5 Easy Steps To Doing Internet Marketing - Business - ECommerce

Internet marketing is defined as marketing and selling products online. Sometimes people get overwhelmed with everything about it when really Internet marketing is not that hard.

Let's talk about how you can do Internet marketing in five easy steps in this article!

1. Choose a niche to market in. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Get a piece of paper and write down a list of everything you enjoy. Then narrow that list down to things that you either have a real passion for or are an expert in.

This is going to be the niche you start your online business in. The chances of you being successful are very good because you will enjoy working this type of business.

2. Start a blog online. Go to Blogger.com and set up a blog and three easy steps.

You do not need any technical skills to do this. You can choose a template based on your own personal choices. Google owns Blogger and offers tutorials on how to set your blog up the way you want it to be.

3. Find products to sell. The best way to do this is to become an affiliate marketer. You certainly want to start by joining the Google Adsense affiliate program because promoting their ads on your blog is easy.

Affiliate networks such as ClickBank and Commission Junction are also great places to find thousands of products to sell in one location.

4. Promote them all over the internet. This certainly will be the hardest part of the whole process. It's also the one that you will spend the majority of your time on in the future.

One important point is to find one or two forms of marketing online that you enjoy and concentrate on becoming an expert on them. Possible things you can do to promote on the Internet today include social media such as videos, article marketing, blogging, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, email marketing, and much more!

You really only need 1-2 good traffic generation strategies to succeed online. You can take a hands on approach and do these yourself.

You can even outsource this type of work freelancers. However you choose to do it you must get traffic to your blog if you expect to make any money.

5. Repeat until you are rich! You really can make a lot of money on the Internet today in numerous niches.

Once you get a system in place that is working you can then just repeat this in other themes and continue on until your income is at the level you want to be.

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Free Webpage Design: 10 Tools and Resources for the DIY Businessperson - Business - ECommerce

These days, it is not necessary to pay for website creation. If you don't choose spend thousands of dollars on a premium designer, there are plenty of tools out there to do it on your own. Small businesses and personal bloggers have all the tools they need to make a website for free, and while many designers make beautiful sites these days, it maybe be beyond the needs of the average small company or hobbyist.

Here are some of my favorite free webpage design tools and resources.

1. Free Publishing Software: Wordpress.org

Wordpress has revolutionized web design and most of the advice is based on this program. There are other options available, but in my opinion Wordpress offers the most value. Not to mention that great hosting providers, like HostGator, have made it a simple matter to upload the software to your cPanel with the click of a button.

2. Free Website Themes:

Wordpress offers some basic free themes with their software, but I personally get all mine from this website. They are still free but a world ahead of the standard templates. Get a little experience working in the admin area, and no one will be able to tell you didn't go with a premium theme.

3. Free Graphic Software: Gimp

This tool is brilliant. Download it at gimp.org. They even have an extensive list of websites with thousands of images you can use or customize. Just be sure you check the rights on them, but many are free for any use. I'll warn you that there is a steep learning curve in graphics design, but if you Google around a little bit, you will find some fabulous tutorials out there. Spend a week or two learning the basics and you'll be designing great logos and headers in no time.

4. Free Photos: Flikr

They have plenty of images you can use on your site, even if you are commercial. The advanced search options allow you to easily search through the photos which allow commercial use. Just take some time to get to know how the search function works and how to double check the rights of each photo.

5. Free Advertising:

List your business with Google Yellow Pages and put ads on Craigslist. You should also learn some SEO to take advantage of natural search engine traffic. And get thissome webmasters are now getting massive results by handing out free fliers in the streets that offer something of value to their customers that requires a sign-up onsite.

6. Free email: Gmail

A lot of people give Gmail and other free email providers a bad rap, but I have had email accounts with many different providers, including paid services, and I swear by Gmail. You couldn't twist my arm hard enough to choose a different one. Get to know Google Docs and some other Google features as well, and you'll find they can go a long way in streamlining your online business efforts.

7. Free WordPress Headers: ThemeHeadrs.com.

This site has a lot of nice header designs. I usually just open them up in Microsoft Publisher or Gimp and add some wordart; however, they do customizations for $10 apiece.

8. Free Monetization: Commission Junction Awesome.

Unlike some commission directories, they only support reputable companies, and there are some very high-paying programs available. Just sign up for an account and search in their system for advertising banners that fit your niche.

9. Free Theme Generator: /wpthemegen/

This Wordpress tool is awesome if you aren't happy with the limitations of a preset theme. It does have a learning curve and will be a little awkward to use at first, but if you take some time to play with the different features and experiment on what each does, you can get pretty good. Uploading a custom header is a must if you want it to look professional.

1o. Free Advice: The Warrior Forum

If you want to get serious about internet marketing and webpage design strategies, the Warrior Forum is a wealth of information. I really can't say enough about this place. There is a very positive, helpful atmosphere on the forum, and members get access to a list of free eBooks about internet marketing and free webpage design advice.

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Homebased Blogging - The Powerful Platform to Generate Traffic - Business - Affiliate Programs

You might not realize it initially, but blogging is a powerful platform for generating traffic. It will not only provide you with a means to generate large bursts of temporary traffic, but it can also help you to improve your search engine ranking positions (and to generate long, persistent streams of traffic well into the future).

Through blogging and related activities, you can rapidly go from having a site with few visitors; to a bustling hub of traffic that receives visitors from dozens of other sources; and then directs them to various product offers, affiliate links, and paid advertisements.

When it comes to generating traffic through blogging, one of the most important decisions you can make is which platform to use. I personally suggest that you use one of the following platforms:

WordPress. This is the platform of choice for many Internet marketers. Its primary advantages include its selection of plug-ins (including plug-ins that automatically optimize your blog for search engine traffic), its high-quality and user-friendly administrative panel, and its ease of installation. If you want to start using a Word Press blog, you can probably set one up with a click of a button with your web host.

Blogger. Another favorite platform among bloggers (and some marketers, too) is Google's Blogger. Some benefits of blogger include the following: 1) it's free; 2) it has a user-friendly UI; and 3) it is hosted by Google. Additionally, some argue that Blogger sites rank better on search engines because Google hosts them.

Movable Type. If neither Blogger nor WordPress looks good to you, you may want to consider using Movable Type instead. Similar to Word Press and Blogger, this platform is free.

With all of this said, it cannot be emphasized enough that you should select a platform that you are a) comfortable with; and b) are able to use flexibly and extensively for SEO purposes and traffic generation tasks.

Now that you've selected a blogging platform, it's time for you to actually create a blog. The initial setup is typically simple. If you're hosting it on your own domain, you will need to select a short, easy-to-remember subdomain to place it on. To the contrary, if you host it using Blogger or another service that will host your blog for you, then the service will typically determine the URL for your blog.

Regardless of which platform you use, you will also need to create a catchy name for your blog that relates to your site's content. In addition to this, you will want to take the following steps to ensure your blog is setup correctly:

Find a Good Template. If you opted to use WordPress, you will have many options when it comes to selecting blog templates. Additionally, at least a handful will come free with each blog platform.

Install an SEO Plug-in. If you're using WordPress, you will probably want to use the "All in One SEO Pack"; however, if you are using a different platform, there should also be a myriad of different SEO plug-in templates. Spend some time finding the right one for you; and then put it to work.

Create Tags for Your Blog Entry Categories. When you begin posting on your blog, you will sort things roughly according to the category of the post. For instance, if you have an Internet marketing blog, you might have the following categories: 1) SEO, 2) Direct Marketing, 3) PPC Marketing, and 4) Copywriting. You should create these categories when you start your blog; and then continue to use them as you post.

If you achieve each of these objectives, you are well on your way to creating a good blog.

With your blog up and running, the next natural question is what to post. This is a lot more difficult than many non-bloggers realize. In fact, this is the part of blogging that eventually leads to the undoing of many blog starters. I personally suggest that you do one (or more) of the following:

Hire a Ghostblogger. Like a ghostwriter, a ghostblogger will create all of the content for you, but will allow you to claim all ownership to it. You can provide the ghostblogger with some simple direction by giving him or her a fixed number of posts to complete each day, along with categories on which she should focus.

Create Interesting Themes. If you've visited any well-established blogs lately, you've probably noticed that some of them repeat blog themes again and again. For instance, they might have a specific post for the "picture of the week" or the "joke of the week." These running themes not only give people a reason to come back to the blog, but they also help the blogger to come up with good ideas.

Coupons, Sales, and Announcements. Of course, the primary purpose of your blog is to make sales. This is why it is important that you use it to announce important events and discounts as they become available.

Non-Commercial Announcements. If you just read a powerful tip about marketing, share it with your readers immediately. If you found it useful, chances are that they will find it useful, too. They will appreciate it; and will come back to your blog as a result.

Thoughts and Musings. From time to time, you'll have thoughts about your niche and about your business. Posting these makes your blog more personal; and invites others to participate in the discussion. This will not only help you to gain repeat traffic, but it could also help you to gain insight into how others perceive your business.

Finally, once you begin adding entries, you will want to get into the habit of pinging them regularly. You can do this by entering your blog name, URL, and XML feed here: pingoat(dot)com. After that, you will need to check off each blog directory that you wish to ping. Each time you post a new entry, do this again. This will bump your blog to the top of post category for each of those directories (which can potentially give you a short burst of traffic). In addition to this, if people like your entry, many directories allow them to vote for it, prolonging the amount of time it spends at the top.

Overall, pinging has two important effects. The first effect is the short, initial burst of traffic that will send new visitors to your blog. And the second effect is to give you an inbound link from a high-ranking directory site, which can help your search engine ranking positions in the long term.

As a new blogger, you might not feel like you have much direction in terms of how and where to promote your blog. Well, as a procrastinator, one good way in which you can do this is to post on other people's blogs.

The main benefit of this method should be clear: it will make all of the promotion work seem like it isn't work at all. However, if you want to make this method work, you will have to make an attempt to actually pay careful attention to the blog entries you are reading; and respond to them with well-thought out responses, including advice, links, and tutorials.

In addition to simply responding, you will want to be sure to include a link that points back to your blog at the end of each comment. This will pull some of the traffic from that blog to you own. Additionally, it will generate an inbound link pointing to your site, which will improve your search engine ranking positions over time.

Finally, make sure you avoid spamming or posting links on irrelevant blogs. Doing this is unlikely to generate a lot of visitors; and is more likely to get your IP address banned from posting on high-profile blogs.

0

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Homebased Blogging - The Powerful Platform to Generate Traffic - Business - Affiliate Programs

You might not realize it initially, but blogging is a powerful platform for generating traffic. It will not only provide you with a means to generate large bursts of temporary traffic, but it can also help you to improve your search engine ranking positions (and to generate long, persistent streams of traffic well into the future).

Through blogging and related activities, you can rapidly go from having a site with few visitors; to a bustling hub of traffic that receives visitors from dozens of other sources; and then directs them to various product offers, affiliate links, and paid advertisements.

When it comes to generating traffic through blogging, one of the most important decisions you can make is which platform to use. I personally suggest that you use one of the following platforms:

WordPress. This is the platform of choice for many Internet marketers. Its primary advantages include its selection of plug-ins (including plug-ins that automatically optimize your blog for search engine traffic), its high-quality and user-friendly administrative panel, and its ease of installation. If you want to start using a Word Press blog, you can probably set one up with a click of a button with your web host.

Blogger. Another favorite platform among bloggers (and some marketers, too) is Google's Blogger. Some benefits of blogger include the following: 1) it's free; 2) it has a user-friendly UI; and 3) it is hosted by Google. Additionally, some argue that Blogger sites rank better on search engines because Google hosts them.

Movable Type. If neither Blogger nor WordPress looks good to you, you may want to consider using Movable Type instead. Similar to Word Press and Blogger, this platform is free.

With all of this said, it cannot be emphasized enough that you should select a platform that you are a) comfortable with; and b) are able to use flexibly and extensively for SEO purposes and traffic generation tasks.

Now that you've selected a blogging platform, it's time for you to actually create a blog. The initial setup is typically simple. If you're hosting it on your own domain, you will need to select a short, easy-to-remember subdomain to place it on. To the contrary, if you host it using Blogger or another service that will host your blog for you, then the service will typically determine the URL for your blog.

Regardless of which platform you use, you will also need to create a catchy name for your blog that relates to your site's content. In addition to this, you will want to take the following steps to ensure your blog is setup correctly:

Find a Good Template. If you opted to use WordPress, you will have many options when it comes to selecting blog templates. Additionally, at least a handful will come free with each blog platform.

Install an SEO Plug-in. If you're using WordPress, you will probably want to use the "All in One SEO Pack"; however, if you are using a different platform, there should also be a myriad of different SEO plug-in templates. Spend some time finding the right one for you; and then put it to work.

Create Tags for Your Blog Entry Categories. When you begin posting on your blog, you will sort things roughly according to the category of the post. For instance, if you have an Internet marketing blog, you might have the following categories: 1) SEO, 2) Direct Marketing, 3) PPC Marketing, and 4) Copywriting. You should create these categories when you start your blog; and then continue to use them as you post.

If you achieve each of these objectives, you are well on your way to creating a good blog.

With your blog up and running, the next natural question is what to post. This is a lot more difficult than many non-bloggers realize. In fact, this is the part of blogging that eventually leads to the undoing of many blog starters. I personally suggest that you do one (or more) of the following:

Hire a Ghostblogger. Like a ghostwriter, a ghostblogger will create all of the content for you, but will allow you to claim all ownership to it. You can provide the ghostblogger with some simple direction by giving him or her a fixed number of posts to complete each day, along with categories on which she should focus.

Create Interesting Themes. If you've visited any well-established blogs lately, you've probably noticed that some of them repeat blog themes again and again. For instance, they might have a specific post for the "picture of the week" or the "joke of the week." These running themes not only give people a reason to come back to the blog, but they also help the blogger to come up with good ideas.

Coupons, Sales, and Announcements. Of course, the primary purpose of your blog is to make sales. This is why it is important that you use it to announce important events and discounts as they become available.

Non-Commercial Announcements. If you just read a powerful tip about marketing, share it with your readers immediately. If you found it useful, chances are that they will find it useful, too. They will appreciate it; and will come back to your blog as a result.

Thoughts and Musings. From time to time, you'll have thoughts about your niche and about your business. Posting these makes your blog more personal; and invites others to participate in the discussion. This will not only help you to gain repeat traffic, but it could also help you to gain insight into how others perceive your business.

Finally, once you begin adding entries, you will want to get into the habit of pinging them regularly. You can do this by entering your blog name, URL, and XML feed here: pingoat(dot)com. After that, you will need to check off each blog directory that you wish to ping. Each time you post a new entry, do this again. This will bump your blog to the top of post category for each of those directories (which can potentially give you a short burst of traffic). In addition to this, if people like your entry, many directories allow them to vote for it, prolonging the amount of time it spends at the top.

Overall, pinging has two important effects. The first effect is the short, initial burst of traffic that will send new visitors to your blog. And the second effect is to give you an inbound link from a high-ranking directory site, which can help your search engine ranking positions in the long term.

As a new blogger, you might not feel like you have much direction in terms of how and where to promote your blog. Well, as a procrastinator, one good way in which you can do this is to post on other people's blogs.

The main benefit of this method should be clear: it will make all of the promotion work seem like it isn't work at all. However, if you want to make this method work, you will have to make an attempt to actually pay careful attention to the blog entries you are reading; and respond to them with well-thought out responses, including advice, links, and tutorials.

In addition to simply responding, you will want to be sure to include a link that points back to your blog at the end of each comment. This will pull some of the traffic from that blog to you own. Additionally, it will generate an inbound link pointing to your site, which will improve your search engine ranking positions over time.

Finally, make sure you avoid spamming or posting links on irrelevant blogs. Doing this is unlikely to generate a lot of visitors; and is more likely to get your IP address banned from posting on high-profile blogs.

0

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Top 10 newbie online social media resources - Web 2.0 - Social Communities

Top 10 newbie online social media resources

Hi all. Do you want to start your own business or pursue an idea and have no clue about Social Business? Social Media? Social Marketing? Online tools? I'm certainly no expert in any of these areas, but I mentioned in my last post that I'm keen to start some direction in my research and learning with view to being able to become more aware of social online marketing and to at some point potentially make some money from something I both enjoy, am interested in, have a limited level of understanding in and want to improve my understanding of. I've mentioned blogging as being a potential area for interest and inevitably revenue. People read things with many expectations and within varied contexts and I would hope that some people read my blog for three main reasons - 1) The blog content is interesting to them, 2) The blog content makes them laugh, and/or 3) My blog inspires others to take action on some of their thoughts and ideas (which could in reality be the next 'google', the next 'facebook' or next 'eBay' - these all started off as ideas that people acted on)!

I have ideas that I'm taking action on, but if YOU haven't yet and you'd like to have a starting point for which resources to use to learn and research to enable to you to do this better this post may be of use. As promised in my previous blog article, I've come up with a list of some of the most useful items and online social or business resources that I've either been using actively or plan to use. I'll try to keep each item as short as possible here as I really could go one forever to explain each (I could write a 100-page website on each).

1. Godaddy

I've chosen godaddy for three reasons really. Firstly, this is widely regarded and reputed to be one of the best domain name and hosting providers available in the world today. They're big, have their fingers in a lot of pies and are in absolutely little or no danger of going bust / out of business. Second, everyone seems to tell me that these guys are the best and easiest to use, including resources/people that I list later on in the blog. They are so widely used that there are lots of instructions and tutorials on how to use their domain name registration and hosting services. Third and finally, godaddy are a facility that directly allow you to literally act on your ideas by registering a suitable website name and hosting your website to start talking to people!

2. Google

I honestly can't speak highly enough about google! From MY experience, all of the products that I use of theirs are highly tuned and of very good application and use. They've also got their fingers in a lot of pies which again means that they'll be hard pushed to fold. Particularly useful products include gmail, which is good for storage, spam filtering and manages your mail well, google analytics, which tracks your website / blog's statistics in terms of visits, visitors and the associated demographics, and another key product is adsense which enables registered users to access marketing activities inward (making cash from placing other peoples adverts) or outwards (actually advertising via google in various formats). If you own a website or blog, you HAVE to be useing Googles products. There are many more that I use and I will discuss these in much more detail soon, but the ones I've mentioned are key.

3. Youtube

I'll let the video do the explaining...

I like youtube because it brings TV the masses. In a business context, it's free advertising so long as the content (and traffic) is there. If the content is shit, the content won't be re-blogged, re-linked and become viral, but on the other hand so long as there are items that a viewer want to see or are compelled so see, they'll view (and in turn make you money if you're savvy;D ). OK, youtube is good for many reasons and it really is down to your perception as to how it can be used best in a business way, social way or any other way for that matter. I like it for two main reasons really, 1) because it's easy for a user to, errr, USE and 2) because it is something that can be monetised easily.

I've been recently taking a listen to what Edzjohnson and JeffBT have got to offer in terms of advise. I've also been doing a great deal of laughing at the now rather critically acclaimed Shane Dawson. Check them all out, hopefully they'll link to me and scratch my back a little.

4. Blogger (Google product)

I use Google's blogger to make this blog. I haven't got a lot of experience in using many other tools for 'wizarding' or facilitating the making of a blog or website (and it's something that I'm researching), but my experience with blogger has been a relatively good one so far. It's also allowed me to integrate many or all of the other tools that I describe VERY easily. I'm not at all technical in terms of using the internet or barely even a computer, however due familiarising myself with blogger I've been able to learn a lot about web, social media and all the other associated 'media' and marketing tools. Blogger is very easy to use.

You can sign up and have a blog made within 5 minutes, because there are loads of templates and free widgets for structuring things on your blog. Blogger is also well integrated with other Google products which I actively use which helps for ease and convenience. It's the time and care that you take toward making, editing and marketing your content and articles that will make the difference on it's success. I try to take a lot of time proof reading, editing and re-editing my content before I actually submit it for people to read (publish the article). OK, so I'll make the odd spelllling or grammar errorrr but on the whole I hope reading my articles is a good experience for people. Let me know your feedback on the content and layout in the comments section if you agree or disagree!

5. SEOMOZ

SEOMOZ is basically a glorified blog in itself, but someone is making ALOT of money from this! What this website provides are tips, advise, guides, tools and expertise on all things SEO (search engine optimisation) and SEM (search engine marketing), as well as the associated essentials for web marketing.

For a start, the site is very well optimised as you'd expect and a huge amount of people link to it (which is always a good sign as to a websites usefulness). They send marketing advise in a not too 'spammy' way, which as a result of reading has continually expanded my learning experience. You have to pay to use a number of 'premium' features on the website, which I'm sure would be value for money, but I'm yet to test these. I'll do this at some point and blog the results (yes, I'll be your Guinea Pig!). I suppose it's tough to really explain how really useful SEOMOZ actually is because without actually READING the articles, you won't understand, but take my word for it I've so far found SEOMOZ rather tasty. Oh my main reason for liking it is that they're very honest in they're content! They don't hold back too much and pretty much just let you know in layman's terms 'how it is'! Try them out at

6. Technorati

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. The name Technorati is a blend of the words technology and literati, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism. You can use Technorati to search good blogs and research your topic of interest, or (and crucially for bloggers) submit your blog post for others to find. There are lots of these website types around but Technorati is one of, if not THE, market leader and has many accolades to prove this. It can be used to add credibility and/or traffic to your blogsite.

7. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the ultimate blog. Advert-free, and arguably the most useful tool on the internet. Imagine having over 17 million articles of information right at your computer, free and accurate. OK, so it's not always accurate but they run a very tight verification process for all articles submitted so if things are not referenced properly then they get flagged and removed quite quickly. Wikipedia is the ultimate student resource. Most of my high school and university work can be attributed to Wikipedia, so I think it's worth mentioning a little 'thank you'! I continue to use (and often plagiarism) Wiki, even in my blog, which is why it's in my top 10!

8. Facebook

Over 500 million active users. Over $800 Million in revenue (2009). Alexa rank 2. Just 1700+ employees and still growing. I've written about Facebook a lot in my blogs, not nearly enough as I've got the time to, because it facinates me. It also provides me with the tools necessary to keep social in a busy lifestyle and from a business perspective it allows be to take my ideas to the masses quickly. I use it everyday, YOU use it everyday, Will Smith uses it everyday. I can't say I've learn't very much from Facebook, so this isn't the reason why I've added it here. It's just that I can really see the potential in business application in the longer term from Facebook. Their advertising products are still quite young, so are still in the developing phase, but clearly there are a lot of applications (in both senses of the word) for Facebook socially and in business.

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9. Linkedin

I've used Linkedin for around four years now and it is absolutely fantastic for 'linkin' to business contacts. I call it the facebook for professionals! It's basically a way justifying using 'Facebook' at work. In all fairness, you can do TONS of things in linked in, much like with facebook and google, such as advertise, create and publish to the masses your content of all types and, what I find most fascinating, bring together groups of communities with ease. If you work in an environment were you have a lot of contact with people, get on linkedin. More recently, Linkedin has become more like Facebook because they've simplified much of their user interface and linked to other social media websites etc. Linkedin has over 80 million members as of Sept 2010 so it's big. Linkedin is also really easy to use which goes some way to explaining why it's been popular.

10. Wordpress

Wordpress is RAVED about! Basically it is another 'Google blogger' type tool, only that it is for making both Blogs and/or Websites. Now, I've not actually used Wordpress just yet - this is on the list, but I've seen enough Wordpress-made websites and heard enough good feedback to know that it's the tool that I'm going to use a huge amount more in the future. I'll be reviewing more about this I'm sure in the future. Hopefully I'll also be able to show some of my Wordpress examples too!

If you've enjoyed this or found it useful, please subscribe to me, resend a link to my website to your friends, comment your opinions and more importantly for me your ADVISE as I'm keen for feedback.

Email for enquiries, ideas, opinions and proposals. Don't forget to comment your voice, follow me and tell you friends about me. MachineDaena. /machinedaenaPosted by MachineDaena at 21:27 Labels: best online social media, blog, Blogger (Google product), blogging, facebook, Godaddy, Google, Linkedin, online marketing, online research, sem, seo, SEOMOZ, Tendorani, Wikipedia, Wordpress, Youtube

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Top 10 newbie online social media resources - Web 2.0 - Social Communities

Top 10 newbie online social media resources

Hi all. Do you want to start your own business or pursue an idea and have no clue about Social Business? Social Media? Social Marketing? Online tools? I'm certainly no expert in any of these areas, but I mentioned in my last post that I'm keen to start some direction in my research and learning with view to being able to become more aware of social online marketing and to at some point potentially make some money from something I both enjoy, am interested in, have a limited level of understanding in and want to improve my understanding of. I've mentioned blogging as being a potential area for interest and inevitably revenue. People read things with many expectations and within varied contexts and I would hope that some people read my blog for three main reasons - 1) The blog content is interesting to them, 2) The blog content makes them laugh, and/or 3) My blog inspires others to take action on some of their thoughts and ideas (which could in reality be the next 'google', the next 'facebook' or next 'eBay' - these all started off as ideas that people acted on)!

I have ideas that I'm taking action on, but if YOU haven't yet and you'd like to have a starting point for which resources to use to learn and research to enable to you to do this better this post may be of use. As promised in my previous blog article, I've come up with a list of some of the most useful items and online social or business resources that I've either been using actively or plan to use. I'll try to keep each item as short as possible here as I really could go one forever to explain each (I could write a 100-page website on each).

1. Godaddy

I've chosen godaddy for three reasons really. Firstly, this is widely regarded and reputed to be one of the best domain name and hosting providers available in the world today. They're big, have their fingers in a lot of pies and are in absolutely little or no danger of going bust / out of business. Second, everyone seems to tell me that these guys are the best and easiest to use, including resources/people that I list later on in the blog. They are so widely used that there are lots of instructions and tutorials on how to use their domain name registration and hosting services. Third and finally, godaddy are a facility that directly allow you to literally act on your ideas by registering a suitable website name and hosting your website to start talking to people!

2. Google

I honestly can't speak highly enough about google! From MY experience, all of the products that I use of theirs are highly tuned and of very good application and use. They've also got their fingers in a lot of pies which again means that they'll be hard pushed to fold. Particularly useful products include gmail, which is good for storage, spam filtering and manages your mail well, google analytics, which tracks your website / blog's statistics in terms of visits, visitors and the associated demographics, and another key product is adsense which enables registered users to access marketing activities inward (making cash from placing other peoples adverts) or outwards (actually advertising via google in various formats). If you own a website or blog, you HAVE to be useing Googles products. There are many more that I use and I will discuss these in much more detail soon, but the ones I've mentioned are key.

3. Youtube

I'll let the video do the explaining...

I like youtube because it brings TV the masses. In a business context, it's free advertising so long as the content (and traffic) is there. If the content is shit, the content won't be re-blogged, re-linked and become viral, but on the other hand so long as there are items that a viewer want to see or are compelled so see, they'll view (and in turn make you money if you're savvy;D ). OK, youtube is good for many reasons and it really is down to your perception as to how it can be used best in a business way, social way or any other way for that matter. I like it for two main reasons really, 1) because it's easy for a user to, errr, USE and 2) because it is something that can be monetised easily.

I've been recently taking a listen to what Edzjohnson and JeffBT have got to offer in terms of advise. I've also been doing a great deal of laughing at the now rather critically acclaimed Shane Dawson. Check them all out, hopefully they'll link to me and scratch my back a little.

4. Blogger (Google product)

I use Google's blogger to make this blog. I haven't got a lot of experience in using many other tools for 'wizarding' or facilitating the making of a blog or website (and it's something that I'm researching), but my experience with blogger has been a relatively good one so far. It's also allowed me to integrate many or all of the other tools that I describe VERY easily. I'm not at all technical in terms of using the internet or barely even a computer, however due familiarising myself with blogger I've been able to learn a lot about web, social media and all the other associated 'media' and marketing tools. Blogger is very easy to use.

You can sign up and have a blog made within 5 minutes, because there are loads of templates and free widgets for structuring things on your blog. Blogger is also well integrated with other Google products which I actively use which helps for ease and convenience. It's the time and care that you take toward making, editing and marketing your content and articles that will make the difference on it's success. I try to take a lot of time proof reading, editing and re-editing my content before I actually submit it for people to read (publish the article). OK, so I'll make the odd spelllling or grammar errorrr but on the whole I hope reading my articles is a good experience for people. Let me know your feedback on the content and layout in the comments section if you agree or disagree!

5. SEOMOZ

SEOMOZ is basically a glorified blog in itself, but someone is making ALOT of money from this! What this website provides are tips, advise, guides, tools and expertise on all things SEO (search engine optimisation) and SEM (search engine marketing), as well as the associated essentials for web marketing.

For a start, the site is very well optimised as you'd expect and a huge amount of people link to it (which is always a good sign as to a websites usefulness). They send marketing advise in a not too 'spammy' way, which as a result of reading has continually expanded my learning experience. You have to pay to use a number of 'premium' features on the website, which I'm sure would be value for money, but I'm yet to test these. I'll do this at some point and blog the results (yes, I'll be your Guinea Pig!). I suppose it's tough to really explain how really useful SEOMOZ actually is because without actually READING the articles, you won't understand, but take my word for it I've so far found SEOMOZ rather tasty. Oh my main reason for liking it is that they're very honest in they're content! They don't hold back too much and pretty much just let you know in layman's terms 'how it is'! Try them out at

6. Technorati

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media. The name Technorati is a blend of the words technology and literati, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism. You can use Technorati to search good blogs and research your topic of interest, or (and crucially for bloggers) submit your blog post for others to find. There are lots of these website types around but Technorati is one of, if not THE, market leader and has many accolades to prove this. It can be used to add credibility and/or traffic to your blogsite.

7. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the ultimate blog. Advert-free, and arguably the most useful tool on the internet. Imagine having over 17 million articles of information right at your computer, free and accurate. OK, so it's not always accurate but they run a very tight verification process for all articles submitted so if things are not referenced properly then they get flagged and removed quite quickly. Wikipedia is the ultimate student resource. Most of my high school and university work can be attributed to Wikipedia, so I think it's worth mentioning a little 'thank you'! I continue to use (and often plagiarism) Wiki, even in my blog, which is why it's in my top 10!

8. Facebook

Over 500 million active users. Over $800 Million in revenue (2009). Alexa rank 2. Just 1700+ employees and still growing. I've written about Facebook a lot in my blogs, not nearly enough as I've got the time to, because it facinates me. It also provides me with the tools necessary to keep social in a busy lifestyle and from a business perspective it allows be to take my ideas to the masses quickly. I use it everyday, YOU use it everyday, Will Smith uses it everyday. I can't say I've learn't very much from Facebook, so this isn't the reason why I've added it here. It's just that I can really see the potential in business application in the longer term from Facebook. Their advertising products are still quite young, so are still in the developing phase, but clearly there are a lot of applications (in both senses of the word) for Facebook socially and in business.

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9. Linkedin

I've used Linkedin for around four years now and it is absolutely fantastic for 'linkin' to business contacts. I call it the facebook for professionals! It's basically a way justifying using 'Facebook' at work. In all fairness, you can do TONS of things in linked in, much like with facebook and google, such as advertise, create and publish to the masses your content of all types and, what I find most fascinating, bring together groups of communities with ease. If you work in an environment were you have a lot of contact with people, get on linkedin. More recently, Linkedin has become more like Facebook because they've simplified much of their user interface and linked to other social media websites etc. Linkedin has over 80 million members as of Sept 2010 so it's big. Linkedin is also really easy to use which goes some way to explaining why it's been popular.

10. Wordpress

Wordpress is RAVED about! Basically it is another 'Google blogger' type tool, only that it is for making both Blogs and/or Websites. Now, I've not actually used Wordpress just yet - this is on the list, but I've seen enough Wordpress-made websites and heard enough good feedback to know that it's the tool that I'm going to use a huge amount more in the future. I'll be reviewing more about this I'm sure in the future. Hopefully I'll also be able to show some of my Wordpress examples too!

If you've enjoyed this or found it useful, please subscribe to me, resend a link to my website to your friends, comment your opinions and more importantly for me your ADVISE as I'm keen for feedback.

Email for enquiries, ideas, opinions and proposals. Don't forget to comment your voice, follow me and tell you friends about me. MachineDaena. /machinedaenaPosted by MachineDaena at 21:27 Labels: best online social media, blog, Blogger (Google product), blogging, facebook, Godaddy, Google, Linkedin, online marketing, online research, sem, seo, SEOMOZ, Tendorani, Wikipedia, Wordpress, Youtube

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