Today Microsoft threw $300 million into the Barnes &Noble e-reader business (17.6% stake). It’ll be interesting to see how this whole Windows 8 vs. Android vs. iOS shakes out in the next few years.
April 30th, 2012
Throwing good money after bad?
February 5th, 2012
RockMelt: A Time Saving Browser For Authors and Small Business Owners
What is RockMelt and why should you care? It’s a web browser and it has the potential to make your life easier. One of, if not the most challenging issues facing a self-marketer today is finding-the-time-to-get-it-all-done. I mean seriously.
Rockmelt, based on Google’s Chromium architecture, is a slick web browser that allows you to research, share, stay in touch with your readers, get inspired, chat with friends, and more—all at the same time. Add chewing bubble gum to that and you just might take over the word.
Here’s what it can do for you:
- Provide a totally customizable and slick browser that is based on Google’s Chromium (so, it’s fast)
- Import and organize all your bookmarks, so you can move over seamlessly
- Deliver instant news from the feeds of your choice (say Twitter, Facebook, HufPo, MSNBC, industry blogs, etc.)
- Reveal Facebook notifications at the top of your browser (so you’ll never miss an important message or opportunity).
- Social Reading apps that kick ass
- One-click sharing
- Chat with friends (from any window).
It could also distract you, so be sure to set boundaries and only follow those leads that will help further your marketing efforts. It’s too easy to get caught up in the increasingly distracting world of the Internet. If needed, you can easily turn off your notifications and browse uninterrupted, because alone time is so often under-rated.
September 22nd, 2011
Google+ open to public beta
It’s official – Google+ has been opened up to public beta. Go on, go setup your account – you can read this anytime. Login to your Google account, then in the upper left corner click +YourName and it will walk you through the setup process. I was kind of giddy about the process—I’m pretty excited about Google+, it’s just so darn easy to use—it makes sense. The question is, will Google+ outstrip Facebook in popularity?
I’ll be posting as I explore and learn the G+ system. Feel free to share your thoughts with me and join me on Google+ too!
So far, the number one positive feedback I’m hearing is that G+ has excellent privacy features.
My favorite feature is the search functionality. It’s kind of like Twitter meets Facebook in the way that you can do a search for a specific keyword and you’ll get results for anyone who has posted publicly on that topic; then, you can create a Circle using that keyword name and add those interesting Plussers to your Circle. (Users are called Plussers by the way—no longer a “Twit,” now that’s a Plus).
Getting Started:
1. Set up your profile: you can share as little or as much as you feel comfortable sharing. Read the rest of this entry »
September 16th, 2011
New Facebook Lists
Well, it’s here. Seconds ago I was on Facebook looking around and it went down. My wireless wasn’t the issue so I checked my email for a couple minutes. Returning to Facebook I noticed a new feature – Improved Friends Lists. In an attempt to catchup with some of the Google+ features Facebook now allows you to organize your contacts into various sub groups like:
- Work
- School
- Family
- City
- Close Friends
- Acquaintances
Fortunately, Facebook has a habit of warning of upgrades so I wasn’t too surprised. In fact check out the release here.
It’s nice to see competition driving change even if only incremental.
September 2nd, 2011
New Twitter ad ons
Recently Twitter has been adding more features to their core platform. It used to be that in order to share an image you had to use a third party service like twitpic, yfrog, or mobypicture. Now you can share photos inline with the Twitter interface. Similarly, Twitter also announced their own link shortener called t.co. Allegedly more secure and definitely shorter than bit.ly or tinyurl.com. Is it better? Who knows at this point I still like bit.ly for their clean interface and ability to track clicks. But I’m sure going to try it. You should too and tell me what you prefer and why in the comments below.
September 1st, 2011
One giant leap for Google Analytics
Holy cow, did Google just add some crazy functionality to Analytics called the Multi-Channel Funnel! In the past if you were running a campaign and had a conversion – the last item clicked was the only one to get any credit. Not the case anymore. Now Analytics can track the entire chain of events that lead up to the sale. I’ll let this handy video explain.
July 6th, 2011
What’s a good bounce rate?
Q: What’s a good bounce rate? Higher or lower?
A: When tracking the traffic to your website, you should be aware of your bounce rate, which is literally when a visitor lands on your website and bounces right off.
Typically, you can expect a higher bounce rate if you are running a pay-per-click campaign, or if you are getting a lot of traffic through search engines. Why? Because you cannot control how people conduct a search and you certainly can’t know what people are looking for (not exactly anyway). This is why it’s so important to be very targeted with your blog post titles, title tags, tags, keywords, and description tags—it’s one thing to draw people in, it’s another to Read the rest of this entry »
June 8th, 2011
Encourage Your Audience to Share Your Content
Q: How do I get people to share my blog content?
A: The most effective way to encourage others to share your content is to offer value so that people want to share it with their network: free resources, tips, advice, statistics, etc. But, you also need to make it easy for your audience to share that content. To answer this question, I would like to discuss the Share and Follow WordPress plug-in and offer a few tips that will help get your content out there and gain Read the rest of this entry »
May 19th, 2011
Square Up and Get Paid Fast!
Are you able to accept credit cards payments anywhere, anytime? If not, you need Square, a fabulous little tool that will change your selling power. Here’s the the best part: It’s Free.
As an author and speaker, I know how important it is to be able to sell your books and products at the back of the room—or even out of the back of your car (since we authors always have copies of our book with us). Square is a simple little device that plugs into the headphone jack of most smart phones (check to see if your phone is supported). The account is free, the device is free. You pay as you go, and the money deposits right into your account. Here’s how it works: Read the rest of this entry »
May 17th, 2011
If your car ran like a computer….
For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on.
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,
“If Ford had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”
In response to Bill’s comments, Ford issued a press release stating:
If Ford had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
- For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash. Twice a day.
- Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car. Read the rest of this entry »
May 16th, 2011
Google’s +1 = a new social media giant?
Google is recently conducting an experiment with a new program they are calling +1. It’s similar to Facebook’s Like button, but it appears right there in the search engine and allows you to give that page your vote of approval (a nice way to remember which sites you liked in a previous visit), plus it shows you who else in your network of friends has approved that page.
Here’s how it works: First, login to your Google account and do a search for Google +1 – you will be directed to a page that allows you to sign up “Try it Now.” You then have to activate your account, which gives Google permission to access your profile information and share your +1 recommendations with people within your network.
To see the +1 feature, you will need to Read the rest of this entry »
May 12th, 2011
What does a Spam Comment look like?
SPAM is everywhere – we can’t seem to be rid of it. Sadly, so much of it looks real. I often get the question: How will I know if it’s SPAM? Well, here are 9 offenders. After awhile – you just know.
- “How-do-you-do, just required you to know I have added your site to my Google bookmarks because of your extraordinary blog layout. But seriously, I feel your website has among the freshest theme I’ve came across. It really assists make reading your weblog a lot easier.”
- “howday,you guys. I was informed by one of my collegues to check out your weblog. I like the layout of the website greatly. This blog is very awesome. Please keep on the good work. I certainly will read it oftenly and introduce it to my roomates.”
- “Howdy! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established Read the rest of this entry »
May 6th, 2011
Be #1 on Google for a Keyword Phrase
Q: How can I be #1 in Google for my keywords?
A: In order to gain ranking for specific keywords, you need to add them to your site frequently—as relative content. Let’s say for example that you want to rank for the keyword phrase “healing and transformation.”
Google will scan indexed sites for this term—frequency is a huge part of this. So, the question is: How often does this string of words appear in your site? AND—how much competition do you have?
Now, let’s consider a term that is specific to your brand. For this example, we’ll use the phrase “Sand Spirits Cards” because it appears frequently throughout the site of the person who submitted this question (thank you Pam). The competition for this phrase is very low – so of course her website comes up as number one.
Can we make your site come up for “healing and transformation” simply by optimizing your site for that term? Read the rest of this entry »
Build Your Platform through Blog Commenting
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—connect with your audience. Social media is a great way to do this, but the crux is to figure out how to get quality people to follow you. One of the most effective ways to do this is through blog commenting. Many of my readers are still unsure as to how this can really help establish an author platform.
Okay, let’s reverse the roles as an example: you are a mom who reads mommy blogs to see what fun new products are out there to make your life easier, to get a good laugh, and to be part of an adult conversation now and then. You decide to leave a comment on a post that really strikes a chord with you—you leave a genuine comment and you become part of the conversation. You decide to read what other people have said in the string of comments and you really like what Sally from Cincinnati had to say—so you look her up. Wow, you discover that Sally has a blog too, and she’s right on, you really connect with her and love to read her daily thoughts. So, you tell your friends about her, and you share her site on your Facebook page, and you email the link to your sister because she’s STILL NOT on Facebook….
Remember this: blog commenting works because you bring something to the conversation, not because you say, “hey I wrote a book—check it out.” If your comment is interesting, people will want to know more about you—especially if you offer sound wisdom and offer value in your comments.
Here’s another example: My husband Chad is a photographer and he follows lot’s of photography blogs. He left a blog comment about Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: blog commenting, Internet Marketing, SEO, social media
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