does everyone need a .tv show?

iPhone for social media peeps

If you Blog, Tweet, Vlog, YouTube, Flickr, etc than the iPhone is flat out sick. Sick I say. Should be a requirement if the words “social” or “strategy” appear in your job title…

Sent from my iPhone. of course.

Get a Sponsor for your Social Networking Site and get paid.

If you’re interested in building a social network that you can actual profit from as well as enjoy, I have a simple suggestion (or 2).

Find a niche that you love. Let’s say you like Biking.

Build a social site, use a service like ning.com

Build your community up, use other social sites to promote it like Facebook, MySpace, MyBlogLog, Flickr

watch it grow with active users, keep it local and highly niched. Target your biking site to Bike Riders in San Diego, CA. have the site talk about local events, local races, photos, etc.

Then once you build up a solid community of Biking enthusiasts in San Diego, I would suggest that you sell the advertising rights to ONE company.

Let them be the single sponsor for a 6 month time frame.

Getting their name and brand in front of a highly targeted audience is crucial and most companies that are trying to expand their business will be more than willing to give your new social site a sponsorship.

Make a comparison between where they are advertising now, how those dollars are spent and measured compared to how those same dollars would be spent on your site. I would imagine the money they spend on advertising now is not measured, they probably advertise their own website without being able to monitor its effectiveness.

Most companies simply throw their URL in their advertising and think they’re golden. Not true. They should be using a promo code, a unique URL, something, anything, to measure their ads effectiveness.

your social community is targeted, its made up of bike enthusiasts, average age is 32, 75% male, 65% married, 30% active racers, 70% casual riders. Average money spent a year per user is $650, etc., thats valuable information. think about it.

If you already have a niched website, take a good look at your community and see what companies, LOCALLY, would be interested in your community.

Give it a shot.

SnapShot of facebook.com (rank #15), myspace.com (#6) – Compete

SnapShot of facebook.com (rank #15), myspace.com (#6) – Compete

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K.I.S.S.

You have about 7-10 seconds to make an impression on your visitors before they leave.

The majority of websites that I see have no clear message. I have to read through a lot of content to figure out exactly what I’m looking at!

1. Does my website have a clear message?
2. Am I asking my visitor to do one and only one thing?
3. Will it take my visitor longer than a few seconds to understand what my site is about and what I am asking them to do?
4. Will it take my visitor longer than a  few seconds to see the benefit of my site?

Simple questions you would think, however, the majority of sites I visit are so filled with cluster and competing text that I don’t know where to go first so I just leave.

Should you focus on Google and nobody else?

70% of all searches are done on Google. The search giant increased to 68.29 percent in May, up from 67.9 percent in April (and 65.13 in May 2007).

Are you putting 70% of your effort into Google and 30% into the rest?

Makes sense doesn’t it?

One of my websites gets over 100,000 page views a month and when I look at my analytics 90+% of my search engine traffic is from Google.

If google is your cash cow of search engines than shouldn’t you focus substantially more time to that search engine then to the others…

The expression is, “you should dance with who brought you to the prom”. If the Google is the one driving all your search engine traffic than you’d better make sure your website is optimized to the fullest for Google

Building a Website, Begin With The End In Mind.

There’s an expression that says “”Begin With The End In Mind.” (Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.)

Let’s make a simple analogy:

Think of your website as if it were your dream house.

In order to build the best house you can dream of, there’s lots of planning involved and you simply don’t pick up a hammer and some nails and start building your home without proper planning. Hiring an architect, a builder, a painter, an interior designer, etc., are simple examples of things you need to think about before you begin a process.

Your website is no different.

• What’s the purpose of your website
• What are your goals (increased sales, lead generation, brand awareness)
• How are you planning on promoting it
• Who will maintain it
• Who will keep the content relevant and fresh

These are just a few of many things to consider BEFORE you develop your website.

Imagine going on a road trip from Chicago to New York. Would you just get in your car and start driving? I’m sure some of you would and I would imagine you would eventually get to your destination, however, it’s common sense to plan your route using a map.

Proper planning can save you time and money.

Hopefully by now my two simple analogies help you understand the importance of proper planning.

Is Social Media Optimization for you?

SEO, PPC, SEM, and now SMO.
What does Social media optimization actually mean?
In layman’s terms, what it means is to have social web sites (like Digg, del.icio.us, stumbleupon) linking back to your website or specific pages within your site.
Think of it has a bunch of people who are giving you a “vote”. The more votes you receive, the better your chances that the search engines will place you higher in their rankings.