Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Social Media Design Specifications – 2012
| Facebook Timeline Specifications
Content Width: 850 pixels Content Image Width: 400px
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| Facebook Timeline Brand Page Specifications
Content Width: 850 pixels Content Image Width: 400px Banner Area Background Colour: #E7EBF2 (R: 231, G: 235, B: 242) Image Rules: - Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
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| Twitter Specifications
Content Width: 920px (centered) Avatar Icon Large Display: 128px x 128px Image Thumbnail Display (right): 83px x 83px Name Limit: 20chars
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| Google + Specifications
Content Width: 500px Profile Banner Image: 890px180px (visible portion 615px from left) Inline Image max width: 401px
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| YouTube Channel Specifications
Content Width: 960px (centered) Avatar Icon Large Display: 88px x 88px
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| Foursquare Business Page Specifications
Content Width: 960px (centered) Banner Image: 860px x 130px (250Kb max) Description: 1000 chars max |
How to Make Money with Facebook
Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world, and its unparalleled ability to draw in millions of users every day gives it unprecedented power as a modern money-making tool for ambitious entrepreneurs. Getting the most out of Facebook will require a basic understanding of its layout, features, and auxiliary apps.
How it Works
To get started with monetizing a Facebook page, a user should have something that they would like to sell or promote. Any good or service may be touted via a personal Facebook page or Facebook “business page”, and fans may “like” pages and posts to show their interest and approval. Fans may also post comments that page operators may respond to.
Oftentimes, the simple act of posting links, photos, contests, and notes related to products and services will be enough to generate sales and boost income; this is why so many modern corporations, entertainers, and online gurus devote plenty of time and energy to updating statuses and connecting with fans via their official Facebook pages.
Proper Etiquette Will Help You to Make the Right Impression
Now that you know a little bit more about which features you may use to promote on Facebook, you should also be aware that overt “hard-sell” on personal accounts (rather than business accounts) is usually perceived as spam. It’s better to do more intense promotional work via a business page. For personal pages, subtle promotion works well. Reciprocating by supporting others and their endeavors will also help you to build a strong online network that leads to new sales leads and more income.
Sculptors, musicians, authors, web designers (and anyone else under the sun!) will able to build more interest in their work and establish many important business connections through the power of Facebook. Entrepreneurs may also buy targeted Facebook ads that appear on the sidebars of personal Facebook pages.
Use the Marketplace Application to Earn Money Online
Another key money-making opportunity that you may access through Facebook is the Marketplace application; this easy-to-use buying and selling service is designed to let you list goods for sale in a free and convenient format. For example, if you love finding “treasures” at Internet auctions or yard sales and then flipping them for a tidy profit, you’ll appreciate the way the Marketplace app (which has over 900,000 users) gives you the freedom to sell without the sting of high user fees.
As you can see, Facebook is one of the most effective marketing and money-making tools that you will find anywhere. Using the service to its best advantage will lead to higher sales and more brand visibility online.
Freelancers – How to Get More Jobs!
I am in the middle of building a website. I think the domain is pretty good (AmsterdamRentals.com).
Now since this is a side project, I prefer to keep my staff focused on our larger and potentially more profitable projects. With that said, I usually go on the hunt for new freelancers who can take some of the burden with getting these new properties online quickly and effectively.
It sounds so simple with the advent of sites such as Odesk, Guru, Elance, etc., but for those of you who have used any of these – you know this could be further from the truth.
The biggest problem is that these sites are overrun by forign sweat shops who have a “Sales” guy who probably copy’s and paste the same generic cover letter in the hopes of landing the next $500 deal.
That creates the biggest problem for me (the job provider) because I refuse to work with these guys.
To illustrate this – I made a quick video to show exactly what I might go through in the first 1 hour of posting a job offer.
So, as you can see from above – hiring and sourcing could be SO much easier.
This is a note to all freelancers; if you find yourself struggling try a new approach. Try reading the job post and spending more than 2 minutes applying for the job.
I guarantee that this simple yet effective strategy will go a VERY long way to helping you secure more work.
Domain Email Spam Scam Service – Read This!
Like most mornings I was sifting through my spam emails when something caught my eye.
Now normally, I quickly go through my spam folder to see if something important might have slipped through and then move on to more important things.
On a typical day, I see a lot these domain WHOIS spam emails trying to get me to buy the .net or a .com I own or vice versa. Usually I ignore these, but since I am in the middle of acquiring mass amounts of geo domains for my project (LocalSiteBuilder.com) one email really stood out.
I had purchased the domain YellowPagesOklahomaCity.net, since it was a nice geo name with exact match keyword potential and now, I have an email telling me that I can own the .com version.
So I decided to check the link and see what the guys over at SwiftDomainRecovery.com are up to.
Below is what my eyes lay hold of. For an easy $99, I can buy the .com and close the deal in under 5 minutes. My first thought is that this is not too shabby of a business model. Heck they are probably buying dropped domains and doing a quick flip to make some quick cash.
But that is when I thought through the process . . . and I asked:
Why even buy the domain at all?
So I head over to Moniker.com and doing a check availability check.
BAM! – YellowPagesOklahomaCity.com is not even registered!
So here are 2 ways to think about this;
#1 – I could get mad that someone was trying to dupe me (wouldn’t be the first and I am sure it won’t be the last).
Or
#2 – I could thank these guys for the amazing free service they are offering me.
Think about it – now, I don’t even have to keep close tabs on sweet top TLD’s that are no longer registered.
I can just wait for their email and if the domain is enticing enough, I know I can head over to my favorite registrar and pick it up.
So while I still think SwiftDomainRecovery.com is a scam and that SwiftDomainRecovery.com sucks – I am still highly appreciative of the work they do.
FYI – I did register the domain, in case you wanted to try and grab it (too late!)
Affiliate Marketing Tips
Affiliates need to make sure that they’re receiving full credit for every sale. For this, you want to find out what type of tracking software a company uses and make sure that it’s a legitimate, reliable service. If you are not properly tracked, you could end up losing your commissions. And the company is not going to shed a tear over this.
Once you have found techniques that work well, do not rely on them exclusively. You should always be on the look-out for new tools and new trends. You could broaden your audience or keep in touch with your customers, if the techniques you are currently using should become obsolete. Remember that everything becomes obsolete, sooner or later.
Don’t bother with products that don’t convert, even if they advertise high commissions. One webmaster reported that out of over 1000 clickthroughs to a vendor’s site, not one visitor actually bought the product. Terrible conversion ratios like this are a sign that the product is not in demand or that there is something wrong with the product, such as a high price or poor copy on the landing page.
Good affiliates are those that communicate with their partners. Beyond automated systems, FAQ pages and resource databases, an affiliate that offers rapid person-to-person conversation is going to be much easier to work with. Webmasters should recognize the value of such individual communication.
Offering customers the option of joining an affiliate marketing program when they make a purchase will multiply sales! Think about every customer automatically promoting to other customers and you can see how quickly this profitable chain reaction could occur. It is quite possible that you will never need to pay for advertising again if you have your customers doing it for you.
Look for websites with good sales. If their rate of buyers is less than one percent, you may want to reconsider working with them. You get paid if people buy, and if people aren’t buying from the website, it will not matter how many customers you send them. This ratio is an important one to consider when searching for affiliates.
PPC Marketing For Affiliates
One affiliate marketing program to take advantage of is a pay-per-click search engine. A PPC engine is one that prioritizes search results according to advertiser payments. When you bid on a keyword with a PPC engine, your site will appear higher on searches for that keyword. Because you only pay the PPC engine for successful searches that direct visitors your way, bidding for PPC keywords can be a very cost-effective strategy.
Beginning your affiliate marketing career with pay-per-click (PPC) programs is a wise move. By investing only in keyword bidding at PPC search engines and selecting your partner merchants carefully, you can build up a modest income without laying out much up-front investment. Then you can use PPC profits to pay for setting up a website.
You can take the information you learned here and use it as a solid foundation to start building your career as an affiliate today.
SEO For The Big 3
SEO Is The Key To Your Success On The Web
Are you having trouble bringing visitors to your website? You may need to do some search engine optimization. Search engines may seem random, but all of them follow algorithms that look for specific things on websites. This article will give the tips you need to start improving your site for search engines today.
Make sure to visit Google Webmaster Central and enable “Enhanced image search”. This will allow Google to index your graphics and add them to it’s Google Images search results. Many people look for photos for a variety of uses, and if they also find useful content on your website, they’re likely to come back.
If you are considering consolidating two or more similar pages, you should first identify the relative quantity and quality of your inbound links. This can be done by using the simple command “link:domain.com/yourpage.html” from the Google search page. Yahoo Site Explorer offers a similar option for checking specific back links.
Use Google Adwords to find out what keywords related to your field of work are popular. Once you find out what kind of keywords work well, use them to describe your website. Make sure to do searches with this tool regularly to stay up to date: popular keywords can change very quickly.
Yahoo
Achieve more success in search engine optimization by registering with Yahoo!. Yahoo! is one of the most popular search engines on the internet. Although it is a pricey membership (it costs about 300 dollars a year) it is well worth it if you want that extra boost in your search result presence.
Based upon your resources, you may be able to fully optimize your site for only one or two of the major search engines. Using keyword-rich content and structure will give you an advantage on any engine, but Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, and Bing all have their own nuances that favor certain SEO elements.
With millions of sites out there, you cannot afford to wait for the major search engines to seek you out. Take a proactive approach by registering your site with all of them – Google, Bing, Yahoo, and any others that you come across. Waiting for recognition is unlikely to deliver the site traffic that you hope to generate from your efforts.
Bing
For search engine optimization, the first thing you should do is register with Google and other search engines (such as Yahoo! and Bing). You can visit a special site, fill out a very short form with your website address and you’ll likely be “crawled,” in other words added, by that search engine faster.
To increase the search engine rankings of products on a commerce website, take advantage of the newly released Schema protocol. This protocol, which was developed by major search engines Google, Bing, and Yahoo, helps search engines to better understand the products you are selling. All three search engines have stated that they will give greater weight to sites that make use of this protocol.
Although there are many search engines out there, you should focus on the big three and leave the rest alone, to start. Google, Yahoo and Bing are the big boys on the block, with Google controlling the lion’s share of the market. So when optimizing your site, stick to the types of things a search engine like Google appreciates. There’s no sense in optimizing for Ask or MSN, when there’s really no money there.
Search engine optimization may sound too good to be true, but it’s the real deal. All of the tips in this article will help boost your search engine rankings and help more people find your site. Take the time to employ the advice offered here. It won’t take long for you to see some results.
eBook Sells For $17 – Provides MetaFever Content
When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
How about, “If I could only make money on the Internet, everyone else is doing it!” This statement is part truth, part lie.
First off, not everyone is making money online. Secondly, a lot of people are.
More specifically, this guy is making a boat load of money. How is he doing it?
Well, before we go any further, here’s an (un)official disclaimer: this article is to show you how Meta Fever’s free resources rock and should only be attempted by true marketing warlocks. We are not reviewing or endorsing this product. Wow, that was mouthful.
Back to the guy making a boat load of money.
The above link re-directs to a sales page on the Warrior Internet Marketing Forums. The first thing you see on the page is. . . How I Bank BIG FAT $497checks From My Offline Clients For SEO Analysis Reports That Takes Me 1 Minute To Produce Without Touching The keyboard!
Sounds easy enough, right? Of course. Only with MetaFever.com’s free rock star SEO tools! That’s what the author doesn’t reveal until you’ve spent $17.00 on the six page e-book.
Here’s what he did: Spent 30 minutes, maybe more (god I hope not) writing six pages on how you can use MetaFever’s SEO tools to develop SEO reports for clients and charge them $497!!.
As stated in the report, it’s rather simple.
I was going to paste some sections from the book, but I’m not out to violate any international copyright laws. Even though there’s probably no official copyright on this six page manifesto, why take the chance? With that said, I’ll sum things up for you. I hope Arthur Stec doesn’t mind.
1.) Go to Google.com and search any querie.
2.) Next, go to Page 2 and pick out a website. Get their contact information (name and e-mail.) Why page 2? People on page 1 won’t have as much motivation to buy an SEO report from you. Here’s your sign. Ba da bing.
3.) Once you’ve gathered your prospects, write an e-mail saying who you are, what you can do and why they should do it. (The e-book gives an exact template of what you should write.)
4.) As Arthur so eloquently says, “After that you just wait for the phone call or email.”
I’m not sure a free SEO report from MetaFever.com is worth $497 (probably more like $400,000.) But if you think it is, take the above advice and you’ll laugh all the way to the bank.
What do you think? Have you tried our free SEO report tools?
Five Great Ways to Destroy Your SEO Efforts
I know you’ve been dying to find an article like this.
Maybe you were searching for “What Makes an SEO Company Great?” Or another churned out DIY SEO guide. I mean, everyone has one right? Feel free to answer that later.
Today, it’s time to take a different approach: What are some of the best ways to completely wipe out your SEO efforts?
The following five examples are some of the most common ways SEM’s and amateur digital marketers veer off course:
#1 – Not caring about content
Old and out of date content is a great way to reverse hard earned SEO results. Despite how great the last 17 articles are, it’s important to keep fresh and updated content. Your visitors will not only reward you, search engines will keep indexing and visiting your site.
Many times SEM’s hyper focus on tangible SEO techniques like custom URL’s or link building. Yes, these are important. But as the saying goes, dance with the one who brung you: content.
#2 – Content is great, but don’t ignore URL’s
Talk about a nice segue huh? If you’re not using WordPress or some type of content management system that dynamically creates SEO friendly URL’s, it’s time to make the investment. Surprisingly, this tip is commonly overlooked. You’ve created great content, built out all the right pages, but SE’s need to be able to find the goods. Don’t believe me? Look at the search listings next time you Google something. Google places a high premium on URL keywords.
#3 – Excessive, compulsive, repetitive, continuous, never ending. . . keyword stuffing.
You get the point. Even though you should definitely keep keyword density in mind (2-5% is recommend) thinking that readers want to see the same terms over and over again is ludicrous. Rest assured your SEO campaign will quickly disintegrate if you choose this option.
#4 – What exactly are you optimizing?
Yes, having a keyword and content optimization plan is good, but even more important is knowing what you’re optimizing for. If you’re plan is to sell bicycle tires, don’t spend too much time talking about Lance Armstrong’s doping allegations. That might be a little bit of a stretch, yet surprisingly, not uncommon. Nail down which root keywords, and long tail phrases relate best to your product, and develop content accordingly. Not doing so won’t directly destroy your SEO plan. But don’t expect to see good results.
#5 – Better late than never, but don’t wait too long.
There’s an on-going lie out there among many who believe in developing SEO plans after a website is built. I couldn’t’ disagree more. That’s like putting gas in the car after the trip. (Don’t ask how that’s possible, just go with it.)
Wouldn’t you want SEO to play a large role in site development? I would think so. All of the above tips should go hand in hand with web design and structure. SEO is so much more than content and back links. This might sound like a contradiction to our “content” is King mantra. Don’t worry, the throne is still intact. However, the Kingdom can’t survive without a moat (aka your SEO strategy.)
Kansas City Wins Lottery. Now What?
The King of search engines invades telecommunications.
Unless you’ve lived under a rock for most of today, I’m sure you’re aware of Google’s grand announcement to take over and build a Fiber optic network in Kansas City, Kansas.
After a year long process, Kansas City was selected out of 1,100 cities to be a testing ground for Google Fiber: The Mountain View, CA based company’s plan to provide fiber optic Internet access to 100% of Kansas City homes.
This is good news for all Kansascityians. Bad news for, Bostonians, Hunstvilleians, Baltimoreians. . . the list goes on. 1,096 to be exact.
Its fair to say Obama picked a bad news day to announce his 10-year plan to plan to cut oil imports by ⅓.
Even though this mid-sized and equally located state beat out other digitally prime regions, it’s impact will be felt in enormous ways.
With Internet speeds up to 1000x faster in schools, offices, doctors offices, banking. . . and every fathomable industry, the potential for cost savings and new industry is in the realm of billions (if not trillions) of dollars. Especially if the technology spreads to other cities.
A city known for the following. . .
Kansas City, Kansas is the home to the GM Fairfax plant, which manufactures the Chevrolet Malibu and the Buick LaCrosse. The Federal Bureau of Prisons North Central Region Office is in Kansas City, Kansas.[7] In addition Associated Wholesale Grocers and Kansas City Steak Company are based within the city. (Source: Wikipedia)
. . . will soon be the fiber optic capitol of the United States.1 Most people would have bet the farm on places named Silicon Valley, Burbank, Plano, Seattle. . .etc.
Yet, Google decides to give a thumbs up to innovation and shows business can also do social good. The above list may be a bad example compared to a community the size of average Texas cities.
However, speeding up the work, art, lifestyle and culture of an area hit particularly hard by the the great recession is great for Google and for Kansas City. Now, thousands will be able to enjoy what millions wish for.
Will fiber optic Internet save the world? Of course not. It will be a tool for the driven and resourceful. Dial up said bye, Skype and YouTube said hello. The same shall be fiber optics.
On the flip side, Google has promised to continue expanding into other areas. The game may not be over for the 1000+ waiting patiently on the bench.
This means good ole KC won’t be on their pedestal for long. And we haven’t even started talking about China yet.
Striking gold is one thing. Mining it is another.
As Charlie Sheen says, this won’t last for long.
Senator Al Frankin Revs Up SXSW
Al Franken is known to attract an audience.
Sometimes in a packed comedy house or senate chamber and others at a town hall meeting in his home state of Minnesota.
Where’s the Senator at today? The Annual South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas: a geek fest for the creative and un-creative alike.
Mr. Franken’s words regarding net neutrality and the threat of corporations “destroying the Internet,” hit home with an audience reliant on a free-flowing and semi-unregulated access. Going as far to call it the, “First Amendment of our time.”
“I came here to warn you, the party may be over,” Franken added. “They’re coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important [medium] for independent artists and entrepreneurs. Its openness and freedom.”
To put his comments in your native tongue: Destoying =’s large corporations’ attempts at allowing media companies to pay for quicker streaming. Mr. Franken cited Comcast in his example of a company’s business model threatened by an open Internet.
“The real end for Comcast is to put Netflix out of business entirely,” Franken said, because of the threat that Netflix’s streaming video business could pose to Comcast’s cable franchise. “In the end, the American people will end up paying a lot more for worse service.”
The current setup essentially guarantees your drunken exploits blog gets as much attention as Netflix.com.
Well, who wouldn’t be for that? Probably the ones trying to push drunken idiots out the door. Also affectionately known as independent film makers, musicians and writers. . . just to name a few.
Don’t expect the fight to be easy. It’s time to start passing the hat.
“Unfortunately one thing these big corporations have that we don’t is the ability to purchase favorable political outcomes,” Frankin continued. “Big telecoms have lots of [lobbyists], and good ones, too. “The end of net neutrality would benefit no one but these corporate giants.”
A large majority contend, allowing corporations to purchase better streaming would not leave independent artists and small businesses behind. A comprise was also reached which would create two classes of Internet: wireless and fixed line.
Fixed line providers would not be allowed to block access to sites or applications. However, wireless carriers would have more leeway to enforce streaming caps.
Despite the compromise, Mr. Frankin isn’t done fighting for what he calls a “weird Internet.”
“Let’s fight for net neutrality. Let’s keep Austin weird. Let’s keep the Internet weird. Let’s keep the Internet free.”
4 Principles I Try to Live By
I have been working online (full time now) for almost 10 years. And, as I approach this milestone in my professional life I find myself becoming much more retrospective of things past and trying to contemplate what the future will mean for me both personally and professionally.
In the last 10 years, I have went completely broke 3 different times and suffered numerous setbacks that I will chalk up as both my own cause and “bad luck”. I have seen my business grow to 110 employees and go back down to just myself working at home, only to find that I had to somehow find the resolve to pick myself up and try it all again. Despite all of that, I would not have done it any other way!
The following 4 principles are certain truths that I have come to know during this wild ride.
1) All you have is trust!
If your clients, co-workers, or partners don’t trust you . . . then you don’t have a business. You might have a organized crime syndicate or your might have a dictatorship, but you most certainly do not have a business.
Work hard as you grow your business to develop trust around everyone you know. Do what you say, and always only say the things you can or are willing to do.
2) This takes hard work!
If you are working on the internet and you are expecting a huge pie in the sky pay-dirt to come your way . . . go bet on a horse race. You will probably have better odds hitting it big there.
Everything from SEO, to PPC, and product development takes a HUGE amount of work and a lot of sleepless nights and long hours. Be ready to give it your all and most importantly make sure that your family is behind you in your endeavors. I could write a book on that truth alone (getting your family to buy into your dreams), but we will save that one for later.
3) Everything that happens to you is your own fault!
You might say “But Mike, above you mention ‘bad luck’?” . . . that’s right and when I think about it, I made that bad luck come my way.
The choices you make and the people you surround yourself with are entirely up to you. Make sure that when you set out to build your business that you only choose those who have the same or higher ethics that you have. This will ensure that you are not brought down by their poor decisions as often the case might be.
4) I never plan on retiring!
Now, my employees and partner might read this and say “But, Mike . . . that’s not what you told us!”. While it is true that I have told them in 3 years I want to retire that doesn’t mean that I want to stop working.
The idea of setting around and growing old on a golf course simply doesn’t strike a chord with me. As I move forward in life I am going to strike to work hard to help others and never stop building.
Just food for thought . . . .
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