For example, Target recently offered special coupons to the first 1,000 “fans” who “liked” a product the company posted on their page. And since it’s basically free advertisement, it’s a great feature to utilize.

But many companies are unaware that aside from posting comments and photos to draw costumers into a brick-and-mortar store and make money, businesses can increase their cash flow substantially by selling their products directly through the social network.

You can do this by searching for a “vendor app” on the social networking site to create an ecommerce button.

But a more lucrative option is to create an entire “Facebook Store.”

Facebook Stores allow members to browse an abundant of products and purchase them directly from the social networking site which can ultimately strengthen your number of sales.

What makes a “store” even more special is that members can share their shopping bag with all of their other Facebook friends which means you, the business owner, can reach out to an even large audience.

Unfortunately most store builders, like Store Front Social charge for their services - they’ll help you set everything up and add special features that will make the purchasing process for your costumers easier. But there are some equally as effective store builders that are offered completely for free, like Shopping Mall.

And if you’re concerned that it will take a cut of your sales, it does not. But you do need to have a paypal business account for the service to work however.

That said, to learn how to set a Facebook store using Shopping Mall, continue reading below.

Step one:

- Create an account on Shopping Mall.

Step two:

- Add the app on your Facebook and follow the sites directions. You should be immediately instructed how post a product for sale, which will include entering item data uploading photos. It will also take you through a short run through of how create multiple categories for products, track sales, change colors and fonts, and how to display one particular item on the main page of your store front.

This is a guest post by Stella Walker who is a freelance writer of credit score guide where she writes about topics including credit, debt, investment, bankruptcy.

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© 2007-2008 Piggy Bank Pie

Make more Money Online By Creating a Facebook Store

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The WebHostingClue website is very easy to understand and you can quickly see the top 10 web hosting companies. These include companies such as BlueHost (the hosting company that I use for most of my sites), HostGator, iPage, GreenGeeks and Just Host.

In the top 10 list you can quickly see the price per month for web hosting, the bandwidth offered by the different companies, the disk space that is on offer, how many free domains you get and you can also click through and read an in-depth review on each company.

For example if you are interested in BlueHost you will want to read a BlueHost review which can give you plenty of information on what to expect when you use this company. In the review you will get an overview of the company itself and then you can find out about any special offer coupons discounts that you could use when you sign up and become a member. You will also be able to take a look at reviews that customers have written about the web hosting company. This information is vital if you are looking for a web hosting company that will meet your needs.

You should never make the decision on which web hosting company you will use on the spur of the moment.

If your website is going to be a source of income for you it is important that you have a hosting solution that you can trust. You will need to make sure that the service you choose is reliable so that your website is always visible to potential customers online.

It is also important to check how much bandwidth and disk space that you will be entitled to as this can have a big impact on how your website functions. In addition to this you will also need to know if you will have to pay for your domain name as the cost of domain names can quickly add up.

As you can see turning to a website like WebHostingClue is a good idea if you are on the lookout for a web hosting company for your website. Reading the reviews on the website will save you a lot of time and enable you to quickly see what the various companies are offering for customers.

So before you sign up to a particular web hosting company make sure that you have done your homework first and read reviews on websites such as WebHostingClue.

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© 2007-2008 Piggy Bank Pie

Need a Good Hosting Company? Check Out WebHostingClue First

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Many bloggers are excellent writers who have creative ideas and unique writing styles, but have very little design savvy. While this is not a problem for writers within the traditional medium, blogging is as much a visual endeavor as it is a writing endeavor.

In order for a blog to become successful, bloggers must incorporate engaging narrative within a beautiful environment.

These five web applications can help amp up any tired and dull blog’s appearance.

1. Clue App

This neat little web application helps you discover what exactly is memorable about your webpage and what is not as memorable as you might think.

Clue creates a memory test using of an array of screenshots from your website and then tests what people remember from your site after viewing the screenshots. This application helps bloggers identify what exactly on their website is grabbing for first time viewers.

As anyone knows, strong first impressions are essential on the web. With people clicking around the internet at crazy speeds, your blog really needs to jump out at them to get them to stick around.

Clue helps you pinpoint what aspects of your blog interest people. Use Clue to find out how your site compares to a competitor’s site, to get ideas for redesigning your blog, and to make sure that visitors can locate things easily on your site.

2. Pixlr

This photo editing service is essential for bloggers wishing to really create a blog that is as interesting and profitable as possible. Pixlr provides a simple and quick way to crop and alter photos.

Use this web tool to create interesting and unique photos for your blog that visitors can only find on your site. Many blogs out there recycle the same stock images to accompany their blog post. By using Pixlr, you can post pictures and images that can only be found on your site.

Much of successful blogging involves offering something that viewers can’t find anywhere else. Pixlr can help you develop that extra spark your blog may need to truly stand out.

3. Web Fonts

With over 150,000 font products for you to preview, purchase, and download, Web Fonts is a great tool for spicing up a tired blog. This web resource provides information on new typeface releases and helps users discover tips and tricks about typography and design.

Many bloggers fail to realize just how important their type font is to gaining new readership and maintaining regular readership. Fonts make all the difference in how easily things can be read and how catching text is to a reader.

Some fonts can make blogs difficult to read and can distract from the actual content of a post. Let Web Fonts help you find the perfect fonts to use on your blog and develop the most visually appealing text you can.

4. Kuler

This web application allows you to generate color themes that are pleasing to the eyes and interesting. This tool can help you develop an overall color theme for your blog that is both interesting and unique.

Often, individuals wish to develop a blog because they are strong writers and they have an idea worth contributing to the internet, but they have little insight into web design or visual design. Kuler can be a great start for individuals in this position.

Use Kuler to find a color scheme for your blog and work from there. Kuler allows you to create custom colors, design a color palette, and look at other users’ color pairings.

5. BgPatterns

This neat little application lets you create custom background designs for your blog in a few quick and easy steps.

With dozens of images to choose from and various features for developing patterns, this tool is great for newbie web design bloggers that want something fast, simple, and attractive for their blog.

BgPatterns used alongside Kuler and other imaging and design apps can help bloggers create a beautiful and unique webpage that reflects something unique and specific about their blog.

This guest post is contributed by Patricia Garza, who writes about gadget, technology, design, social media, e-learning related articles at online university rankings.

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© 2007-2008 Piggy Bank Pie

Five Web Apps That Can Boost Your Blog’s Design

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One is an exaggerated image of writers sunbathing on some golden beach on a Caribbean island while indulging in their passion called writing.

The other is that of an emaciated writer begging publishers, website owners and such to pay him a pittance for his work.

The truth probably lies somewhere else altogether.

I fear that freelance writers either don’t know the truth or avoid looking at themselves in the mirror. It’s time we look at things as they really are.

Freelance writing is serious work

As a freelance writer, you must understand that writing is serious business. Just because you can string together a few words doesn’t make you a writer. Things start going wrong when you think that writing is simple and fun.

Writing good stuff is more about doing research, writing, refining and more refining, till you get it right.

Actually, when you read something which seems frivolous, flippant and funny, it has probably been written by someone serious, thoughtful and somber.

Does it mean that not everyone is cut out to be a freelance writer? Exactly the opposite.

All of us have a writer within us and have a story to tell. What you need to understand is that writing is a serious vocation and you must be ready to spend time and effort in getting it right. You must research the subject you are writing on and understand it well.

Freelance writers don’t have a choice

There is a feeling among some of us that we must write about things which we are passionate about. I beg to differ.

As freelance writers we must be prepared to write on anything and everything. I am presently selling Medifast coupons and Nutrisystem discounts. I simply can’t say that I only write romantic stuff and just can’t digest these health supplements. It’s the freelance writers curse. You just don’t have a choice. You have to bite the bullet.

But there is a silver lining to this dark cloud.

Once you have enough experience, you can begin exploring your true calling. The best part about freelancers is that we have enough time to explore different subjects. This process of discovery can very well lead you to some treasure trove of writing.

Writing must engage readers

Proof of the pudding is in the eating. Your ultimate test as a writer will be taken by the readers. To pass this test, you must engage readers, keep them on the page and make them crave for more if possible.

I agree that very few will get emotional reading about health supplements, but you will get opportunities to reveal your passion.

Writing is a lonely profession

There can be nothing lonelier than writing. It all happens between you, your monitor and the keyboard. There is no big crowd applauding your efforts. You will never play for an audience. If at all, you will only get a silent applause. For some this is an ideal setting. Personally, it is my ideal hunting ground where I slay my demons and pray to imaginary divas. Let the music play on.

This is a guest post by S. Srinivasan who is a philosopher, freelance writer and thinker who likes to dwell on the other side of moon. He also writes about diets and weight loss programs that offer Savings coupon for Medifast diet and exclusive Nutrisystem discount code.

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© 2007-2008 Piggy Bank Pie

Making Money Through Freelance Writing

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1) Site Architecture

There are various aspects to using proper site architecture:

• Hosting the Domain on separate IP address and not hosting on shared IP.
• Using Mod_Rewrite whether it is Windows Server or Linux Server – to get search engine friendly URLs
• Links not very deep from homepage. It is ideal to keep web pages at maximum 2 clicks away from the home page.

2) Keywords & Keyword Research

Keywords and keyword research are often neglected, especially for Long Tail Keywords. Often people rely only on the Google Adwords keyword tool and ignore other paid keyword tools such as Wordtracker. Also keywords are NOT used in H1, H2 and H3 tags on pages.

3) Indexation

Submit your sitemap to Google using their Webmaster Tools which will show you how frequently is your website crawled and indexed. If you possess a website with a large number of pages in various sub-folders, then you may add a sitemap for each sub-folder that contains those pages.

Create a Master Sitemap that will link to the smaller Sitemaps so can Google can navigate through your website easier and can look for all the pages. This is far better than having just one sitemap which can take a lot of time to browse through.

4) Get to the Root

Instead of “xyz.com/social/media/tips/page3.html” use “xyz.com/social-media-tips-page3.html”. It improves your rank strength if the keywords you’re trying to rank for are nearer the root of the domain.

5) Using Virtual Themes

If any of your previous articles happen to comprise a keyword or phrase that you have written about in some other article, then you may use that as anchor text. For instance, if you have written the word “Search Engine Optimization” and you already have another article on the same topic, then you may link to it. Google provides internal linking as it aids its spider crawl through your website. Still, don’t do it more than three times per page.

6) Broken Links

Search engine spiders do not like being taken to a dead end. Hence, keep checking your websites for broken links.

7) Canonical Tags

These can be used to resolve replication problems, as the tag states which version of the page should be indexed by the search engines.

8 ) W3C Validation

The code within a website should be optimized by eliminating any errors found by the W3C Validator. Just like the broken links mentioned above, it is about allowing the spiders to move freely through your website. Any code which can block your search engine spiders should be fixed.

9) Older Pages

Link to any newer pages from old ones on your website; this is important as linking to older pages is considered to be a good SEO factor.

10) Avoid Flash

Search engines struggle to navigate through flash, and hence, fewer pages in the website can get indexed. Many people are already putting forward the argument that Flash might soon get disused.

11) Analytics

Get Google Analytics installed, and try to understand what keywords are people finding your website with and analyze if you can go higher up the ranking with the help of these keywords.

This is a guest post by Kaushal Gandhi who is Director at Aaris Internet Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Aaris is SEO company in India. Kaushal has conceptualized the SEO Traingulation Method to get desired rankings. In addition, he is also a passionate blogger and writes on diverse topics such as Search Engine Optimization, PPC Management, and Social Media.

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© 2007-2008 Piggy Bank Pie

11 Often Forgotten SEO Tips

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Being An Alias

Choosing to be or pretending that you’re someone else can be beneficial in the world of blogging. If you are someone who doesn’t see your personal self as entertaining, and you have nothing to share with the world but your vast imagination, than creating a fictional version of you can be a wise choice.

You may also be creating a fake name simply to share information that you wish no one to know about but yourself, or those close to you. Those fascinated with mystery would be sure to keep reading what you have to write.

Of course, you can’t be too concerned with the credit that comes with blogger fame (if that’s your goal). Regardless, there are many other positive things to consider when choosing to be public or private.

Some Benefits Of Choosing Anonymity:

- Mystery: If your blog is focused on secrecies, then people may find it interesting to hear any sort of confessions, constant on-going affairs, personal battles, etc. even if you do not expose your identity. This could make it more interesting, in fact.

- Security: Without giving any sort of insight as to who you might be as a blogger, there is less of a risk factor for you being assaulted in anyway.

- Entertainment: If you create a fictional character for a blog, this means you can pretend whatever you say through this character is real. If you yourself have a boring life, one may find interest in your false alter ego.

- Being Humble: If you’re writing art or producing art for a blog, remaining anonymous can add to how a follower may view you. They may see you as being humble for not taking credit.

- Reputation: If you’re concerned over your reputation, you can write of something being anonymous without having to worry about personal backlash.

Painted Persona

So if you think about it, being an anonymous blogger can be an art. The way you phrase things could be you, or they could be made up. If being yourself with the name of another, blogging beyond personal boundaries can allow you to be more expressive and creative. You may say things you wouldn’t say if you had your picture plastered to the right of your words.

If you have boundaries in your real life, being anonymous can eliminate those boundaries. This can create an immense amount of popularity, and pure fun for the blogger.

This is a guest post by Maria Rainier who is a freelance writer and blogger for First in Education, where she’s recently written on funeral director jobs along with a piece on online health administration programs. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, traveling, and working with origami.

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© 2007-2008 Piggy Bank Pie

The Advantages of Using an Online Persona

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The Benefits Of Being Yourself

There are two basic ways to give information. There is listing information, plain and simple (boringly); or, there is expressing information the way you see it.

Instead of just providing facts the same way a dictionary could do, people would probably find it more interesting to hear or read information that has life -personality- to it.

Going past just putting things in your own words, personalization could include a blogger sharing his/her real name, picture, and experiences to whoever stumbles upon his/her readings.

Think reality TV shows versus The History Channel.

It seems many people are interested in the lives of others - this being why MySpace and Facebook were created. Just seeing a picture of the person who is writing gains general interest, wouldn’t you agree? So even if you, as a blogger, are not the jazziest of people to be around, personalization can still work in your favor.

A List Of Benefits:

- More Followers: The more a person reads of someone’s personal happenings, it seems the more interested they grow. So if your goal is to gain a lot of active followers, personalizing could work in your favor.

- Insight From Others: The better you’re known as a blogger, the easier it is for people to relate to you. You could get opinions and advice from a whole lot of people.

- More Interesting Comments: While more people would flock to your blog, there is a chance of further discussion through comments, gaining you more attention and more feedback.

- Personal Evaluation: It’s possible you can go back and read through your history of posts and be able to learn from them better, while having more humility for any mistakes you may have made being that what you’ve written has already been broadcasted to the public.

- Support: With being real comes real support. If you blog about your personal life, you may find much support online.

- Business Gains: Trust comes with letting people get to know you. If you’re running a business, the more the customer can trust you, the better off you are in selling them a product or gaining their support (profit or non-profit.)

Getting Yourself Out There

There are many ways to broadcast your true self on the Internet. Integrating popular social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, can gain the attention of a lot of people. You can add the interactive “Like” buttons to your blog, even, further expanding your name.

Whatever the purpose of your blog - talent, business, emotional, informative, inspiring, or other - the more personal you make it, the more trusting, interested, giving, and enlightened the followers of it will be.

This is a guest post by Maria Rainier who is a freelance writer and blogger for First in Education where she’s recently written on online EMT certification programs along with a piece on certified realtime reporter programs. In her spare time, she enjoys yoga, traveling, and working with origami.

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© 2007-2008 Piggy Bank Pie

Don’t Be Scared To Be You - How Personalization Makes For Better Blogging

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With the pressure on to produce consistent, worthwhile content, you need a place to write. You need a place to pose ideas, form opinions, make profound statements and establish yourself as an expert in your chosen profession.

In short, you need a blog. Your company blog is your primary content production center. It’s one of the few places where you can have full control over the words and illustrations that frame what your company is about.

Blogs are content friendly. Anytime you want to add something, they’re ready for you. They provide an easy way to document what you want to say and portray to your audience because you manage each entry. If you produce the content internally, you know what you’re saying. If you have a guest blogger appear, you have reign over the final edit.

In addition to product content, you can also use your blog for a variety of purposes such as:

• Announce company news
• Responding to customer input
• Announce job openings
• New products updates
• Special offers or discounts

In addition, your company blog provides you with a pre-existing brand. You don’t have to establish any credibility for the blog if your company’s credibility is already set in stone.

Since you own what you write, adding content to a blog is easy. You don’t have to get multiple permissions to share your copy on other sites. You can publish your blog copy, in whole or in part, on any other website you own – and syndicate it wherever you wish.

Is there an ideal time to write? Sure – whenever you get an idea. While there is research regarding the ideal times to post new blog entries, anytime you get an idea to write about is a good time to blog. Write it and save it if you don’t want to send it out right away.

There are many software tools that will syndicate and track your blog entries for you if you want them to go out at a particular time.

This brings up the most important point: it’s your blog. You can write about whatever you want. Sure, it should be relevant to your business or the industry in which you ply your trade. But you are in total control. Word count, keyword saturation, subject and attitude – everything is in your hands.

When you write, have an opinion – allow comments on what you write. Nothing starts up a conversation faster than a strong conjecture. Be prepared for anything – but also be ready to back up your position. Just be sure not to let your opinion slide into a one-sided promotion of your product or service. Remember – online consumers don’t want to be hit over the head with sales messages. They want content with a message they can take away and use.

Once you’ve posted your new blog content, be sure you get your message out by sharing the link on Twitter, Facebook and every other relevant social media location possible.

Don’t forget to use the RSS feed. Spread the word as far and wide as possible. But don’t stop there. Contact your customers through e-mail. Tell them to check out your latest blog post.

If you have specific customers who you believe should be contacted outside of your email list, write to them personally and provide a link to the new post. Also be sure to post to niche groups and forums.

Before you post, make sure your post contains relevant links. Guide your readers to other relevant sites. Another thing you want to be sure to do is track your posts, one good way would be to install Google Analytics on your blog.

The most important thing is to take action. You won’t be able to get your message out to the world if you don’t have a place to write, so create your blog today and start posting!

This post was written by Troy Ireland on behalf of TheSEOAgency.com. If you are looking for a full service search marketing solution, contact the SEO Agency or find them on Twitter or Facebook.

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© 2007-2008 Piggy Bank Pie

Mission Control: Why Your Blog Should Be the Center of Your Content Marketing

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But thanks to certain apps that can be used on the web, keeping up with your blog may just get a little easier. As a bonus, these apps can also make your blog look and run oh-so-much better.

With that said, to learn the top 3 web apps that every blogger should add, continue reading below.

1. ScribeFire. This app, which promises to “fire up your blogging” is a simple interface that allows users to maintain their blog(s). This includes updating, deleting or editing multiple posts and images; categorizing and adding tags; and saving drafts all from one source.

This app works for most major blog platforms. It is available for Chrome, Opera, and Safari, and Mozilla Firefox users. Cost: Free

2. TinEye. While having unique and quality writing is important, it’s equally important to include photos within the posts for aesthetic purposes.

However, all too often bloggers don’t include photos whatsoever, add low resolution photos, or forget to give photo credit where it is due—this is a huge no-no. It’s not always the blogger’s fault either—sometimes it’s hard to locate the photo’s original source or almost impossible to find a useable picture.

This “reverse image” app however allows users to discover where an image came from, if it’s open for reuse, and can allow you to find an alternative, higher resolution version.

All you have to do is right click the image you want to use and ta-da. This app is available for Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera users. Cost: Free

3. Blog This!. If your blog is heavily dependent on reposting news articles from a variety of sources (or maybe you like to repost them from time to time) then this app is perfect for you.

What it does it make reposting articles as simple as with one click—all you have to do is press the “BlogThis” button that will appear on your browser tool bar and it will upload the article directly onto your blog. You can even edit the article if you wish.

This app is available for both Mozilla Firefox and Chrome users. Cost: Free

This guest contribution was submitted by Pamelia Brown, who specializes in writing about associates degree. Questions and comments can be sent to: pamelia.brown @ gmail.com.

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© 2007-2008 Piggy Bank Pie

3 Web Apps That Will Make Your Blog Better

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If you want to add your blogs to the application you will have to install the ManageWP Worker plug-in on them first. This way, you do not have to give your site settings over to third parties, which you can’t always trust.

Issues to consider

ManageWP does not always work the first time around. If it is not working, you can check if you typed in the administrator user name correctly and whether you installed the plug-in.

Users also complain that the interface is rather unpolished and hence hard to work with at times.

With ManageWP you can control the log-in information when you are accessing your sites, but you should be concerned with security nonetheless. When something looks useful and comes at no charge, one can’t help being suspicious.

On the web site of ManageWP, it is published that no sensitive information is stored on their server, and the client is never required to give their password for any site. According to them, the only way you risk someone adding your Worker plug-in to their site is if you do not add the site to your account on ManageWP, thereby closing the circuit.

Advantages of the application

Keeping in mind the above considerations, it is very easy to access ManageWP. It is available online and was designed by the developer Vladimir Prelovac. The app is also absolutely free. It is a great tool if you have around one hundred sites.

Actually, this is the limit of the capacity of ManageWP. It cannot manage more than that. Without it, you would have to log in and out of each one. Imagine how long that would take!

There is an app similar to ManageWP – WPTwin. The only difference is that the latter is not free.

Other useful features of ManageWP

The application has some useful features, which WordPress itself either lacks or they are slower and less accessible. You can use the app to do a database backup or full backup and install themes and plug-ins on many sites at once. You can take advantage of automated daily and weekly backups.

We can accept that the app does a full backup once a week and a database backup every day. Just do not rely on the manual backup feature, as it has been known to fail.

As an added advantage, the app makes it easy to move or clone your site. It is a lot faster this way as compared to doing it manually.

The application is also equipped with interesting add features, which enable you to add users and bookmarks to some or all of your sites and publish new pages and posts. This is especially useful if you are adding someone who needs access to several sites.

Melissa Dean writes for Credit Card Canada, focusing on Student Credit Cards and other financial products.

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Is Using ManageWP a Good Idea?

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