Boost Your Web Site with Interactive Features

Several surveys have confirmed that the main growth in the use of the Internet is in the area of "networking". Whether that's using the Internet to route telephone calls, or the use of web sites to discuss things with like-minded people, there is little doubt that "connecting people" is a significant part of the Internet.

Until recently, the only way of being connected was via email. That is mostly one-to-one, has inherent delays and is also limited in what you can achieve. Nowadays, you can share text, audio and video using social networking sites. These are not one-to-one, but many-to-many and are also immediate. That has significant appeal for many Internet users.

In a sense, what we are now witnessing online is what has happened offline for centuries. Groups of like-minded people are getting together, chatting, swapping information, passing on useful ideas and products and having a good old gossip. With the interconnectivity offered by many web sites nowadays you can achieve all this online without having to go out in the cold weather!

But for those people trying to earn money online, it's good to understand the fact that there is this essential human need for people to interconnect when online. If your business web site doesn't have any means of interconnection, you are less likely to attract the modern Internet user, who sees interaction as fundamental. No longer can your business rely on an email address or a "contact us" form.

These days you need to allow your web site visitors to interact with you AND with each other. That means you need a forum, for instance, or at the very least a blog where people can comment on what you've written. You could also do with the ability for people to add content to your web site, such as articles or video clip. Such features in a business web site will help create a sense of belonging, of identity.

In the future a good business web site will be one where a community of people meet together to discuss what the business offers. No longer can you afford to have a static, brochure style web site. Internet users in the modern broadband connected world want interactivity. If your web site doesn't offer some kind of interactive feature, you will lose out to competing web sites that do.

Tags & Folksonomy: Latest Internet Trend

There is a new branch of the Web growing like a well organized storm cloud. This recent trend on the Web can be used to strengthen your presence with major search engines and reach an active audience that is highly interested in your content. Welcome to the world of "folksonomy" and "tagging."

What is Folksonomy and Tagging?

Folksonomy is a combination of the words folks and taxonomy meaning "people classification management." This allows users some level of control over how the web is organized. One of the most popular tools of the folksonomy concept is tags. Tagging, in the context of this article, is the process of labeling a piece data with metadata.

Using Tagging & Folksonomy to Advertise

Three of the most effective sites currently using tags and/or folksonomy are: Del.icio.us, digg.com, and technorati. Each of these sites is a major player in the folksonomy world.

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking web application that is growing very fast in popularity. With a free account, del.icio.us users can submit and access all of their bookmarks from any computer with Internet access. By submitting and tagging your own web pages, you instantly give access to thousands of other users with interests in the same tags. Encouraging site visitors to submit your selected webpages to their own del.icio.us bookmark page is a very good way to get more exposure to del.icio.us users. Submitting to del.icio.us is instant and it creates meaningful relevant links important to the major search engines.

Digg.com is mostly a technical news site. If you are familiar with the Web phenomenon Slashdot, then digg will remind you of that geek culture. The difference is that ALL of digg's content is created, submitted, and judged by its audience. If your page, blog or online article is good enough to be "dug" by digg users, you could receive literally hundreds of unique visitors immediately. Virtually any participation (comments, submissions, links in your profile) can get your site traffic from digg. The beauty of digg is that it is so popular that many submissions to digg can instantly dominate some keywords on search engines such as google.com.

Technorati.com is a power house in the world of tagging. If you have a blog, Technorati should become one of your favorite search engines on the World Live Web. Many Technorati Tags are beginning to dominate the Web by having constantly updated, fresh blog content on highly focused subjects. The beauty of Technorati is that blog application such as blogware and others are completely integrated with it allowing blog categories to be instantly tagged and syndicated into the blog search engine. Any blog can be manually added as well to technorati's very open tagging system. Like digg, even if you only happen to get a trickle of traffic from technorati itself many times the link value alone will sky rocket the speed in which your site rank in the search engines.

There are many other folksonomy sites that can help you with "tag syndication." With its encouragement to get users to submit their own RSS feeds as content, My Yahoo! is a great way to increase traffic and links. Web applications like TagCloud integrates RSS and tagging while wikipedia.org is method of allowing social webpage and content development. All these methods and many more have two great things in common 1) they are free (as of this writing) and 2) they give the power to reshape and categorize the Web to the people. If content is King then content management is the the kingdom.

Social Networking on Myspace and Friendster

If by now you have not heard of Mspace or Friendster then maybe the world is moving too slowly for you. Young adults (teens and college age adults) are using the world of the internet to communicate in ways we had no inkling of a few years ago.

Social networking is booming as young adults find one another online to chat, post comments, post photos, and share info about the latest happenings in their world to their Myspace pages and Friendster networking sites. It is not always a good thing for sure, but more on that later on.

So how does it work? Well some genius thought up the concept of Myspace, which is basically a free bulletin board for anyone (not just teens) to create a web site that is all about networking and communicating with friends and creating new friends too. Users create a free account; enter information about themselves, in as much or little detail as they want. They then share their site with their friends. Their friends can then post comments on the myspace. It becomes a great big bulletin board of social interaction. The kids are glued to these things and seem to know how to find one another and chase down the latest hot info in a heartbeat.

So what does this mean to communication in the Internet age for teens and young adults? It puts a fancier face on the outpouring of information exchange between teens.

It used to be that only the geeky teens had web pages about themselves. They were the only ones who knew how to build them. Now with these easy to use tools at their disposal every teen or young adult can have a site. That means connections and networking spreads very fast.

The sharing aspect of these sites is not only their good side but also their bad side as well. In the last year many schools and parents have become alarmed at the content of some of these Myspace sites that students have built. In typical teen fashion some kids say on their site what probably should not be said in public. They post as though it were a diary and then it gets spread around. That means that hate and meanness spread within the community quickly. Some schools have cracked down and told students they would be expelled if they do not clean up their sites. Parents, just finding out about the technology and checking it out for the first time become alarmed at the things that are said on these postings.

Of course that aspect comes back to the old thing of parents needing to be in tune with their kids and what is going on in their world. You cannot give a kid a computer and internet access and then walk away and not pay any attention.

The other thing that has raised alarm in this world of social networking is kids will post news of a party in their area, to their site. Instead of getting to "just" their friends it ends up spreading to the whole area. Homes have been overrun by crowds of kids trying to attend parties. One such event even ended with a fatal stabbing when the crowd got to big and unruly.

These are the types of things that can happen with or without such social networking sites in teen’s lives. These sites are not going to fade away. Myspace has over 60 million subscribers and was recently bought by a major corporation. They intend to make a lot of money off these sites for years to come. After all it is a very juicy target market for advertising revenue.

The Importance of Networking

On a hot July day several years ago people gathered in droves to drink, talk, and do business. This wasn't a convention, reception or staff outing. The event was called Young Professionals, a local business networking group for, as the name suggests, young working professionals. This event acted as a magnifying glass on the importance of networking in business.

The first thing you'll notice at an event like this will be the amount of people that attend. Discovering an opportunity like in the business world can be a refreshing feeling, especially to those that are constantly scrutinized at work. If nothing else, networking provides members of the business community an outlet to reassure one another that their current job doesn't have to be the only job they ever do. The first step in networking is putting oneself out there to be met by others, and engaging in conversation about business, and life with other likeminded individuals.

The next thing you'll notice at the event are the prevalence of business cards. The importance of business cards in networking is essential. If you have business cards be sure to bring them everywhere, if you don't yet have a card, make one. Many of your employees might be people you'll meet networking for business. If they don't have a business card you won't be able to hire them. Having a business card and distributing it freely will help you become successful at networking. If you need reassurance, look at those that profit off networking the most, real estate agents, stock brokers, and other broker types. Do you ever see a drought in business cards among these individuals? Some people have stacks of cards high enough to hit an 11 foot ceiling.

Another thing you'll notice happening at the event are the unabashed marketing of products, and services. Market your product when networking. What if you don't have a product for sale? You may have a service, or an idea, whatever it may be, market it while networking. You will be surprised at how many people can help you achieve your dream.

A few things you'll want to bring to a meeting are a pen, pad, and something to hold things in, like a portfolio. While networking be sure to take notes if necessary, ask questions of others, and capture the moment. Many rely on fate to bring them to success in business, and life. But for those seasoned veterans of business, and life will tell you, diligence and hard work are as important as anything else.

When you are networking try your best to get the most out of the situation. Next time you are at a networking event, instead of enjoying the free pigs in a blanket, make the most of it by actively networking.

The "Networking" Part of Network Marketing

Networking is obviously an essential part of network marketing. Every successful network marketer knows this to be true. Although networking is such an intricate part of network marketing, the two terms are not synonymous. However there are many similarities. Both rely heavily on people skills. Both require people to confront their fear of talking to other people. Both carry with them the risk of rejection. Both also carry with them enormous opportunity. And to some people, both are considered dirty words.

Of course people that consider networking as something that is 'not done' don't understand what networking is really about. The same can be said of people that think network marketing is something that is beneath them. Many people think of networking as a way to get connected solely for their own advancement in life. In that respect a person might feel that it is unethical or not noble to network. This line of thinking stems from the idea that advancement will always come at the expense of someone else, that success in life is a zero-sum game. These people often look at network marketing from the same perspective. They think of profiting from other people's efforts as something that is negative and not fair to them. In reality, successful networkers will tell you that it doesn't work that way at all. Networking doesn't have to be at anybody's expense and the business of network marketing doesn't reward anyone for taking advantage of others. It actually rewards people for helping other people to succeed. In that respect it may very well be the most ethical business model in the world today.

A lot of the negativity around networking can be explained by the different types of networkers. Some can be considered 'hunters', moving in for a quick kill, after which they move out again. They often operate without regard of the other persons interest and because of this they will enjoy the fruits of success for only a limited period of time. Often it will not take long before people find out what's really driving the hunter. Once they see that he or she is only looking after his or her own interests, their willingness to interact with this person will quickly evaporate. By contrast, truly successful networkers are often 'farmers' who spend a lot of time sowing and nourishing their relationships, instead of just focusing on reaping. They invest in their network, they energize their network. They use their network, but they never ever abuse their network! And their network knows this. A true networker will always keep the interests of others in mind. That's why working with a true networker is so enjoyable. Networkers are often very likeable and as such people like to interact with them.

Networking is a skill that is essential to all businesses not just network marketing. Although network marketing differs in many ways from the more traditional forms of doing business, the importance of networking is just as prevalent. If not more so. A network marketer that doesn't know how to network will be out of business in no time. Network marketing is first and foremost a people's business and this implies that the ability to effectively work with people is absolutely critical. This is why successful network marketers are extremely adept at networking. Many have found out over time that developing this skill can pay off in many areas outside their network marketing business as well. Business owners who have started a home based business on the side often apply their enhanced networking and people's skills in their traditional business with great success. For some network marketers this spin-off has earned them more money than the income from their network marketing business itself.

So whether you are in network marketing or in a more traditional type of business, don't underestimate the importance of becoming an effective networker. And if you really want to master this skill you may find there is a lot to learn from good network marketers. So if you happen to know anybody that fits that description, try and benefit from their knowledge on the topic. It will surely help you network your way to success!

Gear Up Your Site for Social Media Marketing

The year 2006 saw the emergence of social media. If you are
engaged in operating a website, you must realign your site to
exploit the popular social media sites for increased traffic.

You should also introduce social media components to your site
because web users are experiencing these new form of interactions
in more and more sites and they may have an expectation of the
same from your site also.

If you want to attract repeat visitors and want them to stay
longer, your focus this year should be on the social aspects of
your site.

Social media use technologies like RSS, blogging, podcasting,
tagging, etc. and offer social networking (MySpace, Facebook),
social video and picture sharing (YouTube, Flickr), and
community-based content ranking (Digg, MiniClip) features.

The central theme of these sites is user generated contents used
for sharing among the end-users. The social aspects of these
sites are to allow users to setup social communities, invite
friends and share common interests.

You don't have to change your site completely within a month or
so to take advantages of these new technologies. Introduce small
changes incrementally through out the year and you will be on
your way to meet these new challenges.

The first step is to declare who you are to the online community.
People should be able to relate to you. Unless they know more
about you, you will be just an unknown identity and most people
don't like to deal with unknowns. Create an About Us page and
list your achievements and skills.

Create a MySpace page and link your bio in the About Us page to
the MySpace page. Also provide a link back from the MySpace page
to your website. Spend an hour every week to develop your online
social network in MySpace. Invite a few of these new friends to
write blog articles at your site about your products or
services.

Install a free blog software and start publishing at least one
article in your blog. Provide an easy bookmarking feature to
social bookmarking sites like delicious. This is done by
providing an action button for each article in your site. The
action button takes users to the submission page of the
bookmarking site.

Also, provide an action button for direct posting of blog
articles to digg. Digg is a popular news ranking site. A well
dugg article will bring thousands of visitors to your site.

Provide a forum at your site for users to discuss your products
and services. Don't delete negative comments because they provide
insights into the improvements needed to serve your visitors
better. However, censor hate speeches and meaningless bantering.
Register your forum at BoardTracker. BoardTracker is a forum
search engine.

If you are offering products, allow users to review and rate your
products. This will help you in inventory management because you
may want to discontinue low rated products.

Provide RSS feeds for your new products, blogs, forum postings,
etc. An RSS feed provides teasers of your contents. Users will
use RSS readers to scan your teasers and visit your site for more
information if the teasers draw their attentions.

Publish all your feeds at feedburner. Feedburner provides media
distribution and audience engagement services for RSS feeds. They
also provide an advertising network for your feeds. If you have
quality contents, you will be able to monetize your contents
using their services.

Create short how-to or new product videos and post these videos
in social video sharing sites like YouTube, Google video. Provide
a few start and end frames in these videos to introduce your site
with your site url. Post these videos using catchy titles,
teasing descriptions, and appropriate tags to make them
discoverable.

Provide embedded links to your posted videos in your site. This
will save your bandwidth and storage space because the videos
reside in the video sharing sites.

Besides videos, use social photo sharing sites like Flickr to
share pictures related to contents in your site. Use the same
title, description and tag techniques discussed earlier for
social video sites.

Provide a Send to Friend feature for all products and services
you offer. This feature is a link that sends the article, product
description, etc. to a recipient via e-mail.

For starter, Yahoo provides a service called Action Buttons
(search for Yahoo Action Buttons) that add links to your website
for users to share, save, and blog about your website. The Yahoo
action buttons use delicious for social bookmarking, and Yahoo
blog site for blogging. It also has a print feature.

The social media is not a fad. It is here to stay and bring in
profound changes to web surfers' experiences. It is the right
time for implementing features that will make your site social
media friendly. Also, using marketing techniques that utilize
popular social media sites, you will be able to bring traffic to
your site.