Business software units of Yahoo Inc and Google Inc are introducing beefed-up versions of their Web-based software that compete with Microsoft Outlook, offering yet another clue why Microsoft Corp made a $45 billion unsolicited bid for Yahoo.
While Microsoft views Yahoo as its path into the lucrative Web advertising market dominated by Google, Tuesday's software announcements by Yahoo and Google demonstrate that Microsoft also needs to fend off potential challenges to its business software franchises.
Yahoo's new Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 5.0 allows users to read Microsoft Outlook e-mail alongside Yahoo Mail or Google's Gmail or Zimbra's own branded e-mail.
In effect, Zimbra's upgrade lets users read work and personal e-mail side by side.
"We really think this is the next generation of Outlook that we are announcing," said Satish Dharmaraj, co-founder and chief executive of Zimbra.
Yahoo paid $350 million in September to buy Zimbra, a provider of e-mail, calendar and contacts software that competes with Microsoft and Google.
Around the same time, Google paid $625 million to acquire e-mail security firm Postini to beef up Google Apps to make it more useful inside businesses. Google Apps, a suite of software that competes with Microsoft Office. counts 500,000 organizational customers and adds 2,000 customers a day.
"We replace the old world of installing software and dealing with security patches and coming in late at night to restart computers," Scott Petry, founder of Postini in 1999 and now a Google product manager, said of his company's impact.
Postini is releasing new business security software that allows organizations to block spam, archive and encrypt e-mail and uphold corporate e-mail policies.
One Postini service for e-mail search and discovery overturns the need for network administrators to limit e-mail storage -- a source of frustration for many employees.
WEB-BASED CHALLENGERS
ZCS 5.0 can work offline and also allows users to use Zimbra on Apple Inc's iPhone. It also now works with Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry e-mail devices and Java-based phones, the company said.
Yahoo is using Zimbra to embed popular Web-programs -- such as Flickr photo-sharing, Web news feeds and Yahoo Finance or Yahoo search -- inside Yahoo Mail, the world's most popular consumer e-mail service.
Zimbra software is targeted at universities and small businesses and Internet service providers such as Comcast Corp and Indiatimes, which in turn can offer such e-mail services to millions of consumers.
Postini's services are hosted in Google's data centers, allowing Postini to offer its security services at dramatically lower cost than many existing e-mail security products.
Annually, Postini spam protection starts at 25 cents a month per user while message filtering costs $1 a month. The software can work with e-mail systems such as Microsoft Outlook, International Business Machines Corp's Lotus Notes or Novell Inc's Groupwise.
Office workers can search back through years of e-mail as a free side benefit when their companies buy Postini's legal discovery feature to meet compliance requirements of laws aimed at preventing white-collar crime. This feature costs $25 per user per year and $10 for each additional year of archiving.
The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee said it plans to hold a hearing later this year on the online advertising market and other issues related to Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo. That makes three congressional panels planning hearings on Microsoft Corp.'s $41 billion unsolicited offer, which Yahoo Inc. hasn't yet accepted.
The House Judiciary Committee said last week it would hold a hearing on the deal, while the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel also said it would examine the transaction if it proceeds.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, said in a statement the "recent announcement by Microsoft demonstrates that consolidation of companies in the Internet advertising world will continue," whether Yahoo accepts the software giant's offer or not.
The hearing will be scheduled this spring, Rush said in a statement, and will focus on privacy issues raised by the consolidation of online search and advertising companies. The subcommittee will also request a "confidential briefing" from regulators before it reviews the deal, Rush said.
The privacy concerns surrounding the Microsoft-Yahoo deal center on the amount of consumer data collected by the two companies, consumer advocates said.
"There's no question that the merging of the data collection and (advertising) targeting platforms would raise serious privacy concerns," said Jeffrey Chester, president of the Center for Digital Democracy.
The CDD and other groups raised similar objections last year when Google Inc. purchased online ad services provider DoubleClick Inc. That deal was approved in December by the Federal Trade Commission.
Microsoft's shares dropped $1.12, or 3.7 percent, to close at $29.07. Yahoo shares fell 35 cents to finish at $28.98.
When you're thinking about a domain try and keep it clear and concise. You might want to avoid long sentences, dashes, and hard to remember acronyms.
Check Domain Name Availability
You can type in the address to see if someone else already owns it, but keep in mind that someone may own the domain but not have anything up yet.
Your best course of action is to go to one of the many web hosting companies such as bluehost.com or godaddy.com. Today I'll actually go to verio.com and here – like on many other sites- there is a box where I can enter in the name of the site I want.
Test Domain Name Availability
I'll type in "about" and hit go. That domain is obviously unavailable, but I am offered similar domains such as abouts.info. It's generally a good idea to stick with the more popular .com, .org, and .edu. .Com is often used for both business and personal uses, .org for organizations and non-profits, and .edu for educational institutions.
I'll click 'try another name,' and now type in my own name. Now I'll hit 'search.'
It's actually available, and for $9.95 a year I can register the domain. Keep in mind that this does not mean I have space to put up the website. I'm just laying a claim to that domain name for as long as I keep paying.
Research Web Hosting Plans
If I click 'order now,' I can buy it. As with many companies I can now add a web hosting plan. Here's one plan (the bottom one) that includes 10 gigabytes of disk space and 200 email accounts for 19.95 a month. Many sites offer many different rates and services, so you may want to shop around before settling on one.
Register the Domain Name
Once you purchase your domain and hosting plan you'll receive an email with instructions on how to access your site.
Meta data is information used to describe the document but it is not displayed. Two common types of meta tags are keywords and description.
Keywords and Meta Data
Keywords make it easier for search engines to find your page. You can put words that describe your page within a meta tag. Open a bracket, type meta then a space. Type name= keywords in quotes. Then type content= quote, and now type some keywords that describe your site. Separate them by commas. Don't forget to close the quotes and brackets.
Meta Data Descriptions
Description is a short synopsis of what your page is about. Mainly, it's used for search engines so they can describe to the viewer what is on your webpage. Start with a meta tag, only in this one, instead of keywords type 'description' in quotes. Then content= quote and type your sentence. Don't forget to close the quotes and the bracket.
Meta Tags and Sourcing
You can also use meta tags for information such as author and copyright information like this:
U.S. Internet ad spending in the fourth quarter of 2007 grew nearly 28 percent over the same quarter in 2006 to $7.3 billion, said analyst firm IDC.
For the entire year 2007, online ad revenue grew 27 percent year over year to $25.5 billion.
IDC said that Google's net U.S. market share dropped for the first time in two years because of a slow down in growth in domestic fourth quarter sales. Google's net U.S. advertising market share decreased 0.5 percentage points to 23.7 percent last quarter compared to 3Q07.
The estimated net U.S. Internet advertising sales for Google (excluding the traffic acquisition costs they pay out to the partners in their networks) grew by just over 40 percent in 4Q07, but its year-on-year growth rate in the quarter before had been 50 percent.
"If a merger between Microsoft's new media business and Yahoo! would come to pass, the combined entity would have a net U.S. advertising market share of about 17% based on our 4Q07 data," says Karsten Weide, program director for IDC's Digital Marketplace: Media and Entertainment service.
"It would not quite bring Microsoft-Yahoo! to where Google is in online advertising in the U. S., but it would give them a much better fighting chance than if they went it alone."
As with pretty much every tweak made to the social network, we're not sure this will get much attention in the U.S. People in other countries may be interested, however, as starting this month, social applications will become available to Orkut users.
Want to get one of your own in front of their eyes? Better act fast - submissions for completed applications are due by February 15th. And as that's a short deadline that clashes with Valentine's Day, we'll once again note that OpenSocial developers courting American audiences may not stand to gain much.Google Preparing To Put Applications On Orkut
Also, we're not too sure what sort of apps Google will allow on Orkut, or how users will respond as a result. The social network's official blog has frequently made pleas to "keep Orkut beautiful," and zombies and tossed sheep have tended to have the opposite effect on Facebook.
Still, developers with a wider target than America in mind could benefit quite a bit, since Google's apparently counting on growth to occur as a result of the applications. On the Official Google Blog, Amar Gandhi stated, "We'll start ramping up to more than 50 million people over the next few weeks."
So some dates may get cancelled after all. And on one last time-related note: we'll bring updates if and when Google gets more specific about the applications' availability.
Users of social networks are spending less time on sites like Facebook and MySpace and it could be due to the number of ads.
The average amount of time spent by users on social networking sites decreased by 14 percent over the past four months according to comScore. MySpace has seen its users dip from 72 million in October to 68.9 million in December, comScore says. The total number of users is still growing at an 11.5 percent rate, but that's a decrease from past growth rates.
"What you have with social networks is the most over hyped scenario in online advertising," Tim Vandehook CEO of Specific Media told BusinessWeek. Still advertising on social networks is rapidly growing. Last year ad spending worldwide on these sites increased 155 percent, to $1.2 billion, according to eMarketer. This year, eMarketer predicts it to increase 75 percent, to $2.1 billion.
Social networks have low response rates, advertisers and ad placement companies say. Marketers say as little as 4 in 10,000 users who see their ads on social networking sites click on them, compared to 20 in 10,000 across the Web.
Google, which has a $900 million ad deal with MySpace, said it did not bring in as much revenue from the agreement as expected. "I don't think we have the killer, best way to advertise and monetize social networks yet," said Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
News Corp said its revenues for Fox Interactive Media were up 87 percent to $233 million, but $62 million came from Google's guaranteed ad deal with MySpace. Analysts say that Google is losing money on the deal.
On the Google, MySpace ad deal Donna Bogatin writes," MySpace has its direct hands on the 'good' MySpace ads goods, while Google is an outside ad serving player, playing around with runnerup inventory."
We know that most people who haven't played with Google Audio Ads are doing just fine. We also know that most people who haven't played with Google Audio Ads aren't even interested in them. But if you want a walkthrough, Google is hosting several free online seminars.
Pick a day - either February 21st, 22nd, or 23rd (1 PM EST is the only option on all three) - and inform Google of your choice by 3:00 this Thursday. Then, "Join us for tips on how to set up an effective radio campaign and optimization ideas," invites "Heather" on the Inside AdWords blog.Google Wants To Teach People About Audio Ads
There should be some promotional campaign credit-giving, as well, and she later continues, "A few members of the Audio Ads product team will also join us as guest speakers, offering ways to help you more easily track the impact of your Audio Ads campaigns."
Getting Googlers to hold your hand in this way could be a pretty interesting experience. Perhaps profitable, as well. At the same time, we don't want to push you into wasting an afternoon (or morning, if you're on the West Coast), so here's a sort of rebuttal from Mark Ramsey.
After spending a bit of time with Audio Ads, he asked, "Is this the new face of radio? Undifferentiated and anonymous brands commoditizing airtime in bundles cheap enough to be affordable and small enough to be ineffective?" We're not suggesting that you be mean, but perhaps somebody could run that by a Googler.
There aren't any magic pills to create a great Web page that everyone will visit again and again, but if you follow these ten tips your site will be more popular and easier for people to read.
1. Know your audience, and keep them in mind when you write.
If your Web pages are frequented by people with slower modems then designing a page that looks best over a T1 is not a successful strategy.
2. Keep your pages short.
If you minimize the scrolling, chances are, your readers will get your message. A good screen size is 640 pixels wide by 480 tall.
3. Use tables of contents.
According to Jakob Nielsen only 10% of users will scroll beyond the first screen of text. If that first screen has a table of contents viewers will click on the links to the explanatory text.
4. Keep images small.
Large images annoy people. If it takes too long to download, many people will never see it, as they will have browsed somewhere.
5. Use Web colors.
The browser-safe color palette will ensure that most people will see your page and images in the colors you intended.
6. Avoid lots of text.
People don't read the Web, they skim it.
7. Check your spelling.
Use a spell checker, either in your editor or on-line.
8. Keep links current.
Check your links often to make sure they are still valid. Using a link checker speeds up pages with many links.
9. Annotate your links.
If a page is good enough to link to, then it's good enough to explain why you like it.
10. Put contact information on your pages.
The Web is interactive and dynamic, and you should welcome comments on your pages. Also, if there is a broken link or other problem, your readers can let you know, easily.
Community on the Internet can mean different things to different people. However, when you are talking Web sites, there are just a few elements that you need to add to have the makings of a community.
• content articles, information, and news about a topic of interest to a group of people. • forums or newsgroups and email so your community members can communicate in delayed fashion • chat and instant messaging so your community members can communicate more immediately
There are also two types of management styles for your community elements:
• managed these elements are usually maintained by a staff member on the Web site or a contractor hired to maintain the community. • user created user created elements are often more anarchistic, but they allow the community to evolve to fit its needs more directly.
What Does Community Do For Your Site?
Community adds a sense of belonging to a Web site. This can encourage repeat visits and more interest in the site as a whole. Often, there is richer and more varied content, as you don't have just one moderator creating content for the site, but rather many people joining in with their opinions and feelings. If you are marketing a product, you can get more instantaneous feedback with community. You can find out how your product is working in the real world. And you can also better respond to your customers' needs.Online communities create personal relationships with the members. This can help get information rapidly disseminated, as well as increase page views or product use through word of mouth.
How to Keep Up Your Community ?
Creating online communities is a lot of work. If you hire a contractor or just use community members to do the work, you should listen to their advice. They are usually on the pulse of what the members want and need from a site.Once you've created an interface for your community, stick with it for a while. Even if you decide that it is not working out, give your members a chance to adjust to the idea of change before converting to the new system. And don't change your system more than once a year.
Develop relationships with your members. They are the ones that make or break a community. They are the community. Never forget that. Community is a great way to add value to your site. For more information about adding community tools to your site, you can read my article Building Online Communities or check out my communities netlinks section. There you will find valuable links to forum/bbs sites, chat software, and more information on how to build a community.
Starting a blog can seem overwhelming, but in truth, it's one of the simplest ways to join the online community. Follow these tips to ensure your blog is positioned for success.
1. Define Your Goals
Before you start a new blog, it's essential that you define your goals for it. Your blog has a greater chance of success if you know from the beginning what you hope to accomplish with it. Are you trying to establish yourself as an expert in your field? Are you trying to promote your business? Are you simply blogging for fun and to share your ideas and opinions? Your short and long term goals for your blog are dependent on the reason why you're starting your blog. Think ahead to what you'd like to gain from your blog in six months, one year and three years. Then design, write and market your blog to meet those goals.
2. Know Your Audience
Your blog's design and content should reflect the expectations of your audience. For example, if your intended audience is teenagers, the design and content would be quite different than a blog targeted to corporate professionals. Your audience will have inherent expectations for your blog. Don't confuse them but rather meet and exceed those expectations to gain reader loyalty.
3. Be Consistent
Your blog is a brand. Just like popular brands such as Coke or Nike, your blog represents a specific message and image to your audience, which is your brand. Your blog's design and content should consistently communicate your blog's overall brand image and message. Being consistent allows you to meet your audience's expectations and create a secure place for them to visit again and again. That consistency will be rewarded with reader loyalty.
4. Be Persistent
A busy blog is a useful blog. Blogs that are not updated frequently are perceived by their audiences as static web pages. The usefulness of blogs comes from their timeliness. While it's important not to publish meaningless posts else you may bore your audience, it's essential that you update your blog frequently. The best way to keep readers coming back is to always have something new (and meaningful) for them to see.
5. Be Inviting
One of the most unique aspects of blogging is its social impact. Therefore, it's essential that your blog welcomes readers and invites them to join a two-way conversation. Ask your readers to leave comments by posing questions than respond to comments from your readers. Doing so will show your readers that you value them, and it will keep the conversation going. Continue the conversation by leaving comments on other blogs inviting new readers to visit your blog for more lively discussions. Your blog's success is partially dependent on your readers' loyalties to it. Make sure they understand how much you appreciate them by involving them and recognizing them through meaningful two-way conversation.
6. Be Visible
Much of your blog's success relies on your efforts outside your blog. Those efforts include finding like-minded bloggers and commenting on their blogs, participating in social bookmarking through sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon, and joining social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Blogging is not a demonstration of, "if you build it, they will come." Instead, developing a successful blog requires hard work by creating compelling content on your blog as well as working outside of your blog to promote it and develop a community around it.
7. Take Risks
Beginner bloggers are often afraid of the new blogging tools and features available to them. Don't be afraid to take risks and try new things on your blog. From adding a new plug-in to holding your first blog contest, it's important that you keep your blog fresh by implementing changes that will enhance your blog. Alternatively, don't fall prey to every new bell and whistle that becomes available for your blog. Instead, review each potential enhancement in terms of how it will help you reach your goals for your blog and how your audience will respond to it.
8. Ask for Help
Even the most experienced bloggers understand the blogosphere is an ever-changing place and no one knows everything there is to know about blogging. Most importantly, bloggers are part of a close-knit community, and the majority of bloggers understand that everyone is a beginner at some point. In fact, bloggers are some of the most approachable and helpful people you can find. Don't be afraid to reach out to fellow bloggers for help. Remember, the success of the blogosphere relies on networking, and most bloggers are always willing to expand their networks regardless of whether you're a beginner blogger or seasoned pro.
9. Keep Learning
It seems like everyday there are new tools available to bloggers. The Internet changes quickly, and the blogosphere is not an exception to that rule. As you develop your blog, take the time to research new tools and features, and keep an eye on the latest news from the blogosphere. You never know when a new tool will roll out that can make your life easier or enhance your readers' experiences on your blog.
10. Be Yourself
Remember, your blog is an extension of you and your brand, and your loyal readers will keep coming back to hear what you have to say. Inject your personality into your blog and adapt a consistent tone for your posts. Determine whether your blog and brand will be more effective with a corporate tone, a youthful tone or a snarky tone. Then stay consistent with that tone in all your blog communications. People don't read blogs simply to get the news. They could read a newspaper for news reports. Instead, people read blogs to get bloggers' opinions on the news, the world, life and more. Don't blog like a reporter. Blog like you're having a conversation with each of your readers. Blog from your heart.
Simple Ways to Get Your Blog Noticed in the Blogosphere
The blogosphere is a big and busy world with over 100 million blogs and growing. How do you attract visitors to your blog? Follow these simple tips to drive traffic to your blog.
1. Write Well and Write Often
Frequently updating your blog with useful content is the first step to building your blog's audience. The content you write is what will keep readers coming back for more. Make sure you have something meaningful to say to them and say it often to maintain their interest and keep them loyal.Furthermore, post frequently to increase the number of chances you have for your blog's content to be noticed by search engines such as Google or Technorati.
2. Submit Your Blog to Search Engines
Get on the radar screen for the popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo! by submitting your blog's URL to them. Most search engines provide a 'Submit' link (or something similar) to notify the search engine of your new blog, so those search engines will crawl it and include your pages in their results.It's important to understand that simply submitting your blog to search engines doesn't mean your pages will appear at the top of a Google search results screen, but at least your blog will be included and will have the chance of being picked up by a search engine.
3. Use and Update Your Blogroll
By adding links to sites you like in your blogroll, the owners of those blogs will find your blog and will be likely to add a reciprocal link in their blogrolls. It's an easy way to get the link to your blog in front of many readers on other blogs. The hope is that some of those readers will click on the link to your blog on the other blogs' blogrolls and find your content interesting and enjoyable turning them into loyal readers.
4. Harness the Power of Comments
Commenting is a simple and essential tool to increase your blog's traffic. First, respond to comments left on your blog to show your readers that you value their opinions and draw them into a two-way conversation. This will increase reader loyalty. Second, leave comments on other blogs to drive new traffic. Make sure you leave your blog's URL in your comment, so you create a link back to your own blog. Many people will read the comments left on a blog post. If they read a particularly interesting comment, they are highly likely to click on the link to visit the commentor's website. It's important to make sure you leave meaningful comments that are likely to invite people to click on your link to read more.
5. Syndicate Your Blog's Content with an RSS Feed
Setting up an RSS feed button on your blog makes it easy for your loyal readers to not just read your blog but also know when you publish new content.
6. Use Links and Trackbacks
Links are one of the most powerful parts of your blog. Not only are links noticed by search engines, but they also act as a tap on the shoulder to other bloggers who can easily identify who is linking to their sites. Linking helps to get you noticed by other bloggers who are likely to investigate the sites that are linking to them. This may lead them to become new readers of your blog or to add links to your blog from theirs.You can take links to other blogs a step further by leaving a trackback on the other blog to let them know you've linked to them. Blogs that allow trackbacks will include a link back to your blog in the comments section of the post that you originally linked to. People do click on trackback links!
7. Tag Your Posts
It takes a few extra seconds to add tags to each of your blog posts, but it's worth the time in terms of the additional traffic tags can drive to your blog. Tags (like links) are easily noticed by search engines. They're also key to helping readers find your blog when they perform searches on popular blog search engines such as Technorati.
8. Submit Your Posts to Social Bookmarking Sites
Taking the time to submit your best posts to social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and more can be a simple way to quickly boost traffic to your blog.
9. Remember Search Engine Optimization
When you write your blog posts and pages, remember to optimize your pages for search engines to find them. Include relevant keywords and links but don't overload your posts with too many relevant keywords or completely irrelevant keywords. Doing so can be considered spamming and could have negative results such as your blog being removed from Google's search entirely.
10. Don't Forget Images
Images don't just make your blog look pretty, they also help people find you in search engine listings. People often use the image search options offered by Google, Yahoo! and other search engines, and naming your images with search engine optimization in mind can easily boost your traffic.
11. Consider Guest Blogging
Guest blogging can be done when you write a guest post on another blogger's blog or when another blogger writes a guest post on your blog. Both methods are likely to increase traffic as your blog will be exposed to the other blogger's audience. Many of the other blogger's readers will visit your blog to see what you have to say.
12. Join Forums, Web Rings or Online Groups
Find online forums, web rings, groups or social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn where you can share ideas and ask questions of like-minded individuals. Add a link to your blog in your signature line or profile, so each time you post on a forum or participate in another online network, you're indirectly promoting your blog. Chances are many people will click on that link to learn more about you.
13. Promote Outside Your Blog
Promoting your blog shouldn't stop when you step outside the blogosphere. Add your blog's URL to your email signature and business cards. Talk about it in offline conversations. It's important to get your name and your blog's URL noticed offline, too.
14. Nominate Yourself and Other Blogs for Blog Awards
There are a number of blog awards given out throughout the year. Nominating yourself and other blogs and bloggers can draw attention to your blog and drive traffic to it.
15. Don't Be Shy
The most important part of the blogosphere is its community and much of your success as a blogger will be tied to your willingness to network with that community. Don't be afraid to ask questions, join conversations or just say hi and introduce yourself. Don't sit back and hope the online world will find you. Speak out and get yourself noticed.
Web search leader Google Inc plans to start selling ads to appear in Web videos and has signed up 20 customers, as it aims to do for videos what it has done for text.
Partners include YuMe, an online video advertising network, Brightcove, an Internet TV platform, and comedy site MyDamnChannel.
Brightcove, whose customers include CBS Corp, Time Warner Inc and Discovery Communications Inc, will begin offering the technology to its clients.
YuMe, a Redwood City, California-based start-up, said on Thursday, it will serve InVideo overlay adverts as part of Google's AdSense for video beta advertising program.
Google has traditionally used AdSense for text-only advertising but said the video program extends its offer to targeted, contextually relevant video graphical ads and text overlays.
Google has been working on ways of developing advertising revenue for online video since it bought YouTube, the video-sharing site, in November 2006.
As Internet access speeds become faster around the world more television and Hollywood-produced video content is moving to the Web on sites like Hulu.com, owned by News Corp and NBC Universal, and Fancast.com, owned by Comcast Corp.
YuMe said Google is one of the third-party feeds accepted by YuMe's Adaptive Campaign Engine, which helps Web publishers in its network match each video ad impression with the best money-making ad placement in realtime.
Social bookmarking is a great way to promote your blog, network with other bloggers and find new ideas and information to help you develop content for your blog. Following is an overview of ten of the most popular social bookmarking sites on the web.
Digg is the most popular social bookmarking site online. Users submit links to content they like, and other users comment on those submissions and add their own votes (called Diggs) to those links. Popular links will rise to the front page of Digg and are likely to get a lot of traffic. It's important to understand that you may submit your own content to Digg, but if you oversubmit your own content, you will be penalized and your submissions will not be readily available to other users. User caution and submit not just your own content, but other links of interest as well.
Technorati is typically thought of as a blog search engine, but users can also save interesting online content as "favorites" which other users can access.
StumbleUpon is very easy to use if you download the StumbleUpon toolbar when you register. When you find a webpage you like, simply click on the "thumbs up" icon on the StumbleUpon toolbar to share it with other StumbleUpon users.
Reddit is the no frills social bookmarking site. Users submit links they like then other users vote for them (positively or negatively). The most popular posts rise to the front page for everyone to see.
Fark allows users to submit links to content they like and want to share, but those links are evaluated by Fark administrators who determine which links appear on the Fark home page.
Furl allows users to save copies of web pages as they appear at the moment they're saved. That means the exact page will be available to users to view or share at anytime even if the original page has since been changed or deleted.
Slashdot is very popular for links about technology, science or science fiction. If your blog is about one of those topics, your submissions should do well at Slashdot. Users submit content which is then evaluated by editors before it is shared with other Slashdot users.
Propeller is gaining in popularity as an easy to use social bookmarking site. Users submit links with tags to make content easy to find, and they vote on that content driving popular posts to the home page.
Newsvine's mission is to bring big and little media together meaning traditional media sources and individuals. However, submissions are rated using several factors including reputation, freshness and and popularity, so it's difficult for individuals to get a lot of exposure and traffic from Newsvine.
How to Convert Blog Readers into Blog Subscribers Driving traffic to your blog is always a top priority, but how do you convert those visitors to loyal readers, who are so interested in your blog that they choose to subscribe to it? Let's face it, if a blog's content appears in a person's feed reader everyday, then that person is highly likely to click through and visit that blog to read more. Every blogger wants to see the number of subscribers to his or her blog grow. Follow these five simple tips to increase the number of RSS subscribers to your blog's feed.
1. Write Great Content
No one will want to return to your blog if your content is updated sporadically or has nothing original to say. Keep your blog's content fresh and establish a tone for your blog, then stick to it. Readers want to feel connected to you. Blogging is a two-way conversation, so inject some personality into your content, provide valuable and meaningful content to your readers and develop a conversation with your readers. Blog's that can achieve those goals are ones that will find loyal readers who are likely to subscribe to that blog's feed.
2. Make It Easy to Subscribe
You've got great content, now you need to make it as easy as possible for readers to subscribe to your blog's feed. Make sure your subscription link is positioned in a highly visible location on every page in your blog. The top of the page is a great place for your subscription icon. You may also want to put a subscription link between your blog posts.
3. Ask Readers to Subscribe
It's not too aggressive to ask readers to subscribe. Sometimes a gentle reminder is all it takes to encourage someone to subscribe to your blog. Consider including a request at the end of your best blog posts saying, "If you enjoyed this post, why not subscribe to my feed?" Of course, include a link to your feed subscription page to make it as easy as possible for your readers to act on your reminder.
4. Offer a Freebie to Subscribers
A great way to increase the number of subscribers to your blog is to offer subscribers something extra such as a free gift or additional information that could be helpful to them. For example, you may want to send subscribers a free ebook that provides additional information about your blog's topic or a free newsletter. You could also send a free gift that's tied to your blog's topic. The key is to offer a freebie that is meaningful and useful to your readers and provides added value to their experiences on your blog.
5. Promote Your Blog's Popularity by Showing the Number of Subscribers
Once your blog starts to generate some decent traffic and subscribers, you should promote that success to your readers. For example, if your blog has over 100 subscribers, show that figure on your blog (Feedburner provides code to do this automatically). Whatever number seems significant to you, once you reach that number of subscribers, start to advertise your popularity by displaying it on your blog. Casual visitors are likely to see that number and say, "If 500 other people think this blog is good enough to subscribe to, then it must be good. I better subscribe, too."
Digg is a social news site that can help drive traffic to your blog. However, Digg is the biggest social news site on the Internet controlled by a handful of top users. How can you get your blog posts noticed in the fast-paced world of Digg? Follow these five tips of Digg etiquette to effectively use Digg and boost traffic to your blog.
1. Digg the Original Source
Digg users are very particular about how the site is used. There are a variety of rules that Digg expects users to follow. One of the most important rules of Digg etiquette is to always submit the original source of a story. If you're submitting a blog post or page that expounds on the original source of a story by adding new information or opinions, that's okay, but make sure your submission adds value to the conversation or story. If it doesn't, find the original source and submit that instead. Read Review
2. Don't Digg Your Own Posts
Digg will penalize users who submit their own content too frequently. If you want your blog posts to have a chance at making it to the main page of Digg (and generating a lot of traffic to your blog), don't be the first to submit your post. Ask a friend or colleague to submit it first.
3. Digg Several Articles at a Time
When you ask your friends to Digg your blog post, make sure they Digg more than just your post while they're at it. Digg keeps tabs on people who just Digg a single item while they're on the Digg website in order to penalize spammers (particularly those who are paid to Digg specific stories). Ask your friends to Digg your post as well as a few other stories of interest or on the main page of Digg at the same time.
4. Use a Good Title and Description in Your Diggs
When you Digg something, give it a good title and description. The title and description are what you're using to convince other users to click on the submission, read the article and hopefully Digg it, too. Sell the article with a great title and description to increase your chances of getting more Diggs for it.
5. Be an Active Digg User
Digg users who are very active have a better chance of getting their Digg submissions noticed and attracting more Diggs to them from other users. Submit various posts (particularly breaking news items), add friends, comment, and add an avatar to your profile to make your Diggs stand out from other submissions in Digg's list format. The more active you are, the more people will notice you and become interested in investigating your submissions, which will ultimately lead to more Digg opportunities for your own blog posts. More Diggs for your own blog posts equal more traffic to your blog.
Digg is a social news site that can help users find blog posts and web pages of interest as well as promote pages and blog posts they like.
How Does Digg Work?
Digg operates under a very simple methodology. Users submit (or "digg") web pages or blog posts they like by entering the URL for the specific page as well as a short description and selecting a category that page fits in. Each submission is open for all Digg users to view through the "Upcoming Articles" page. Other users can then digg or "bury" those submissions (or completely ignore them). Submissions that get a lot of diggs will appear on the main page of the Digg website within the list of "Popular Articles" where other Digg users can find them and click on the links to visit the original articles.
The Social Aspect of Digg:
Digg users can add "friends" to their networks. This is where Digg gets social. Users can comment on submissions and share submissions with each other.
Digg Complaints:
When it comes to how effective Digg is at driving traffic to your blog, it's important to understand the power of the top users at Digg. The top Digg users have enormous influence on what shows up on the main page of Digg and what stories get buried quickly. One of the major complaints about Digg is the overwhelming power the top Digg users hold. Additionally, users complain that a handful of sites generally get top billing in terms of making it to the main page of Digg, probably as a result of the actions of the top Digg users. Finally, users complain about the amount of spam that shows up on Digg.
The Benefits of Digg:
The pros of using Digg are:
Digg is the most popular social news site on the Internet.
Digg can drive a lot of traffic to your blog if your blog post gets to the main page.
Digg can help you find interesting blog posts and blogs.
Digg can help you network with like-minded bloggers by sharing submissions and commenting on each other's submissions.
The Negatives of Digg:
The cons of using Digg are:
It's hard to get your blog posts on the main page of Digg.
Top users control much of what gets on the main page of Digg.
Traffic that comes from Digg is generally short-lived Spam content finds its way on Digg frequently.
People pay the top users and other companies to generate diggs for content and move it to the main page of Digg leaving less chance for your posts to get to the main page.
Digg does not like it when users submit their own pages or blog posts and will penalize users who do so too frequently.
Should You Use Digg to Drive Traffic to Your Blog?
While Digg has the potential to drive a lot of traffic to your blog, it happens less frequently than users would like. Digg should certainly be a part of your blog marketing toolbox, but it should be used with other promotion strategies and tactics (including other social bookmarking site submission) for you to drive the most traffic to your blog overall.
If you write a Web page and put it up on the World Wide Web, then you have instantly created a globally accessible page. But just because a global audience can get to it, doesn't mean that your page will be understandable globally, and this doesn't mean just language.
Regional Topics
If your page is about a regional specific topic, then make sure you indicate that. Preferably right in the title of the page. Put the region in the keywords and page description as well. This will insure that someone in London, England looking for information on dog kennels won't get frustrated by a kennel Web site that only caters to dog owners in South Africa.Remember too, that even if your topic is regional, it has value to global viewers. What if someone from Germany is visiting your home town, and needs a dog kennel there? You also might want to expand your site to give more generic information that would appeal to a more global audience.
Language on the Web
Right now, most of the pages on the Web are in English, but just because you're writing your page in English in Australia, doesn't mean that a Canadian would understand it or find it useful. Make sure that you avoid slang on your site, as that is the most non-translatable element of a page. When you list a price, indicate what currency you're using. And when you list sizes or measurements, it helps if you list conversions, or link to a conversion Web site.If you are going to translate your site, it works best if you hire a professional translator. While there are translation programs on the Web, many of them can result in very humorous results. If you can't hire a translator, then consider not putting up the page in that language, your page will look more professional if the language it's in is correct.
General Tips
* Job listings
These are almost always region and country specific. Be sure to list where the job is located and where the applicant will need to live to take the job.
* Currency
Make sure that all prices have the currency listed. If you expect to sell to multiple countries, indicate whether you will accept other currencies, and it also helps to point to a currency exchange site.
* Shipping
If you can only ship within your country, make that very clear. It can be very disappointing for a customer to find exactly what she is looking for, only to find that it can only be shipped inside the U.K. (and she lives in Australia). Remember, that just because a reader lives in another country doesn't mean that she doesn't have friends in your country, the Internet is global in that way as well.
* Events
Online events are, of course, global, but offline events should have the place, including country, indicated. Never assume that your readers will know that San Jose is in California in the United States - and what about San Jose, Costa Rica?
* Measurements
In the U.S. measurements like pound and mile are common. In Australia, you might hear terms like stone or meter, and in Uzbekistan kilo or kilometer. It helps if you include conversions, and if you don't know the actual conversion, link to a conversion site. This includes measurements for recipes, distances, and temperature.
* Contests
There are many rules for contests around the world. Make sure that your site either follows them, or specifies the countries where the contest is valid.
Things to Avoid
* Assumptions
Never assume you know where your reader is coming from, unless you have done extensive survey work, it's hard to say. Even if your readers aren't coming in on .jp domains, doesn't mean they aren't located in Japan, they may be on IP addresses that don't resolve to domains, or their ISP is global and has a .com or .net domain.
* Generic terms such as:
o foreign/domestic/local - what's foreign to you may be local to your reader o international - be careful here, you should use this term to define something that covers many or all nations, not just all but your own o regional designations - "east coast" means something completely different to someone in Moscow, Russia than to someone in Moscow, Idaho, US. o cities without indicating state and/or country - there is at least one London in the United States, as well as in England, and I live 20 minutes from Brisbane, but it's not in Queensland, Australia. slang and dialect - words that are not found in a good dictionary should be avoided, as they won't be easily translatable.
* Poor translations
As I mentioned above, poor translations can really hurt a Web site. Many people will forgive a site for not being in their native language, and will be willing to go to a translation site if they need the information, but if your translation is bad, they won't trust you or your site as providing a quality product. Make sure that whatever language your site is in is grammatically correct, and free of spelling errors.
