Networking has suddenly become more important than ever before. With the fast speed at which information flows today, a big network is definitely a boon. Whether you a looking for a career leap, a new house or a new home for your pet, your social network is the solution to all such needs. The greater the size of your network, more help you can extend to others and greater the help you can receive. How to do it the right way? Below are some common networking mistakes that we all tend to make and what we can do about them.

Social Media Mistake#1: Being Self Centered

Solution: Talk less, Listen More

Networking has no place for one-way communication. If you are always talking about yourself, what you like and dislike, what you just ate, what you are doing etc, people often tend to unsubscribe from your updates and unfollow you. It is good to love yourself, but not so much that the others feel ignored.

Listen to what your friends are talking about and participate in those conversations. Edify your friends at every given chance and let your other friends know if someone does a great job. Everybody is seeking attention and needs appreciation. If you give it to others, others would naturally give it back to you too. Reply to their posts, and mention them in relevant posts to make them feel you are interested in them.

Social Media Mistake 2: Using network solely for career prospects

Solution: Be natural. Let your actions speak for you

Okay, a very common activity done by newbies is to ask for a job from every one they meet. Yes, it is true that you never know who can help you with a new job, but asking everyone all the time makes them feel like just a medium to be used. Networking is all about building relationships. Listen to them, know about them and see how you can add value to something in their life. Then ask them if they can give you the opportunity or refer you elsewhere. Desperation will not lead you anywhere. If you attend a seminar, share it with your contacts. If you are volunteering somewhere, share that too. This way, they will know what you do and will remember to refer you when the opportunity arises.

Social Media Mistake #3: Forgetting to Show Gratitude

Solution: Get it in the habit

Saying thanks is the best way to feel good and create a good impression. Make it a habit to say thanks after every communication. Trust me, you will always find a reason to say thanks. It is that easy. You build a good reputation and a good relationship by letting the other person know that he is not being taken for granted.

Social Media Mistake #4: Not Keeping in Touch

Solution: Keep in touch. People will remember you when they know you remember them.

If you are thinking of someone whom you have newly met or met after a long time, let them know. Do not assume that they must not be remembering you. Every time you get in touch with someone in your network, you are strengthening the relationship. Do what you say and don’t say what you would not do. It is that simple.

Social Media Mistake #5: Do Not Spam

Solution: Control your feelings. Share Impactful messages.

If you are passionate about a social cause, started a new business or just got your first book published, share the enthusiasm, but not 5 times a day.

It is important to maintain the balance in social media networking sites. Do not post updates 20 times a day and do not repeat an update again during the same day. Keep it moderate and update your wall maximum 3 to 5 times a day. Let your friends stick around to find out more. This also applies to game requests and irrelevant promotional tagging.

Overall, just remember that networking comes with all the other benefits but basically it is about building good and strong relationships. Do not focus too much on your immediate expectation from the network but just be around for others. Very soon, you will not even know how the work gets done in no time. That is the power of a strong network. So build the foundation right and see the rewards for the rest of your life.

About the author: Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. Beside this she is fond of gadgets. Recently an article on wireless routers attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on golf bags.

5 Social Media Mistakes you don’t know you’re making from Jason Boom

I’ve used Google for years, dating back to my early days on the web. I’m trying to recall how I found the search giant.  It was before I went to college. I previously used Altavista and Yahoo! in my early days on the web. From what inkling I do have of early Google, comes from a need to find specific sources of information, namely for research papers. I recall finding it relevant and easy to use. And for years those qualities kept me at the side of the search giant. Google got the job done.

As time drew on, Google was simple, effective and taught me things about the world. I loved it. I learned most of my internet marketing from articles and videos found through Google. I’ve discovered favorite blogs, taught myself about immigration law, researched the Philippines prior to a two week stint abroad, and performed thousands of other queries. Google always led me to great content that I would have never found on my own.

I used to swear by the search engine. How could anyone do better? I knew they couldn’t so I rarely even tried other engines. As someone working in local SEO, I’m realizing the error of my ways. I need to see how the competition does search.

Enter Bing

Two weeks ago I set my default search browser to Bing. I faltered a bit though. At one point in the experiment, I needed to research a relatively complex problem I was experiencing with a Drupal install. I needed to find the answer and I returned to Google to find it. I tried to find the answer using Bing, but my initial queries led me to the wrong content and misunderstood the phrase I was using to define the problem.

Google understood my plight. They found the answer while Bing led me in circles. I switched my default browser back at that point. I figured why drown in a sea of irrelevancy when Google gets me there without confusion.

It took a week for me to forget (or was it forgive) Bing. I returned in a particularly good mood. The searches I’ve run since my return have been fairly simple ones, nothing complex or inherently confusing. And Bing has actually proven to be useful. The experience has been pleasing. In fact, I’m happy using Bing as my go-to browser now.

Bing is that friend I thought I had lost. Sure he has problems, but he’s likely going to help when you need him.

Tyranny from the Throne

I wrote that phrase in regards to Google’s recent happenings with the Search Plus Your World update. So Google+ posts rank better than the original content if that content was shared on the social network. At every turn lately, Google seems to be mucking up the search results with irrelevant results. They’re doing it because they have the majority of searches, they have the momentum, and they believe themselves to be invincible.

It’s now been two solid weeks of having Bing as my default browser. I use it at work and at home. I’ve rarely gone back to do a search in Google for anything other than SEO needs.

Bing does a lot of great things. They have a very well thought out approach to content inside the engine. They offer much in the way of guides, like video game guides or even travel related stuff. Although I’ve not used these as much as intended outside the Discover feature.

It’s been an interesting experiment. One that might net me a few Microsoft points, a free month of Hulu, or some other prize through their rewards program. Most importantly the search engine takes me to content I wouldn’t otherwise be able to find.

Why I removed Google as my browser default search engine from Jason Boom

The best ecommerce software will meet the needs of your individual shop and provide a good experience for your customers. I’ve worked with ecommerce software for a few years now. I’ve installed many packages and put into production quite a few different stores. Like computer operating systems, ecommerce software can be a nightmare after the initial honeymoon phase. Some stores need features not readily available in a base install of the software which makes for complications, adding those features to a live product site.

Of course, stores can evolve and that’s one of the necessary traits of a solid foundation — the ability to expand and add to the features. The stability of the store, support of an active community, and intuitive controls make up the majority of the rest of my focus when finding the best ecommerce software.

Best Ecommerce Software

I’ve listed my top five ecommerce store software for 2010 and into 2011. I do not have experience with every ecommerce software application out there, but have used these five with good results. I will list a few I do not like at the end, and give my reasons why. If the negative interests you more than the positive, then jump to the end.

Big Commerce Shopping Cart Solution

Sometimes a readymade cart comes along that can compete with the big players in the industry. This time it’s the Big Commerce shopping cart solution. Big Commerce offers a lot of neat out-of-the-box features like zoom capabilities on the product images, email marketing management, and mobile commerce connections. The features are big and extremely awesome.

Is Big Commerce right for your product? Probably. They offer custom templates and an interface that’s surprisingly simple to update with new designs.

BigCommerce makes it easy to sell online.
Click here to try it free!

Yahoo! Stores

Yahoo Store Price Plan

Sometimes its best to leave the backend development and maintenance to someone else. When I think of a readymade shopping cart solution I usually think of Yahoo! Stores. They’ve been around long enough to gain a solid reputation, but they also do things with a bit of ease. I helped someone create a store with over twenty items in one night. It was that simple.

I know some of you may be questioning this addition, but the reality is you can still point a domain to a Yahoo! Store. It’s still software you use, just not something you install on your server.

With all that said, I love the flexibility of their system. It’s easy to use, and simple for your customers too. That alone can make the sale. The only downside would be the percentage of the sale (it’s low) and the monthly fees.

An ecommerce solution like Yahoo! Stores also takes the burden of security off the individual store owner. While certificates and PCI compliance can be achieved without too much expense, it’s also a worry that most owners would rather not have.

35% off Yahoo! Merchant Solutions packages + no setup fee (save $50)

Fortune3 Ecommerce Solution

Fortune3 is an ecommerce solution that’s gaining recognition, especially among those who want to setup a store and not hassle with complicated procedures. Any store can be setup in one evening by using the offline wizard and or through the online interface. They also offer top notch customer support, so you won’t likely get stuck at a point where you cannot continue.

Currently Fortune3 offers several monthly payment schemes. The most inexpensive of which is a $29.95 a month fee and a single $39.95 setup charge. For that price customers can setup 30 products. Not a bad deal. Check them out if you want a ready-made shopping cart solution for your products.

Fortune3

ProStores Ecommerce Solution

Prostores is an Ebay company. They offer much the same as Yahoo Stores. They’re going to give most store owners the easy controls, themes, and massive amounts of products for a monthly fee. They also charge a transaction fee, but it does not amount to much.

It’s important to remember with the ready-made ecommerce stores that they offer their prices because they’re the ones maintaining the database and protecting the store from hack attempts. Part of the cost of a regular store would be the regular maintenance, upkeep of the software, and ensure the hackers stay at bay. With a readymade solution, you pay the little extra each month to have someone else do this for you. That’s why I think these solutions are so brilliant, especially for those just starting out in ecommerce.

ProStores – an eBay Company

Magento Ecommerce Software

Magento was a software package I loved from the beginning. Out of the box, the free version enables users to create products with multiple variations, track stock on those attributes, connect to various merchant accounts with a few tweaks here and there, and so many other features. The store even has the ability to segment different areas of your site, so you can run different templates in different areas. That’s a killer feature of any online shop.

Magento has many template sites that support it. The community develops and creates extensions to the base install. The main website has a very supportive forum. And the store itself feels very much like a mature product for only having been on the market for a few years. As time goes on, Magento will be heralded as the successor of osCommerce’s top spot among commercial sites.

Magento Ecommerce Software

osCommerce Ecommerce Software

We have to mention osCommerce. It’s been an old standby, but the latest 3.0 version actually improves on this open-source ecommerce solution and refines much of the code. While it’s still probably a year from being finished (didn’t it take them like 5 years to introduce it) they can’t be faulted for creating such an amazing foundation for the 2.2 version.

osCommerce is really a testament to strong community support. Without the developers and coders making the base install better and better, updating security holes, and fixing other issues, this software package would have been obsolete in 2001. Since the users create and advertise their addons through the main site, we give them a huge edge over other solutions.

But in reality, osCommerce has seen better days. Working with the ecommerce solution can be difficult and costly if the developer you use does not have experience with the framework. In that type of situation, it would be better to go with a newer framework like Magento.

osCommerce Open Source eCommerce Software

I mentioned that I have one ecommerce software package that I do not particularly like. This would be WP-ecommerce plugin developed by the people at GetShopped. While they do have a classy look, the underlying code for the plugin is rubbish. A single product with multiple variations has over 3,000 lines of code in the database. Support issues are not often handled, unless you pay. And upgrades cost money and often break.

Best Ecommerce Software from Jason Boom

photo credit: Stuck in Customs

A new e-commerce site needs links so it can start climbing the SERPs and receive traffic. After the payment gateway goes live, my clients want customers. I do educate them, of course. They realize they need site traffic and that’s hard to do with a new site — at least for free it is.

A person can do article and video marketing, buy traffic, and target specific keywords through an SEO campaign. The latter method requires building links back to the new store, as well as onsite optimization. For bloggers and regular site owners building backlinks may not pose a problem, but for an e-commerce store this can be rather difficult.

Online stores survive in a competitive jungle. They have to scratch and claw for any backlink they receive. Blog commenting works well for a lot of e-commerce sites, but its hard to manipulate link anchors with comments, without spamming (something that should never be done). Those comments can only go so far though. A quality backlink profile should include review sites, social media links, blogs, forums, and directories. To gain some fresh e-commerce backlinks, consider the following ideas.

Three significant ways an e-commerce store can create backlinks

1. Leveraging products — An e-commerce site can offer up a free shirt for a blogger and one for their readers for a review of their site and product. It’s simple, effective, and allows the site owner to save a bit of money in the barter deal.
2. Discount coupon codes — The internet has numerous discount code coupon sites. These sites typically link back to the site where the discount applies. Create a coupon for 10% any purchase with no expiration date — consider it the cost of generating that one lead.
3. Sponsor charity events and other site giveaways – Often times bloggers and site owners will create a prize pool for a contest. These happen regularly online and are a way to get visitors to stick around a blog, sign up for an RSS feed, write a post about the host and more. You can offer up a prize related to your store, or something inexpensive like a gift card if your product is expensive. Or, for the ambitious, you could start your own contest.

If you want your e-commerce store to climb the search ranks, contact me today. I provide an affordable monthly SEO subscription service that combines link building with article marketing.

Building Links for an e-Commerce Store from Jason Boom

photo credit: Grant MacDonald

I wrote about e-commerce link building before, but never finished the series. I opened the article talking about the importance of backlinks, but failed to mention how to start the creation process. So let’s look at how to build links to an e-commerce store, a site, or a blog.

A new website that just opened its doors to the world will not have any results in Google and no juice from links to start building rankings in various Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). So you need link building practices. E-commerce stores have trouble building links because their competitors do not want to link to them due to competition. They really one have the option of blogs linking to the site because of an interesting deal or special product they could find only through that store. And that can take a lot of time.

Quality directories can provide some great initial link juice. For instance, the DMOZ site lists many business throughout the world. Try submitting your site to their directory for inclusion.

Here’s a great trick for building links. Let others do the work for you.

• Go to Google.com and type in the keyword that would attract the most attention for your e-commerce store. We’ll use “irish tshirt” as our example.
• Ignore the large competitors in your niche (e.g. JcPenneys) and only focus on the other niche sites. In this case we find one three spots down the page: ShopIrish.com
• Now visit Yahoo’s Site Explorer
• You’ll have to login to your Yahoo account to use this. Once you do, at the top of the screen, use the Explore URL feature to check out the ShopIrish.com domain.On the next screen select “Inlinks” and then choose “Except from this domain” in the dropdown. This will filter all the links out that originate from the chosen domain and only show the incoming links.
  

Now you have access to all their sources of backlinks. Some of them you can duplicate! It’s a little time consuming but can lead to some high PR links for your new e-commerce site. Heck this can be used for any type of site throughout any niche, actually.

Link Building Strategies for e-Commerce Sites, Blogs, and Sites from Jason Boom

Membership sites are all the rage. Between the Teaching Sells push from a few years ago and promises of riches, site builders have embraced pushing premium content to their visitors. Did they learn nothing from the New York Times Online?

WordPress offers one of the easiest content frameworks so it should come as no surprise that a great deal of coders have built plugins to alter a base install to offer membership features. The WP-member plugin developed by SmartMediaPro.com offers one solution to the membership issue.

Before diving into how the plugin operates, let’s first consider what a membership site should provide.

• A way for visitors to sign up for a membership.
• Protection of content from those who have yet to pay.
• Drip feed of content so the user doesn’t eat up the main course all at once.
• Membership tiers and customizable features.

That about sums it up. My membership site has yet to lift off, but these are the elements I imagine would be desirable for most sites. The drip content wasn’t a requirement for the site I’m building and is not a current option with WP-Member. The aforementioned items are simply what I would consider important for a membership site.

Onto the WP-Member plugin…

I bought the plugin for a new website venture. I ran into an issue that I DESPISE right from the beginning. The plugin requires ioncube to install. If you’re not familiar with ioncube, it’s the infuriating utility used by coders to obfuscate their code. I had to once again edit my php.ini file to allow for the ioncube loader to work. But if you’re on standard hosting, then this will likely be a non-issue. For those of us who have our own servers it can be a bit of a headache. Nevertheless I was able to install in a reasonable amount of time. It’s push button after all.

Once installed it adds a new tab area on the left hand navigation of WordPress. Currently the plugin allows you to setup a payment gateway from PayPal exclusively. Well, aside from the free gateway. This shouldn’t be an issue for most, as most membership sites are married to PayPal.

The plugin does offer a quick text newsletter mailout that could easily be used to notify existing members of new content, cancelled members of deals on subscriptions, or any other quick little blurb.

The plugin does have a feature where you can change existing members of your site into a tier of membership. So if you have forty or fifty people who registered at one point, then you could promote them to the trial membership and shoot them a message saying such. Otherwise the wp-member plugin does give you the tools to create new tiers of membership, of your own naming and pricing.

The plugin also makes it simple to create custom messages to your visitors throughout their experience, tailoring welcome emails and the like.

How well does the plugin separate free from paid content?

WP-member makes it simple to separate free from paid content. You can delegate entire pages as only available to whatever tier of user you have. But it’s also possible to do teasers with the plugin by wrapping the content in [private]…[/private] tags.

I would love to see some more tools made available in the WordPress GUI to handle the privatization tags. I’m sure it wouldn’t be that hard to implement. The plugin doesn’t support drip content. I understand this may be a deal breaker for some, but

The plugin has as strict, single use license for $49.99. In the administrative area, the code synchronizes with the mothership and would likely not be functional on a second domain, without an additional license, of course. One membership site is enough, right?

Recommendation: Good for content rich membership sites where the user will have access to everything from the beginning.

I bought the WP-Member Plugin for use with my new membership site. I have written an honest review of the product. If you decide the WP-member plugin meets your needs, please use my link to buy it (yes, I will make a few bucks).

Grab a copy of the WP-Member Plugin now!

WP-Member Plugin Review from Jason Boom

The other day I was reading a forum post on the Warrior Forum. Someone brought up how much it costs to host video files for their membership site. They were paying far more than I had imagined anyone would for a service like that. It never really occurred to me that a video streaming service would be an expensive part of a membership site. With all the bandwidth videos consume, it’s actually not a huge surprise.

As a small business owner, I often times have to put together instructions for using our Virtualmin server interface or simply to show a new client how to login to an FTP account. I use screencast software to create instruction videos that I blast out to clients having trouble with a particular feature of our hosting solution. Video for small business with Viddler will be a solution I look into in the future for doing more beefy tutorial broadcasts, and if I ever develop my own video product.

AOL Video has grown a lot since I last visited their site. I was looking for a video for another web property earlier today and stumbled up on their service. I hadn’t been there for a while, but realized just how much of a selection they have to offer too. I’m a bit tired of some other websites video selections.

In creating a business with online components, video will be taking the place of spoken word. In my hosting business, it’s allowed us to remotely assist customers who have a problem doing anything with our services. I’m a hands on kind of guy, and while my business may be small, I love to give big support.

Video Streaming Service for Online Marketers from Jason Boom

photo credit: VOD Cars

I’ve written them. I’m sure you’ve written them. The post you’re not sure you should put out there. You might have thought long and hard about the consequences. The pros and cons balancing like two eggs on a scale. One may hatch an influx of traffic, the other a hated thumbs down from readers. This article looks at some sketchy topics for blog owners. This doesn’t mean these topics cannot be covered, but they should be done so with kid gloves.

You could also look at this list as a viral marketing article ideas. These topics have controversy tattooed all over them. They’re guaranteed arguments — the barb wire wrapping a bicep.

1. Abortion – not many blogs can hook a reader with the abortion debate. Of course, a Christian, atheist, political blog could shuffle this topic in, but it would be hard for a MMO blog to incorporate this ageless debate.

2. Politics — outside of democratic, republic, green, and independent blogging platforms there’s not much room to talk politics, or at least argue them. It runs the risk of alienating readers. The recent election coverage probably saw a large amount of readers jumping ship over support of one candidate over another.

3. Religion – Most talk of religion can be handled quite nicely, if its wrapped in historical accuracy. The problem begins when spouting opinions of religion. Other times, little things, like analogously comparing a religion to something inane can also spark controversy. Who wants an inquisition on their hands?

4. Mac vs. PC — The commercials put out by Mac steal most of the thunder here. For tech blogs, this is the fan-boy dream post.  What can be a well informed article might turn into a comment bashing haven for weeks afterward. Engadget had to turn off their comments for just this reason recently.

What topics do you steer clear of on your blog? Is there really anything you won’t discuss?

Do You Write Controversial Posts? from Jason Boom

photo credit: 27147

I’ve decided to scrub my hands of this icky, sticky poor-me mentality and really put myself into building an online enterprise. Before I segway into the riches that should be pouring like rainwater down my gutters, let me tell you my strategy. It’s simple: freelance writing coupled with site building.

That’s right…I’m joining the millions of other Internet Marketers and forging into the unknown with only my skill set and ambition to guide me. I do have a few goals with my new online operations.

First, I don’t want to spend an awful lot of money to find out something doesn’t work. I need to make money, not spend it. I’m doing research and figuring things out as I go. For this, I did go ahead and join the Warrior Forum. I’ve learned a lot of techniques from just reading some of the threads there — some I’ll try and others I’ll leave to those guys. I’ve also purchased two domains that target specific niches that I’m hoping to build out over the long term. These are my two main projects for the time being. I’m going to focus on driving traffic to them, organically through SERPs mostly. I’m willing to try new things though.

Overall I’ve spent very little to get everything off the ground. Now it will be my time spent building links to these sites, doing on-page SEO work, and writing quality content.

My second goal is to really give this enterprise my all. I’m using several tools to help me get started with this niche site building. I’m going to talk about those more over the next few weeks. For now, I’m back to work. Just a quick update. And if you need some cheap keyword article writing done — let me know.

Building an Online Business from Jason Boom

photo credit: ahhyeah

I’m destined to work for the man, slogging away in a pile of papers for the rest of my days. It’s true. I’ve shaken the magic eight ball and had ‘future is blurry’ pop up one too many times. Let’s face it…there has to be some who just don’t break out of the mold — they’re all around you, and they’re riding this giant rock just like the fat wallet guys. In fact, they’re the component that makes success stories possible. Without failures, no one would care about success.

So don’t be like me. I took time away from blogging for life reasons, and from being burn-out. I crashed in on my own expectations. I thought blogging would bring me fame, fortune, and a Rich Jerk lifestyle. But then I found it was more like slaughtering the pig than bringing home the bacon.

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td><img src="" /><td></tr><tr><td><td></tr></table>I made mistakes. I walked away from several projects, while still maintaining my freelance business. (I did some things right.) For those who don’t know, I started JasonBoom.com two years ago, with the hopes of helping other bloggers to learn about blogging tricks, SEO ideas, and general social media tools. It was a good run, and I met a lot of people along the way. I’ve built a few friendships from that experience, and also watched many, many others fall victim to blogging’s cruel and unyielding blade — time.

You see, blogging takes time. Writing isn’t like watching TV. I can punch a button and have a story told to me with a television. I become a sponge and take in as much or as little as I like. With blogging, I NEED a story. I NEED an angle on whatever my topic might be. I NEED some sort of validation afterward too. That’s one downfall, I suppose. I like to have people read what I’m writing. Call me narcissistic, but without someone reading it — why write it? It’s why I’ve never kept a journal.

So let’s see, that’s one reason I’ll never make it as a pro blogger. I’ll just keep going.

1. I seek validation.
2. I have no blogging focus. It’s clear everyone has this whole blogging for business/enterprise niche covered. I love so many different topics it’s just too hard to define the one I should stick to on a regular schedule.
3. I’m not controversial/critical enough. I can see flaws in things, but I get a little shaky about writing on them. I don’t like pissing people off. I’m not a drama seeker — I’m actually, quiet and reserved in life. Confrontations get my blood pumping, but don’t do much for my confidence level.
4. I’m too this or that (you fill in the blanks) — I’m black coffee when readers are looking for cream and sugar.
5. I’m not an expert on much, really just a student. I’m fairly good with SEO, web design, content management systems, writing, editing, and most everything, but I’m not an expert. I might stumble onto a neat idea here and there, but I’m not going to blow your mind every post.
6. I’m too hard on myself. As I mentioned before, blogging takes time. It’s largely solitary time, but it also takes time because of fear. I’m afraid my post has errors, no one will like it, it’s not poignant enough, etc. With all this double think, I really lose sight of what I love about blogging — helping others, building community, interaction, etc.

I feel relieved in telling you this, actually. In getting this off my chest, I feel like I’ve given myself a chance. It’s a new year and, yes, amazing things are possible, but I’m still me. I’m going to be carrying these insecurities, fears, and shortcomings with me. Nothing has really changed from 2009 to 2010.

Where does this leave me?

Blogging is also about discovery. So let’s see what the future holds — it is, after-all, still blurry.

Why I’ll Never Make It as a Pro Blogger from Jason Boom