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The Google + Facebook + Foursquare situation

August 23, 2010 By yhurg 1 Comment

A lot of buzz is taking place between industry giants Facebook and Google.

You have the release of Facebook Places, and then you have the general effect Facebook has on brand sites such as Starbucks and Coca-Cola. With so much on which to chew, you must give heed to the fact that Foursquare and Booyah have been mentioned in this mix too.

Internet marketing is not just about search engine marketing anymore. Location-based and relationship marketing are becoming more and more digital and mobile now too. This presents new technology avenues  for people and and challenges for businesses to tackle age-old marketing objectives.

Local advertising is nothing new, but giving people and businesses the ability to do this using mobile phones and devices opens up new space in the technology marketing front that shows promise for future generations.

Foursquare is one of numerous new applications available today for location-based customer experiences to occur and with the recent roll out of Facebook Places, some people have expressed concern for how this might affect Foursquare. Facebook’s Zuckerburg was genuinely humble about the fact that the local market is a “big space.”

Much more will come out of this arrangement of players in the years to come, with new ones likely too. The need for mobile apps will increase, the ability for businesses to adapt to new technologies will improve, and service providers will be able to flourish in the new capabilities that are created. It’s a beautiful thing, but not without it’s own worries and challenges.

Look for more information from us about how your company and brand can be affected by these growing technology trends by signing up to receive and email alert each time we update our blog. Our goal is to bring timely topics and events into perspective to help you make informed decisions about today and tomorrow, plus to train and equip you with tools and technology that solve real business and organizational problems for you.

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Get an Internet Address And Financial Freedom with GDI

July 29, 2010 By yhurg Leave a Comment

Everyone dreams of financial freedom, right? Well, thanks to the Internet you can achieve financial freedom while you sleep. And get your own Internet address in the process.

Global Domains International (GDI) is a company that began in 2000 after the initial dot com boom. The story is rather fascinating and there is tons of information about it on the Internet.

But I’m not going to hype it up. I’m just going to present some facts and resources for you to do your own research. I fully believe that if you go into something with your eyes open then you’ll have fewer surprises and you’ll be more committed. There are some good reasons why I believe GDI is the right opportunity for achieving financial freedom.

  • No. 1, success breeds success. Already, thousands of people in over 180 countries have achieved financial freedom through GDI. If they can do it, you can do it too.
  • No selling involved. This might seem like a strange benefit, but many people do not feel comfortable trying to sell something to someone. With GDI, you don’t have to. Your website will do all the work.
  • You can have your own Internet address – for life. Instead of building a vehicle for selling stuff, you can have your own website and Internet address. And you don’t have to build it. GDI has all the materials to make your website a top-notch website that will earn you income for the rest of your life.
  • Help others achieve financial freedom. Every day there are thousands of people searching online for money-making opportunities. You can help them find what they are looking for. In fact, the potential for finding leads for your business is unlimited.
  • It’s easy. Unlike your day job, you do not have to work all day to bring home that paycheck. Just a few minutes each day and you can achieve financial freedom. GDI, and me, will show you how.

Just so you know that I’m on the up and up (I’m really not blowing smoke up your you-know-what), here are a few sources you can check out on your own to research the validity and truth of what I’m telling you.

The .ws story. Many people choke on the .ws domain name. Don’t. It’s a legitimate domain name extension. They call the .com, .net and .org part of your Internet address a TLD (top level domain). The .ws is a country-code TLD for the nation Western Samoa. There are a lot of these. In fact, you can get the full list of these at Wikipedia.

Is GDI a scam? When people don’t understand something they will often refer to it as a scam. RipOffReport is one site where people will make such a claim. Read the comments on this thread. GDI is a multi-tiered multi-level marketing business. It’s a legitimate business structure that has been used by many other successful companies for years. GDI took the model and applied it to the Internet.

I understand that multi-level marketing (MLM) businesses aren’t for everyone. If it isn’t for you, that’s fine. I’d appreciate you sharing this opportunity with someone who might have an interest. But if you are serious about securing your financial freedom then I highly recommend taking advantage of this opportunity right now. Don’t wait. Now is the best time. I’d love to be your sponsor.

Get Started Today

Filed Under: Opportunities Tagged With: , , ,

Jailbreaking your iPhone now legal, as it should be

July 27, 2010 By yhurg Leave a Comment

Imagine not being able to change the spark plugs in your vehicle. Or think about the prospect of purchasing a car and not being able to put water in the radiator, or put on your spare tire. That’s essentially what Apple has done with its attempts to ensure that users don’t jailbreak their iPhone. Thanks to changes in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, however, jailbreaking the iPhone is now just as acceptable as jailbreaking your automobile.

The new rules are centered around six classes of copyrighted works.

  1. Motion pictures on DVDs
  2. Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications
  3. Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network
  4. Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works
  5. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete
  6. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format

For purposes related to this blog post we’re going to discuss the second class:

Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

Evidently, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington believes that iPhone owners should be able to use their iPhones for computer programs not specific to the iPhone. Quite frankly, I don’t know why Apple executives don’t feel the same way. I mean, you’d think they’d want to sell more iPhones.

Despite being a big Apple fan, this is the right decision, and it doesn’t just apply to Apple. It applies to all phone manufacturers. Reality is, you are buying the phone so you have the right to do with it what you please. It’s as simple as that.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: ,

Time-Money-People: The 3 ingredients for success on the Web

July 22, 2010 By yhurg Leave a Comment

For most small business owners, the web is not going to make or break your success as a business. Plenty of businesses do just fine with an inferior web presence or no presence at all. Some business must have an effective web presence and some have built their success around an effective web strategy that they won’t survive without, but again in most cases, a web presence is not a do or die decision. Some business have only a web presence and do terrible.

The web can however enhance your business, there is no doubt about that. The challenge is, at what cost is this worth, and how should it be approached? Should your web strategy qualify prospects, turn leads, close deals, or retain and add value to existing customers? There is no one way to approach the web.

Your experience with the Web comes down to one thing: What you put into it, you get out of it.

There are several aspects to this…

a.) Time: You must spend enough time on your web marketing strategy to make it worthwhile. If you short-change it then you will have wasted what little time you put into it. Like alcohol, you won’t experience the effects of alcohol with one or two sips. You need to have at least a drink or two.

Spend time thinking about your strategy, spend time communicating your strategy, spend time implementing your strategy, and spend time adjusting your strategy. You can’t just hire someone and expect him or her to make it a success while you put your time into other things. Your web strategy is like an organic entity. It must be nurtured and manicured regularly to be competitive. Plan on spending some number of hours on it each week.

b.) Money: You must be prepared to invest money into your web marketing strategy. You will have IT costs (technology), software costs, designer and developer costs, costs for content, and costs for advertising, and costs for other people’s contributions be it with emails, social media, or whatever. Find a budget that is right for you and go with it.

For entrepreneurs or solopreneurs, this could be as low as $100-$300 a month. For firms with multiple employees and hundreds of customers plan on putting a $2-3k or more into your web strategy. It just depends on what you are accomplishing and how.

c.) People: Pursuing your web strategy alone is not realistic. You want to surround yourself with people that know and understand you, your business, and your industry. More importantly, you want to align yourself with people that specialize in the various forms of Internet marketing.

Some people do web hosting and email, some do graphics and design, some do software programming and development, some do template solutions, some do custom solutions, some specialize in promotion, some in conversion, some in process, etc. A firm may specialize in several of these areas whereas individuals may specialize in only one or a few of them.

If you work with a firm then you likely have a single point of contact which can be more efficient, but also more expensive. If you work with individuals then you can save money, but plan on putting more time into managing each individual, getting your vision across to each of them, and then also dealing with breakdowns such as communication, work ethic, etc.

Surrounding yourself with people that can influence your strategy can be done physically with meet-up groups, clubs, and organizations, events, conferences, seminars, and workshops. This can also be done online in places such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. There is an endless supply of virtual communities that can prove useful to your quest for an effective online strategy.

All this said, I think what is important here is that when it comes to understanding and tackling the web in regards to your business, you want to be cautious not to look at it as a “should I or shouldn’t I” do the web, but rather where and how does the web fit in with what I am doing.

What aspects of the web do I need for my business, what aspects do I not need, and what aspects are optional. How much time do you want to put into specific areas and how much money do you want to put into areas. What people or firms do you want involved in all this and how will you manage each relationship?

If this seems like a lot to think about, it’s because it is which is why you want the right people by your side. Most of my clients, especially the smaller ones, ended up with us and stick with us because they have tried and failed numerous times with various others. With us they experience, reliability, and a personal touch at affordable prices. It’s this trust that grows even deeper with time because every time they need something accomplished on the web, we get it done, efficiently and affordable because that’s what we are equipped to do. This is how you know you are with the right people.

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: ,

Be your own producer with social magazines

July 21, 2010 By yhurg Leave a Comment

Many years ago, just prior to the birth of the World Wide Web in 1995, a friend and I attempted to create something unheard of at the time. The idea was based on that of a print magazine but would feature two things uncharacteristic of a magazine:

a.) Interaction
b.) Personalization

We weren’t sure how to pull it off, as print media does pose limitations. We didn’t even have a clear idea all that it would ent

ail.

What we did know was that we wanted to come out with a periodical print, probably once a month, featuring stories, local businesses, local people, local events and activities, all the normal stuff that would appear in a local journal, but we wanted a way to interact with people as close to real-time as possible and also keep the publication personalized, letting readers influence their own experience.

Not surprisingly, the idea never went anywhere. Primarily because we couldn’t figure out technologically how to achieve what we desired. We didn’t even get far enough with the idea for funding to become an obstacle. But we spent months with the idea in our think tank.

In recent years, I have come to realize that it blogs have been achieving some aspects of this  idea since the late 90s, so in a way when I think back to our efforts I recognize that while the idea at the time may not have been possible, it was this type of thinking that led to the innovation of blogs and social media.

But now something new is on the horizon that is almost PRECISELY what we ultimately wanted to achieve nearly 20 years ago. It’s called a social magazine and you can read about it on a recent post at HubSpot called The Next Big Thing for Marketers: Social Magazines.

A social magazine is based on the notion that tablet computing, such as the iPad, is here to stay and that consumers now need and have the ability to custom tailor their marketing experience.

Already there are applications such as Flipboard and Pulse for the iPad that give users the ability to pipe in content from various sources and organize it in a way that allows them to consumer the information to their taste.

As HubSpot points out, social magazines are important for marketers because they a.) reduce info-noise; b.) are rich with visuals; c.) result in social segmentation.

The noise reduction benefit is huge. People are overwhelmed today with information and the pursuit is on to filter and reduce this noise to its most useful and beneficial purpose for each individual.

The visual aspect is important because micro-blogging, which arguably has dominated conventional blogging, is limited when it comes to multimedia. Social magazines keep micro-blogging on the forefront and incorporate rich multimedia experiences.

The segmentation aspect, which in a way coincides with noise filtering, gives consumers the ability to custom tailor the information they consume. Essentially makes the consumer the architect of his own experience.

Ultimately what social magazines bring into the world is the possibility of making sense of the ever-chaotic Internet for each individual. Unlike radio and television programming, which packages choice select content determined by the producers and delivers it to viewing and listening audiences, social magazines let the consuming recipient be his or her own producer.

How will this impact your marketing efforts as a business?

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , ,

Google Caffeine is live: what you need to know

June 15, 2010 By yhurg Leave a Comment

Get top 10 listings with AxandraLast week, Google announced that their new web indexing system “Caffeine” is live on all Google pages. What does this mean for your website and do you have to change anything on your pages?

Google Caffeine is the name for the new method that Google uses to index web pages. In contrast to Google’s old method, Caffeine can index new web pages faster:

“Caffeine provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than our last index, and it’s the largest collection of web content we’ve offered. Whether it’s a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before.”

Google changed they way in which they index the web because they want to show new pages more quickly in the search results.

What is the difference between the old system and Google Caffeine?

Google’s previous system updated the search index in batches.

“Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks.

To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.”

With Google Caffeine, Google’s search index is updated continually:

“With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index.”

That means that new pages will be displayed in Google’s search results sooner if they are relevant to the search query.

Caffeine is not a ranking algorithm update. It does not change the way Google ranks web pages so you don’t need to do anything different from the way you do things now. Caffeine just means that new pages will be shown much quicker on Google’s result pages.

To get your own website on Google’s first result page, analyze the web pages that currently have top 10 rankings on Google. The pages that now have a top 10 ranking on Google have done everything right to please Google’s latest ranking algorithm.

Analyze the top ranked pages and check how and where they use their keywords. Also check which web pages link to the top ranked pages and how they link to the top ranked pages.

Doing this is a lot of work if you do it manually. For that reason, we suggest the Top 10 Optimizer by Axandra. The Top 10 Optimizer automatically analyzes the web pages that currently have high rankings for your keywords and it compares them to your own website.

You will also get detailed instructions on how to change the content of your web pages and the links to your site so that your site will be listed in Google’s top 10 results.

For questions or assistance with Google page rankings or with Axandra’s Top 10 Optimizer call us at 888-875-6812.

Filed Under: Marketing, Tips Tagged With: ,

Maximize your Twitter experience with the use of lists

June 1, 2010 By yhurg Leave a Comment

In a recent study by Arbitron and Edison Research, which you can see in detail on the HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog in the post titled, 5 Twitter Charts For Marketers, Twitter was deemed equal to Facebook in awareness with consumer audiences but lagged far behind Facebook in terms of actual usage. While marketers can speculate on what this means, there are a couple insights you can take away from this research:

a.) Twitter users are actively discussing products and services
b.) Twitter is growing rapidly and driving consumer awareness

Because of this, B2C and B2B marketers continue to incorporate Twitter into their digital marketing strategies and as a marketing tool you want to maximize its potential. But in its simplest form Twitter, which is a lot like SMS text-messaging from your mobile phone, can be limited and time-consuming.

So what are some ways to better leverage the power of Twitter?

One option is with the use of lists. Twitter lists is a feature that enables you to create lists under your account and add other Twitter users to them. By doing this, you essentially create filtered views of messages being published to Twitter which helps you keep a watchful eye on people important to you, be it personally or professionally.

In March we explored ways to utilize the software TweetDeck to manage multiple accounts on Twitter. Our guess presenter for this session was Ryan Taft of Catalyst Marketers who is back with us this week to show us how to create and manage lists on Twitter. In this live web cast, Taft will be covering:

  • What is a twitter list?
  • Examples of Twitter Lists
  • How to create a Twitter List
  • How to use a Twitter List

To attend this webinar you must be registered with the AC List Builder series which you can do by clicking button below. By registering you will receive an email notification from GoToWebinar reminding you of each webinar within that series. If you are not able to or are not interested in attending a specific webinar within that series then there is no obligation to attend. You can disregard the notification.

Likewise if you have an interest in attending webinars from another series we run then you can register with those from the training page too. By subscribing to our website then we can notify you of our upcoming events and webinars plus we can share information like this that you can utilize on your own time.

Click here to register for the AC List Builder Webinar Series

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: , ,

How to build a text-based website for mobile use

May 17, 2010 By yhurg Leave a Comment

In February 2010 we looked at how to use the text-based coupon codes in the CMP Mobile system. Prior to that we looked at the key components of the CMP Mobile system. These included how to create a group, create a keyword campaign, set an auto responder, and more. This month CMP Mobile is back with a third demonstration on the basics of their text-messaging system.

In this final demonstration in the series that began in January 2010, Guest Presenter Brian Collins will be showing us:

  • Why mobile sites are important today
  • How to create a mobile website within the CMP Mobile system
  • How to generate a URL for your mobile site
  • How to shorten the URL to insert into text message campaign
  • How to insert url in text message campaign

By the end we will have created a mobile website on the fly that you will be able to view on your mobile phone. Webinar attendees will have an opportunity to test the mobile system live by opting in to receive this link to the mobile web page from their phone so if you can not text while on a call with your mobile phone then you will want to call in using a different phone so you can participate in the live demo. For questions about this please contact us.

SPECIAL: Text AUTOBURST to 41513 from your mobile and show up for this web cast and receive a free mobile website for your business for 30 days.

To register for this free event use the button below. If you are already registered with the AC Mobile series then you would have already received an email notification from GoToWebinar about it and there is no need to re-register.

Likewise if you have an interest in subjects like this and can not make this particular webinar, you can view our schedule of events or sign up to receive email and text alerts for all upcoming webinars. We do record our webinars and make them available for viewing on our Viddler channel and on our new website www.AutoBurstWebTV.com.

Click here to register for the AC Spotlight Webinar Series

For questions or assistance with AC Webinars contact Ryan Gerardi. Thank You.

Filed Under: Events, Tips Tagged With: , , ,

5 Tips To Attract, Engage and Sign Your Ideal Client

May 3, 2010 By yhurg Leave a Comment

Working with your ideal client is an important practice to take in your business for many reasons. For one, it allows you to narrow down your service offerings for a specific clientele, and effectively turns you into an expert for your day to day tasks. It also allows you to focus your marketing efforts to a smaller group of people, and makes it easier for you to convert prospects into sales.

This is important when you conduct business online – the more focused your marketing efforts are, the better your conversion rate will be when you speak with prospective clients.

Tracey D’Aviero is a Virtual Assistant who has recently launched an eight-week training program called Your VA Mentor, which prepares new virtual assistants to go out into their target industry with confidence, to find and attract their ideal clients. Tracey will be offering tips on how to attract, engage and sign your ideal client at our next AC Spotlight webinar where you will learn:

  • How to identify your ideal client
  • Why it’s important to figure out what they need
  • Where to find them online
  • How to engage them and get them to sign the deal

Please join us this Thursday May 6 at 11:30am EST. We will begin with a brief orientation of the AC Webinar series and registration process before handing the controls over to Tracey for her presentation which should last about 30-40 minutes.

To register for this free event use the button below. If you are already registered with the AC Spotlight series series then there is no need to re-register. Likewise if you have an interest in subjects like this and can not make this particular webinar, you can view our schedule of events or sign up to receive email and text alerts for all upcoming webinars. We do record our webinars and make them available for viewing on our Viddler channel and on our new website www.AutoBurstWebTV.com.

Click here to register for the AC Spotlight Webinar Series

For questions or assistance with AC Webinars contact Ryan Gerardi.

Filed Under: Events, Tips Tagged With:

How to add admin users to individual blogs on WPMU

April 27, 2010 By yhurg Leave a Comment

If you work with WordPress MU (WPMU) then you know that you have a few options when issuing user accounts to people. This video tutorial shows how to add users to individual blogs as admins versus adding them as a Site Admin which would grant access to all blogs on your WPMU install.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.

A Site Admin has access and ability to do everything and anything on your WPMU install and you can set any user as a Site Admin that requires this access. But this should be few and far between. Most users only require access to one of in some instances multiple sites, not all.

To make users a Site Admin, go to the Options area under the Site Admin section in the left side bar when logged in. If you do not see this section then you are not a Site Admin and you will need to contact a Site Admin for that WPMU install.

To make users an admin for one or more individual blogs, simply go into the Backend of the desired blog(s) and go into the Users section. Here click the “Add New” link and you will be prompted to enter the person’s username and email address.

If the username you enter does not exist then WP will add that user. If it does exist then it will add that user to this blog with the role you specify. (Note that the email address associated with the username must match. If they don’t then WP will not add the user).

If the username you enter does not exist then WP will add the new user account, so long as the email address you enter does not exist either.

Setting this user to Administrator does not make him or her a Site Admin. It only makes him or her an admin for that particular blog.

The check box for sending confirmation email is not checked by default but I recommend you check it. If you do not then a confirmation email will be sent to this user requiring him or her to click a verification link before he/she can access the site. Checking this box simply adds the user with the role you specify.

So that’s it. It may seem confusing at first but once you go through it a couple times it makes more sense. The important thing to note is that you can make people admin users to individual blogs on the same WPMU install without having to grant them access to your entire WPMU site.

For questions or assistance please contact us at AC Assist.

Filed Under: Tips, Videos Tagged With: ,
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