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Brett Burky is someone that I met on Facebook and we live in the Same Town! How about that. He shows you how to extend your Social network on Facebook with these 5 simple little tips.

Those tips include:

1. Look into your current network in invite them as friends – send them a message.
2. Join organizations and groups – answer questions to gain credibility
3. Answer updates
4. Invite people on other social networks to friend them and invite them over
5. Do physical networking and join some offline networking groups!

Awesome Information to have and use to your own advantage, so take the information and get some friends.

Let me know what you think about the video with a comment below.

Promote Your Blog Through Social Networking

Most of us want to generate traffic to our blogs. Unless you’re blogging solely for your friends and family, you’ll want to attract as many readers as possible. The more traffic you generate, the more success you’ll have in generating income from your blog.

Today, I’m going to explain how you can promote your blog through the top social networking sites. These sites give people a chance to meet and interact with others who share their interests. Keep in mind social networking sites are not all created equal; some of them hold far more potential to drive traffic than others.

Promoting Your Blog On Facebook

As you probably know, Facebook is the 800 lb. gorilla of social networking. Not only do millions of people connect daily with their friends on the site, but constant media coverage ensures it remains in the public eye. Their popularity works to your advantage.

There are several ways to promote your blog on Facebook. For example, you can create a Facebook Page. Attract “fans” to your Page by updating it with articles, short posts, and pictures. Each time you update your Page, your fans are notified. You can include links to your blog in each segment that you post.

You can also create a Facebook Group that focuses on your blog’s topic. A lot of Facebook members search for Groups that discuss the topics they’re interested in. As a community builds around your Group, new and returning members will see a link to your blog positioned prominently at the top.

Driving Traffic From Other Social Networking Sites

So far, we’ve focused on Facebook because of its enormous popularity. There are several social networking sites that you should use to promote your blog. They work on the same general principle: people with the same interests interacting with each other.

StumbleUpon generates a lot of traffic to blogs by encouraging their members to “Stumble!” them. When members view a page they enjoy, they submit it to StumbleUpon to share it with other members. This site is powerful enough that Firefox created a browser extension that lets members “Stumble!” sites with a single click.

BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog are social networking sites which are specifically focused on helping bloggers promote their blogs. You can form groups with people who are interested in your blog’s subject matter and encourage them to tell others in their network. The more readers you attract to your profile and group, the more traffic you can send to your blog.

Other powerful social networking sites include MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg, and Twitter. Even though Facebook has become more popular, MySpace still has an enormous community. By creating a profile and linking to your blog, you can generate a steady stream of traffic. Twitter is one of the newer social networking sites. You can post short “tweets” for your followers, whet their appetite for more, and send them to your latest blog post.

Set Aside Time To Socialize

One of the keys to promoting your blog successfully on any of the social networking sites is to get involved within your communities. For example, if you’re using Facebook for blog promotion, update your Page often and interact with members of your Group. Ideally, you should set aside time to socialize every day. The more you interact with others in the communities you establish, the more likely they’ll be to visit your blog.

Don’t think of social networking as your primary blog promotion strategy. Instead, consider it one of many effective internet marketing techniques. You should also be using search engine optimization strategies to drive traffic. As an added bonus, most of the social networking sites I’ve described above allow you to link directly to your blog. There’s no redirect which siphons the link juice.

If you haven’t gotten involved yet, take a few minutes to explore social networking. You may be surprised by the traffic it can send.

If you’re a business owner, an online entrepreneur, or you’ve just been laid off because of the global economic crisis and you are wondering whether or not to spend your time pimping your resume to employment agencies or starting a business of your own, then here are ten very good reasons why you should consider starting your own social networking site:

1) Social Networking Is A Growing Trend!

While millions of people all over the world are sharing photos on social networking sites like Facebook.com and MySpace.com, posting messages on Twitter, or just watching and waiting to see where all of this is going, many businesses are staking their claim to untapped niche markets by starting to plant seeds for their future in the form of community sites based around a particular topic. One recent example I have seen of this, is a social networking site for beading enthusiasts called BeadHuddle.com. This social network is completely centered around the craft of beading, and growing very rapidly with people who have a passion for beads.

Here’s a promotional video that the owners of the beading site created and posted on YouTube that explains the benefits of becoming a member of their online beading community:

Think about the business you are in, or a hobby or interest you feel passionate about. Could you turn this into an online social network?

2) A Social Networking Site Is A Great Place To Develop Your Entrepreneurial Skills

Someone once said that an entrepreneur is a person who creates events so they can sell tickets to those who like to attend events. A community or social networking site is an event that more and more people are participating in. One way to create an exciting event is to simply introduce people who share a similar passion or interest to one another. This is exactly what a community site allows you to do.

3) A Social Networking Site Can Be Scaled Down Or Up

An individual, company, church, club, association or local community can choose to set up a social networking site to allow just the members of its community to join and interact with each other online … or open the site to allow anyone to join and grow it to a global level.

4) A Social Community Site Can Inject New Life Into An Organization

By adding a new dimension of interactivity online, many organizations, businesses and special interest communities can become more dynamic and lively, and offer a great and exciting new way for its members to interact socially.

5) A Social Networking Site Offers A Whole Lot More Than Just A Member’s Forum

In a social network site, members can share articles, videos, pictures, create groups, post announcements and events to selected members of their group, run classifieds, auctions, directories, chat live or instant message one another, as well as post messages and engage in discussions in a forum.

6) A Social Networking Site Can Become A Profitable Online Business

If you have ever tried to run your own website or a blog, then you know that most of the site’s content has to either come from your own labor, or from someone you will probably have to pay money to outsource the work to. In a community site, provided you set it up properly and get it going following certain simple guidelines, your members will create most of the site’s content for you, leaving you free to manage and promote the site. Once you have built a significant community membership, there are many options you can look into as a way of “monetizing” your site and turning it into a profitable business online.

7) A Community Site Can Help You Create Your Own Database Of Potential Customers

Let’s say you own a travel-related business. Can you imagine being the owner of a growing community site dedicated exclusively to a niche topic in this industry? How hard would it be to access, inform and educate members of your community about your products and services and promote the benefits of your business to them?

A Social Networking Site Can Help You Discover New Business Opportunities

If you have ever been a member of an online forum, or a networking group, you will probably agree that many people generally frequent forums and discussion groups as a way to find solutions to specific problems or challenges they may be experiencing. By simply keeping your eyes open and studying forum threads in your own social network, you will begin to recognize new opportunities for creating new products, services and solutions to address common problems that your members are experiencing.

9) A Social Networking Site Can Turn Your Site Into An Online Authority Hub

Imagine having hundreds, even thousands of new members in a niche-specific community site (e.g. a site for owners of rare, tropical aquarium fish) regularly posting fresh, new content that is completely relevant to the topic of your site, and having search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and others slurping it up and serving up pages of your site to its visitors, or blog owners publishing your links on their sites via RSS feeds. By leveraging the efforts of your community members, you can quickly begin to turn you site into an authority hub for whatever topic you choose to build a social networking community around.

10) A Social Networking Site Can Become A Growing Asset For You

Imagine owning an online community site which, after a couple of years, has become a “hub”, or authority site for your particular niche, because you have cultivated and helped it grow to 30,000+ active members, all focused around a specific area of interest. I don’t know about you, but in my experience, there are many companies, advertisers and competing business owners in your field that would view your site as an enviable asset which they would probably like to own or derive a greater benefit from.

So … are you starting to see the bigger picture now? The Social Networking phenomenon is now growing beyond sites like Facebook,com, MySpace.com and the other larger and more well known sites. More and more enterprising individuals and business owners are starting to see the benefit of setting up their own community sites, and discovering much to their surprise, that owning your own social networking site doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, or even require much technical skill to run.

If owning your own social networking site interests you and you would like to know more but don’t know where to begin, then the best resource I recommend you start with, is a FREE report entitled “How To Profit With Your Own Social Networking Site”, which you can download at no cost by clicking on this link:

How To Profit With Your Own Social Network Site

Social Marketing for Beginners

People have been talking about social marketing for about two years. There’s so much involved with social marketing that if you’re a beginner, you may be overwhelmed. These ideas will help get you up to speed on social marketing and tell you how you can use it for your own online business.

Instead of trying to use all of these tips at once, take one or two and master them before trying to add another. By taking your time in adding additional social marketing areas, you will be able to tell if your efforts in the two you’ve chosen are actually generating more traffic to your website or more sales for your business.

1. Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media outlets on the internet. If you’re not familiar with it, you’ll want to get familiar. This is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to type 140 characters at a time which is seen by everyone who “follows” you. You can use Twitter in any number of ways including sending people URLs for your website or with your affiliate link.

2. Squidoo Lenses are another great way to get traffic to your website. The format is easy to learn so there’s really no reason not to give it a try. Read the tutorial for Squidoo and then browse around the various pages; you’ll be amazed at what you can do with them.

3. Create a blog and update it regularly. Make it easy for your visitors to contact you or leave comments. In this way, you allow them to ask questions, comment on your blog post, or reach you if they have suggestions.

4. Concentrate on helping others rather than merely driving traffic to your own website. Be sure you provide something of value no matter what social marketing platform you use. You may even want to offer a free ebook or product that will meet your target market’s needs and you’ll benefit in the process.

5. Visit other people’s blogs and leave comments, particularly if they’re in your niche. Be sure to be polite and sincere in what you say and that you’re adding something of value rather than commenting on how nice their blog looks.

6. When you set up your own blog, be sure to include tools so visitors can Digg what you have to say, vote for the post being Del.icio.us, or telling others they Reddit. Use plug-ins that you add to your blog that will include buttons for all of these, as well as many other, social bookmarking sites.

7. Share the love. Don’t be afraid to let others know about blogs or websites that you frequent without worrying about getting something in return.

8. Join micro-communities as long as they pertain to your business. Online forums can be considered micro-communities as well as these examples: gardenweb.com, care2.com, and education.com. Be sure to offer relevant comments and pay attention to what others on these sites are talking about.

9. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. Ask visitors what they would like to see on your site or how you can improve it. Try something new and then ask for opinions. If someone gives a suggestion or comment, be sure to thank them and seriously consider their suggestion.

10. Include links to all of your social networking profiles on your website. For example, if you have a Facebook and a Twitter page, provide links to your profiles on your website so web visitors can follow you.

Social networking is an effective tool to build a community, and in this day and age that’s the key to building a sustainable and profitable business. Social marketing can be time consuming and addictive. Don’t forget to spend time doing what brings income to you rather than merely spending time with social marketing. However, that being said, do give it a try. It can do your business a world of good!

How To Use Social Networking To Boost Site Exposure Part:ONE

In the beginning, there were search engines. Some, like Google, chose the minimalist approach of delivering only search results to their users (though that has changed dramatically in recent years). Others like MSN and Yahoo! took a completely different path.

They chose to provide their users with a menu of options, including chat features, maps, weather, and a plethora of other tools. For online marketers and site operators, they’re considered one of the most effective resources for free exposure and traffic.

During the past few years, a new phenomenon has emerged: social networking. Websites such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn connect people into broader bands of like-minded networks. In so doing, they threaten to usurp the role of the search engines.

Today, we’re going to briefly explore how the social networking trend gained momentum so quickly. I’ll explain how savvy marketers are using the social media sites as one of their newest marketing strategies. Finally, I’ll describe a few tools that will allow you to leverage these sites for increased exposure to your own.

Rise Of Social Networking

Despite what a lot of marketers believe, online social networking has actually existed for over a decade. Arguably, it began when Classmates.com launched in 1995. Over the next few years, they were followed by Six Degrees Of Separation, Circle Of Friends, and Friendster. MySpace transformed the field when it launched in 2003. The following year, Facebook was founded.

The power behind these social networking sites – and the potential they hold for online marketers – lies in their ability to aggregate targeted sects of the public. Not only can these diverse audiences be segmented based upon demographics, shared interests, and other aspects, but they represent connected communities.

It didn’t take long for marketers to notice the potential.

Basics Of Social Networking Marketing

Marketing on social media sites requires a subtle, rather than aggressively promotional, approach. Remember, we’re not talking about spending thousands of dollars on media banner buys that canvas MySpace. You can do that on any online property. The true value of social networking sites lies in the communities in which you immerse yourself and the potential reach they represent.

It’s a matter of establishing yourself as an authority in your field, adding value to the community, and directing those who are in your network to your websites.

For example, let’s assume that you manage a website that sells parts and accessories for Ford Mustangs. You’ll have no trouble finding a social networking community that is filled with Mustang enthusiasts. If you brashly promote your site and products, you’ll lose the community’s attention and likely gain their derision. However, if you answer questions for others, provide short tutorials, and even informative videos, you’ll be considered a valued resource.

Your profile on the social media properties should include links to your site (in this case, your Ford Mustang site). As your perceived value within the social networking community rises, more people will read your profile and visit your site.

In other words, social networking is about creating relationships with those in your market. That means you’ll need to stay active and connected within the community.

Tools Of The Trade

As the options and features for each social media site have expanded, a number of tools have been designed that can help you harness them. An in-depth look at each of these tools is beyond the scope of today’s post, of course. But, I’ll introduce you to a few of the applications that have been developed for Facebook:

Facebook Beacon: This tool will automatically link to your website from other Facebook members’ profile pages when they buy something from you.

FeedBurner: FeedBurner has been around for years. This is a tool created specifically for Facebook users. By installing it onto your profile, it will update every time you post to your website’s blog.

QOOP: You can use this application to transfer the pictures on your Facebook profile to posters, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and other items that promote your business or site.

Getting Started With Social Networking

It’s worth emphasizing that marketing on social media sites should be one part of a larger strategy. It should blend in with your search engine optimization strategies; it should support your video marketing, which we discussed recently; and it should help build your affiliate base (if you’re taking that route).

To get started, choose a platform that offers exposure to your targeted audience. Depending upon your product or website, you might be better served by focusing upon MySpace rather than Facebook. Next, set aside the time (or pay someone else) to create a significant amount of content or useful tools directed at the community you’re targeting. Then, get involved in the community by becoming a valued resource in your field.

Marketing on social media sites is about prying open different points of access to your audience. If you follow the tips I’ve just given you, you’ll enjoy additional exposure for your site, a boost in opt-ins, and increased sales.

Your Ultimate “How To” Guide For Increasing Your Website Traffic!

Your website needs traffic. It lives, breathes, and thrives on it. The challenge is positioning your site so that it enjoys continuous exposure to the right people at the right time. Deploying 1 or 2 internet marketing tactics can easily drive hundreds, even thousands, of people to your site. But, what happens when that traffic stream dries up?

Most site owners seem to approach traffic generation without grasping the true potential of their marketing strategies. We’re going to change that today.

Before we get started, let’s set our expectations properly. There’s no possible way we can cover the entire range of marketing strategies that can drive traffic to your site. It can’t be done in 1 article. But, we’re going to take it one step further. Below, I’m going to give you a bird’s eye view of the most effective internet marketing strategies you can use to generate traffic. For each tactic, I’ll provide links to 1 or 2 of the best resources available to learn, master, and apply the strategies. In time, this will become your ultimate “how to” guide for increasing your website traffic.

Let’s get started.

Inbound Link-Building

Building targeted, thematically-related inbound links is the cornerstone of all search engine optimization strategies. But, there’s an art to doing it right. Submitting your site to a few directories is no longer sufficient. Here are 2 comprehensive resources for planning and deploying an inbound linking program:

• Advanced Link Building Strategies – a reasonably well-documented blueprint for taking your link-building program beyond what most site owners can imagine doing.

• Guide To One-Way Link-Building – a thorough treatment of pursuing the right kind of links and their cumulative effect on your website’s search engine rankings.

Link Bait Creation

Link bait is exactly as it sounds: you create content that baits others into linking to your site. That can mean developing an interactive credit card payment calculator, a controversial political view, or an entertaining video. The idea is simple: get people to notice and motivate them to link. Ideally, this strategy should be a part of your inbound link-building program, but it deserves its own mention. Here are 2 resources for learning the link-baiting craft:

• Link Bait Primer – this blog post provides a good overview of the topic from Matt Cutts, a high-profile Google engineer. Start here before moving to advanced link bait tactics.

• 20 Link Baiting Techniques – a great list of ideas compiled onto 1 page by savvy link baiter Darren Rowse.

Autoresponder Sequences

Getting people to visit your site is only 1 part of the traffic generation formula. You need those visitors to return to your site over and over. If you leave the matter to them, it won’t happen. But, if you can persuade your visitors to sign up for an autoresponder sequence, you can drive them back to your site on a predictable schedule. Read the following page to learn the strategy and how to apply it:

• Autoresponder Flowchart – a top-down look at the entire process of encouraging people to subscribe to your sequence and delivering compelling messages that drive them back to your site.

Social Networking And Media

Social networking has become a powerful buzzword over the past few years. It’s a maturing strategy to develop traffic to your site and is bound to change dramatically over the next 12 months. Here are 4 resources that will give you a comprehensive blueprint to leveraging the technique:

• Promoting Your Content On Social Bookmarking Sites – an overview of the method.
• Promoting Your Content On Social Networking Sites – a similar treatment focused on a related segment of the strategy.

• How To Create Digg-Friendly Content – this is a fantastic resource from notable blogger Maki.

• A Comprehensive Guide To StumbleUpon - another resource from Maki that is better than any other StumbleUpon tutorial I’ve seen. Read this page and bookmark it.

PPC Campaigns

Eventually, your search engine optimization strategies, autoresponder sequences, link bait, and other free traffic generation techniques will be sending you a growing stream of visitors. To continue building the stream, launch small, ultra-targeted PPC campaigns. Doing so requires an investment, but if you know your metrics, you’ll be able to deploy this strategy and enjoy a positive ROI. Here are 2 reliable PPC resources:

• Step By Step Guide To PPC Campaign Setup – this is a well-written overview of the entire process of creating a PPC campaign.

• Designing Effective PPC Campaign Strategies – don’t let the date (circa 2005) dissuade you from reading this article. The author discusses PPC strategy from a long-term perspective that is not only still viable today, but critical.

Product Development With An Affiliate Program

Here’s a potent internet marketing strategy that 99% of all site owners neglect. Once you’ve developed a traffic generation program using all of the tactics described above, your website (or blog) will be receiving a continuous stream of readers and fans. If you develop a product and attach an affiliate program to it that allows your visitors to make money by promoting you, it can turn your traffic stream into a river. Here’s a great resource for launching your affiliate program:

• How To Start An Affiliate Program - a tutorial by Allan Gardyne, an affiliate program authority. It was written in 2004, but contains a mountain of useful information about creating your own program.

Overwhelmed with your affiliate program?

Get Advice, Information and Tips on How To Build an Army of Motivated Affiliates

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Traffic Generation Strategies For The Future

Things change quickly online. The techniques that we’re using today in order to drive waves of traffic to our sites will likely be different 3 years from now. However, the strategies that I’ve listed above have a proven track record of success. They may change in the future, but the foundation upon which they’re built will remain static.

Here’s what I recommend that you do: invest time at each of the resources I’ve given you. Learn the tactics that are described there and apply them. As the methods for driving traffic to your website change, you’ll find that the resources above will prepare you to adapt.

Reasons Twitter is a dominant Marketing Tool

Social networking is on the rise and one of the greatest quickest tools you can use in getting exposure for your site. It is a great way to get quick traffic to your site and build a loyal following of followers to you.

Whether you are just getting started with an online business or you have been around for a while and looking for a new way to network, have a look at Twitter. Here are 5 reasons Twitter is a powerful marketing tool for online business owners like you.

1. It’s Short, Sweet & To the Point
Have you ever heard the phrase, less is more? You’ll find that one of the best things about Twitter is that it keeps all messages very short and sweet. You’ll have to give your customers and clients the gist of what is going on in short tweets (messages similar to instant messages) that allow their interest to be piqued in such a way as to make them investigate further.

2. Urgency
Much like a blog or an RSS feed, you can get access to the people that use Twitter regularly. This is like making sure that you can reach them no matter where they are, and you will find that this is very important when you want to make marketing one of your biggest priorities. You are making sure that they have all of the latest updates to what you are doing and what’s going on by simply sending a tweet post their way.

3. Everyone’s Twittering and Customer Loyalty
In many ways, Twitter is a social program more than it is a marketing one, and you’ll find that using Twitter can help you feel a great deal closer to your client base and others in your online community. If you are looking to make sure that they see you as a person rather than as simply a company or service, you’ll find that Twitter encourages them to think of you as someone they can get to know. This can be very important when it comes to establishing a customer base and customer loyalty.

4. You are in the Now!
Remember that it goes both ways; you can put information out on Twitter and you can also learn a lot too. By following others Twitter accounts, especially if it looks like they have a lot to offer, you can keep in the know about various products, services, and other happenings online. This can be a great way to keep an eye on what is going on in order to keep yourself in the know of your industry.

5. Make Them Laugh
You can also use Twitter to tease people a little bit, in a fun way, of course! When you use Twitter, you have to keep your messages short, and in many ways, a little mysterious. Pique their interest, joke around, and you’ll find that you gain a lot more followers and hopefully website traffic and customers as a result.

Be warned, just as with any other social networking site, Twitter can quickly become addicting if you let it. Don’t go overboard and get so involved in all the tweeting that it takes away from your intended purpose (Social Marketing and Networking). Used wisely Twitter can be a great and powerful marketing tool to help create online business success for the long run

Part two on USING TWITTER.