Kikolani

Fetching Friday - Resources Mashup, Follow Friday, & Slap Chop Remix

Kristi — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:15:39 +0000

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, #FollowFriday recommendations, the Slap Chop remix, reviews, and previews for next week’s posts on kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging / Design

15 free Blogspot templates
WordPress 2.8.1 released
Payoff your debts using a blog
Increase blog traffic with these methods
Why do your blog?
Beautiful gradient effects on web design
100 famous bloggers club members
WordPress plugins - changes & requests
7 CSS galleries to help you find inspiration

Tech / SEO

Things to check before you buy a domain
7 things I like about Seesmic’s browser client
Comprehensive review of Meta tags
Review of the Asus - Eee PC Netbook
Why you need to use Gmail
How to avoid being penalized by Google
Keyword Optimization
10 ways to increase Adsense revenue

Social Media

Marketing to the social web and the new rules of engagement
Find local Twitter users
5 social marketing pitfalls you should avoid
Facebook at work - help or hazard?

Business / Career / Advertising

Maintain your resume
Make your online store look awesome
Factors to freelancing success
80 smart and creative advertisements
Advertising towards dummies - interview with an advertising professional
How to start an article writing business

Weekly Series

Feeding Frenzy Saturday - Sharks in the bay
Flashback Monday - WordPress 2.8.1, article writing case study
Anti-Social Lists
Friday with Friends

Personal Development / Growth / Self Improvement / Health

Have courage to find your life purpose
50 ways to boost your productivity
Positive vs. negative motivation
First comes fear then the blessing
Motivation - the heart of self improvement
How to be happy first thing in the morning

Photography

Funny dog photos
Planes in the sky
Around water
Sabino Canyon during monsoon season
8 steps on how to take awesome pictures
Tilt shift miniature model effect photography

Last, but not Least

#FollowFriday Recommendations on Twitter

Here are my #followfriday recommendations.

One more shout to last week’s recommendations: @Mike_hts, @hishaman, and @workhappynow.

Also, if you enjoy this post and my tweets on blogging, social media, photography, and more, be sure to give me a shout out as follows:

RT @kikolani Fetching Friday - Resources Mashup, Follow Friday, & Slap Chop Remix > http://bit.ly/OpiEK

Week in Review

This week, I was 1 out of 2 in the new article front with Benefits of Blogging - Becoming an Authority. Something that I should have clarified in the article, which I did later in the comments, was that I consider authorities people that are knowledgable on a certain subect. They don’t necessarily have to be professionals, but just someone that does do continued research and study on a specific topic, and shares that information with others.

Preview for the week of 20 July 2009

I’ve been wanting to do a run-down of all of the customizations I have done with my Thesis theme. I find lots of websites that have great customization work, but it takes forever to find all of the various websites to get the custom coding. So if there is anything here that you would like to implement on your own site, I will be doing a rundown of all the tweaks and code I used.

Slap Chop Remix

This will be the best infomercial - EVER. The YouTube video quality isn’t the greatest, but it’s the rap that makes it more than the visual. Especially when they get to the nuts!

Better video quality at TMZ.

Closing Question for My Readers

Do you have a business card for your blog? I want to see it for an upcoming post. Please let me know in the comments and I’ll contact you via email.

Want to be Featured in Fetching Friday posts?

Looking for some link love? Articles featured in the resources come primarily from people I interact with in the comments, and on the social networks. So comment away (DoFollow, CommentLuv, and KeywordLuv enabled), and join me on the networks below, and if your article/photo/video catches my eye, it may appear in following Fetching Friday posts.

Benefits of Blogging - Becoming an Authority

Kristi — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:06:21 +0000

This post is the fifth in the Benefits of Blogging series, where I will cover the many benefits of blogging, for bloggers and readers.

What is authority?

I consider being an authority on a subject being someone that others can look to for solid, useful information. If someone is an authority on SEO, then you would know if you were having SEO related questions that this person would be the one to ask.

Do you have to know everything to become an authority?

Some people may assume that, because they may not be an expert on a subject, they cannot become an authority on it. I do not feel that is true. I think that an authority on a subject not only knows their subject, but also knows where to find information that they do not know. They continue to learn and expand their knowledge, as new information becomes available.

Consider someone who gained a master’s degree in a subject 5 years ago - at that time, they would have then been considered an authority on that subject. But if they have not maintained their education, chances are the subject has evolved. This is especially true in the areas of technology, science, medicine, etc. Their degree would be less valuable than someone who is either currently studying or gaining hands on experience in the same field today.

How to Become an Authority Through Blogging

Blogging allows you to become an authority on a subject in many ways. As you continue to maintain a blog on a particular topic, you would want the information to be fresh and up to date. This would give you more incentive to continue educating yourself on new information for that subject.

When you blog, you will also gain feedback from your readers. This is another way for you to learn. Your readers will possibly open your eyes to new information or viewpoints you had not considered, thus expanding your knowledge on the subject. They will also help you learn how to effectively communicate and share knowledge effectively.

Advantages to Being an Authority

Consider that you were looking at two web designer sites. One site was just a big fancy commercial, and the other one was more simple, but had a blog with lots of good information about web design tips and tricks. Who would you trust to design your site?

I know that some people may think that if they put their tips and tricks out there, who would need to hire them because now they would be sharing their secrets? There are still lots of people that you could give a ton of information too, but although they would see the value, they would not have the skills or time to implement the information presented to them. And this is just the technical industry I am referring to. There are many industries, such as medical, where you can put a lot of your knowledge online and people would still have to come and see you to reap the benefits.

Becoming an authority can also be a useful reputation management tool. Say you have one thing negative about you or your company that comes up in search results. By building a blog and writing honest, useful information, people would be able to learn about you “from the horse’s mouth” so to speak. Add some social media marketing for your blog to the mix, and you may be able to remove the bad search results from the top page.

Benefits of Finding Authorities for Readers

With so many blogging authorities on almost every topic, from personal developemnt to natural health to technology, it is possible for anyone trying to learn more about a subject to find someone who is willing to share a great amount of information. So instead of having to go to the library and find out of date material, or going to the bookstore and spending money on several books to get varying viewpoints, you can just go to Google and start finding current information about the subject of your choosing. And if you can’t find something on that subject, maybe this is a great time for you to turn from reader to blogger and start something!

Your Authority

Are you becoming an authority on the subject of your blog? Do you feel this has helped you, personally or professionally?

Fetching Friday - Resources, Follow Friday & New Moon Parody

Kristi — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:32:03 +0000

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, Follow Friday recommendations, a New Moon parody, reviews, and previews for next week’s posts on kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging / Design

How to move your Blogger blog to WordPress
Long term methods for effectively promoting your blog on forums
12 navigation options that help users navigate your site effectively
BS bloggers
Communicate effectively through blogs
13 beautiful WordPress showcase sites
Getting paid for reviews with the nofollow attribute

Tech / SEO

The big Google Pagerank slap
15 useful Firefox SEO tools for serious bloggers & web designers
Free SEO analysis tool
25 free Mac apps to boost productivity
Link building
Free directories with high Google PageRank

Social Media

How can I help you today?
Add a custom tab to a Facebook fan page
The best Facebook games
StumbleUpon FAQ, tools, addons, scripts and more
50 social networks for happy moms
What happens after too much StumbleUpon surfing
Valid XHTML Youtube embed code generator

Business / Finance / Career

Truth in advertising
5 reasons your email marketing is not working
10 ways to become a better writer
Habits of successful Gen Y entrepreneurs
Find freelance writing jobs
Negotiating tips for job seekers
The effects of fast food

Weekly Series

Zebida Fridays - ebook on how to do email marketing and more
Feeding Frenzy Saturday - featured blog articles
Flashback Monday - new logo & ebook
Anti-Social Lists

Personal Development / Growth / Self Improvement / Health

Let go of the past and embrace the future
Zen and the art of eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
Assess, decided, do for relationships
How to maintain true friendships
11 steps to a more positive you

Photography / Art / Creativity

Last, but not Least

#FollowFriday Recommendations on Twitter

Here are my #followfriday recommendations.

One more shout to last week’s recommendations: @yoonsee, @irtiza, @_George_Jetson_, and @Killroy_60.

Also, if you enjoy this post and my tweets on blogging, social media, photography, and more, be sure to give me a shout out as follows:

RT @kikolani Fetching Friday - Resources Mashup, Follow Friday, & New Moon Parody > http://bit.ly/roWDM

Week in Review

This week, I have caught up on my posting schedule with the following:

When You Don’t Have Time To Do It All - the challenges of finding time to produce good content, comment, and living the rest of your life as a blogger.
Benefits of Blogging - Developing SEO & Internet Marketing Skills - how blog promotion techniques lead to developing SEO & marketing skills that can be applied elsewhere.
Mt. Lemmon, Tucson, Arizona - photos from a trip my hubby surprised me with to Mt. Lemmon. It was a wonderful day trip full of hiking, nature and just being together.

Preview for the week of 6 July 2009

Next week’s photography will be images I took several years ago at various furniture markets. I found looking through those photos that I was experimenting with macro photography long before I knew the official term for it.

Next week, in continuation of the Benefits of Blogging series, I will cover how blogging gives you the ability to become an authority on a particular topic.

New Moon Parody

Thanks to the upcoming movie, G-force, guinea pigs are becoming quite popular. Here is a parody of the New Moon trailer… you’ll love the guinea pig cameo.

*Warning* If you’re sensitive to fake blood scenes, there is a part in here that over-dramaticizes the papercut in the New Moon trailer.

Want to be featured in Fetching Friday posts?

Benefits of Blogging - Developing SEO & Internet Marketing Skills

Kristi — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:54:57 +0000

This post is the fourth in the Benefits of Blogging series, where I will cover the many benefits of blogging, for bloggers and readers.

One of the advantages some bloggers may not think about when they are promoting their blogs is the amount of SEO and internet marketing skills they are developing in the process.

What SEO & Internet Marketing Skills Do You Know?

Chances are, you have done one or more of the following for your blog:

Considered important keywords for the title of your posts
Installed SEO related plugins (Platinum SEO, All in One SEO Pack)
Found people online who are interested in topics related to your blog
Created a large audience on social networks
Shared your posts on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc.
Encouraged others to bookmark posts on social bookmarking networks with socialble plugins and icons (such as the ones at the end of this post)
Commented on DoFollow blogs
Submitted to directories
Created a sitemap to submit to major search engines
Installed and monitored traffic statistics, including referral sites, then used that data to re-tune your keywords or re-direct your social network focus
Monitored the Page Rank, Alexa Rank, Yahoo backlinks, and other statistics for your blog
Monitored the search engine rankings of your blog for various keywords
Kept up to date with the latest in SEO, social media and internet marketing news

All of these things are important to SEO and internet marketing. The above covers such skills as keyword analysis, website optimization, social media marketing, internet marketing, link building and more.

Frank at Techjaws even points out in an article entitled SEO Experts Don’t Know Jack that…

There are many bloggers who pay close attention to the basics of SEO. These same people are passionate about what they do and they need a way to measure their effectiveness.

And he even gave specific reference to this site, saying that…

Kikolani.com – A blog that has an Alexa rank of 57K and a Google Pagerank 4. This blog is only 13 months old and look how well it’s performing. Kristi, the owner and author of Kikolani.com will tell you she is not an SEO expert, but she is probably more capable than many of the so-called SEO experts.

What Can You Do With These Skills?

So now that you realize you do have some of these skills under your belt thanks to blogging, what can you do with them outside of marketing your blog?

If you have a business, know someone who has a business, or work for a business that could use some website promotion, use your blog as your portfolio and show how you could apply some of the above mentioned techniques to another website. Show them the value of being closer to the top of search engine results, or the amount of traffic they may gain from a bit of social networking.

With the economy in the state that it is in, small businesses especially do not have the kind of cash flow to pay some major SEO company to overhaul their website. So they would be more open to having a freelance person that they know do some optimization work with keywords, link building, traffic analysis, etc.

If you’re not concerned about getting cash, consider working on a trade basis. Maybe you have always wanted to take yoga classes and know the owner of a yoga studio or a yoga instructor that could benefit from your help. If you are a good samaritan and know of a friend that is just starting out a business, you can offer to help them get a jump on their internet exposure. And if you are not really interested in helping businesses, you could simply help another blogger in gaining an greater audience for their writing.

Your SEO & Internet Marketing Experience?

Now it’s your turn. What expertise have you developed thanks to blogging, and have you been able to apply them elsewhere?

Mount Lemmon - Tucson, Arizona

Kristi — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:54:23 +0000

Here are some photos from a surprise trip my hubby planned to Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, Arizona a few weekends ago.

If you enjoyed these, be sure to check out some photos from our first trip to Mt. Lemmon last September.

When You Don’t Have Time To Do It All

Kristi — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:21:09 +0000

Have you ever run into the challenge of not having the time to do everything? And when you run into that challenge, have you wondered whether it is all or nothing, or if even a little here and there was good enough?

This is a challenge I have been experiencing for the past few weeks in terms of comments on this site. I love replying to comments, and I love going around to other blogs and commenting there as well. But as most people who do a fair share of commenting know, while it can be rewarding and educational, it can also be time consuming.

I think that my number one fear is that I’ll soon be considered the kind of blogger that takes but never gives, expecting comments but never giving them. And I certainly don’t want that. But right now, between maintaining a full time job, working on freelance projects, creating and expanding my freelance portfolio, finishing personal projects that I have been wanting to do for a long time, improving functionality around this site (like finally getting my contact form working again) and spending time on things to improve my health, I have found myself unable to budget in time for the other things I love to do around here, such as the commenting.

One of my blogging friends writes a wonderful blog on self improvement and personal development. This blog has never allowed for comments. When I asked her why, she said it was because of the time it takes to respond. I understood that she wanted to take that time and really focus it into producing great content for others, which is certainly a worthwhile goal for a blogging site.

I haven’t given up on comment responses completely, and still have it in things to catch up on in the near future, once things settle down, or to go and do some here and there. But when it comes down to either having the time to really focus on a post or comment responses, I have chosen to go with keeping up the content. I feel like that is the most beneficial for the time being, and I hope that my readers will agree. And I hope I am still proving to be an appreciative blogger with my Fetching Friday link love, Stumble and Twitter shares.

I’d love to hear how my blogging audience keeps up with posting great content, comment responses, and other commitments outside of the blogging world. I’m working on creating a schedule so I can do things in more of an orderly fashion, instead of just doing the critical priority items and then nothing else.

Fetching Friday - Resources Mashup, #FollowFriday, & Some Tennis Love

Kristi — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:07:32 +0000

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, #FollowFriday recommendations, some tennis love, reviews, and previews for next week’s posts on kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging / Design

Long live blogging! Free WordPress ebook
WordPress 2.8 - 10 things you should know before and after you upgrade
To blog or not to blog that is the question
What role do you play in blogging?
45 useful web design checklists and questionnaires
55 creative and unique blog design showcase
Best RSS submission sites
7 perfect WordPress portfolio themes

Tech / SEO

20 open source content management systems
SEO tips for bloggers
Firefox 3.5 - under the hood
What is Web 3.0?
Best Windows freebies - wallpapers, icons, fonts, guides
SEO experts don’t know jack

Social Media

50 free social Twitter resources and icon sets
Cybercrime spreads on Facebook
Tweet Funnel - tweet multiple users from a single account
How to get StumbleUpon traffic
70 ways to get more Twitter followers
Tweeting in the marketplace

Business / Finance

5 alternative and fun ways to make money online
Create a profitable online store in 5 easy steps
17 sexy commercials and advertising towards dummies

Weekly Series

Feeding Frenzy Saturday - Featured blog articles
Flashback Monday - Good news, great news, killer whale arms?

Personal Development / Growth / Self Improvement / Health

Relationship between success and failure
Pay yourself first
You always have a choice
How do your explain death to children?
Can you override genetics?
Bizarre sleep disorders

Photography

Last, but not Least

Bloggers unite for a free Iran
Colbert Report Classic
The real downward facing dog revealed
Top 10 tortured artists
Star Wars wedding cakes

#FollowFriday Recommendations on Twitter

Here are my #followfriday recommendations.

@yoonsee of Greener Pastures
@irtiza of Life as I Know It
@_George_Jetson_ super discoverer from StumbleUpon
@Killroy_60 of Fear and Loathing

One more shout to last week’s recommendations: @Thesispress and @Konakiko.

Also, if you enjoy this post and my tweets on blogging, social media, photography, and more, be sure to give me a shout out as follows:

RT @kikolani Fetching Friday - Resources Mashup, #FollowFriday, & Some Tennis Love > http://bit.ly/7PLGL

Related News

Personal Creation
This week, I created something personal that I have been wanting to do for a while now. Sarukura is a blog about my grandmother’s family in Japan. I’m hoping that one day, someone will Google names in their family tree and stumble across this site and contact me. I hope to build up a good collection of current Japanese genealogy resources.

Career
On the career front, I have revamped my resume and ~~am in process of creating~~ have finished my online portfolio - Kristi Hines - to hopefully expand my freelance exposure. So far, I have done one project and have two outstanding proposals.

Site Updates
Site design hasn’t changed too much, except for a crash of my social bookmarks plugin. So I resorted to using the Polariod social media icon set and some code from Stratos.me’s post 101 socialble links for manual insertion in WordPress. I had to edit the code to work in the Thesis custom funtions, so instead of I used and instead of I used . I also tinkered with the Polariod icons to change Gmail to email and added Sphinn and Mixx to the set.

A Glowing Review
Today, I was pleasantly surprised to read a very wonderful review of my site along with four other awesome female bloggers over at Bunny Got Blog. So I wanted to say thanks in this post!

Facebook Users
Finally, I am in the quest to get my custom username for my Facebook page, which is based on the number of fans you have. So please, if you haven’t yet and are on Facebook, be a fan of Kikolani.

Week in Review

This week, I bumped the posting back up again with a great guest post on how to get more from Twitter with tips from the Twitter Marketing eBook by Marko Saric. Also, in a continuation of the Benefits of Blogging series, this week I covered the benefits of enhancing learning and strengthening interests including personal examples of ways I use blogging to help with tennis, genealogy research and more.

And I haven’t forgotten… Mt. Lemmon photos will be posted soon!

Preview for the week of 6 July 2009

I took a peek through my backup hard drives and found some interesting photos I took years ago on a business trip to a furniture market in North Carolina. So next week, I will be sharing some of those photos.

Next week, in continuation of the Benefits of Blogging series, I will continue on the learning theme and focus on the various technical and marketing knowledge that bloggers gain.

Tennis Time

The Wimbledon men’s finals are this Sunday! Two of my favorites, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, are playing, just as I predicted in my Tourney Topia picks! Unfortunately, my favorite female player, Dinara Safina, didn’t make it. So after this weekend, here’s looking toward the US Open!

It Must Be Love: Roger Federer - Darth Federer

It Must Be Love: Andy Roddick - Doing Something No One Expects

It Must Be Love: Dinara Safina - Chocolate

Want to be featured in Fetching Friday posts?

Benefits of Blogging - Enhance Learning & Strengthen Interests

Kristi — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:05:22 +0000

This post is the third in the Benefits of Blogging series, where I will cover the many benefits of blogging, for bloggers and readers.

One of the most satisfying benefits for those who create blogs is the ability to use them to enhance your learning and to strengthen your interests. Readers of blogs are also able to enjoy this benefit simply by searching for blogs on any topic throughout the world.

Enhance Learning

What do I mean by enhance learning? Everyone has a certain method that helps them learn about a new subject. For most, if you simply learn something but never use it, there is less retention of the things that you learn.

Blogging can help you retain the things that you learn. For example, if you were learning a new language, as a blogger you could start writing a blog in that language, and as a blog reader you could visit blogs in that language and interact with them through the comments. If you are studying a particular subject, you could create or find a blog on that topic and network with others interested in the same subject to discuss it.

Blogging can also help you learn to become a better writer, which is can be a personal and professional benefit. They say practice makes perfect, and so the more you practice your writing, the better you will become at it. You may find that writing comes much more easily when you blog, or even simply regularly respond to blogs via the comments.

And what about research? If there is something that you want to learn more about, but have not found the right places to research it, why not blog about it? You can essentially reach a worldwide audience and build a community of others interested in researching the same thing.

As an example of using blogs for research, I have wanted to know more about my grandmother’s side of the family in Japan, but all I have to work with is an old family registry and one or two photos. So I have created a blog, Sarukura, containing the information I know about her family. I hope to build a community interested in Genealogy (Japanese in particular) that may lead to finding out more about the family I have never known. In addition, I hope that readers who visit the blog find useful resources in their own quest to learning more about their family history.

Strengthening Interests

Blogging is also a powerful way to strengthen your interests and hobbies. If you enjoy photography, why not share your photography and some tips in a blog? Others interested in photography can be inspired by you, and in turn, you will be inspired to take more photos. Professional photographers may be able to offer some advice that can lead to better photo taking techniques. You may even be able to take your hobby of photography to the next level and turn it into a freelance career opportunity, using your photo blog as your portfolio.

What about physical hobbies, such as a sport? I was surprised to learn that creating a blog about a sport that you play, in my case tennis, could actually benefit my mental game. On Tennisopolis and Hawaii Tennis (free membership required to view profile), I occasionally blog about league matches and other tennis related thoughts and personal discoveries. Knowing that a community of people would be reading this, I found myself thinking more positively about my game, which has in turn helped my mental game out on the court. I plan on doing something similar for my ballroom dancing as well.

So Many Interests, Too Many Blogs?

What you may find yourself wondering at this point is if it is possible to have a blog for all of your interests? What would it cost to have so many domains, and how much time would it take to customize them all? Is that even possible?

I say yes! I was able to create my blogs for tennis and ballroom dancing quickly and free on pre-existing communities, which comes with the bonus of already having a target audience built right into the network. For my genealogy research blog, I was able to secure the .info domain for Sarukura for $1.02, and I added it to a deluxe hosting plan that I’m already using for this domain. So the total setup cost for that site was just the $1.02! And if I didn’t want to pay anything, I could still have just gone to Wordpress or Blogger for a fully free, no hosting needed blog.

Blogging Your Interests

So now it’s your turn. Do you blog about a particular subject to enhance your learning? Do you blog, or read blogs about about a particular interest or hobby? Have you found it helps strengthen it? What topics can you think of that blogging would be particularly helpful in learning and strengthening?

Get More from Twitter - Twitter Marketing eBook Review

Mike — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:11:15 +0000

This post was written by Mike McEvoy from HTS Tech Tips - Computer Tech Tips, News & Computer Support for non-geeks.

The meteoric rise in popularity of Twitter has spawned a rapid growth in media coverage, Twitter books and numerous Twitter-related applications and tools. The best hands-on book about Twitter, the social media platform, that I have come across is an e-Book written by well known blogger Marko Saric entitled Twitter Marketing: How to Go Viral On Twitter. Mr. Saric developed much of his material through substantial experience in acquiring over 20,000 Twitter followers and through his successful blog, Howtomakemyblog.com. His understanding of social media is evident in the practical nature of his explanations and advice.

Tactical Twitter Marketing

As Twitter’s popularity continues to grow many people are looking for methods to use Twitter and other social media more effectively. Mr. Saric’s 55-page eBook is focused on the tactical, hands-on use of Twitter for marketing and promotion, from growing an online audience, presence and reputation to driving more traffic to a web site or blog to growing product sales to lowering customer acquisition costs and more. Twitter Marketing provides tips, tactics, explanations, examples and graphics to help flatten the Twitter learning curve for readers. Mr. Saric also draws on his extensive experience to cite real world examples of what not to do on Twitter and how to avoid the potholes on the Twitter Highway. Sometimes knowing what not to do can be as evaluable as knowing what to do.

Twitter Marketing begins with a short overview of setting up and personalizing one’s Twitter presence and useful Twitter do’s and don’ts. The e-book addresses the importance of a Twitter username, bio, site link and avatar that people will use in finding and identifying a Twitter user. Very useful information for novice users and not overly long for people already using Twitter.

The next four sections in Twitter Marketing delve into tweeting, replying, following, followers, and the tools for growing and managing these important areas. Mr. Saric shares insights and suggestions for selecting a Twitter client other than the standard Twitter web interface. He then provides guidance for effectively growing the number of followers and methods of finding the most beneficial people to follow. For people who haven’t done much research on the various Twitter tools that are available, the suggestions and insights in Twitter Marketing can provide significant benefits by helping save time and energy determining which tools will work best for particular needs and goals.

Going Viral on Twitter

A key strategic aspect of tweeting is the very important Retweet or “RT”. Retweeting is when another Twitter user sees your tweet and then “retweets” or broadcasts your tweet to their list of Twitter followers. Since their followers may be significantly different from your list of followers your tweet will then reach a brand new group of people. As Mr. Saric explains, “Word of mouth or viral marketing is when your content is spread from person to person. Retweeting is the most powerful factor in something going viral on Twitter.”

Methods and tactics for retweeting are explained in detail. Areas explored include: suggestions on how to optimize your tweets for retweeting (less is more); how to get your tweets retweeted by others; and how to track retweets. Twitter Marketing also includes information and suggestions on specific tools to use for maximizing your retweeting opportunities.

How Retweets Scale

Retweets provide a way to leverage your communications (tweets) on Twitter. Say I send a tweet to my 1,000 followers and 10 of those followers retweet my tweet to 10 of their followers and then 10 of each of their followers retweet that tweet to their followers. My single tweet can reach a very large number of twitter users in a very short period of time if enough people find it compelling enough to retweet. Especially if a few of the people who retweet my message have 10,000, 50,000 or 100,000 followers. The trick of course being to write interesting, useful tweets that people will want to retweet.

Twitter Marketing does have a specific focus and so will not answer everyone’s questions about every aspect of using Twitter. Having described some of what Mr. Saric’s eBook covers here are some things that it does not address:

Twitter’s role in the social media universe.
How Twitter compares to any other product or technology.
How Twitter functions as a service.
Where Twitter fits within the marketing spectrum.
The philosophical aspects of Twitter.

As mentioned earlier, this eBook focuses on the hands-on, tactical use of Twitter along with the use of a number of related applications and tools. Each chapter ends with a list of suggested Things To Do designed to further the reader’s understanding of the contents of the previous chapter. The eBook also includes a glossary of Twitter terms, and a list of 40+ links for additional useful Twitter information. Many of these links are referenced within the text.

The Value of the Twitter Marketing eBook

There are a large number of other articles, books, eBooks, and blog posts about Twitter currently available. The things I find most appealing about Mr. Saric’s eBook are: it’s very current, being an eBook it had no long publishing lead time; it’s very strong in proving a number of practical tips and suggestions that can be implemented immediately; and it is written in a very easy to understand and digest form that never tries to intimidate or impress. Twitter Marketing is a valuable, easy to implement resource that will help improve productivity and efficiency for most Twitter users.

The Twitter Marketing: How to Go Viral On Twitter eBook does not break any dramatically new ground. In reality most of the basic information could be found by spending many hours online combing through web sites and blogs, reading content that may or may not be well written, current or accurate, and then distilling out what is appropriate to your needs. And therein lays the true value of Mr. Saric’s eBook. For $20 the reader can save themselves many hours plus have a well written, very current resource that also contains 40+ links to further extending their knowledge on Twitter marketing and social media. For the sake of clarity, I actually paid for my copy of Twitter Marketing before I had any plans on writing a review. It was well worth the price.

If you are interested in writing for Kikolani.com, please visit the guest post opportunities page for more details, and contact form.

Fetching Friday - Resources, #FollowFriday, Personal News & PageRank (Again)

Kristi — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:01:57 +0000

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, #FollowFriday recommendations, some personal news, another PageRank update, previews and reviews, and an engaging music video.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging / Design

Using Thesis? Submit your site to the Thesis Gallery
Comment spam and PageRank sculpting
What comes first? Family or blogging?
From blogging to pro-blogging
20 things all bloggers should do
55 sexy our work page designs
When the conversation movesoff of your blog
How has your blog changed you offline?

Tech / SEO

Do SEO clients deserve a nofollow discount?
How to get top 10 search results for your web pages
Dofollow blogs to improve your Pagerank
Firefox SEO Blogger - optimize posts as you write
51 points for on-page optimization
Absolutely useful Firefox plugins for web designers and developers
Hackers and phishers plan to capitalize on tragedy
Another good explanation of how the Google algorithm has changed in terms of nofollow

Social Media

15 sites to find a free Twitter background
100 free music lessons you can take on YouTube
How to unfollow those who are not following you
Twitter SEO tips
Twitter plug-ins for WordPress

Business

Should you stay at your cushy job?
15 job interview horror stories
Facing a layoff with defiance
Do you have plan B ready?

Personal Development / Growth / Self Improvement

Well-being is better than happiness
Your 24 possible personal strengths
Dealing with negative people
Create a morning phrase to shape your day
7 tips for achieving your goals
Who needs approval?
To have or not to have internet etiquette
Working on what has been neglected
Be on time every time

Photography

Outstanding and inspirational infrared photos
35 examples of stunning macro photography

Last, but not Least

From Birth to Realization of the Word
Other people
Linkin Park’s “New Divide” from Transformers
A little comparison

#FollowFriday Recommendations on Twitter

Here are my #followfriday recommendations.

@Thesispress from the Thesis Gallery
@Konakiko of Konakiko.com

One more shout to last week’s recommendations: @Wimbledon, @KushMoney, and @orlandorand.

Also, if you enjoy this post and my tweets on blogging, social media, photography, and more, be sure to give me a shout out as follows:

RT @kikolani Fetching Friday - Resources, #FollowFriday, Personal News & PageRank (Again) > http://bit.ly/13IpYF

Related News

Personal Notes
This has been hell week. Last week at my job, my small department was cut in half, and the four of us left have been overloaded with our own work plus the stuff from our former colleagues. And next month is in the air as to what we will be doing, as the work we were originally hired for is being outsourced. The resume is getting updated this weekend, just in case.

So needless to say, with the stress of job uncertainty and the extra workload, I haven’t kept up on my site as much as I would have liked. I’m hoping to catch up soon on comments, replies, and new articles though. I just wanted you all to know that I haven’t turned evil and started ignoring my readers! I truly appreciate all the comments and social network shares very much!

Brighter Notes
My site’s design made it to the front page of the Thesis Gallery. I was featured in an article on top 10 blog designs, and also in an interview on Clickkt.com. And last, but not least, I finished my first freelance WordPress customization project for this Phoenix dance studio.

PageRank Updates
Didn’t PageRank just happen last month? Yes. And it happened again just a few days ago. Kikolani remains at a PR 4, and Soulmates Wedding got a PR 1, which is interesting considering I haven’t done any SEO work on it at all. My freelance project mentioned above also went up from PR 2 to PR 3, so getting it uploaded on Monday must have paid off.

I usually take the time out to check individual article PR, but the site I used last time doesn’t seem to do it anymore. Any suggestions as to other freebie internal page PR checkers are welcome.

Week in Review

Thankfully, I had a guest post this week on things you could be doing besides checking statistics. Without that, I’d be at a loss for new articles, and there’s nothing worse for me in terms of blogging than to have an empty article week.

Preview for the week of 22 June 2009

Since I missed my planned posts this week on continuing the Benefits of Blogging series and the Mt. Lemmon photos, I will be posting those next week.

Deeper

This was sent to me by one of my friends on StumbleUpon. The visuals in combination with the beat make it quite an interesting video. Enjoy!

Deeper on Youtube