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Web 2.0 Marketing – Get the Right Tools

As an entrepreneur in today’s rapidly changing world, you need to be quick if you want your business to succeed — especially online.

In a scenario that has already been revolutionized by the Internet, Web 2.0 is changing all the dynamics. New ideas, new techniques and new tools — it’s a completely new way of thinking and doing business. By exploiting these new techniques and tools and putting them to good use, you can create more marketing buzz and increase your profits exponentially.

Though Web 2.0 marketing tools are readily and easily available, the key to your business success is knowing how and when to use them. It is important that you only start utilizing Web 2.0 marketing tools if and when you are prepared to support the Web 2.0 technology on a consistent basis. More importantly, though, you need the content that it will require to succeed.

Here are three popular Web 2.0 marketing tools and a few tips to help you decide how and when to deploy them:

Blogging

Blogs have become an indispensable online marketing tool for marketers looking for site expansion, search engine optimization, cross-linking and generally increasing their internet presence.

For startups, blogs provide the perfect platform for reaching out to target audiences and engaging them in an interactive online communication. However, before launching your own blog, it is important to remember that your audience will expect your blog to change often and offer something new when it does change.

Fresh content is one of the few features that will keep them coming back for more. Publishing one post every couple of months will not generate the traffic you need for your business. If you decide to put up a blog, you need to stay committed to updating it regularly. Equally important, keep in mind a blog is a conversation. Your users will post comments, which you are obligated to reply to.

Once you’ve decided to use blogging as a marketing tool, using a hosted blogging service is the easiest way to set it up. Some of the more popular hosted blogging services include WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal and TypePad.

Podcasting

Podcasting, a media file that is distributed over the internet to be view and/or heard on an MP3 device, is another effective Web 2.0 marketing tool. However, for podcasts to be successful, they need to be produced and updated on a regular basis in order to keep customer interest alive. It is not wise to use your podcast for marketing until you are ready to commit to contributing frequent, informative, and helpful information.

User-generated ratings & content

Whether it’s being able to generate their own content on your web site, post comments to articles on your website or rate content in the customer help section; customers are reacting favorably to investing time in communicating with you.
While it’s a great way of reaching out to your customers and getting feedback, don’t launch it until you are ready to respond to user-generated content directly. In Web 2.0 marketing, user-generated content is the deciding factor and it can either make or break your business.

Written by: David C Skul – CEO – Relativity Business Technology Solutions

Measuring Success in a Web 2.0 World

Hint, use analytics

“Measuring Success in a 2.0 World”, Matt Bailey, president, SiteLogic said, “The only way to get beyond 1.0 analytics is questions. Something no analytics software will do for you.”

Start building context and keep segmenting for more context, so you understand what factors lead to conversion rates. Conversions rates for one group of people may not be comparable to another group.

“People come to your Web site for drastically different reasons. Telling a story is the only way that you will be able to compare and contrast the data that you are getting on your Web site.”

Marshall Sponder, Senior Web Analyst, Monster.com, says that traffic to a lot of social networks comes from social media but it doesn’t come from search. Social media sites like Digg and Reddit bring traffic.

Social media traffic is more directed than search traffic. Traffic to blogs comes from social media sites. You can get visitors to a site, but you need something for them to do. Analytics can help you measure what visitors to your site are doing.

Use monitoring tools such as Radian6 to track the effect of social media conversion. Measure the conversation and the outcomes of the conversation or you miss out on a large amount of data.

Cindy Krum, Director of New Media Strategies at Blue Moon Works, Inc. contributed to this article.

PepperjamNETWORK Meshes Web 2.0 with Affiliate Marketing

Have you seen the “New Generation” PepperjamNETWORK lately? Being ranked in the Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in the United States tends to gets you noticed! Launched in January, 2008, Pepperjam has moved rapidly to the Top of the Affilaite Marketing game, mostly by thinking and implementing ”out of the box”  methods, successfully merging Web 2.0 Technologies and Affiliate Marketing. And Why Not!! Pepperjam was built by Affiliate Marketers, FOR Affiliate Marketers.

Todays Affiliate Marketers need TOTAL ACCESS & TOTAL COMMUNICATION in order to keep pace in Web 2.0. The Affiliate have spoken……and…..PepperjamNETWORK delivers! Intergrating the PepperjamAds, a Google like adbox loaded with YOUR Pepperjam Affiliate Links, which can be placed on your blogs, your websites or your Social Networking pages, allowing you to monetize and informationalize your sites & blogs. Further “Creatives” accompanying the PepperjamAds is Advanced Links, Text Links & Banners (Some of the coolest i have ever seen). Also Pepperjam has integrated communications with it’s PepperjamNETWORK Blog, along with a Chat area where you can have direct communications with YOUR Affiliate Clients. Now how cool is that!!

Ranked by INC Magazine as being in the Top 100 fastest growing business in America

the #1 fastest growing affiliate marketing network

the #1 fastest growing full-service internet marketing agency

the #1 fastest growing interactive marketing agency

the #1 fastest growing search-engine marketing firm

Pepperjam instituted an outstandiing Affiliate Program where you would join and promote pepperjamNETWORK and earn commissions on sales and new signups. New Signups can even earn a $10.00 bonus for joining. If your serious about Affiliate Marketing, You need to look at PepperjamNETWORK

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Using Squidoo to Market Yourself

If you are looking for ways to increase your Website’s exposure, you should definitely explore the marketing possibilities Squidoo has to offer.

Squidoo is one of the increasingly popular Web 2.0 websites that are offering new and exciting marketing opportunities for individuals and companies. Others include YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, Digg and Flickr.

Squidoo is made up of single web pages known as “lenses” which are simply user generated pages. They allow the page owners’ to voice their opinion, provide information, or recommend products they like.

Like many similar Web 2.0 websites, Squidoo has become massively popular and is a great way to reach potential customers and boost your Website’s exposure. It is estimated that Squidoo traffic has grown by about 40 percent each month since spring 2007.

Squidoo is based on the assumption that everyone is an expert on something and a Squidoo lens allows you to share this expertise and provide links to various resources on that subject.

Your Squidoo page should be related to your website, blog or product. Showcase your expertise as much as possible and try to provide valuable information to visitors to your lens.

Your lens should provide links to your website or blog to help drive click through traffic also. Over time, these backlinks should boost your page rank and search results on the major search engines. But, don’t expect overnight success. Like any other service, Squidoo has been abused by marketers.

What type of resources work well on Squidoo? Your own content works best with a sprinkle of other, off page resources. Users assume that if you’re the expert, you should be able to take part in the discussion.

The real attraction of Squidoo for users is that lenses deliver detailed information on a topic in just one page, while a Google search could bring up millions of pages. Just like a magnifying glass, a lens is supposed to narrow down resources into a smaller set of the best links and resources.

Squidoo also affords an opportunity to make money directly as it shares revenue with contributors, also known as lensmasters. While the revenue won’t pay your mortgage, it will allow you to gauge how many people are visiting your site.

The more traffic = higher revenues.

Like any Web 2.0 service, you must approach Squidoo with a plan. Focus on one lens at a time. Then add more later. If you truly have valuable content, your visitors will reward you with backlinks, traffic, and little pocket change.

Written by: David C Skul – CEO – Relativity Business Technology Solutions

Why is Web 2.0 Overrated…

“Why is Web 2.0 Overrated?” Clearly, innumerable people have decided to become Internet savvy themselves. Why wouldn’t they opt to be one when in fact everything in this world seems to be thriving on online portals. The various applications in the corporate, commercial, and industrial arenas are presently conducting all transactions via the Internet. The World Wide Web undoubtedly hosts a pool of opportunities for all individuals–the business entrepreneurs, work-at-home individuals, and marketers. The shortage of effective Internet marketing tactics had been a thing of the past for the online entrepreneurs as well as those administrators of home-based businesses because as of the moment, the connoisseurs in online marketing strategies emphasize that the current technological breakthroughs are certain to rock down the house for the easy flow of the profits for the online businesses. One of the proofs that online marketing faces a bright future is the surfacing of the overrated Web 2.0. The Root of Web 2.0 The concept was initially introduced by O’Reillly Media in 2004 in its effort to unravel a second generation of services and applications as provided by the Web. A lot of people still find the term Web 2.0 quite vague. To set it clear, Web 2.0 is the term used by the Internet gurus to refer to that site platform that pushes forth not only a creative and less complex way of communicating with clients but that it’s likewise your passport to marketing your business to all and sundry. A False Notion It’s sad to note that there’s a large number of people who wrongly believe that Web 2.0 is one complicated tool that can mess up with their business’s fortune. What they don’t realize is that the Web 2.0 is simply among the list of the methods that guarantee market target, sales, and profit gain. The Power of Technology You must admit that the online market is such a competitive place for business owners. You aren’t the sole entrepreneur in existence, so to speak. Therefore, the homework that you must work on is to approach prospect clients and close deals. You have to concert all of your efforts so that you’ll be able to convey your message to them and not have their doors closed on you. But of course, doing a personal and physical visit to at least a million of clients would be a daunting task on your part, not to mention the expenses that would have to be incurred as well. Yet, the good news is that with the prowess that Web 2.0 bears with it, online marketing is merely going to be a simple process to work on with. Plus, you never have to pour out as much money for the effort of covering a vast number of clienteles. The Pros of Web 2.0 Remember that for an Internet entrepreneur like you, traffic is very important. Without it, your site would never achieve a higher rank in the pages. The administrator or host of the website is not liable for generating traffic for your own benefit. You’ve got to manage this for yourself. So how can you possibly get an increased traffic? Web 2.0 applications can help your e-commerce sites attain your desired ranking. Visitors would only turn interested to browse your site if they know that they’ll get something from it. Therefore, you must seriously consider uploading contents, videos, forums and discussions, surveys, polls, RSS, and links with other websites to campaign for wide traffic. As an Internet marketer, you ought to deem how significant Web 2.0 is to the future of online business. Not only is it a lot affordable but you’re given the privilege to get in touch with a wide range of customers to patronize what you’ve got in store for them too. Why would you allow yourself to be left behind in this tough competition, right?

Article written by: John Delavera Copyright(C) 2008

Five Ways You Can Build Your Reputation With Social Networking

Five Ways You Can Build Your Reputation With Social Networking
By Bob Jenkins

Are you using social networks to build your reputation online? Whether you already are or you are just getting started with sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Ning, building your online reputation is your biggest responsibility.

Here are five ways to make sure you do it right.

A Web 2.0 Promotion Strategy – Part 2

In the first part of this article, we looked at how you can use your knowledge to promote your website and your product in the Web 2.0 world. We also looked at the first steps in using the social networking websites. Here, we take a closer look at some of these and other Web 2.0 promotion strategies.

If you read the first part of this guide you should have an account set up with FaceBook and MySpace. When you approach these websites, think of it like moving to a new town. Basically, you are joining a new community so you want to make friends, develop business relationships and get involved in groups and activities that interest you. So, every week try to make one or two more friends on each of the social networking websites you create an account on. Also get involved in groups and soon you should be meeting more and more people. You can promote your product by sending updates to all your contacts.

Making the news

Now we are going to have a look at another kind of Web 2.0 website, the social bookmarking website. You will undoubtedly already come across a few of these on the web. Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and Delicious all fall into this category. These websites allow users to rate the content so popular content gets to the front page while unpopular content gets voted into obscurity.

So, the secret here is to produce content that will be popular and submit it to these websites. This is not as easy as it sounds but if you get it right it can drive thousands of potential customers to your website. Spend a few days monitoring the content on the likes of Digg to see what kinds of stories make the front page. This should give you a few ideas for content.

Every week, try to write one or two articles that you are interesting enough to have the potential to gain popularity on these websites. Submit them to a few social bookmarking websites and also add links to these sites with your content so users can add them directly from your site. This is difficult to get right but its an avenue worth exploring. If you do get it right, you will know all about it.

That is our Web 2.0 promotions strategy for you to try. These three methods should gain you some extra traffic and will give you an idea of what works best for you. There are many more avenues to explore, like the use of RSS feeds and web audio and video. However, this guide will set you on the right track without eating into too much of your time.

Written by: David C Skul – CEO – Relativity Business Technology Solutions

A Web 2.0 Promotion Strategy – Part 1

When it comes to Web 2.0 promotion, it can be hard to know where to start. And let’s face it, you could devote your life to promoting yourself and your product on just one social networking website if you really wanted to. However, your best tactic when starting out is to try a little of everything and see what gets you the best results. So, here are a few things you can try for the first month, that shouldn’t take too long and will help you find a direction for your Web 2.0 promotions.

What follows isn’t a guaranteed Web 2.0 promotions strategy that will drive traffic to your website and bring you the level of sales you always wanted. It is more intended to open your eyes to the possibilities that are out there. That said, if you follow all of the tips below for the next month you should see an improvement in the traffic to your website and/or sales. Alternatively, you could just start by trying out a couple of these tips and adding more as the weeks go by.

Share Your Knowledge

When it comes to Web 2.0 promotions a good place to start is by sharing your knowledge and your opinions with others. If you have been working in your chosen niche for some time you most likely have knowledge to impart that other people genuinely want to hear. So, start by finding one or two forums related to your niche, create an account and start contributing. Check in every day to see if there are any topics you can contribute to. Look out for opportunities to leave a link to your website when it is relevant and appropriate.

You should also create an account with Yahoo! Answers. This is a great website and it is massively popular. Again, create an account and look out for opportunities to provide genuinely helpful answers. Again, you can include your URL in your answers. And finally, find some of the best blogs related to your niche and contribute with comments every now and then. All of the above should not take up more than an hour or two of your time each week.

Make friends

Now we move into the rather tricky area of the social networking websites. So, first things first, create an account with FaceBook and MySpace. There are many more but this will do for a start. Spend a little time working on your profile page so that it suits your needs, MySpace allows you a lot of freedom to experiment with the look and feel of your page.

In the second part of this article we will look at how to best connect with people on the social networking websites and give you some strategies to use on the social bookmarking websites as well.

Written by: David C Skul – CEO – Relativity Business Technology Solutions

Web 2.0 – Promotion Methods that get Results

Anybody promoting or marketing products online knows that converting web site traffic is the key to survival and profits.

Web 2.0 advertising and marketing offer entrepreneurs an effective means of attracting more visitors to their site and interacting with potential customers. It allows startup businesses to advertise their existence and promote their products to prospective clients who do not yet know the business even exists.

There are several Web 2.0 promotion methods, which if used simultaneously, can bring surprising results.

Write great articles

People use the internet because they are looking for information. Giving them what they are looking for is the most effective way of attracting customers. Today on the internet, content is king and who better to write about your business than you. You can turn around and promote your articles on Web 2.0 enabled sites such as Digg, Reddit, ShoutWire, Plume, NewsVine, and StumbleUpon.

Establish a blog

Blogging about your product or service is good for your business. You can either establish your own blog or join an existing one that is relevant to your business. All other members of the blog are there because they too are interested in the same subject. This gives you a perfect forum to inform a niche audience about latest developments and upcoming trends.

It also allows you to get valuable feedback from customers and is the best way of assessing market trends and testing new ideas.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic, which is the kind of traffic that is generated from other websites and not search engines, is sustainable traffic and can benefit your business tremendously. Some of the most effective ways of generating referral traffic are by writing a series of interesting posts, writing product reviews while asking the site owner to link the testimonial to your website and increasing customer participation on your site by allowing them to vote for articles or email the articles to friends.

Publish Press Releases

Publishing attention grabbing Press Releases will pique the curiosity of readers who are looking for savvy and new information. It’s a sure fire way to get guaranteed buyers as well as casual visitors to your site who, with some gentle persuasion can be converted into paying customers.

Freebies & the Art of Gentle Persuasion

Give your visitors valuable free gifts in the form of interesting e-books, helpful hints and informative newsletters. Again, this is not a new concept. Using Web 2.0 promotion methods is what makes this process so valuable.

Combining Web 2.0 marketing channels to your existing marketing mix can prove to be a highly valuable exercise. The key is consistent effort and creativity in getting your message out using Web 2.0 means.

Written by: David C Skul – CEO – Relativity Business Technology Solutions