Author : Henry Adaso
Internet Copywriter

News, events, and happenings around the internet marketing universe this week.

Google Launches Google Trends for Websites
Google didn’t wait for the buzz to simmer on Google Trends before launching the Google Trends for Websites, a variation of the original tool. What’s the difference, you ask. Whereas regular Google Trends allows you to see how people are searching for specific terms, Google Trends for Websites allows you to compare website searches, estimated growth patterns, among other variables. You can also compare two competing websites to see who has the edge. It has an added value of showing related sites under the web search results.

Google Introduces Ad Planner
I’m all Googled out this week. What with all the Internet marketing tools Google has been dumping on us lately. Ad Planner is actually a precious little tool for Internet media planners that makes it easier to identify target audiences based on location, traffic, and a wide range of demographic information.

ICANN Okays New Domains
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the Internet regulating body, unanimously agreed to add new top-level domains to the web. This means that your domain registration options will no longer be limited to .com, .net. .org, and the like. In addition to allowing new top-level Internet addresses, they also approved the creation of domains with non-ASCII characters. Which means you can now go ahead and create that website you’ve been planning to name after a Russian relative or any other non-English names you prefer.

Online Marketing Future Looks Bright
Can you guess what the 4 most popular online ventures are? Believe it or not, adult content, gambling, information, electronics and computing are the biggest online ventures today. Researchers predict that those fields will account for $5 billion of ad spending each by 2011. That’s a lot of dead presidents exchanging hands! But it gets better. Comprehensive online advertising is expected to reach $65 billion globally by the end of 2008. So, are you still thinking about that offline marketing job?

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Last Week in Internet Marketing

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Author : Henry Adaso
Internet Copywriter

Talk to any savvy web marketer and they’ll tell you that social networking is all the rave these days. As the popularity of social networking grows, so does Digg’s status as one of the preferred vessels of social media marketing. Digg users are often trying to establish a presence on several social media sites. Constantly inundated by non-stop flow of information, social networking users sometimes find it difficult to balance the demands of every site. If that picture fits your situation, fret no more. There’s hope.

So, why exactly is your popularity index is stuck on that undesirable number called “0″? Read on.

You’re not an active user
Or maybe you are, but you’re not consistently active. Those are two different things. You can’t digg 500 articles one day and then disappear for 3 weeks. You have to show that you’re not just on Digg to promote your own agenda. One way to demonstrate that is by making sure you participate on a regular basis. It’s common practice for diggers to remove inactive users from their friends list.

You indulge in shameless self promotion
Most diggers can spot blatant self advertisement from a distance. If you’re submitting a bamillion links that all point to your site, you can kiss that dream of making it to the homepage goodbye. It’s a turn-off for many web users. An effective way to earn respect from your fellow diggers is by submitting stories that are unique, from a wide variety of sites. This may sound asinine to new diggers, but you can effectively drive traffic to your site by promoting other people’s content.

You lack focus
If you’re not getting any diggs on your submissions, chances are you’re not sharing quality links with your Digg community. If there are other things making demands on your time, consider setting aside a block of time each day to scour the Internet for quality content. If you consistently submit diggable items that will add value to other people’s socializing experience, many of them will notice and eventually digg your submissions.

You haven’t studied the success models
Here’s a bittersweet pill for new diggers: You can submit all the quality stories in the world and still wind up with 0 popular stories. Take time to study the Digg success models and observe the types of submissions that are constantly making it to the homepage. Notice the catchy titles, the high-quality articles, the seriously active users, among other things that make success possible on Digg.

You’re targeting the wrong users
If you’ve been adding friends randomly on Digg just to boost your friends list, you’re on the wrong track. If you take a closer look at that friend’s list, you may notice that some of your friends haven’t been active in ages. Cultivate an inner circle. Extend an invitation to people with similar interests and reach out to them.

You have no identity
If you’ve ever submitted a story on Digg, then you know that the site is very big on making sure that humans and only humans access their website. Put a name to the face and tell people about your interests. This will also enable others in your field to find you and socialize with you. That’s the bottom line, connecting with like-minded people, right?

You lack patience
Many users hear about Digg from their friends or through other sites and quickly sign up with high expectations. Devoid of successful submissions, many give up after a few weeks or even days of trying. The reality is that the major users that have prominent presence on Digg and other social media sites have been building up their profiles and relationships for a long time. Rather than approach Digg as a link dump, become genuinely interested in adding value to the community while maximizing your brand visibility. Digg diligently, but most importantly, digg patiently.

The core idea behind social networking is to provide an outlet for socializing with others. So, go forth, socialize, and be merry.

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Author: Henry Adaso
SEO Copywriter

If you think you’ve heard the last of the social media gold rush, think again. LinkedIn, the largest business social networking site, has raised $53 million for its European expansion effort which brings the company’s total estimated value to slightly over $1 billion. That’s good and all, but what does that mean to the rest of us who may never see a billion bucks in this life or the next? Whether you’re looking, find, or get found by others in your niche, there are many ways LinkedIn can be beneficial to your online business.

For starters…

Investor Confidence is Good for Business

This huge investment indicates a great level of confidence investors share in LinkedIn’s business model. They obviously have plenty of faith in the networking site’s long-term growth strategy. Thanks to investory confidence, business marketers who may have been skeptical about LinkedIn’s prospects may soon start saying to themselves, “Hey, if investors can trust them, why shouldn’t I?”

• Global Reach - There are over 23 million professionals on LinkedIn from all walks of life. That’s the  equivalent of the entire population of Texas in your palms! There’s no doubt that, after today’s significant news, millions more will probably tag along. And with LinkedIn’s proposed European expansion,

• Niche Networking - LinkedIn functions as a business directory in that it allows you to find the people with the knowledge and expertise you need to achieve your business goals. You can search for people in your niche based on recommendations, profession, network, etc.

• Improved Visibility - Want to maximize your brand visibility? Then make it a point of duty to develop an extensive web of connections on LinkedIn. For the uninitiated, “connections” are the Myspace equivalent of friends. The more the merrier. After all, people will much rather connect with people their friends find trustworthy. LinkedIn give rank preferences to the most active participant, and not necessarily the member with the most college degrees.

• Easy Connectivity - If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me to forward them a list of my PR contacts, I’d be typing this post from a million-dollar yatch right now. LinkedIn eliminates this problem by incorporating contact sharing into the social networking experience. Your contacts are my contacts.  Your friends are my friends.

• Enhanced SEO Results - LinkedIn allows its members to promote websites on profile pages. This is a smart and inexpensive way to improve search engine optimization results for your online business. So, go ahead, link away to your personal blog, business site, etc. Just be sure to enable “Full View” in your public profile settings.

LinkedIn is quite the unique social networking tool, one that presents online businesses with numerous long-term growth opportunities. So, go forth, search, connect, and be merry.

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Author: Conrad Salvador
Writer Coordinator

So you’ve done all that you can for your online business in your targeted markets and now you are looking to expand to other territories. How can you predict what will be the hot “new” thing? What markets would you like to target now? How can I find out where my product will make an impact internationally? If you had the insight to predict what to do in the future for your business, wouldn’t you like to know how?

The newest version of Google Trends went live yesterday with some features that will be beneficial for you to answer all of the previous questions. That’s good and all, but how can you predict what will be the “hot” new thing or the future?

Well, here’s an example of what is currently going on with Google Trends (we captured this image just minutes ago). As we can see by the example below in Today’s Hot Trends that “email french” is the top searched keyword for 6/11/08.

After a little investigation, I found out that the French Government is looking to get rid of the word “e-mail” in all government ministries, documents, publications, and websites. The move was motivated because the French want to exclude English words out of the French lexicon.

In the SEO world, this is valuable information if you were thinking about doing some work in France. You would have to adjust your SEO marketing plan to correlate with what is going on over there currently and down the road as well.

Another way Google Trends can be useful for your business is that it enables you to better target main keywords for your market. For this example we will use the keyword “houston real estate“. I chose this example, because it is no mystery that the real estate industry is not doing too good and by utilizing Google Trends, you can see where the drop-off occurred by year and you can also see which region is currently looking for that keyword. If this was the keyword you were targeting, then you can see by the example below that Humble, TX is the market you should now focus on due to the popularity of that keyword:

Now that you’ve made your mark in America, you are now thinking about expanding your business overseas. For this example you will have to change the keyword search to make it more relevant, in this case we will generalize the term to “real estate“. All you have to do is change the region dropdown list to ALL REGIONS and you can see which countries are searching for this term the most. As you can see by the example below that this term is being searched for the most in Australia, which translates to a stronger real estate market in this country:

With Google Trends, you can have a crystal ball when it comes to what you should do with your online business. You can see what you need to do now based on the latest trends online. Google’s newest tool can also enhance your business research experience, allowing marketers to monitor trends home and abroad. With Google Trends and a little bit of inventive SEO marketing, you can now control your own future.

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Author: Eric Brantner

Online Content Writer 

Businesses that purchase online marketing services want to know how their campaign is performing. They are spending money on a service, and they want to know how it is benefiting them. Typically, the search marketer will come up with some stats on rankings, conversions, and sales generated. However, not everything is black and white. For instance, social networking has many potential benefits that are difficult to measure.  

• Branding- One important benefit of social networking is that it allows you to establish your brand online. Branding is crucial for small businesses that want to be successful because people tend to buy products from companies they recognize and trust. If you create a consistent image and theme throughout the social networks, other people will begin to associate you with that image. That’s why it is so important to pick one avatar and stick with it. Nike doesn’t change their logo on each shoe, and you shouldn’t change your avatar on each network.

• Word of Mouth- Since social networks are, well, social, businesses can use this interaction to their advantage. If you have a good presence on these networks, word will spread between users, and you can generate sales this way. This isn’t the easiest statistic to track because you don’t always know if a customer learned about you as a result of social networking. A lot of times, customers may not even remember where they first heard about a company. It could have been in passing from a friend online or not, but they know your company and that’s the important thing.

       Don’t understimate the importance of word of mouth

• Reputation Management- Your online reputation is very important; especially if you are a smaller company that is trying to establish trust. Social networks give you a platform for creating a strong reputation for your brand. It gives potential customers deeper insight into who you are, and that can create trust. These networks also give you the opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. By updating regularly with informative content and interacting with the community, people will begin to respect what you say.

• New Ideas- Being a part of an online community gives members the opportunity to learn from one another. You can see what other people are doing to promote themselves, and you are able to determine which techniques are successful and which ones fall flat. You also have direct access to the potential customer’s mind so you can take suggestions from them to create a business that better meets their demands.

It is important to remember that not all benefits are tangible. In fact, many times it is the intangibles that make up a decent portion of your bottom line.

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Author: Conrad Salvador

Web Copywriter

Social networking marketers have long been vying for an answer to all of their wrong password woes. With social networks popping up everywhere you look, so has the need for easy accessibility amongst multiple platforms. All this is about to change, because the age of data portability is now upon us.

MySpace, Facebook, and Google have all recently tossed their hat into the data portability ring with each one trying to outdo each other and looking to come out the victor.

Just last Thursday, My Space launched the “Data Availability” initiative, which allows users to share their profile information with the websites of their choosing around the web. MySpace users will be able to share content like profile information, friends, photos, and videos. Here is an example of how the data sharing will look like when applied in Twitter:

The very next day in a well-timed announcement, Facebook spoke of their own version of data availability dubbed “Facebook Connect”. It will offer the same services as its competitors, but boasts of a more trusted authentication process for users. How convenient is it that this pre-release announcement came out right before the launch of Google’s own offering confusingly titled “Friend Connect”.

A preview release of Google Friend Connect was launched just last night, which placed you on a waiting list for the services. Friend Connect claims to offer something that the others do not, which is the ability to turn any website into a social network. Website owners will be able to generate traffic by enabling their site to provide social features for all its visitors.

Here is a video introduction of how it all works:

It is still too early to predict who will win the data portability wars, but one thing is for certain. Social networking marketing is about to get a lot easier in the future. The arduous process of creating several profiles across multiple platforms will no longer be a difficult task. I’m curious to see how everything will turn out, stay tuned for more information………

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