If you’ve logged into Facebook in the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed that it looks different. Dramatically different. So how are you supposed to navigate through your favorite social media website with these newly integrated features?

To better understand the new Facebook and continue to connect with friends in social media, here is a quick tutorial that you can use to navigate through the changes:

1. Understand the new Newsfeed. With the major changes made to the Facebook newsfeed recently, users have been complaining that they want their old newsfeed back. Most recently, Facebook has decided to come to a compromise. They’ve made a small change in the newsfeed to let users check out recent stories in reverse chronological order, just like in the old days of Facebook. The good news for Facebook users is that Facebook is listening to your feedback and will take action if enough people are unhappy. Facebook will now have a new drop-down menu for the newsfeed with either Recent Stories or Highlighted Stories first – user’s choice.

2. Get acquainted with the Ticker. At the right side of the page, you will now find a real-time Ticker that tells you exactly what friends are doing, similar to the real-time updates on Twitter. This real-time Ticker is a live feed of all Facebook activity in your group of friends. All you have to do is click on any post in the Ticker to see activity and comment – without ever leaving your home page. If you find this annoying, you are not alone. Many Facebook users feel that the new Ticker makes the page too busy and distracting. But it also provides you with the opportunity to stay connected to all activities that your friends engage in every second of the day.

3. Use the Subscribe Button. If you are like most of the world, you have quite a few Facebook friends that you would rather not hear from on your newsfeed. Maybe they talk too much about themselves, maybe they shamelessly promote their business, or maybe they post a picture after picture of their baby. Whatever the reason, using the new Subscribe button will let you determine how much information you want to see from a specific friend. You can use this Subscribe button to weed out friends you don’t want to hear from as often and keep tabs on close friends in the newsfeed.

4. Change your friend settings. If you are going to send a friend request to a new friend, hover over the Friend Button on their profile first. This will give you options to add someone as a Close Friend or Acquaintance, determining how many of their posts that you will see in your feed.

Guess Author:  Joel Newman is a freelance writer experienced in Internet marketing and social media marketing. For more information on top registry cleaners to speed up your PC, you can visit Joel Newman’s Registry Repair website.

Link building is an important way to raise the page rank of your website. Unfortunately, it is also a tricky process that can leave your website with a lower rank, rather than the higher rank you were going for. This happens when you choose the wrong type of link building and build devalued links instead of valued ones.

Types of Devalued Links

There are different types of links. There are great links from authority websites, links that can help your page rank as long as you don’t abuse them and links that will hurt your website. The last type is the type that we will look at here.

Link Exchanges or Farms

Link farms are websites that host hundreds or thousands of links simply for the sake of providing a link. They have no relevant or useful content and many times the sites they host are not even related in topic.

These sites are no longer useful for gaining page rank and can even hurt your site. They may also pose as link “directories,” so be careful when submitting your website to anything that already has many other links posted on it.

Your site can also be devalued by having many reciprocal links. These are when you agree to link to another site and they agree to link to you. A popular way for webmasters to get a lot of reciprocal links is the use of link exchanges. Search engines have caught on to this practice and now devalue many websites that engage in this type of activity.

Forum or Blog Spamming

You should sign your blog comments with your real name, instead of putting links in the author field. These types of links look like link spam to Google and other search engines and in response they will devalue your website.

Likewise, you should join forums in an effort to help others. It is okay to have your website address in the signature field, but don’t list your website address in every actual post. This will have the same effect as blog spamming.

While we’re at it, don’t promote your website in every comment or post. This is still a form of forum spamming, even if Google can’t “see” it. Readers will see right through you and you may miss a chance at some legitimate traffic.

The Best Links

The best types of links that your website can get are natural links from authority sites with a high page rank that have been around for several years. The best way to get these types of links is to provide useful information that others will naturally want to share.

If you can get a website like this to the first page of Google, you will begin receiving natural links. If you find that you aren’t getting natural links, you can also participate in guest posting on related websites that already have a decent page rank.

Guest Author:  The team at Fatwallet have presented this information. Discover money saving deals, HP coupons, and forums at Fatwallet.com.

In the world of search engine optimization, an organized optimizer rules. By constantly staying on top of your work and new innovations, you can pull together some great results. With the flexibility of the iPad 2, you have a great new tool to do so. The iPad’s unique design, and ability to connect through a 3G network, allows you to successfully perform SEO work on the go. Along with an amazing, user friendly design, the iPad also features a number of applications that are strictly for SEO. The iPad also is an affective way to cross check the effectiveness or your website to an enormously growing population of mobile users. Using the iPad on the go for SEO, is becoming more and more essential.

One of the most important parts of performing essential SEO tasks, is staying organized. With great organization comes even better communication. This can be between clients, co-workers, or potential customers. You must always stay connected with your contacts, to ensure quality customer service, and to stay ahead on your work. You can easily do this with the iPad 2, and its 3G capabilities. You can even use multiple accounts to organize personal, and business emails to be more efficient. This opens up your business capabilities in a number of different ways. First, you will never be playing catch up. Second you can be sure that you will never miss an opportunity. This is very important when you are in the SEO business.

While you may not have all the useful tools on your iPad that your computer may bring, there are many SEO applications that can help. One of the main problems with using in an iPad is the browser. Browsers are portrayed in a mobile version. This can be highly annoying, especially if you are using the SEO Quake bar frequently. One great way to combat this browser issue is to download the “Atomic Web” browser. This application is only $.99, and is worth every penny. This allows you to “trick” the website into thinking you are using a browser like Firefox, Opera, or Chrome. This can be a very useful tool when you are interacting with various web pages. Another great application for SEO on the iPad is “Website SEO Analyzer.” This app lets you do a number of things that eliminate the need for your SEO Quake bar. You can check page rank, alexa rank, and even Meta data. It will also let you see the page size and the page load time. All of these things are important when checking prospective candidates when you are performing link building services.

The most important part when using the iPad for SEO is cross browser detection. With more and more people using mobile devices, you want to make sure that your website is operating the right way through all browsers. The number of users on tablet, and mobile devices is growing every single day. You do not want to missing out on these potential visitors because of a lack of knowledge. The iPad is the wave of the future. Although many have complained about the lack of Flash on iPads, Flash is 100% non-readable by Google. iPad may force you to use other options that make for more visibility through many browsers, and in turn lets Google index videos that may be lost in flash. This is going to be very important in future years. HTML 5 is going to become the norm due to the ease, and friendly aspects is contains. Although not all browsers use the “video” tag yet for HTML 5, this lets you get a head start in the SEO world. Google, and Apple are both very big fans of HTML 5.  You can use HTML 5 in the browsers that read it, and perform if/else functions and revert to flash for those who do not. This will allow you to be a multi-faceted website, and also allows Google to index your site appropriately.

The iPad allows you to perform essential SEO techniques while you are on the go. Using your iPad for SEO can keep you on task, can help you manage your time better, and is a very important tool considering the future of SEO. With a 3G network, an iPad is a great way to stay ahead on your projects, and beat the competition. If you want to keep your SEO business strong, an iPad can also help you to find the best way to optimize your site for the growing number of mobile users. That is something that you do not want to miss out on. Using your iPad, or any other tablet will soon be essential for all SEO businesses.

While there are already hundreds of thousands of mobile apps out there, this new medium is really still
in its infancy, which means the door is wide open for new ideas. What makes a successful app? Why is
Angry Birds the all-time highest seller on mobile platforms? There isn’t a perfect formula for creating the
next smash hit, but there are a few common attributes all the best apps share.

This is the golden age of the mobile app market. Most customers aren’t clamoring for more advanced
and futuristic apps (devices yeah, apps no), they just want something useful and/or fun they can use on
what they’ve got. If your great idea will only work on the iPhone 12, it’s probably not such a great idea.
So here are some things that make an app successful.

Make it useful

The greatest apps to date have been those that do something we think we need, although we may not
realize we need it until we see it. If your app makes people think to themselves, “Whoa! I can totally
use that! Why didn’t I think of that!” you’ve probably got a winner. Whether it’s Genius Scan for taking
better notes in class, or SwiftKey or Dropbox, if it makes life more efficient or allows me to do something
on the run I previously had to do at a computer (or even worse, by hand), it has a market.

Make it fun

Diversion and entertainment are really needs, and because our lives are busier than ever, we
increasingly turn to our mobile devices to get our fun fix in multiple bite-sized chunks throughout the
day. When I’m waiting in line at the DMV, I need Angry Birds, although lately I’ve been more prone to
use my eBook reader. It’s no mystery why the best-selling apps of all time are games. Mobile games
don’t have to be very complicated or involved, they just have to look good, run smoothly, and satisfy
that unquantifiable x-factor that makes people love something for some reason they can’t quite explain.
Yeah, good luck with that.

Make…money

Successful mobile apps make money. This may seem like a result more than a tip for being successful, but you
need to identify how your app will work for you. You can either sell it on the app markets, or offer it
free as a marketing tool in the hopes that it will attract new customers to your primary business model.
Think of the apps for new movies and TV shows; they don’t really do much by themselves, but they raise
awareness and promote brand. It’s like asking you to download a commercial, and it works! If you’re
looking to make money on the app market you should consider how your app compares to others and
what you think you can charge for it. Offering a free version with limited content or ads can be a great
way to break into the market and test the waters.

Don’t reinvent the wheel… or do…

Many of the great apps, like all great ideas, are simply improvements on existing offerings. A better
camera app, a more intuitive user interface, a keyboard that lets you drag your finger. Don’t feel like you need to start with a fresh concept. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “This is cool, but I really wish it did
this…,” you may be onto something. That said, some great apps have come out of left field. If you have
a unique idea, give it a try, but be sure it’s well developed before launch because the app market is an
imitator’s paradise.

Go for a niche

Think of a smaller audience with a very specific need and figure out how to fill it. A great example is the
Babyphone app, which lets parents turn their phones into baby monitors that call a specified number
when the baby wakes up. People with specific needs are often willing to pay for tools that help them in
those areas. You probably won’t hit the top of the charts, but you can still produce a really successful
app.

What mobile app ideas have you seen succeed?

Guest Author:  Chris Dayley 

Are you clueless on how to blog for SEO? This beginner’s guide will take you through simple steps on how to get your blog posts in tip top shape for when the search bots come crawling.

Why Blog for SEO?

There’s two very good reasons you should do this, which lead me to put together this beginner’s guide on how to blog for SEO.

1. Since you’re already taking the time to write the blog, so you might as well know how to blog for SEO.

2. It will help drive extra traffic to your blog in the long term – which is why you’re blogging right?

How to Blog for SEO

First you should plan out your blog post. It might seem like extra work, but believe me it will make the whole process a lot easier. You can download the plan I used to prepare this blog for SEO here.

Topic – First you’ll need to decide on the topic you’ll be blogging about. Ideally it should be a trending topic or something you know is popular with your target audience. There’s no point writing about something no one’s interested in.

Keywords – Probably the most important consideration when tailoring your blog for seo is the keywords you’ll use. Once you’ve decided on your topic, the best way to select keywords is to head on over to the google keyword tool, which will show you a bunch of suggestions for the topic you enter. Ideally try to choose 2 or 3 phrases which have high search traffic and low competition. If you downloaded the plan I used for this post, you’ll see that the phrases I’ve selected are ‘blog for seo’, ‘how to blog’ and ‘beginner’s guide’, which all have low competition and searches in the thousands.

Outline – Next you should come up with the outline for your article which should look something like the below. By creating a good outline all you’ll need to do when it comes to writing the article is fill in the blank. It will also help with keyword placement.

Main Idea

• supporting detail

• supporting detail

• supporting detail

Main Idea 2

• supporting detail

• supporting detail

• supporting detail

Main Idea 3

• supporting detail

• supporting detail

• supporting detail

Tailoring the Blog for SEO

Okay now you’ve got the plan and outline sorted, it’s time to think about how to blog.

Title – First up you need the title, this is probably the most important thing from the SERP point of view. Try to have your primary keyword as close as you can to the beginning; mine is ‘blog for seo’. If you can work a secondary keyword into the title, then have at it. I’ve managed to squeeze in two secondary keywords ‘how to blog’ and ‘beginners guide’. Don’t make your title all about keywords though, remember it still needs to be intriguing and memorable to your target audience.

Subtitles – it wouldn’t be a beginners guide if I didn’t mention subtitles. There are so many bloggers out there who show their clear lack of understanding on how to blog by churning out massive chunks of text and paragraphs with no subtitles. Subtitles make your blog posts heaps easier for the reader to absorb and it also helps prepare your blog for seo by helping the bots understand what your article is about.

Introduction – Your intro should be a stripped down, bare bones account of what the reader can expect from the rest of the article. Try to have your primary keyword as close to the beginning of the first sentence as possible, and ideally keep it to 70 words or less.

Body – Here’s some simple tips to follow when writing the article body:

• Keep your paragraphs focussed, and concentrate on one topic at a time. Make sure each paragraph is under 100 words.

• Use your primary keyword once every 100 words or so

• Stick to your outline! Have you ever read a blog post that made you feel like you were being pulled in 8 different directions? Fair chance they didn’t use an outline. Articles that use an outline are always more organised and compelling than those that don’t.

Conclusion 

If you’re taking the time to learn how to blog for seo, then there’s a high chance you also want your post to convert, i.e. lead the reader to some form of action. For a blog post to convert successfully, the body should compel the reader toward a powerful conclusion which will drive home what the post has offered and convince them they must take action now.

Although this is just a beginners guide on how to blog for seo – following these steps diligently and persistently will no doubt have a big impact on your blog traffic. And unless your blog is a personal diary, traffic is the point of it right?

What other SEO tips have worked for your blogs?  Please comment below!

Guest Author:  Daniel Smith, the founder of Propaganda House, has over a decade of marketing experience, and as a Social Media Consultant, runs courses and individually consults business’ on how they can grow through the effective use of Social Media Marketing techniques. You can tweet Daniel @propagandahouse or email him here.

I wanted to share this amazing infographic about social media usage in the United States.  Check out these astounding stats, share away, and leave your comments below.                                          

Source:  AgentGenius is a rapidly growing real estate social media, tech, news, and opinion site built and designed by and for the on-the-go agent. Their mission is to be a positive force in the industry, led by people inside of real estate. They aim to keep you up to date on trends that we study closely in order to forecast what’s next on the horizon.

What do you think of these astonishing stats?  Please leave your comments below.

White papers are more commonly used by B2B companies than B2C companies. This is because B2B companies are ready to dedicate their time to find out more about the solution and the product. Every B2B company needs a white paper to help market itself better.

Some of the points you need to keep in mind while creating white papers are:

1. Avoid direct selling – When you write a B2B white paper you need to forget about directly selling your services. B2B white papers only work when you sell your services in a subtle manner. You can write it persuasively, but you need to forget about using testimonials, call to actions that pressure readers, etc.

You might think that this indirect way of selling will not work, but when it comes to white papers subtle selling works really well.

2. Address it to a single person – Many writers think that when you write it for a business you’re writing for a whole bunch of people together and they need to address them as a group of people. It’s true that many people are going to read it, but they’re going to read it alone. You won’t have a group of people reading it together. This is the reason why you need to address your reader as a single person with a “you”.

3. Keep it simple – It’s is common for businesses to use hard to read language in their white papers as they think that it reflects on the company. They think that making the white paper hard to read will make their company look sophisticated. But using complicated words could actually work against you.

Your white paper is normally 6 to 14 pages long. It could take a lot of time for someone to read it and people who normally read white papers are busy decision makers. They are looking for white papers which are simple and quick to read. If they read a white paper that is hard to understand and keeps them visiting the search engines for answers and making it longer to read the white paper, they will just abandon reading it.

This is the reason why you need to simplify the writing and look up meanings for every word and write it in a detailed manner. This will make it easy to read and more busy decision makers will read it completely, which will give it the opportunity to do its job of generating leads.

4. Add references – You cannot write testimonials in your white paper, but you can prove that the content (problems and solutions) that is written in your white paper is true by using references. References assure the reader that your product really does work and everything in your white paper hasn’t just been made up.

5. Get it designed – Good writing is the key to white paper success. But you also need good design along with your white paper to give it that extra edge. It’s the job of the writing to market the product and the service. The design makes the writing and the cover of the white paper look attractive. The job of the design and the headline is to attract attraction and the job of the rest of the writing is to generate the leads. Design can also make the writing pleasant to read.

6. Market it – After you write your white paper you need to market it using marketing materials like sales pages, press releases, emails etc. Your white paper can do its job of being a powerful marketing tool only when it’s read. This is the reason why you need to market it regularly using marketing material that will get people to read it. You need short marketing materials that will let your readers know what’s so important about your white paper and why it’s necessary for them to invest their time reading it.

Following the above steps will help you create compelling white papers that will help you attract a lot of readers and clients.

Guest Author:  Mitt Ray is a copywriter. He specializes in writing and marketing white papers. He runs imittcopy which provides copywriting and white paper writing & marketing services. Mitt regularly posts tips on writing and marketing white papers on his White Paper Blog.

He is also the author of “Understand and Write White Papers“, a white paper on how to write white papers.

Social media marketing is a booming trend, so it’s no wonder that it’s easier than ever to find all of your favorite brands on popular websites like Twitter and Facebook. Businesses of all sizes are relying on social media to improve customer communication since social networking is much more efficient and cost effective than communicating via the telephone or e-mail.

If you’re a customer that has a concern, question, or a comment, you can reach out to the majority of brands through social media in a matter of seconds. On top of that, since brands are relying on social media for marketing purposes, many top businesses are giving their customers rewards for following them on Twitter or liking them on Facebook.

Here are a few top benefits you can receive from following your favorite brands in social media:

1. You can be heard. Rather than sending an e-mail to a business or even participating in a survey, you can post your comment or tweet a response in just a few seconds. Since most businesses are new to the social media plunge, it’s likely that you’ll receive a response within a few hours or even a day to your question or concern.

On top of that, since Twitter is a public website, a business won’t want other customers to see a public customer concern that hasn’t been dealt with. If you’re posting on a public social media website, a business is much more likely to respond to you than if you just send an e-mail.

2. You can find out about special deals and contests. Brands are more excited than ever to use social media to promote specials, giveaways, and contests. Even mega brands like Verizon have leaned heavily on social media by using hashtags on Twitter to promote a series of giveaways to drum up sales from new customers.

If you have a favorite brand, it literally pays to stay in the know and use social media to take advantage of discount offers you can’t find anywhere else.

3. You can eliminate confusion. If you’re confused about a company’s new product or how to take advantage of a coupon, you can post a question on Facebook to receive a near immediate response. This is much more effective than visiting forums with answers from other Internet users.

Why rely on another customer’s speculation or perspective when you can go to the horse’s mouth and get your answer directly from the brand through social media? Even better, you won’t have to worry about staying on hold with a company for minutes on end to get the help you need.

4. You can become part of the bigger picture. Starbucks is one of the leading brands in social media, and they have taken the next step by introducing the forum My Starbucks Idea. The amazing thing about this forum is that customers are allowed to post their ideas and suggestions, and Starbucks actually listens.

This is a brilliant strategy on behalf of Starbucks. Customers everywhere are impressed that they are being heard by a large corporation, and Starbucks is getting great ideas for free that they can use for product development.

Guest Author:  Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

Hands-down, Google is the most popular website on earth. Yet they seem to be worried about their stiff competition coming in at a close second – none other than Facebook.

This is precisely why Google has decided to introduce their own social network as Google +. Google has tried to make a number of different social media channels over the years, like Google Buzz and Google Wave. Yet nothing has caught on so far…

But now we can consider Google + for a second. Google + makes no bones about the fact that it is supposed to be just like Facebook with a few enhancements. Maybe we could call it “Facebook with a facelift”? Instead of opening up Google + to the public, Google has decided to create a little bit of buzz, so to speak.

Upon its introduction, you can’t sign up directly for Google + just yet. Initially, you have to be invited by someone else who is a member in the beta stage of this social network. But even with this type of exclusive appeal, Google + has managed to gather 10 million members as of July 2011. This is nowhere near the mega benchmark set by Facebook at 750 million members, but it seems to be off to a strong start.

Google + versus Facebook

At first glance, Google + looks like a copycat of Facebook. You can post your thoughts and updates, just like you can to the Facebook wall. There is also something called a Stream, which is exactly like the Newsfeed on Facebook. And to compete with the “Like” button on Facebook, Google + offers a +1 button so that you can show that you are a fan of a post, picture, video, or what have you.

But the big, shiny difference between the two is that Google + has a little something called Circles.

If you’ve ever had the thought when using Facebook that you’d love to say something a little more inappropriate, a little more private, or a little wackier than what you would share with all of your friends, Circles may be the answer. You can create circles of friends, family, acquaintances, and following, which is similar to Twitter. You can also create your own circles with specific members, like Grandparents or College Friends, where you can share private jokes or special stories to your heart’s content without boring everyone else on your Stream.

And when you decide to share something, you are able to specify which circle that it is sent to. Of course, you can choose to send the information to all of your circles or just one to keep a bit of news private. This minimizes much of the fuss surrounding social media, like teachers getting fired for posting pictures of a drunken party or saying something inappropriate. If you want to post something that you don’t want your boss to see, then don’t post it to a public circle, plain and simple.

Although this may be a subtle difference between Google + and Facebook, only time will tell how the Circles feature attracts users to this new social network.

Guest Author:  Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

As a customer, you’ve probably experienced the benefits of mobile marketing to give you discounts, specials, and freebies from your favorite brand. Right? Well, as a business owner, you can use this same type of hands-on mobile marketing to reach customers more effectively than ever before.

Even the most popular fast food chains like Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Wendy’s started marketing to customers with text marketing, iPhone apps, and mobile coupons just a few years ago. Many of these mobile apps will allow a customer to place an order online and pick up their food moments later. Simply brilliant.

Even large retailers like Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy stay connected with customers via text for holiday specials and discounts and have introduced iPhone apps to give customers more options. Instead of visiting the official website, customers can read reviews, order products, and create a gift list directly through their mobile phone.

As a business owner, you can take your mobile marketing campaign beyond just the standard text message. You can get creative with the following ideas:

• Mobile Payments: Starbucks recently introduced Starbucks Card Mobile payments available at more than 1000 Safeway locations via the Android App. Customers can load up their Starbucks card on their mobile phone and use their phone to pay for their coffee at their convenience. This means that Starbucks mobile payment is now available on 90% of all smartphones to make it virtually impossible for a customer not to connect with Starbucks through their mobile device.

• Mobile Coupons: Stores like 7-Eleven have tested out scannable mobile coupons from smartphones to give customers bonuses like a free drink on a daily basis. Target introduced the same concept in 2010 by offering scannable mobile coupons sent to customers via text each month. A customer will then scan their mobile device during checkout to receive the discount.

• Smartphone Apps: Sears and J.C. Penney are at the top of the retail category when it comes to iPhone apps, along with other contenders like Amazon and Best Buy. All of these retail apps have convenient store locators, special deals for customers, and a way to create a customizable shopping list to order online or use at a later date.

For business owners, the choice is clear. If you want to connect with your customers even more effectively, it’s time to get creative and move beyond the standard text message. You can reach out to customers using a variety of interactive mobile methods to make it easier than ever before for interested customers to buy from you.

Guest Author:  Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

Please vote and include any additional opinions in the comments below!

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If you’re a small business owner who already uses text message marketing, then you’re on the right track. But it’s still important to stay up-to-date with the latest mobile marketing trends to ensure that you too can stay ahead of the pack.

Currently, there are four times as many mobile phones in the world as opposed to PC users. Roughly 20% of houses in the US are mobile only without a landline.

When you consider that we send 130 billion text messages each month, mobile marketing can be incredibly lucrative for small and large businesses if it is approached correctly. This is precisely why so many businesses have embraced text message marketing wholeheartedly as the most popular form of mobile marketing. Which is why text messaging is now becoming more mainstream than ever before.

To best grasp the concept, text messaging should be compared to e-mail marketing and can be used in the same way that you would create an e-mail campaign. Of course, instead of encouraging your customers to give you their e-mail address for a newsletter or a coupon, you’ll be asking for a mobile phone number to send the same type of condensed updates to a mobile phone.

Yet mobile marketing provides an even greater benefit. You don’t have to go to the trouble of creating a fancy e-mail campaign with images and video because you’ll only be using 160 characters of a text message. Even if a customer doesn’t make a sale the first time, 97% of your customers will still read your text message because it’s so short. You can’t beat those odds!

Businesses have been using text messages to reach out to customers for several years. A Comscore study has confirmed that 25% of all mobile phone users have signed up for anywhere from 1 to 10 text messaging programs on a monthly basis. This means that customers are ready and willing, and you can reach them with your marketing message at any time away from home.

And the text marketing trend continues. People of all ages are using texts for communication, meaning that businesses can use text message marketing for all generations. More and more customers are searching for mobile coupons as our economy recovers from the recession and programs like Groupon rise in popularity. As a result, a number of retail stores, grocers, and restaurants have launched mobile coupon marketing programs to reach out to more customers.

Last but not least, the result that can’t be beat in text marketing is the impressive ROI. A text message will normally get seven times the response rate as an e-mail, meaning that the same message sent out to the same group of customers via text versus e-mail will be much more successful to generate even more sales and revenue.

Guest Author:  Bethany Ramos is an expert in Internet marketing and social media marketing, and she also co-owns her own e-commerce website, The Coffee Bump.

Since the first point-of-sale terminals hit retail and restaurant locations around the country in 1979, credit card processing technology has continued to make large leaps forward with both advantages and disadvantages to business owners. The latest jump has been gaining traction in the last 24 months and promises to revolutionize the merchant services industry in the near future.

Credit card processing firms, fortune 500 companies, the nation’s largest banks, and a number of enterprising entrepreneurs have been pouring billions of dollars into a new technology called mobile processing. The idea of mobile processing is simple: allow a merchant or individual to process, pay or manage their payments on the go and from their mobile devices.

Mobile Processing for Businesses

One of the simplest applications for mobile processing comes from the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, who in 2009 started a new company called Square (www.squareup.com). Square allows an individual or business to accept a swiped credit card using nothing but their iPhone/Android phone and a little card reader that attaches directly to the device’s headphone jack. The unit is no bigger than a silver dollar and allows credit card transactions to be processed at the cheaper swiped rate versus a keyed in card.

Square mobile processing is unique because it carries with it fixed rates regardless of the card type. Small business owners who have had bad experiences with processing firms and are tired of dealing with difficult to understand processing statements may find the simplicity refreshing. However, Square’s limitation comes from the total processing amount allowed per merchant. The initial limit is only $1000 per month, which is a very small amount for any organization operating full time.

For business owners that are looking for a little more flexibility and processing volume, a new device called ROAMpay is a great alternative to Square. ROAMpay is not a processor and will not manage a business merchant account. Instead, their equipment will work together with a merchant’s current processing company and allow for mobile processing directly from an employee’s smartphone.

The major advantage a small business will see from mobile processing is the reduced cost when accepting a credit or debit card away from a standard terminal. Processing companies charge extra fees for cards that are keyed in rather than swiped because the likelihood of fraud is greater. Service-based businesses, especially those done off-site, will potentially see the greatest benefit.

Consumer Behavior is Changing

Mobile payment processing is not only changing the way business is done, it is also changing the way that consumers pay for goods and services. In the last decade, MasterCard introduced Near-Field Communication technology into some of their credit cards that allowed a consumer to simply waive their card in front of a NFC equipped point-of-sale terminal rather than handing their card over for processing. This technology was reserved for gas stations and supermarkets at first, but has gained popularity with other retail businesses in the last few years.

Google Wallet has taken the same Near-Field Communication technology and started putting them into their smartphones. These phones allow a consumer to attach a credit card to their smart phone’s NFC chip and simply wave their phone in front of the same properly equipped POS terminals.

This is important for small businesses, especially in the retail sector, because it shows a shift in consumer behavior and expectations. There were many small business owners that refused to accept credit cards due largely in part to the excess fees. However, as more and more consumers began expecting a merchant to accept them, it forced business owners to adapt in order to compete.

Guest Author: Eric Stauffer is a writer for CardPaymentOptions.com. Their focus is to help small business owners navigate the murky waters of the credit card processing and merchant services industry.

Setting up your online shop for search engine optimization is a crucial part of making it a success. There are certain characteristics of web pages that the search engines view favorably, while there are other characteristics that they do not. Knowing what these are and tailoring your online shop presentation to be viewed favorably will land you higher in organic search results than a site or online shop that has not taken these important points into consideration.

If you’re just now beginning to set up your online shop, this is the best time of all to review these points. If your online shop is already open, it’s certainly not too late to make some key updates to your website and its item listings.

A few important points about SEO:

First, the search engines don’t officially publish a rule book on how they evaluate web pages. However much has been researched and published on what they look for and many characteristics are clear. It’s also important to note that the search engines are constantly updating their algorithms and strategies in a quest to deliver the most relevant, high- quality search results. The points covered here are those that are not likely to change in the near future.

It’s also important to remember that you are not just setting up your shop and its listings for the search engines, but equally important is for it to be attractive to online shoppers as well. Setting up your shop with both groups in mind is the ideal.

The following steps are easy to do:

Website Name

Let’s begin with your site’s name. Research suggests that the search engines view long shop names less favorably than shorter ones. It’s also important to place important keywords at the beginning of your shop name. The search engines crawl only the first 66 letters in a title or shop name. So crucial keywords at the end of a long shop name may be missed by the search engines. Naming your shop “Clementine’s Collectibles, Vintage Fashion and Delightful Treasures” will not be viewed as favorably by the search engines as a shorter name.

Website URL

The same is true for your site’s URL, so the URL you choose is also crucial. A long shop URL will not be viewed as favorably by the search engines as one that is shorter. When delivering search results the search engines will favor shops or websites with less than 70 characters over those that are cut off.

Item Titles

For the items you’re offering on your site, it’s important to write your item titles for search engine optimization. This means writing natural titles that are no longer than 70 characters whenever possible. They should contain important keywords at the beginning of the item title.

Here’s an example of an item title that is too long:

Vintage LAGUNA Set White Givre Art Glass Stones AB Austrian Crystals Double Strand Choker Earrings c. 1959 Emerald Green Hat with Chenille Dotted Veil

Here’s an example of how it can be shortened:

Vintage Laguna White Givre Art Glass Choker Earrings Set

And, remember never to keyword spam. Keyword spamming is when keywords are repeatedly used, or when keywords are used that do not related to the item in an attempt to manipulate search results. This also includes listing an item without knowing what the item is. Search engines are keenly honed to detect keyword spamming and it could get your site removed from their search results altogether. Remember, that it is un-appealing to potential buyers as well.

Item Descriptions

Next comes item descriptions. Well-written item descriptions are crucial for proper search engine optimization. They should be composed in a natural style while still including a good number of important, relevant keywords. Studies suggest that the search engines favor longer item descriptions. Item descriptions that are viewed as too short to include enough key information will not be viewed favorably. Again, keyword stuffing or spamming is an absolute no-no.

Here is a list of what points you should be sure to include in your item descriptions:

What is it?

When was it produced?

What company or artist produced it?

What is it made of?

What condition is it in? This includes any imperfections or wear

Are there any distinctive marking?

What are its dimensions?

Website Information

Don’t forget that your website’s background information as well as promotional text are also an opportunity to show the search engines what your site is about. Have you heard the term lately that content is king? That’s because the search engines value it highly when considering what results to suggest in any given search. Having well-written information about yourself and your business, using a range of relevant keywords, will be viewed favorably by the search engines. Choosing natural phrases that contain relevant keywords that describe your site’s items will serve to work in your favor.

Fresh Content

Next, it’s important to add items to your online shop to keep your shop content fresh. Why? Because the search engines less favorably upon sites that are viewed as “stagnant”. In their search results they want to suggest sites with items that are fresh and dynamic, and have something new to offer.

Testimonials

The search engines look favorably upon buyer testimonials so be sure to add some to your site, and update them periodically. The search engines do evaluate whether content such as this is fresh and new.

Links

Search engines will also evaluate whether other quality sites are linking to your site. A link to your site from another quality site is considered to be a form of a “vote”, lending credibility to your site.

Item Photos

While the search engines cannot evaluate the quality of your item photos, research suggests that they do take into consideration how many photos you have of a single item. And remember that multiple item photos aren’t just for the search engines. They’re for buyers who want to see every angle of an item before they decide whether or not to purchase.

Do you find this post helpful?  What other SEO tips have worked for your e-commerce store?  Please share in the comments below.

Guest Author: Karen Frishman is Director of Marketing for Ruby Lane, and online mall specializing in antiques & art, vintage collectibles and jewelry, www.rubylane.com.

What started as a mere trend several years ago has now evolved into its own culture. Social commerce is gaining popularity by leaps and bounds in the virtual world and shows no signs of slowing down. Selling products online was once reserved for major retailers with massive inventories and the selling power to reach the masses. Now, thanks to sites like eBay, web stores, and applications for social media platforms such as Facebook, anyone can market and sell their products online.

Having a successful social commerce campaign hinges on a number of factors. It’s not something you should venture into blindly without having done at least some minimal research. Although once you get your ecommerce campaign up and running, it can run on autopilot to some extent. However, there are certain areas in which you always have to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to selling your products online.

Let’s take a look at the four most important ingredients in a successful social commerce campaign:

A Multifaceted Approach

Simply using one or two of the array of free social media tools available today won’t get you very far in your social commerce campaign. The key to making these tools work for your brand is not just using them, but using them in tandem with other avenues of marketing to gain maximum exposure. Add Facebook and Twitter widgets to your business website and blog. Add links to your website and blog to your Facebook Fan Page and Storefront and your Twitter account. Tweet about sales, promotions, new products and services. Blog about these events as well and announce the blog updates on your Fan Page. Let everything you do online reciprocate what you’ve already done, allowing the campaign to come full circle.

Get Personal

Customers want to feel like their opinions matter and achieving that strengthens the bond between the buyer and the seller. Try to involve your customers in your business as much as you can. Constantly ask for feedback about their experiences and take their suggestions. Ask them to vote on which products should be introduced next and which services they would like you to offer in the future. Asking for their opinion lets your customers know that you are listening to them, which works to establish brand loyalty. On the flipside of that, don’t forget to interact with your fans on a personal level. Respond to their comments and posts. Let them know you’re reading and listening.

Reward That Loyalty

Reward your loyal social media followers with exclusive discounts and specials that are not available to other customers. Not only does this show your appreciation for your loyal followers, it also provides the incentive for them to recommend your brand to others.

Don’t Oversell

Instead of always posting about products you have for sale, ask questions or create polls to get your customers involved. Share relevant industry news or even some candid insights into your personal life. If your company is involved in other events or causes, let your fans know it. Random trivia, current events and human interest stories are always good conversation starters. Yes, the point of social commerce is selling your products and services, but nobody likes high pressure tactics or feeling like they’re being “sold” to all the time.

Guest Author: Helen Fang is the social media expert at Vendio, an ecommerce software company that enables online businesses to sell on Facebook, eBay, Amazon, and Google from one platform.