” appended to peoples’ posts is the reason two business acquaintances of mine have recently “switched” from Facebook to Google+ in the last week alone.

“You can’t switch [Yahoo headlines] off or `hide’ them, the way you used to be able to hide posts from sources you didn’t like,” explained one.  Commented the other:  “Well, you can switch them off — but Yahoo posts enable themselves again immediately.”

Given the changing currents of social networking, why not set up your Google+ Business Page while it’s still simple to do so?  Who knows — maybe getting in on the ground floor will enable you to retain early features you like that are later “grandfathered” (like those animated profile photos on Twitter that a few people still cling to, but the rest of us now can’t create — even supposing we were animators, which would make them highly relevant!)

Which Network Is For You?

One other factor to take into account, when deciding whether or not to invest time in setting up Google+ Pages — one often doesn’t use social networks to directly attract clients or customers.  It’s usually more about networking.

Current buzz seems to indicate that there’s a shift in Facebook as the primary network.  LinkedIn has gained serious ground… and so has Google+.

Among the items at Inside GPlus, you can see frequently-updated results measuring the comparative popularity of Google Plus, Facebook and Twitter.  (Be sure to add GPlus to your circle. You’ll find lots of real-time tracking feedback there.)

While everything is in a state of flux, why not set up pages on both Facebook and Google+… then see which one brings you the strongest results?

What You Need to Know about Google+ Business Pages

Before you rush to do that, however, here’s the lowdown on what you can expect…

1. Setting up your Google+ Page is currently an easy process, and will take you only a few minutes
2. You need to have a Google account.  If you don’t already have one, you can create one right now or when you go to create your page
3. You can type “+” in front of any company name and instantly get a listing of their Pages
4. Google pages are linked with Google search, which provide a one-key shortcut to Google+ Pages within the query box
5. It integrates with Google+ Circles, making Page sharing easy
6. You can create multiple Google+ Pages, if you have more than one business
7. There are “lots” of “improvements” slated in the near future for Google+ Pages, according to Vic Gundotra, senior VP of engineering
8. Google+ Pages are ideal for branding, since Branding has its own separate category

As with any new beta network, Google+ still has some glitches, as well as a way to go towards seamless web power and integration.  Here are seven of the most reported problems you might encounter or need to prepare for (and circumvent, when possible)…

Current Google+ Drawbacks

1. Vanity URLs — Google states flatly that vanity URLs will not be available for Pages.  They offer instead “verification badges”, but these are not comparable to vanity URLs, since they operate as “security mechanisms”, not identifiers.

You cannot apply for a verification badge:  Google decides whether or not you merit one and arbitrarily awards them at their pleasure.

Verification badges are Google’s way of letting searchers know that “a site is legitimate”.  The motivation for creating them is eliminate impersonation — but since Google arbitrarily decides who is legitimate, there is a risk of an impersonator receiving the verification badge.

2. Multiple Page Managers — Says Google, “Currently, only one person can own, post as, and edit a page.”  You can now create multiple Business and Branding pages, but if you have already set up a page for a company you work for that is owned by someone else and want to transfer ownership (since maintaining it means the company would have access to your gmail and Google account), this would cause a problem:  Ownership cannot be transferred.

The current fix?  Delete the page and create a new one.  But Google is making noises about the ability to transfer ownership “coming soon”.

3. Google Places Integration — Right now, there is no integration, but it’s vital to keep your Google Places updated and current if geo-targeting is part of your marketing strategy, since if the information is there, Google will use it (current or not).  It’s up to you to make sure Google is not using outdated data:  Keeping Places current means local search and Google Maps will be accurately displayed.

Google does plan to integrate the two, in future.

4. Google Login — Do be careful, when operating from Google+.  Make sure you don’t post miscellaneous content on your actual Google+ page, if you have different logins for you and your company.  Already many people have been careless, and admitted to getting egg on their faces by posting to the wrong area under the wrong login.

Google is public.  And that can be a drawback, as well as a plus — no pun intended.
(N.B.:  It will even “ignore”   robots.txt file “no follow” instructions.)

5. Google Apps — You can’t currently add apps to your Google+ page.  But it’s not clairvoyance to predict that will change fairly soon.
6. Google+ Confusion — One problem many people seem to have is confusing their Google+ Profile with their Google+ Page.  Knowing the differences between your + Profile and your + Page should help you manage each with more confidence…

7. +1 Button Error Warnings — This problem only seems to occur on pages with a secure “https:” designation; also on older browsers, so do test your new button-optimized page in an older one too.  If your “https:” site generates an error message or warning, first look at the snippet of code Google gave you, when you created your button.  Make sure your button code actually uses “https:” too.  (Currently, automatically generated code always assumes your site page begins with “http:”)

Correcting the code snippet usually does the trick. If your page is still generating warnings on search, make sure your site contains this script:

<script src="//apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

You can find these tips (and many others) in the Google+ Help section.

Now let’s take a look at current Google+ advantages — particularly as they apply to Google+ Pages…

Current Google+ Advantages

1. Google +1 Button   – One of your biggest potential advantages in creating a Google+ Page will lie in Google’s latest feature, the “+1″ button.

It can’t really be compared to Facebook’s “Like” button, but since you will most likely do that anyway, here’s a quick overview of the differences between the two features…

The end result of the way Facebook’s “Like” button is set up has resulted in a lack of respect for “Like” results:  Everyone knows that a good portion of those “Likes” were not truly value-driven.  People pressed the “Like” button to support friends, gain networking favor or because misleading ads triggered them with emotional wording. For example, “Everyone who likes Harry Potter, Like us” — this seen on an ad that led to a site that had nothing to do with Harry Potter — but with Google’s +1 button, there is no artificial weighting. It’s set up so that people press it because they truly like the content.

Granted, you can up the chances of gaining +1 endorsements by educating your website visitors, social network followers and email subscribers about the existence of the Google +1 button, but everyone is soon going to be totally familiar with it.

And only add it to public pages (accessible to everyone).

2. Google+ Badges — Not to be confused with the Verification badge!  You can easily add a Google+ badge to your website(s) via a simple process you’ll be walked through when you create your page.

You can choose between several styles of badge: Standard badge, Small badge, Small icon, Medium icon, Large icon and No Badge.  The Medium Icon is shown below…

If you know you will speedily generate a number of approvals via your +1 icon or badge and have multiple pages or sites, you may wish to choose the standard badge:

3. Google+ Direct Connect — This feature is already making a difference to the effectiveness of searching Google+ pages — though, right now, it seems to not always work.  All you do to access Direct Connect is type a plus sign before the company name you wish to connect with:  For example:

You will then be taken directly to YouTube’s Google+ page, instead of to all the search listings available.  (If you only want search listings, don’t type the “+” in front of the name, of course.)

You’ll see the page like this:

You can add that particular page immediately to your circles, as well as easily share it, via the “Share this page” button…

Google admits there are some problems at this time with Direct Connect, but quickly states it hopes to make the option fully functional as soon as possible.

4. Google+ for Mobile — Apps are provided for several main devices, including the Android, iPhone and Blackberry.  Although not specifically geared for Google+ pages yet, the fact that people can share and access Google+ via mobile automatically increases its value.

How to Increase Your Google+ Page Value

In spite of the fact various features are glitchy or not yet active, you can increase your Google+ Page value (especially with Direct Connect by cross-connecting.  All this means is:

• Placing the Google+ badge or icon on your site
• Adding your website link to your page

Other ways you can increase your +Page value:

• Actively use Google Hangouts (video chat drop-in)
• Maintain a daily presence via Google+
• Update and add to your Google Circles
• Upload YouTube videos and post the links on your page and websites
• Upload videos to Google+ and share them via your page:

• Move your Google+ Page fans directly into your Circles.  (This seems to create automatic engagement!)
• Make sure you have a Circle named “Following”
• Make sure your site contains the “+1″ button, as well as your badge or icon.  (This will require a separate snippet of code to that of badges/icons.)
• Publicize your page.  Share it with your Circles and Hangouts.  Share it on social networks and in your blog posts and forum posts.  Include it as part of your contact information
• Upload photos, as well as videos.  (GPlus offers some interesting statistics about Google+ photo uploads.)
• Educate your readers, subscribers and visitors.  Remember the Golden Rule of marketing:  S-p-e-l-l  things out and include calls to action (telling your readers what to do next)
• Remember that although Google+ Pages may “feel like Facebook”, they do have the huge advantage — and disadvantage — of open search via Google.  Follow the tips in this report to ensure Google ranks your page as highly as possible!

Remember:  The more active you are via Google+, the higher value Google’s algorithm currently seems to ascribe.

Google Adwords Advantage

If you use AdWords PPC advertising, you’ll love this further way to boost your Google+ page rank and garner more “likes”.  Google has enabled AdWords so that people can +1 your Page, right from your ad — so be the +1 button is included within your ad.

Google+ Platform Preview

Another way to boost your value to Google’s search algorithm (and indirectly boost your Page status):  Join the Platform Preview for advance news and information about upcoming changes and features.

Becoming a member of Platform Preview puts you on a “preferred” list, enabling you to automatically preview all the latest changes, features and updates to Google+ (including your Google+ page) before the rest of the world has access.

You can customize your contact options, from viewing the group on the web only to receiving daily emails, if you prefer… but note that you must use a Gmail address, if you want any previews to work.

Google+ For Your Blog

Yes, you can create a separate Google+ Page for your blog — even if it’s on Blogger and not hosted on your own separate WordPress site.

Branding Via Your Google+ Page

Opinions are currently split on how effective Google+ Pages are going to be, when it comes to branding your business.

For starters, currently only one person (with one login) can manage a Brand page and it’s attached to one account.  Sure, you can give people the login information — but if you’ve set it up with your personal login, you most likely won’t want them to have access to all your Google activities!

Do read the Google Page Terms of Service before setting up your Brand page.  It sets out explicitly what you can and cannot do.  Here is just one small section…

Another tip:  Don’t work with both your personal account and your Brand account within the same browser.  Ideally, it’s best to:

• Manage each on separate browsers
• Completely log out of one, before accessing the other

If branding is your primary purpose for creating a Google+ Page, do make sure you select “Product or Brand” as your Page Category:

Finally, do remember to actively use Circles to connect with other Brand pages (so they will +1 your own).

Upcoming Google+ Page Features

Among some of the improvements Google says it is planning, you can look forward to integrating:

• Analytics
• Documents
• Maps
• Places

(But still no vanity URLs!)

It’s important to remember that Google+ Pages for business, brands and non-profits are still brand new and very much in a Beta state (as is Google+ itself).  But getting in on the ground floor will help your Page rank soar while others are still waking up to all Google+’s possibilities.

To your success!

If you want to download this Guide for your records you can by clicking the “Share to get” button.

photo credit: kevin dooley

Either you hate them or you love them… Rappers…

Personally I love rap and especially the ones that are good with their lyrics and can really build some amazing sentences which has a meaning on various levels.

But as always, the ones on the top of the game are not always the best. I’ve been listening to a lot of music in my lifetime and I can say that my genres are very mixed.

But two of the rappers that I thoroughly enjoy are Logic and Mac Miller. Now I know that these guys also talk about the money etc but in this case they have such an unique way of story telling..

Their lyrics are just amazing and you wonder how they can get it out of their mouths sometimes. This made me thing of the art of storytelling. Music is such an amazing way of storytelling as you have the lyrics to shape your imagination and the tones and beats to give it that extra edge or to put you in the right mindset to receive the message.

So how does this relate to blogging or affiliate marketing?

Well, with blogging and affiliate marketing you are trying to tell a captivating story which resonates with the reader. They feel that your product fills a void or provides a solution to their (sometimes yet unknown) problem. Since we (us bloggers) can’t use music to tell our story it becomes a bit hard.

We could record a pimping video on a boat somewhere with popping champagne bottles and tell your readers that this keyword tool is amazing… doubt it will sell but you will probably get some viral action going on.. on YouTube.. not the other kind.

So what can we learn from these big boys in the business?

1. Have an image.

You are you. Don’t try to dress it up, dress it down or try to rename it. You want to be your unique self so you can always look people in the eye with total honesty. You are already awesome and unique, just just have to believe it yourself.

2. Find the tipping point

When you start out and step into the spotlight, a lot of people might say “what are you doing?”, “you shouldn’t”, “you look ridiculous”.

The larger the audience you reach the more people will start to like you or will relate to you. It is simply a numbers game. Not everyone likes person A. They don’t like A but do like B.

After a while you will gain a following and you start becoming “cool” or “unique”. When that happens you are approaching the tipping point since the people who said you were “weird” and “look ridiculous” now are able to say that they like you without being judged by others… Its always hard to raise your own opinion in front of your peers.

3. Flip it and rework it..yo…

Captivate your audience with a story. This is a unique selling tool and it has been for years.. Walt Disney is build on it…
Have an intro and a good solid wrap up in the end which for affiliates is to sell / plug a product.

4. Be memorable

Rebecca Black.. yes.. you also saw the video so don’t even deny it.

Was it a good song.. no.
Was it supposed to win a VMA? No.
Was it supposed to be the worst song ever? Probably not.
Do you remember it? Yes.

Music has the ability to create a jingle or a hook that is easy to remind and will stick in your head forever. Blogging is a bit different but you can create something that is unique. Jenna Marbles (one of the crazy chick on YouTube with a 1.3 million + subscriber list) is one of those people that is unique, and is who she is… Hot and Crazy.

5. Keep your head up

Keep going until you are satisfied with the result or have achieved your goal.

How Bad Do You Want it (video) Voice by Eric -the hiphoppreacher – Thomas

Ralph

Like many people out there, your main source of traffic via search engines is Google. Everyone is trying to optimize their site to Google can find it.

Google also makes it harder and harder for smaller sites to catch a break between the big boys in the business. Is this a bad thing? Not always but it makes it hard for genuine websites which have a good content base to show in the rankings.

Since Google is market leader in the field of search:

You might also want to submit your websites to Yahoo and Bing just to get that extra traffic in. Google is updating their algorithm on a frequent basis so this can keep you busy.

Recently I added a niche site to Yahoo and Bing since I wasn’t getting a lot of traffic. The keyword is not that competitive but it also isn’t very popular (hence Niche website). Not long after I did that the following happened:

My traffic went up quite significantly (50% ) when I submitted the sites to the other search engines.

Google became search engine referrer number 3… after Yahoo and Bing…

Now I’m not saying it will move heaven and earth and will skyrocket your rankings but if you are trying to hard for those extra visitors from Google, why not have them come in via a different search engine.  Since my site was / is a very small one and very niche orientated every visitor counts.

Submit your site to Bing here (and go to the bottom of the page)

Submit your site to Yahoo here (follow the link)

I hope this helps you along the way.

Ralph

LinkedIn Account Signup & Profile

LinkedIn is a great place to connect with like-minded people, from past classmates to potential JV partners, the connections are unlimited. The first step to making the connections is to set up your account and profile so others can find you. I’ve written various other posts about LinkedIn (if you want some more advanced tips, check out LinkedInfluence by Lewis Howes) and what you can do with various groups, updates etc. But what if you haven’t even have a LinkedIn profile?

Well let’s start by visiting, http://www.linkedin.com to join.

Step 1: Account Setup

When you visit the LinkedIn home page, you’ll see this image. Simply fill in the requested information and click the Join Now button.

Step 2: Employment Status

Using the dropdown arrows next to each section, select your employment status and location details. Your selections may create more options to appear as you fill in the details.

Step 3: Search via Email Contacts

This step allows LinkedIn to connect with your email account to see which of your email contacts already have LinkedIn accounts. Those that do, you will be able to instantly connect with and those who don’t, you can choose to send an invitation to join.

To do this step, simply enter your email details and click the continue button or click “Skip this step” to go to the next step without connecting with your email account.

You will be asked to confirm your email address by clicking the link in an email sent to you when you registered.

Step 4: Proceed to Profile

From here, you will be presented with a few screens asking you to connect with others. We are skipping these steps so that we can set up our profile first. After all, we don’t want to invite people to view our blank profile.

So when we see this page, we click “Skip This Step”

On the next page, we also choose to skip the step.

And finally, on this page we click to skip.

All of these options can be revisited from your dashboard at any time.

Step 5: Profile Setup

Once you reach your dashboard, mouse over Profile in the upper navigation and select Edit Profile.

Here, you’ll see a summary of your profile information and be able to edit each section.

You can either click the + sign next to each section above to edit the information or scroll down the page and add the information there as shown below. Each section has an explanation for what you should include in it.

Once you finish filling out your information, you can view your profile by clicking View Profile as indicated in the above image.

Step 6: Contact Settings

The final step before making connections is to set your contact settings. It’s important to do this step or your inbox may be flooded with emails from LinkedIn.

In the top, right-hand corner of your dashboard, mouse over your name and select Settings.

Step 7: Email Preferences

Now, down on the left side of the screen, click Email Preferences and a box will open to the right with more options as shown below.

Clicking the options to the right will bring up a pop-up box for each one allowing you to adjust the settings. Below are two examples.

Following the same instructions outlined in Step 7, you can also adjust your groups, companies and application settings as well as make more advanced account settings.

Find Connections & Accept Connection Request on LinkedIn

In order to make LinkedIn work for your business, you need to regularly make new connections. This is simple to do and only takes a little bit of time each week.

Step 1: Add Connections

From your dashboard, mouse over Contacts and select Add Connections.

Step 2: Options for Adding Connections

There are two ways to connect to people you already know. The first is to allow LinkedIn to scan your email address book to see which contacts are existing members of LinkedIn.

To do this, simply fill in your email address and password and click Continue.

It will scan and give you a list of everyone who has a LinkedIn account. Simply select the ones you want to connect with and click the “send invitations’ button.

You’ll be redirected to your dashboard where you’ll have a new success message.

If you aren’t comfortable with that or simply prefer to manually enter each person, you can enter the email address of each person you wish to connect with – each address should be separated by a comma. Click the Send Invitations button when you’re ready.

Once you send the invitations, a new success message will appear at the top of the page.

Step 3: People You May Know

Another way to locate people is to click the “People You May Know” tab. Here you can set filters to narrow the list of people you might know. In addition, LinkedIn will pull connections of connections (or friends of friends) in case you know any of them.

Simply go through the search results list and click “Connect” next to each person you wish to connect with.

When you click connect, a pop-up box will appear confirming your request. Click Send Invitation if you’re sure you want to connect with this person.

Step 4: Accept Connection Requests

When someone wants to connect with you, they will send an invitation to you. When you log into your LinkedIn account, you’ll also have these notices in your inbox. Just click the Accept button for each person you want to connect with and

You will have the option to connect immediately or connect at a later date.

Posting & Viewing Updates in LinkedIn

Now that you’ve made connections, you can post updates to keep people informed of what’s going on in your business. You can also view updates of those you are connected to and post comments to their updates. Here’s how…

Step 1: Post Updates

When you visit the LinkedIn home page, you’ll see this image. Simply fill the box with your update and click the Share button. You can add a link by using the “attach a link” option. You can also send this update to your twitter profile by clicking the box next to the bird icon.

Step 2: View Updates of Connections

Your account will show the most recent updates of those you are connected to. When you log into your account, directly below where you post your own update, you’ll see a list of updates from others.

Step 3: Like & Comment on Updates

If one of your connections posts an update that you like, you can “like” the update. You can also comment on their by clicking the “comment” link.

When commenting, a box will open where you enter your comment. Then you simply click the “comment” button.

Step 4: Send Messages

There are two ways you can send messages to someone you are connected with. The first is to click “send a message” located beneath one of that person’s updates as shown here.

A pop-up box will open where you can add a subject and message. Then click “send message” when you’re finished.

The second way to send a message is to mouse over your inbox link in the upper navigation and click “compose message”.

Enter the email address of the person you want to send the message to or click the icon to select from your contacts.

Your address will automatically populate in the “from” field.

Add a subject, your message and click “send message” as shown below.

Sending Updates/Tweets to and from Twitter and LinkedIn

When submitting updates to LinkedIn, you can also send these updates. In addition, you can send your tweets to your LinkedIn account as updates. Please note, that in order for this to work, your Twitter account must be set to “public”.

Step 1: Add Your Twitter Account

From your LinkedIn dashboard, mouse over “profile” then select “edit profile”.

Click the “Add a Twitter Account” option

A pop-up will open asking you to allow LinkedIn to access your Twitter account. Enter your Twitter information and click Allow.

Step 2: Updating your Twitter status from Linkedin

Now that both accounts are connected, you can update Twitter directly from Linkedin by selecting the Twitter icon when posting a new update in LinkedIn.

Step 3: Updating your LinkedIn status from Twitter

When you post a new tweet in Twitter, add the #in hashtag to the end of your message. This will ensure your tweet is also added as a LinkedIn update.

A word of caution: Be selective in which messages you send to LinkedIn. Typically speaking, professional business associates don’t want to know what you are had for breakfast.

So there you have it, a complete guide on how to use LinkedIn and some of the key features. You are now ready to read more about LinkedIn in my other post on How to Use Linkedin and 5 need to know linkedin Tricks  which both contain various tips and tricks.

If you put some effort in your LinkedIn profile you will notice that it is not “just” a networking site but it can be a lot more. All you need to do is put some effort into it and give it a proper go.

Cheers,

Ralph

Facebook, in the past few weeks they have made some significant changes and there are a few changes on the horizon. Not too long ago they released their improved InSights (Tracking) tool for Advertisers and Fanpage owners.

Facebook users are slowly becoming a valuable asset for a website, after all your credibility is at stake. You may argue that it doesn’t matter how many facebook fans you have. But I then wonder why your company is on Facebook in the first place.

What is your Goal?

As a business you want to get your Fans (current and future clients) to speak up and share why they love your company or why they don’t. Your Fans are your (free) advocates for your company, real people testimonials!

But ever wonder how you can attract your Fans? (This is after you have spammed your friends to like your page….)

If you are interested in learning about Facebook and how you can attract more Fans then listen to this video. Have a pen and paper ready for some quick notes as he will show you some real examples of how you can update your strategy when it comes to generating Fans.

I’ve used (not all of them yet) a few of his ideas as they were very easy to implement while I was watching so I hope it can do the same for you.

If you are ready for a short (free) video click here.

Greetings,

Ralph

photo credit: Adriano Gasparri

Recently I’ve been writing more and more about LinkedIn. It is seriously a great website / social media channel to engage and expand your network.

I’ve been joining a lot of different groups to see what people are doing and what is happening. There are really so much people out there how are an expert in their own way or are able to help your business to the next level, all you have to do is connect and ask or just follow the timeline. I stumbled across a post from “Sean Nelson from Socialmediasonar.com and I added some of my own items.

How to add a You Tube Video to Your Profile

You can do this with either Slideshare or Google Presentation.  Here is how you would add a video using Google Presentation:

1. Add the Google Presentation application
2. Go into Google Docs and create a new presentation
3. Click on Insert (top link) and click on Video
4. Search for your video on YouTube and choose your video
5. Click on File (top link) and choose Rename – rename your presentation
6. Go back into Google Presentation from your Profile
7. Click on your video and Post to Profile

When the slide show is clicked the video will play.

How To Create an Email Signature on LinkedIn

You can use LinkedIn’s Email Signature Tool to add a LinkedIn signature to your Outlook (2003, 2002 XP, and 2000), Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Yahoo email accounts.

Here are 3 examples you can easily choose from. I didn’t fill in all the information needed to complete a signature but you get the idea. There are 17 templates available;

To create your signature do the following:

1. At the bottom of each LinkedIn page there are three rows of text links.  Click on ‘Overview’ at the bottom of your home page in the ‘Tools’ row.

2. Click on the ‘Try it Now’ button in the ‘Email signature’ area at the bottom of the ‘LinkedIn Tools Overview’ page.

Once you fill in the information you would like to include click the text link “Click here for instructions”.  This will open up a pop up window with the html code and instructions.

Customize your Search Views

When you conduct a people search or a Group member search you get a list of the results.  At the top is a drop down to choose how to view the results.  You can choose Basic, Extended, or Create a New View.  Choosing the New View opens a pop up window that allows you to include what you would like in your view.

This is a Premium feature that is available for a time to all types of accounts.  Use it while you can and don’t be surprised if one day it disappears if you have a free account.  LinkedIn wants to suck you in and once enough people use it, it will become a carrot to get you to upgrade to a paid account

Have new questions emailed to you based on a topic

Track topics based on keywords and categories in LinkedIn Answers to review and respond to questions posed by other LinkedIn members.  When you look at a category on the right side at the bottom of the Browse box is a text link to “Subscribe to new questions in” whichever category you are currently viewing.

Add Personal Contact Information to your profile

At the bottom of your Profile Edit page is a space to include the following information:

• Phone number
• Instant Messaging ID
• Address
• Birthday (this my be handy for relatives and important clients)
• Marital Status

As you can see I didn’t include all my personal information. There are limitations of what I want to be “out there” and I’d rather people would contact me and ask for more details. A lot of stuff is already available on my Facebook page but at least those are friends.. or people I know a little bit better..

If you want some more tips and tricks, don’t forget to have a look at my previous post about LinkedIn “How To Use LinkedIn” as there are also tons of tips and tricks for you to use on your LinkedIn page. Another great course is by LinkedIn Guru and all around nice guy Lewis Howes and his LinkedInfluence Course.

Keep networking,

Ralph

Facebook did roll out a new layout in the past few days, and now there is another once coming.
The current (just updated) version is a bit annoying but I as you can see in the video below, the end game could actually be quite nice.

One of Facebooks biggest strengths (in my opinion) was the simplicity of their design and overall usability. I’m curious if this is still the case after their (big) overhaul on the current design. A preview of this big overhaul you can see by looking at the screenshot done by my friend Wilco de Kreij (you might know him from his Facebook Fan page plugin)

So what do you think of the New Design? Good , Bad , Ugly?

Facebook, it is becoming the “Oracle” of the internet if we like it or not. Facebook has done several things wrong in the past and no doubt they will do it again somewhere down the line. This is probably the price you pay when you are stepping in uncharted territory with the whole world watching.

But back to the actual topic of this article, creating Fan Pages for your Facebook profile.  First I would like to give the floor to Wilco himself as he created a video on how to use the actual plugin for your Facebook page.

The last time I spoke to Wilco was the day he was leaving Australia and heading back on The Netherlands as his travels in Australia was over. But only  for a short time as he was coming back 2 months later..

Anyway, I’ve know him for a while now and seen him develop this plugin from scratch and I know how much time he put into this plugin to make it work. He is a very inspirational guy and I’ve learned a lot from him, therefore I’m glad I could help him to do this review of his plugin.

The video is where Wilco will tell you how he created the plugin and how you can customize it to your own personal preferences. So have a look on how this plugin can make thing so much easier!

I just got an email from Wilco telling me that he is going to up the prices on Monday 26th of September. And we Dutch don’t joke about those things so you better get in quick

If you want to have an overview of the various features click here

Have fun exploring and talk soon!

Ralph