5 Exclusive Facebook Marketing Resources

With over 1 billion people now on Facebook it stands to reason that Facebook advertising alone can target a wide range of people. However it wasn’t that long ago that many doubted Facebook’s strength in a marketing capacity. Yet fast forward a few years and many businesses feel social media is an integral part of their marketing strategy. In fact there has been a 75% increase in social media campaigns since a few years ago. There are still various companies out there that may find social media intimidating and haven’t embraced it yet. If you don’t know where to begin, check out these 5 marketing resources from Facebook to get you started from the very source itself.

Facebook Marketing Page

Facebook’s official marketing page currently has over 2 million likes and is designed to help marketers and businesses use Facebook’s marketing platform more effectively. The marketing page posts valuable information about webinars that they are holding for marketers as well as providing statistics about Facebook’s advertising platform. This can come in useful when you’re trying to pitch for Facebook advertising to a marketing team or a client. Facebook representatives will also answer any questions that are posted on their wall.

Facebook Advertising Page

This page describes the online advertising process – how things work and examples of

4 Marketing Tips for Targeting Women via Social Networks

Social networks have become so popular these days, which the online marketing techniques had to redesign the whole concept around these aspects. There are many tips and tricks to use the social networks when it comes to reaching a targeted audience, when talking about a company, the only thing that a person needs to do is to pay attention to the details.

So, who is on Facebook? The most common answer is that everyone is there, from children to adults, from college students to professionals in any fields. This means that any company, of any profile, is interested in being in the social networks because of the fact that everyone is there (or at least a great part from their targeted audience).

Let’s take the example of a perfume company for women. How would they target this section on Facebook? There are some tips that can be applied here.

#1 Groups

This is a very subtle way of communication. There are millions of groups that are formed

3 Online Branding Mistakes You Need to Avoid

Branding properly can build your business at an alarming pace. You can gain your target market’s trust, improve your visibility and increase sales quite quickly if you brand yourself effectively. Unfortunately, many people take all the wrong steps during the branding process.

Many rush mindlessly ahead, desperate to generate sales, so they plaster their business link all over Facebook Groups, twitter and Google Plus. These practices are repelling, meaning that you scare away people who might otherwise be interested in your opportunity.

Check your energy. Do you feel confident, about yourself and your opportunity? If you don’t, take a step back. Either build up confidence in yourself and your business or select another opportunity, because you can’t build a successful, thriving brand while lacking confidence in yourself and the business you attempt to grow.

Lack of Clarity

Branding newbies usually have zero clarity around their campaign. The brand message

How Should Niche Businesses Use Social Media to Best Effect?

This article gives suggestions and best practice tips to niche businesses around capitalizing on the potential of social media.

Time to Socialise

The big mistake that many smaller niche businesses make is to forsake social media platforms completely. There is a prevailing attitude that, because only a few people will probably be seeking out a social media presence, that there isn’t any point in doing it.

Instead, these businesses should view social media in much the same way that they view search engine optimisation. Accept that yes, fewer people will be seeking you out, however take that opportunity to focus on the specific market that has an interest in you and make your social media content as relevant as possible.

How to Stand Out

If you are a niche business then it is not easy to stand out in a world where the biggest

5 Reasons Why Pinterest Drives Traffic To WordPress Sites

If you are looking to get your WordPress site ready for Summertime, Pinterest, and other similar social media networks, are user friendly and great for giving your site a fresher look. Whether you are researching new marketing techniques or you are launching a new business website, social networking deserves your attention.

It is no secret that social networking is a major component in ramping up your business’ marketing plans. After going to a site like best10webhosting to compare hosting companies, and then choosing an attractive web design, many businesses rely on sites likes Facebook and LinkedIn to connect to their customers. What might surprise you is the rapid growth that Pinterest has experienced this year. Mashable.com reported earlier

How to Promote Your Blog in Social Medias

You should use social media to increase the reputation and readership of your blog. If you are trying to increase its PageRank using social media, you will make the acquaintance of failure. The Google programmers are never going to put too much faith into social media because it is too easy to manipulate.

A person may start 100 new accounts today, and use them every day, then once a week they may comment on and link to a website. If Google were paying attention, the websites in question would rise high in the Google search engine results. Manipulating social media for search engine results improvement is too easy and hence unimportant unless Google decide to take note of social media mentions/likes.

Your job is to raise the reputation and prestige of your website through social media, so that people will wish to link to you of their own free will. So that people will comment positively on your blog and will follow it of his or her own free will.

Do not forget to put the little social media widgets/buttons on your blog somewhere, so that you blog readers may also follow your social media actions. It is not necessary but is a good idea if you run competitions, surveys or offers on your social media site.

Facebook

If you have a business page feed, you should enable the auto-share function. It will share

Is Your Brand Like-Worthy-Ways to Drive Engagement on Facebook

The results of a study released in January of 2012 by the Australian think tank Ehrenberg-Bass Institute say that less than 1 percent of the people who “like” a brand actually engage with it. When it comes down to it, the level of engagement is much more important than the number of likes you have. Beyond cultivating likes, you have to cultivate engagement. So how do you convince people to like your brand AND engage with it on Facebook? Here are some of the things that can be successful for driving engagement.

Photos

Photos are the most shared type of content on Facebook. Brands that post different types of content often find that popular photographs also receive the highest number of comments. Photos are great because they’re content that can be consumed instantly. You don’t have to read anything or even click “play” to get the message. Especially if a photo is really funny, people will want to share it with their friends. If you can post photos that are really unique, hilarious, beautiful, or attention-grabbing, you will see more user engagement on that post.

Questions

This is perhaps the simplest and most obvious way to encourage engagement. Ask a question, and your fans will answer you. The best questions are touching on subjects that matter to them. One thing that matters to everyone is themselves, so try asking personal questions (not too personal), like about people’s preferences, opinions, or experiences. Try a fill-in-the-blank type of question, like, “Fill in the blank. This summer I’m most excited about (blank).” Asking questions about your brand is a good way to drive engagement and receive feedback.

Talking Back

The most important way to drive engagement is by engaging, too. When your fans make comments, write back – always respond when they answer a question or give feedback, and often respond to comments even when no response is required or asked for. Even simply “liking” a fan’s comment makes an impression. When you demonstrate that you’re a brand who wants to interact with its customers, more fans will initiate that interaction. Just be careful that your responses are always consistent with your brand’s image and values.

Valuable Content

Really valuable content will inspire engagement. People will feel compelled to comment on something that interests, impresses, or surprises them, and they’ll also feel compelled to share the valuable information with their friends. Valuable content can be anything from a demo video to a news article to a short tip, but it always helps your fans in some way. It might offer them new or useful information, and many times content can be valuable for the entertainment it provides, too.

Calls to Action

Never overlook the power of the call to action. A call to action will significantly increase engagement on any post as compared to the same post without a call to action. Something as simple as, “Share if you like this!” or “Check out this video!” or “Tell us what you think,” can do wonders for engagement on your Facebook page.

original: SociablWeb

Google Analytics Plugin For WordPress – Review

Having a website and seeing it grow in size and stature can be very reassuring for webmasters. In reality however that seldom happens; it is usually struggle and hard work most of the time. Often webmasters in spite of their concerted efforts fail in getting enough visitors to their site. The main reason why that happens is because enough information is not available to webmasters to determine their weakness. It can be with the content, a niche not widely patronized or plain ignorance of the webmaster.

The first step toward building a website with potential to bring in large traffic is, understanding statistics and comparing your site’s performance with those of others. But where do you get the statistics and other information about your site to begin with? Chances are that you are not aware of the various tools available in the internet for getting information. However, don’t despair, there is help and it is the form of Google Analytics. Google Analytics is in reality a piece of software that collects data about your site’s performance in the internet.

While Google Analytics is a generic piece of software, programmers across the world have developed plugins that can be put in the website to collect data, which can at a latter point of time be used for making analysis. For those who are not tech savvy, software writers have come up with special programs that can be used with their website for mining data. One of the more fortunate sites to have ready made plugins for data analysis is WordPress.

Here is what Google Analytics Plugins for WordPress can do. There are scores of plugins available in the internet; some free while others need to be paid for using them. However, in principle they have the same role to play – provide real time information pertaining to your users demography, number of visitors the website gets, how long a visitor spends in each page and more.

Another use for the Google Analytics Plugin for WordPress is they help you get sponsors and advertisement, especially if you are actively into PPC and CPA programs. The statistics you collect through the plugin can help provide your prospective advertisers the information they need to make an evaluation about your site’s performance and then decide on the course of action.

Selecting the right plugin is however not an easy task. For most part the right one is something that you alone can decide. It all depends on what kind of information you may want. However, there is information which is common to all Google Analytics Plugins.

-          Asynchronous Analytic Tracking: Which means that a code within your webpage will keep track and help your website load faster and give you more accurate data.

-          Event Tracking: Another special feature of Google Analytics; it helps track problem pages which you can then target for special attention and make changes.

Custom Variables: They help you track your visitor’s preference and gather Meta data. You can use this information to change the codes in your webpage for optimizing them to be search friendly.

How to Install Windows 8 In a Virtual Machine

What is a Virtual Machine VM?

In the computing environment VM is defined as a software tool or an instrument allowing a user to install and run an Operating System (OS) or a computer program. It is because of the process of virtualization that the concept of cloud computing is possible.  Many media observers, analysis and researchers argue that virtualization and VM is meant for hobbyists and experiments. However, there are plenty of applications and advantages virtualization and VM offer.

The Windows 8 platform

To put it in a nut shell, Windows 8 is smooth and polished platforms that has outsmarted its predecessors hands down. One of the outstanding features of Windows 8 is its ability to allow creation of VM on its platform.

Requirements to create a Windows 8 Virtual Machine

    Firstly to begin with, the most important requirement is that you will need is a PC that supports virtualization.

    You can download a copy of Windows 8. 32-bit or a 62-bit should serve the purpose.

    The additional requirements are not many. You will need about 1 to 2 GB of RAM.

    You will also need around 20 to 30 GB of storage allocation space dedicated to Windows 8 VM.

    Finally you will require virtualization software, VirtualBox, form Oracle should be good enough. This software is available for free.

How to create a Virtual Machine VM with Windows 8

You can follow the step by step process in creating a VM with Windows 8

Create a Virtual Machine

The first step is to create a VM. To do so, you can install and run the VirtualBox. Then click on ‘New’ button. The VM is now created. You can assign a common name to the VM, say Windows 8 PC or Windows 8 VM. From the drop down menu that appears, you will have to select the Operating System as Windows Microsoft 8 or Windows 8 (64 bit) depending on the OS your using.

Selection of specifications

You will have to define the kind of memory space your virtual system has. Ideally, it is recommended that you opt for 2048 MB. However, if you are short of RAM you can opt for the minimum memory requirement of 1 GB for 32-bit. Then click on ‘Next’.

Drive image creation

It is best that you stick to default settings to create a new hard disk drive. The VDI drive image is VirtualBox’s file format.

Virtual Disk size

You can change the size and the location of your virtual disk if required. However, it is best to stick to the default size of 20 GB. You can check if the summary is appropriate. Click on ‘Create’ button to proceed to the next step.

Virtual optical

The next thing that you have to do is to right click on windows 8 PC. Form the options select ‘Settings’ and click on ‘Storage’. From the list select CD icon from the IDE Controller. Then you have to locate the Windows 8 ISO. To do so you must click on CD icon to the right of the controller. Next you will have to select a virtual CD/DVD disk file. The file must be pointed at the Windows 8 ISO and select ‘Open’.

Installing Windows 8 on your VM

You can do a custom installation of Windows 8 on your VM. Select the virtual PC and then click on ‘Start’ button. The installation of Windows 8 is simple and hassle free. Once the installation on the VM is done, you can log into your account.

Installing guest additions

You can install guest additions in the Safe Mode. Follow the steps to install guest additions

• On the desktop view press ‘Windows tab + R’
• Launch MSConfig
• Select Boot option
• Also select safe boot and base video
• Once you have saved the changes click on ‘Ok’

The final step in installing Guest Additions is to reboot your device into Safe Mode.

Launch VM

Make sure that you enable 3D support while installing the Guest Additions from VirtualBox Devices Menu. You can increase the video memory to 128 MB in the Display Settings. Next you must enable 2D and 3D acceleration. Launch the VM.

These are the simple steps involved in creating a Virtual Machine with the Windows 8 platform.


original: SociablWeb

How to Get People to Share Your Content Without Tricking Them

Every SEO copywriter knows that shared and viral content is the most valuable kind of content, but without artificially creating that buzz (which is difficult) there’s really only two ways to get people to pay attention to content that’s available out there.  Trick them into sharing, or offer them a reason to.

Tricking Them Doesn’t Work

The problem with tricking people to share content, in my experience as an SEO copywriter at least, is that they don’t like it.  No one likes to be tricked – and many people will not only avoid sites and content that does and tell their friends.  Which means you’ll be generating all the wrong kinds of feedback, which, in turn will make you unhappy.

It’s important too, to remember that anything like that will seem odd if you’re not careful – there’s nothing worse than setting up a viral campaign that everyone ignores, or people can see have been set up to create artificial buzz.  The campaigns that get ‘caught’ doing this, even with the best content, are often hijacked and derided, and often small brands don’t recover from that.

Creating Means of Sharing Content Using SEO Copywriting

SEO copywriting and content created using those services should be enticing enough that people choose to share it when they’re working with you anyway – if it’s not, you’ll need to look at why and work on fixing that first.  Your copywriter should be able to edit your content so that it’s better if there’s anything wrong with it, and then, there’s two ways you can handle getting interaction and feedback.

• Share it with your readers via newsletter, or social networking site and specifically invite comment on the article – often people will respond to ‘what do you think?’ or ‘share if you agree’ or similar.  Even generating conversation on your social networking sites should be good enough in most cases to get the ball rolling.  And remember too, some people will share anything their friends see, so it’s a question of getting the right people interacting and involved, which is why viral marketing has an unpredictable element.

•  Add comment bonuses and other items that encourage people to tweet etc. – or hold a competition.  Some companies hold competitions using Rafflecopter, which tracks social media sharing (should you so choose) – it’s a valid marketing method for many industries and can cost little to nothing at all in many cases – all you need is a viable product to give away.

And Afterwards?

Many companies wonder what to do with the momentum they build with social networking – while it’s true it opens up more points of contact to those around the articles, and sometimes this can lead to an extra work, but the increased value from SEO articles and copywriting that this brings makes it all worth it.  SEO copywriting content cannot fail to bring new leads in via social media and while things settle down with Google’s updates, it’s important to leverage content in any way you can.

While it’s true that it’s often difficult to build a truly viral campaign in this way, working with social media allowances and blending it with your copywriting needs and leads can bring powerful traffic and support to your business – creating new customers, new connections and new relationships, for a tiny fraction of additional work.  And once you’ve built momentum, and created a trusted brand for yourself in social media it will become easier still – so ensuring your copywriting is up to par is the best way to move forward.  That way, your readers and clients will hit retweet and share almost automatically.

Your SEO Copywriter is one of the most valuable social networking tools you can use, so working with them is of utmost importance.

original - SociableBlog

Guest Posting Etiquette – Some Must Follow Tips

Guest blogging is picking up buzz. Mainly because guest posting is best way of link building and provides instant result. However, as in every process some etiquette should be followed. This post deals with etiquettes that are required in guest blogging.

Many believe that guest posting etiquettes should be followed by guest bloggers leaving out publishers. Guest bloggers are equally important as publishers (provided the content is of high quality). Content are not tapped from thin air. It requires effort and the effort is put by the guest blogger. Therefore, publishers should follow some etiquette too.

Etiquette for Guest Bloggers:

Read the Publishers’ requirement:

The crucial step in guest blogging is to know the requirements of publishers. Every publisher will have different needs. A certain publisher might demand for specific topic while other might be open to ideas. It is guest blogger’s duty to meet all the requirements of the publishers. If publisher demands for 700+ word article provide the same.

Contacting publishers:

Not all accept guest post right away. Some prefer to be contacted and pitched regarding the post. Even if you are sending post to a community member like My Blog Guest it is crucial to know the publisher. Of course, if the publisher had invited to send guest posts then its okay.

Provide Unique Content:

The most common complaint from publishers is that guest bloggers provide either spin content or copied content. It is understood that for guest posting purposes unique content is mandatory. I would like to emphasize that not only the content should be unique but also the whole idea.

Responding to comments:

After a publisher has published a post, it is the duty of guest blogger to respond to comments. A guest blogger might not be available all time. However, a guest blogger should ensure that he visits the post regularly and stays abreast with the discussion. The best way to do this is by signing up for comments notification/updates.

Etiquette for Publisher:

Here are some etiquette for publishers

Respond to email:

Many publishers will fret and fume at this topic. Their argument is that ‘it is hard to reply to every email’. Yes, it is hard to reply to every email but reply should be made. Have you ever sent a guest post to Problogger? Staffs of Problogger, without fail, reply to every email. As a publisher, you should respect the time put in by Guest Bloggers.

Intimate of changes:

Publishers should inform regular contributors of the changes. For instance, if you had promised to provide 2 links and later decided to cut into 1 link, do not forget to notify your contributors.

Changing the links:

Some publishers consider themselves as smart. They promise dofollow links and after a month change dofollow into nofollow. Such practices are unethical and indicate disrespect towards guest bloggers. Moreover, it is the duty of the guest bloggers to check regularly and ensure that the links are unhampered.

These were some of the simple rules for guest bloggers and publishers. If you have something to add either as a guest blogger or publisher then you are welcome.

original:SociablWeb

Common SEO Mistakes That Can Make Your Website ‘DEAD’

Effective Search Engine Optimization definitely helps in finding your website. While there are certain guidelines, if followed can help your website rank high among the top websites in the search engine and also gives an outstanding rank ahead of all your competitors. On the other hand, there are certain mistakes which can kill your website, hence leading to the path of failure. Since SEO is a long term process, so any mistake if made may take months to reverse and get back your SEO back on the right track. So, SE Optimizers should be alert enough before committing these mistakes.

Here are some of the silly seo mistakes you must circumvent in order to prevent your SEO campaign from being executed.

SEO Mistake #1 Aiming Keywords based on Search Volume

This is the most common mistake a SE Optimizer can easily make. When choosing keywords which suits best for your website’s content, it is important to remember that search volume is alone not the most important thing you should always think of. Other factors also need to be taken care of before targeting your keywords such as keywords must be relative to the content. Secondly, the intention of the visitors must be taken care of.

SEO Mistake #2 Fails in understanding the SEO guidelines properly

This mistake is often committed by amateurs who want to think something creative and in order to think something out of the box, they mostly turns up with ideas which violates the guidelines offered by most of the search engines. Therefore, it is essential to know that violating the guidelines might results your website being banned from a search engine.

SEO Mistake #3 Focusing mainly on quantity over quality in link building

Links are just like the bread and butter of SEO, but having more and more links would not help you much if they aren’t good quality. While the Google Penguin update which was unleashed on April mainly encourages websites with clean and natural links and therefore it has become more important than ever. So, it is highly recommendable for the se optimizers to stay away from unrelated sites, link exchanges and other low-quality sources and should focus on building quality links from related sources. It is better to be alert while exchanging links as link exchanges with banned websites is definitely frowned upon. It is more valuable to get twenty great links in the long run rather than making hundred spammy links which would definitely get your site in snagging condition.

SEO Mistake #4 Creating Web Page without a Title

Title reflects the content of a webpage. A webpage lacking a title is just like a body without a face. It makes your content unclear and hazy. Therefore, it is always advisable to add proper titles to your content as it is definitely beneficial for your search engine optimization.

SEO Mistake #5 Using Duplicate Content or Poorly Written Content

Many SEO companies offer a large number of articles on various topics which have been copied from other sources. This can have a serious effect on your website. Readers as well as search engines do encourage fresh and unique content. Search engines also doesn’t like content with keyword stuffed in it. So, it must be kept in mind while writing. Many of the search engines take serious actions against such sites, which provides poorly written content and also not well-optimized at the same time.

SEO Mistake #6 Using too many Images and Flash Animations

This is true that images and animation do make your website look catchy to the eyes of visitors. However, using splash pages with flash animations and big size images would increase the load time of your site, resulting in the evasion of all your visitors and increasing the page load time. So, it is always better to use relevant images and flash animation that describe the content without much overdoing it.

SEO Mistake #7 Unsuccessful in updating your Social Media sites with Innovative Posts

With the evolution of social networking sites, it has gained a lot of importance among people and also in the eyes of search engines. Creating unique content is the foremost step you need to promote in your social media sites. As social media marketing is a great way to interact with your visitors, so make sure that every time you are updating your profile, you start it with fresh and exclusive post.

SEO Mistake #8 Making Use of Page Cloaking

This is a frequent tactic which is often being used by optimizers. It is meant to separate the pages which people will see and which will be crawled by spiders. However, we must avoid in making use of Page Cloaking as it can be one of the reason which can kill your website. A common practice of many is to cloak pages which are rich in keywords to attract search engines spiders while it is being hidden from visitors. However, it must be keep in mind that search engine spiders would want to index and reference the same pages which web users can see. But if cloaking is detected, then your website may have a chance of being banned altogether.

SEO Mistake #9 Lacks in Updating Data

Creating a Website is not the final thing, when it comes to search engine optimization. If the content used in your website is not updated, then it won’t help you much in getting a higher rank on search engine. Staying up to date on the content is certainly imperative to give your site an advantage over others.

SEO Mistake #10 Abortive of Using CSS

CSS is a tool which helps you to reduce the size of your pages, thus reducing the time it normally takes to load. However, it helps you to concentrate on the text which search engine spiders normally feeds on. Therefore, CSS definitely plays a vital role for your website and should not be unnoticed in the optimization process, as it enhances the visibility of your web pages.

Thus, if you have been commending any of the above mistakes and were just naive about the impact that you had on your website. Going through this post would surely help you a lot in implementing the required changes and correcting your website as needed through the search engine optimization process and it would also definitely help to make your website visitor-friendly and search-engine friendly at the same time.

original:SociablWeb

7 Old-School Ways To Build Your Brand Rep In Your Community

Branding is essentially, aligning your company’s internal activities with what it produces for the outside world. It’s not a communications strategy, but rather a business strategy; a long term, sustainable product or service that is consistent, clear, and delivers time and again.

Whether it’s with clients embarking on a new campaign or on your own trying to define your personal brand, the term “branding” seems to be the popular buzzword these days. “Branding” is often misunderstood and is frequently misused. Yet, a business’s brand represents the company’s reputation externally and reflects how employees feel about the company internally.

Currently, we are in a climate where small and medium-sized enterprises are being squeezed and forced to create a clear point of difference. Small businesses especially, need to find a way to compete.

The following are 7 old-school ways to build your brand rep in your community.

1. In a Nutshell

Ask yourself what you want the customer to feel when interacting with your business. Then, find one word or phrase that most accurately sums up what you stand for.

Continue on to your website, your offices, and other extensions of your business and ensure that they convey a similar theme. Think of ways to conjure up that feeling in customers without saying it explicitly.

Once you determine your strategy, run it through all of your activity including the logo, tone of voice, and dress code. Remember that dissatisfaction is what drives customers. Develop and communicate a relevant brand promise and deliver.

2. Get it right the First Time

Deliver on your promises. Competitive markets have and will always punish companies that are unreliable.

A relationship of trust is an integral part of growing a strong brand. Reaching the point where customers trust you allows clients to feel at ease, even if you do get it wrong on occasion.

Any advertising expense spent in a small business is better focused towards “performance marketing.” Focus on delivering an augmented product that is continuously improving.

3. Build from Within

All big business brand icons have distinctive company cultures or “value systems” that give the brands definition. A company brand should permeate the organization and drive decisions.

Involve your employees in building the brand from Day 1. Allowing them to help shape the values makes it easier to convey them to customers. Spend time on developing a message that resonates throughout your staff.

Remain flexible enough to occasionally evaluate and tweak your brand message’s effectiveness and make sure to communicate it internally. Beware of becoming too formal or risk losing engagement. The best way to get customers to trust you is to start trusting your employees.

4. Consistency is Key

Be absolutely transparent to your audience about your brand values from the outset. Your products and services are likely to evolve as you grow, but your brand values should remain consistent.

Keep in mind that for many, your marketing message is the first impression they will have of your company. Resist the urge to tweak established values.

5. Customers Contact

To some extent, your brand takes care of itself if your product is good. On the other hand, involving customers in product development has become somewhat of a trend that provides customers with a sense of co-creating products.

Customers love to feel close to the creative process, and you can build reciprocal respect, by featuring them as case studies.

6. Social Media

Stay on top of what’s out there to build a brand. Social media is just as important as a communications tactic and something that could be applied internally.

It’s a great strategy for small businesses to provide customer service and support, while getting their name in front of people.

7. Create a Community

Social media has hastened an importance of community in brand building by sharing knowledge and extending the network online. It’s important that information about the business doesn’t just come from the marketing division.

Whatever your means of communicating, show your personality. Focus on where your customers are, be that on YouTube, eBay, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, but use each medium appropriately.

Differentiate yourself by what you stand for and let the personality and values formulate organically. Innovate beyond the familiar and keep these 7 old-school tips in mind when developing a brand rep in your community.

original:SociableBlog

Tips For Handling Flamers And Trolls

It can be said that almost all bloggers have come across flamers and trolls at some point of time. Flaming and trolling are small forms of social media firestorms. The difference is there won’t be so many people involved as in social media storms. It is the responsibility of every blog owner to take care of such issues in order to save their reputation.

Your task doesn’t end with posting your blogs but continues until they exist on your website. Closing the comments will limit your opportunity to learn from genuine readers. A wrong response would harm you and not responding at all would make no sense, too. What else can you do? Show MERCY! I am sure that you are surprised. Yes, just show:

• Moderate
• Evaluate
• Reason
• Conclude
• Yawn and Start Sleeping

Moderate:

Moderating the comments is a precaution that you can take to prevent flaming. Whenever possible and for all the blogs that talk about sensitive topics, moderate comments. Make the comments available to the public only after getting your approval. It will help flamers and trolls from strolling freely in the comments part of your blogs. However, it is not possible at all times. You can set some commenting policies for your blogs if it is not possible. Define your policies clearly so that flamers at least try to maintain a decent tone.

Evaluate:

Not all who disagree with you are wrong. Don’t be annoyed as soon as finding a conflicting idea in the comments. You might have given wrong information and a concerned reader might have gotten back pointing it out. Therefore, evaluate the comment before deciding if it is flaming or a mere conflict of opinion. As feedback is important for you, try to learn from the comments. If your analysis of the comment proves that it is flaming, try the next step.

Reason:

You are now sure that the person has started a flame to pull you into a heated conversation. Try to contact him in person and reason with him. This will dampen his expectations for a quarrel. You would find that most of them apologize or stop commenting on your blogs. Explain to them why you are right and request them not to post such comments on your blogs again. Maintaining a calm tone is very important during such conversations because flamers wait in ambush to find fault with your words.

Conclude:

If the flamer feels bad about his comments, he will surely apologize in the forum. If he doesn’t or continues stirring up flames, it’s time you reply. As always, maintain a gentle tone. Remember that you are heard by the rest of the world. An inappropriate word from your side will affect your reputation. Keep it simple and precise. Conclude the conversation in a way that he feels discouraged to respond.

Yawn and Start Sleeping:

If he still throws the bait and waits for you, all you have to do is ignore him completely. One comment stating why your views are right is enough to explain it to the other readers. Further replies will only add fuel to the fire. Turn a deaf ear to all the comments from the person and concentrate on other blogs.

The comforting fact is that you will be supported by your regular readers. They are not going to watch silently and let the flamers do all the talking. Develop a good readership and you will no more be a one man army.

original :SociablWeb

Facebook Will Rotate Ads On Static Pages

Most people have grown accustomed to the ads on the right side within your Facebook newsfeed. You may have also noticed that instead of the same ad shown after a period of time the static ad will rotate while you are on that single page.

A short time ago, a Facebook spokesperson told ClickZ, "We recently made a change to some pages that show ads on Facebook that allows ads to be replaced with others after an extended period of time”. They stated, "This change was implemented a few weeks ago and we think this will help people see more relevant ads."

This move was most likely saved for a rainy day to provide higher CTR’s for advertisers. If the user isn’t clicking on the ads initially, then Facebook may replace those ads with an ad that is more relevant. It also gives Facebook a quicker read on the relevancy of ads because ads are shown more frequently. Traditionally, web ads and Facebook ads alike are loaded and remain constant until the user leaves the page or refreshes the page.

This change will not require advertisers to alter their campaigns or messages. It simply allows a switch if the user does not click on the ad within a time frame. If you think about it, sometimes people leave their newsfeed page open constantly without refreshing. Also many people use the Facebook Chat or Video Calling features, which would occupy their time within the same page. Not to mention, users might be browsing their Facebook Ticker to see what their friends are doing outside their newsfeed.

Facebook was pressured since its’ botched IPO, along with criticism about it’s ability to bring in the amount of ad revenue investors originally expected. Following a quiet stint, the company has become vocal about a plan to create more ad revenue. The firm recently announced plans to launch a real-time ad exchange. This would allow a huge pool of data for display ad targeting. Advertisers will be able to target users based on data from select DSPs. However, they can't combine native Facebook data with that outside data, which would be sure to ruffle feathers among privacy advocates. Facebook would act as any other publisher providing real-time bidding inventory to advertisers buying through exchanges. Advertisers will target people through the DSP partners, and if Facebook finds a cookie match, an ad will be shown to them.

"We do not share any user data with advertisers and people still have the same control over the ads they see on Facebook that they do today," said a Facebook spokesperson. Users will have the option of not being targeted through the third-party partner sites. Or through the Facebook “About Ads” page. "We are not building profiles based on the Facebook Exchange," continued the spokesperson.

This ad rotation change appears to compliment Facebook’s intentions of staying beneath the radar while improving and allowing optimization to ad sales and services.

Increase your Online Marketing exposure in 2012 with the above tips and contact us if you need assistance.

orginal:SociablWeb

4 Ways to Manage Your Reputation in Youtube Search Results

If you have a YouTube channel, you are probably obsessed with generating some good traffic and spreading your videos. The chance of making a viral video is a tantalizing fantasy, and one that more and more people are realizing now that social media has become a central part of our society.

Thankfully, it isn’t that hard to optimize your search results. It is all about increasing your reputation and searchability. Here are four ways to do that.

1. Optimize Your Videos

SEO is just as relevant on YouTube as it is through standard search engines. Yet, when people think of optimization they are usually putting it into the context of standard content like text, maybe images. Video doesn’t generally factor in to their thinking. Really, you should be using the same general concept for your videos. For example, relevant keywords are one of the most important parts. What would you use to search for your video? Target “long tail” and local phrases in tags. If your video is about Georgia business profiles, you should include this as a tag.

Keep in mind the target age and other demographic information for those you want to see it. Based on these factors you might want to change the language somewhat, such as from formal to slang, or include both. Be descriptive, but without trying to “sell” the video like you might other content. Just try to draw them in by promising entertainment. If you need some help, you can try one of the many tools made to help you come up with optimized keywords for videos. YouTube has one of their own.

2. Get Your Community to Help

When you are part of a community or like minded or related individuals, you automatically have an invaluable resource for spreading content. It is this element that has led to a great deal of viral videos or memes being created. That doesn’t mean you should go around begging your community or website readers to share you out. Instead, you should engage them, especially in an interactive way. You see examples of this all the time, with large companies that host competitions through their YouTube channel that asks for submissions. Which will immediately give them something to search for. But an example of how this is done for a website itself, check out MyBlogGuest’s Create a Video Screencast competition (the result is this playlist).

3. Make the Most of Playlists

Playlists are insanely helpful for drawing interest on YouTube. Especially since you can search for playlists themselves, widening the results for users who want to see more than a single video. If you have a series or competitions, this can be even more helpful. They are very simple to make. You just start to group your uploaded videos together into a customized playlist. They show in strips on your main channel under your favorites link. Users can then click on it and play all videos, or search through them. They can also search for the playlist itself, and if you attach keywords to your videos a playlist search will bring up any that have that term.

4. Promote Your Channel

Finally, we have some good old fashion promotion. Once you get the hook in, people are more likely to go searching for the video they saw, or more like it. This will be achieved through any basic marketing means, such as social media sharing, link building, affiliates and anything else you might wish to use.

Conclusion

It takes some time and effort, but you can optimize your YouTube channel’s search by building a reputation through standard SEO tactics. Don’t fail to take advantage, or you might miss some incredible chances at creating a viral sensation!


original: SocialbleBlog

2 Potential Disadvantages of Accepting Guest Posts at Your Blog

The internet is flooded with the advantages of accepting guest posts on your blog: It helps to keep your blog moving on with the incoming flux of dynamic new content, your blog gains popularity, and it helps you to develop good relationships with the fellow guest bloggers !

As a matter of fact, where there are advantages, the disadvantages do follow back to complement them :P ... Here, by the medium of this post, I am not trying to discourage you from accepting guest posts on your blog, rather I am trying to reveal the possibly ugly side of accepting guest posts at your blog (all from my own personal experiences...)

Here are the two potential disadvantages:

1. You might become heavily dependent on guest bloggers

No doubt, guest posts are great for helping you to keep your blog updated with fresh content, but guest blogging should definitely not hinder your ability to write for your own blog. Remember, it's YOUR blog and it was your own writing style only that attracted those worldwide visitors to your blog. Remember Darren Rowse at problogger.net ? Nearly 10 high quality guest posts are published at problogger.net every single week. In spite of this huge incoming flux of guest posts, Mr. ProBlogger still continues to publish his own content there. Why? Because he knows that it is his unique writing style only that drives millions of worldwide visitors to problogger every single month!

2. Consistent threat of plagiarism in the published posts

You receive a grand guest submission and you immediately decide to publish it on your blog (obviously after checking for uniqueness and any possible plagiarism). But your job definitely does not end here. By publishing every single guest post on your blog, you are adding an extra workload for yourself. And that workload is to regularly check that the published guest articles are not republished anywhere on the web by your dear guest bloggers.

This happened with me a while back when a guest blogger after getting his article published on my blog, reproduced the whole content on several other websites without even bothering to notify me. I immediately took his article off my website and when I dropped him an email about the same, he simply replied: "actually I do not care."

What is your experience with guest blogging at your website ? Do share it with us in your comments below.

source - SocialMediaToday

How To Add Image To Every Post On Your Blogger Blog

Would you like add image or signature to every blog post in blogger blog? This post will show you how to do it in just a few easy steps! :)

To add a signature or image, first, you need to have image or signature and upload it somewhere like Flicker, photobucket or in your FTP. Then follow the below steps..

1. Go to your blog inside the Blogger Dashboard and click on design.

2. Then click the Edit HTML button.

3. Check the Expand Widget Template box.

4. Find by Click CTRL-F and copy and paste the line below in the search box to search for it in your code.

post-footer-line post-footer-line-1

You will get:

<div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"></div>

4. Under that line, paste the below code and change IMAGE URL to the url address of your signature image (it’s the Direct Link of your image).

<img alt='flower' src='http://www.imagesource.com/flower.jpg' style='border: 0;'/>

5. If you want to create hyperlink (clickable) for this image, then paste the below code and change both src & href url of yours.

<a href=’http://www.xyz.com/flowers’><img alt=’flower’ src=’http://www.imagesource.com/flower.jpg’ style=’border: 0;’/></a>

You are done!

Source:sociablweb

How To Get More Out Of LinkedIn

Having been launched in 2003, the professional social networking community of LinkedIn has assisted current and future workers with their chosen path in a modern social medium . The website has been known as Facebook for professionals, in that users have the capability to connect and stay in touch with others just like Facebook, but the focus is past experience and skills in a field of work or study. The website that focuses on this particular niche of networking is utilized by more than 100 million people (130 million as of January 2012) and the community continues to grow.

Perhaps you have recently graduated from college, or are looking for a new job. You know how arduous of a task it can be in general just to get a prospective employer’s attention to turn in your direction. Using career sites like Monster, Dice and Career Builder can provide some potential promise, but the problem that I personally had during my search was how condensed and unpromising the leads are.

You can put your resume up on the site, but your information appears to be uniform along with all of the thousands of others, and there really is no guarantee that your resume will get the time of day. This lack of promise only becomes further accentuated with the now infamous bit of information that employers spend an average of six seconds looking at your resume. That is not to say that the resume is completely obsolete, of course you need one, but this is the age of being connected online, and your presence needs to be visible. More employers are looking at your LinkedIn to see what you know, and perhaps just as important, WHO you know.

So while LinkedIn is an essential tool, it is necessary to be scrupulous in the manner that you exhibit yourself on the site. These are some points to consider for you to touch up your page, or as you are building one up today.

1. It’s Not A Resume

One pattern I notice on a lot of LinkedIn profiles is how some users (most of them my age and not too far out of college) treat their page like their resume. All this does is give you the same presence as you would have on any of those job sites, and you won’t stick out immediately. There’s nothing wrong with having this resume-influenced information, but don’t sound so mechanical about it. LinkedIn offers you the chance to reveal your philosophy and values that you have gained from your past experience. Employers like LinkedIn because they have a chance to learn about your character and personality before they meet with you for the interview. Show them not just what you know how to do, but why you love what you do.

2. Get a Picture

You have great content on your page, and it looks like you have a lot of established connections that enhance your credibility as a future employee. But what do you look like? This has nothing to do with aesthetic value as a person, but rather, the picture provides more personality on your LinkedIn. It’s a little disconcerting seeing a profile with just that gray and white silhouette default photo. You wouldn’t walk into an interview with a mask on, would you? Upload a recent high-quality photo that makes a good impression, just as you would face-to-face.

3. Don’t Make Anyone Guess

When explaining your experience, make it to the point, and put all the good stuff on there that the resume tends to prohibit. Being too wordy is no good, unless what you are saying is extremely valuable. Employers want to learn about you, but may not necessarily want your entire collegiate or past professional biography. There is that pragmatic approach that states “less is more.” This certainly applies to the profile as well. Yes, this sounds all too similar to the fixed rules of resume writing, but keep in mind what I said in the first point. You have more liberty in what you can say on your LinkedIn, but just watch how much you’re putting on there.

4. Get A Recommendation

A pivotal advantage of having LinkedIn is that a recommendation can be written for you by someone who can attest to your claims of achievements. This is an extremely powerful facet that you can have on your profile page. Perhaps it’s a professor whose class you flourished in, or a high up co-worker from your previous job, but find someone who has the credibility in the industry you’re trying to enter, and have them speak of all the great qualities about you. The more that there is to back up your word, the more attention you’re going to get.

5. It’s All in the Title

This is bit of a more sensitive point to make, but it is indeed very crucial when someone sees you in a list of LinkedIn candidates. Make sure that your title is relevant to the industry that you are trying to enter. Don’t make your title what your summer job is, or worse, saying that you’re unemployed. A waitress at the local restaurant or “waiting for that call” (something I have seen painfully more than once) as your title will serve you no positive outcome. If you’re a graduate looking for a job, then say that you’re a graduate in the major you chose from the college you went to. Or, if you had a good internship somewhere, then make that your past title. It is possible to make yourself sound good even if you currently are without a position. You know your skills, so make it clear.

original source>>

How To Gain More Blog Traction With Less Effort

The average blogger spends around 3 hours on getting his article read. Recent studies from blog polls show that the outcome is about 40-80 visitors a day.

So, how can you create more traffic for your blog, without wasting critical time you could use for creating good content?

In this article i will give you some tips and tweaks that help you get more traction with less effort.

1. Don't prostitute for views

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_likes

We could also call this the “Don't be angry at friends that don't like to read your articles” rule.

Everyone has this one friend who completely ignores your social media activity.

This doesn't mean he/she doesn't like you, it just means that a given topic might not be that interesting to him/her or just there's just no time to engage in it. So, don't make reading your articles a favor, find the people who appreciate your writing.

If you want to attract a certain group of readers, write something they care about and then share it with them.

2. Link building is dead

Back in the old days setting links on your website created huge traffic on your blog. This way of SEO is dead. Since the new Google penguin update (release April 24th) it seems like Google doesn't care that much about link velocity any more. They are now confident enough to prefer good written content on certain topics to articles with a lot of interlinkage. This is something many SEO people in my surrounding noticed when their SEO businesses started struggling last month.

There is no need for link spreading anymore, being particular about what and where to spread matters again. So stop the link spamming.

3. Get your articles on Newsgrape

If promoting your content consumes so much time, why not let somebody else do the job for you?

The Newsgrape platform has a wordpress plugin to automatically sync your content with a large community without having duplicate content issues.

What happens with your article:

1. Newsgrape connects your articles with similar ones. Meaning: If somebody reads a topic connected to yours, they will see your article pop up at “related articles”. Cool about that: They are more likely to be genuinely interested and appreciative of what you have to say.

2.

Newsgrape informs readers with certain interests that articles have been written about those given topics. This means, if you write something of popular interest, you have the chance of attracting over 5000 currently active readers on the site.

4. Automate your social media appereance

Its good to have a constant information flow about your website going on out there. But don't waste every single day on setting up new facebook and twitter updates - use tools to automate your appearance. Of course there are thousands of plugins for wordpress, but i will give you two powerful tools you can use with any blog:

Twitterfeed  - is the most automated system to do so. It creates twitter, LinkedIn and facebook updates by crawling your feeds. You can customize your updates a lot, for example how often and how many articles it should publish and define prefix/suffix etc.

Buffer - You have a productive week ahead of you? Fill your Buffer with twenty to forty updates, define the frequency and you are set to go.

Of course you can connect your social media accounts with Newsgrape as well.

To wrap it up

Don't prostitute, no SEO bulls%*&, connect with distributors and last but not least automate your social media appearance.

original post>>

Best Wordpress Advertising Management Plugins

WordPress blogging platform is in demand because of easy to monetized through advertising. Whether you use pay-per-click advertising, affiliate marketing, or your own system, there are many ways you can generate revenue from a WordPress blog. There are many ways to generate revenue from Wordpress blog like Google adsense or affiliate marketing.

Wordpress also allows for the use of plugins that can make easily implementation and management of your advertising placement without editing your code manually.  Here is the list best WordPress ad managing plugins that can successfully generate revenue from your website.

Ad Manager

Light, and at the same time advanced advertisement manager. Provides you the ability to select context conditions for displaying ads, like page location / location index / page or user class.

Simple Ads Manager

Simple Ads Manager is easy to use plugin providing a flexible logic of displaying advertisements.

Features

• Flexible logic of advertisements rotation based on defined weight of each advertisement in group (Ads Place)
• Custom default ad for each Ads Place
• Codes of Google Double-click for Publishers (DFP) supports
• More flexibility of displaying ads by using Ads Zone selector
• Allowed types of ad's codes are HTML, javascript, PHP
• Outputting ads as widget
• Outputting ads as shortcodes in any place of single post/page content
• Outputting ads in any place of theme template using functions
• Customizable outputting ads as block of ads
• Automatic outputting ads in single post/page if allowed
• Customizable limitation of displaying advertisements by types of page
• Customizable limitation of displaying advertisements on single post/page by post/page ID (IDs)
• Customizable limitation of displaying advertisements on single post page or category archive page by category (categories)
• Customizable limitation of displaying advertisements on single post page or author archive page by author (authors)
• Customizable limitation of displaying advertisements on single post page or tag archive page by tag (tags)
• Customizable limitation of displaying advertisements on custom type single post page or custom type archive page by Custom Type (Types)
• Customizable blocking of displaying advertisements on single post/page by post/page ID (IDs)
• Customizable blocking of displaying advertisements on single post page or category archive page by category (categories)
• Customizable blocking of displaying advertisements on single post page or author archive page by author (authors)
• Customizable blocking of displaying advertisements on single post page or tag archive page by tag (tags)
• Customizable blocking of displaying advertisements on custom type single post page or custom type archive page by Custom Type (Types)
• Schedule of displaying each advertisment if allowed
• Customizable limitation of displaying advertisements by hits
• Customizable limitation of displaying advertisements by clicks
• Statistics of hits
• Statistics of clicks (your own advertisment image mode)
• Customizable accuracy of bots and crawlers detection
• Counting revenue from ads placement, display ads and clicks on advertisements

Ads Manager WP/BB

Use this plugin to quickly and easily insert Any Ad code Unit to your posts and BuddyPress sections including Forum topics.

Ad Code Manager

Ad Code Manager gives non-developers an interface in the WordPress admin for configuring your complex set of ad codes.

Some code-level configuration is necessary to setup Ad Code Manager. Ad tags must be added (via do_action) to your theme's template files where you'd like ads to appear. Alternatively, you can incorporate ad tags into your website with our widget and our shortcode.

Also, a common set of parameters must be defined for your ad provider. This includes the tag IDs used by your template, the default URL for your ad provider, and the default HTML surrounding that URL.

Once this configuration is in place, the Ad Code Manager admin interface will allow you to add new ad codes, modify the parameters for your script URL, and define conditionals to determine when the ad code appears. Conditionals are core WordPress functions like is_page(), is_category(), or your own custom functions that evaluate certain expression and then return true or false.

Ad Code Manager currently works with Doubleclick for Publishers by default. However, all logic is abstracted which means that you can configure ACM for any ad provider relatively easy. Check providers/doubleclick-for-publishers.php for an idea of how to extend ACM to suit your needs.

AdSense Manager

AdSense Manager was replaced by Advertising Manager, however that is no longer developed. In response to a number of queries I have updated my most recent version of the plugin to work with the latest WordPress and released it here. Unfortunately, if you upgraded to Advertising Manager you may need to reimport your ads.

AdSense Manager supports most Ad networks including AdBrite, AdRoll, Project Wonderful and plain old HTML code.

Ad Injection

Ad Injection from reviewmylife injects any kind of advert or other content (e.g. Google AdSense, Amazon Associates, ClickBank, TradeDoubler, etc) into the existing content of your WordPress posts and pages. You can control the number of adverts based on the post length, and it can restrict who sees adverts by post age, visitor referrer and IP address. Adverts can be configured in the post (random, top, and bottom positions) or in any widget/sidebar area. There's support for A:B split testing / ad rotation. And the dynamic restrictions (by IP and referrer) work with WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache and WP Cache.

Adsense Custom Placement

Well, this plugin was made specially to help people using wordpress insert adsense or any other advertisement in the wordpress blogs in whatever position[1] in whatever post[2] they wished.

[1] above and below content, above and below post titles [2] positions as in below post 2, above post 4, below post 5 whatever position does the blogger wish.

AdRotate

Get the most intuitive ad manager and start making money with your website. Add and manage the ads from the dashboard and show a random banner, or multiple, on your site. The plugin supports unlimited groups for banners allowing to tie certain banners to different areas of the website. Easy management from the dashboard allows you to quickly oversee, add and edit banner code or renew/delete and add new ads. Previewing of banners when editing them. And even some statistical values. Receive a periodic email when banners are (about to) expire(d) informing you to take action.

Advertwhirl Advertising Manager and Ad Rotator

Advertwhirl(pronounced Adver-Twirl) is the ultimate WordPress plugin to manage advertising campaigns for your site. Advertwhirl not only allows you to manage exactly how and when ads are displayed on your site but allows you to serve your ads to external sites and smartphone apps. Manage ads for your guest posts and get a return on your hard work. Incentivize your guest bloggers to create great content by giving them a share of their posts ad slots. Advertwhirl is being actively developed and supported by Mobile Sentience. Already the most comprehensive advertising manager for WordPress with true integration with Adsense, Groupon and others Advertwhirl is updated frequently with many exciting and new features to come.

WP125

If you've given up the low-paying and slightly obtrusive ad networks used by many new bloggers, in favor of selling ads directly, you may have been frustrated with the excessive time involved managing your ads. Not only do you have to find advertisers to sponsor your blog, you have to manually edit your template to put the ad in, and then head over to your favorite calendar app to set an alert to remind you when to take the ad down.

Time consuming practices like those are a thing of the past. The WP125 plugin can help you manage your ads more efficiently, leaving you with more time to write new posts. The plugin adds a new "Ads" menu to the WordPress admin, featuring submenus for tweaking display settings and adding and removing ads.

original article

Should You Pay for Social Media Marketing ?

 Social media marketing has changed the way that businesses advertise online. Many marketing departments now include a social media manager. Campaigns include updates and postings to social websites that drive customers towards products or services. The initial costs of entering into the social media marketing arena are very low. The ongoing cost of maintaining the campaign, however, can increase over time. There are several reasons why a business should invest in social media marketing.

Companies that communicate with customers through social media are able to engage in a very unique way. Existing and potential customers can feel as if the business is speaking on a very personal and informal level. The answers to questions like ‘what is the best credit card‘ will seem much more genuine when coming through interactions with a business through a social channel. The mechanism of social media also provides customers with a ready outlet to respond directly to the company.

The return on investment from social media marketing is usually positive. The underlying costs of maintaining a profile or website is generally very low. Marketing campaigns that overlap into the social realm are developed in tandem with existing marketing efforts so there is no added cost. People online might also tend to gravitate towards the social page of a business without any active marketing effort simply as a result of an experience with the company elsewhere.

The marketing content that is developed for a social media page can be of great value because it is persistent once it has been posted online. This type of reusable content has a higher return on investment than an email campaign that is sent out to customers once and then fades into the archives. Persistent content can also become important if a video, posting or image happens to spark a viral response. This can then draw attention to the business for no cost at all.

Advertising programs that are offered by social media companies can be far more effective than other types of traditional campaigns. The media company already has customers segmented by a number of different variables. A credit card company has a good chance of being able to target marketing efforts directly at users who have been looking for a business credit card offer. This type of marketing power is unique considering the low cost of entry into the field.

The importance of maintaining and promoting a social media presence online can be seen with search engine rankings. Cultivating a good relationship with customers can lead to a proliferation of links that can drive up the ranking of a business within search engines. Investing time and money in social media marketing will also inevitably benefit companies as new technologies and online services emerge in the future.

original article

How To Create a Custom Error 404 Page For WordPress

This article will guide you how to create an error 404 page for your WordPress powered site or blog. This guide will work for self-hosted blogs, not for free ones on WordPress.com like (xyz.wordpress.com) ! An error 404 page is when you try to access a page that does not exist.

What is the error 404?

The error 404 is a message shows up if you click on a link that doesn’t work (anymore) or if you typed wrong Url. This is default in WordPress but some themes don’t come with a 404.php file.

Basic Error 404 Template

If you do not have default 404.php page, you can create it. Create a 404.php file with the below code..

<?php get_header(); ?>

<?php get_sidebars('left'); ?>

<h2>Error 404 - Page Not Found.</h2>

<?php get_sidebars('right'); ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

The above code would give a simple “Error 404 – Page Not Found.” as ouptput, which is mentioned within in h2 tag. You need to modify header, sidebar & footer as per your theme structure.

404 page with Search Form

Want to add search form to help users stick around instead of leaving. By this way visitors have the option of searching your site, even if lands on your 404 page. If you want to add search form for your 404 page, add the below code..

<?php get_header(); ?>

<?php get_sidebars('left'); ?>

<h2>Error 404 - Page Not Found.</h2>

<p>Search:</p>

<?php include(TEMPLATEPATH . "/searchform.php"); ?>

<?php get_sidebars('right'); ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

404 page redirect to home page

If you want to just redirect 404 page to home page then add the below code in 404.php

<?php

header( 'HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently' );

header( 'Location: '.home_url( '/' ) );

?>

Make it more dynamic

If you want to create a more dynamic error 404 page you can use this way so that the visitor only sees the brief error and, then gets redirected to your home page. This page can be made to be somewhat SEO friendly. For this you need to edit the header.php file of your template. Within the meta tags at the top of your header.php file add the below code ..

header.php

<?php

if (is_404()) {

*$redirectHome = get_option('home'); ?>

<?php echo $redirectHome; ?>

After added it into header.php file, you need to edit your 404.php file to look like this:

404.php

<?php get_header(); ?>

<?php get_sidebars('left'); ?>

<h1>Error 404 - File Not Found.</h1>

<h3>Please <a href="<?php bloginfo('home' Or 'template_url'); ?>" Click here</a> to return home page, or you can wait to be redirected in 15 seconds.</h3>

<?php get_sidebars('right'); ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

This above example will allow the user to land on your 404 error page and then automatically take them to the home page. This will also help users stick around instead of them being left confused and leaving your website. Please make sure to replace home or template url with the exact link where it should redirect.

original