What Is Pinterest And How Does it Work
March 7, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, Social Media
Pinterest – What it is and how to use
For quite some time now the top Social Networks we have focused on to start with have been, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn as well as Goolge Plus and Youtube…. But that is changing. We are now adding
Pinterest to the list of the Social Networks a business should start paying attention to.
The reason for this change in focus is due to the popularity of Pinterest growing and its ability to drive traffic —-In the past few months, the number of visitors to this site went up to 11 million; equal to 1/3rd of the Twitter users. Pinterest has been used increasingly for business promotion and to create brand awareness.
How does Pinterest work?
Pinterest is a comparatively new social networking site. It is described as a virtual pin board that functions like a free online scrap book. This photo sharing website allows users to create and share collections of diverse images. These images can be located on the Web or can be your own creations. The site makes an effort to bring users all across the globe together based on their interests. These pin boards can include different media such as videos, images, text and monetary gifts. You can keep updating your pin boards with the relevant links, images and text. You can also re-pin anything you like on your board by hovering over the image. The links attached will help you trace the origin of that image or material.
To get started with Pinterest, you have to set up an account with the site. Without an account you only have the liberty to browse through the activity of the users. You cannot participate in any of it. There are two ways to set up an account. You can either receive an invitation from a friend who is a member of the site or you can ask for an invite from Pinterest. The registration process requires that you integrate the Pinterest account with your Facebook or Twitter account. Users who log in via Facebook should use the “Timeline” format. The sites homepage displays a “Pin Feed” to view activity among boards.
Pinterest is beneficial for marketing different products. Business owners can add “Pin-It” to their websites. This allows users to directly pin items to their boards imported from your website. Integrating you Pinterest account with other social networking sites is regarded as a clever approach to drawing more traffic to your site.
The benefits of using Pinterest
- Pinterest has a simple design and layout that is easy to use and navigate
- Pinterest can drive a lot of traffic to your website
- Pinterest is truly a user generated content site – allowing users to “Pin” your items will help spread the word on who you are
Pinterest is truly a great social site not only for business but also for sharing likes and views. If you’ve not hooked onto it yet, its time you did. Set up your Pinterest account and she how it works wonders for you!
Traffic Generation – Blog Commenting
February 29, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, Search Engine Optimization
Increase Website Traffic by Blog Commenting
Probably one of the easiest ways to building links is by commenting on other blogs. Commenting on other blogs is a free method of building links and driving traffic to your website. Blog commenting is a great way to generate more traffic to your site by creating backlinks and exposing you and your blog to others that are reading blogs related to your topic.
How to do blog commenting the right way
Blog commenting can be a very powerful marketing strategy to generate traffic to your website and or blog. There are some things you should keep in mind when you are commenting on blogs however to ensure that you are maximizing your time and getting the best benefit. If you follow the steps listed below you should be able to effectively use this strategy for generating more traffic to your site.
Blog commenting is a marketing strategy you can use especially if you
1. Search for a popular blog – do your research and find blogs that are of the same niche as your website, and in order to attract hundreds or thousands of readers to your website, that blog that you are commenting on should have several readers.
2. Post blog comments on "Do Follow" blogs – blogs have a "no follow" or "do follow" features, when you comment on blogs make sure that you are posting on a "do follow" blog, this will allow search engines to recognize the hyperlink or backlink that you post with your comment.
3. Add a personal touch to your blog comments – when you post blog comments on others' blogs, you are not just posting to get your website link out there, you are also there to interact and connect with others. Ensure that you fully read the blog post you are commenting on and leave a relevant comment, hopefully one that will generate more comments. When possible be sure to use your logo or photo with your blog comments, this will help you with branding.
4. Be engaged and interactive – once you post a blog comment, check every now and then or "subscribe" to that blog post so you will be notified when others have posted a reply or a comment and you can engage into a conversation — this is a good way to network with potential clients that will help you increase website traffic.
What blog commenting can do for your website
Commenting on blogs can generate more traffic to your website, but there are other benefits too that include:
- Networking with others
- Building your Online Reputation and Creditability
- Branding for both your site and yourself
Forums are a great way to generate traffic to your website
February 28, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, Search Engine Marketing
How to use forums to generate traffic to your website
There are several ways that you can begin to drive traffic to your website and many of these are even free. The method that will be covered today is by using Forums. If you are not familiar with Forums they are great places to connect with others that share similar interests and begin to share information and connect with them.
Here are a few ways you can us forums to begin to connect with others and drive traffic to your website:
- Locate the forums that are the best match for your business and interest or one that would contain the clients you are trying to reach.
- Interaction is the top way to build credibility and connections in a forum. Interactions can include sharing relevant information, answering questions, posting questions and just reaching out to others in the forum.
- Balance the amount of information you share that is information verses what is sales and product promotion. Yes, your goal is to promote your products and services, but you want to do this indirectly and not directly through blatant self-promotion.
- Pay attention to your posts. Your posts should be informative, useful, and time-sensitive. They must also reflect your expertise and credibility. So make sure that they are free from grammar and spelling errors and that they are factual.
- Utilize your signature to captivate your audience. One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is to include your website address in your signature. The more you share on the forum the more visible you and your signature are. This will also create a backlink to your website which is important for SEO.
- Grow and maintain your creditability. When you are able to answer questions and support others you build up your credibility and expert status. The more credible you are the more likely someone will want to visit your website from your signature.
Forums are a great place to begin to make new contacts and build creditability for your business. When you begin using forums just remember you are sharing information to build connections and inspire people to want to learn more about you.
Here are a few potential forums that you can start with depending on what niche your business is:
Health and Wellness forums – Great for Fitness Trainers and those that promote health and wellness products and services:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/
Travel Agents
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ForumHome
http://www.fodors.com/community/
Real Estate Agent
http://www.realestateinvestor.com/forum/index.php ( Good place if you are working with investors)
Small Business Forums – great for consultants, accountants and anyone that offers services to small businesses
http://www.startupnation.com/business-forum/
http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/threads
http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/forum/
Network Marketing
http://www.betternetworker.com
Increaseing Traffic to your Website – Ways to do so
February 21, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, Search Engine Marketing
Ways to Increase Traffic to your Website 
One goal of every business owner/website owner is to increase the amount of traffic to your website. In most cases more traffic means more prospects and more prospects mean more clients and more sales.
In this segment we will cover a handful of ways you can begin to increase the amount of traffic to your website. The traffic increase won’t happen overnight, but if you implement some of these tactics your traffic will begin to increase over time.
Here are a handful of ways that you can increase the traffic to your website:
- Guest Blog
- Comment on Other Blogs related to your industry
- Write and Submit Articles to Article Directories
- Participate in Q & A Sites
- Participate in Forums Related to your industry
- Connect your Blog to your Social Media Profiles
- Submit Content to Document Sharing Sites
- Publish Pages on Web 2.0 Properties
Over the next few posts we will elaborate more on these techniques that you can use to drive more traffic to your website.
Online Tools – Twitter Tools – Managing Your Twitter Network
February 17, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, tools, Uncategorized
Online Tools – Twitter Tools – Managing Your Twitter Network 
Twitter is a great tool, but sometimes it is a bit difficult to manage your network. Manage Filter is a handy tool that allows you to filter your Twitter Network on many levels.
This tool will allow you to find those in your network that aren’t following you back, haven’t tweeted in a while, who are inactive and you can also search on keywords in your network’s bio and other information.
We suggest periodically checking out your network and cleaning up those that are no longer active on Twitter.
You can find this tool at the link below:
Online Tools – Content Cu ration – Paper.li
Online Tools – Content Curation – Paper.li
In today’s fast paced world one challenge that many people encounter is how to find information and sort through what is important and relevant to them. There are several tools available to us now that will help with this. These tools are called Content Curation Tools and they do exactly that, curate content for you to read and review and report on in some cases.
One Content Cu ration tool that we really like and often use is called Paper.li . This is a very handy tool because it allows you to add many sources to check for your information. These sources can include RSS feeds, keywords being talked about on Facebook and Twitter, particular Twitter users, Particular Google Users and much more.
One other feature of this tool is you can browse other papers created by others that may have information you are interested in. It is a great way to find out what is being talked about right now and allows you to share and comment on this information.
Here is the link to this great tool: Paper.li
Online Tools – Your Own Research Assistant – Google Alerts
Online Tools – Your Own Research Assistant – Google Alerts
One online tool that I feel every business owner should have in place is Google Alerts. Google Alerts is a tool from Google that will search the web for you and when new content is found with the search term/keyword you are looking for Google will let you know. This tool can save you a lot of time. No longer do you need to perform searches on your own, Google will find the information and let you know when it is there.
This can allow you to stay on top of your field/niche because when new information is available you know!
There are many options available with Google Alerts that will allow you to set the time you search for information as well as how you receive it. Below you will find links to the Google Alert Tool and links to the Help and Getting Started Section for Google Alerts:
Google Alerts Help and Getting Started
Online Tools – Gain More Time and Productivity
Online Tools – Gain More Time and Productivity
One wonderful benefit that we have today as business owners is that there are several tools available to us to help us manage our business and become more productive. A lot of these tools have been developed to work with the Social Networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Many of these tools have been developed to help us find information and even organize our time better.
In the next several posts we will be covering a handful of tools that we have found useful in managing day to day tasks and think you will to.
If you have tools that you use daily in your business we would love to hear from you what they are and why you like them.
Facebook Fan Spotlight – Michelle Thorsen
February 13, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, Facebook Fan Spotlight
This week’s Fan Spotlight is Michelle Thorsen
Michelle Thorsen is an independent Representitive with LifeVantage whose Flagship product is Protandim.
Michelle has a wonderful story of how she got involved with LifeVantage and Protandim that I would like to share with you here:
Like many whose lives have been touched by cancer, I experienced this unwelcome event when my aunt was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer in 2005. I will get in to those details more below. Just know that this is where the story begins…it is a bit long and I apologize for that but I believe an important one.
In 2010 while working in Corporate America, Aunt Teri (who’s like a sister) completed a second round of chemo. Her body was much weaker this time and treatments were delayed a few times due to this. Evidently, if you’re not healthy enough the Docs won’t administer the chemo that nearly kills you. Later, Teri told me “You know, if the cancer doesn’t kill me, the chemo will.” I knew she was right, I heard it in her voice. Her life was slipping away and I couldn’t do a thing about it. With the experience of this chemo series she decided that if the cancer returned, she wouldn’t seek further chemotherapy. I respected that, but now what?
At this time I was introduced to a product called Protandim. I learned that researchers at Louisiana State University conducted a skin cancer study with subjects taking Protandim. Findings indicated that tumor incidence and multiplicity were reduced 33% and 57%. Yet, I wasn’t convinced.
My career had primarily been in the procurement arena. For 25+ years I analyzed hundreds of businesses, products and services to approve them for company use. Most recently this work took place in the restaurant chain industry. These corporations included several different concepts with the number of units ranging from one hundred to eight hundred nationwide.
The world of purchasing gets very interesting when thousands of dollars of business are at stake. Each corporation has policies for how purchasing transactions take place and everyone who plays a part in the equation, buyers and sellers alike understand this. Unfortunately with the down economy, it’s been all about the bottom line and in my humble opinion, at the expense of quality, ethics, solid business relationships, great employees and well, truth.
Simultaneously Teri finished chemo and was on a very slow road to recovering her strength. She was 54 years old when diagnosed and a very strong vibrant woman, so not a frail little old lady here. This was when I decided to take a closer look at Protandim. If the study about reducing tumors was true, I needed to know more.
In hindsight it seems absurd that I felt the need to examine the study by LSU’s Health Sciences Center. But I in fact read each of the then seven studies. Ultimately, I applied the same due diligence to Protandim and LifeVantage that I would have applied to a potential vendor. I researched the ingredients and benefits, the U.S. Patents, the doctors, leadership, financials and yes, the code of ethics. I couldn’t find any red flags.
Fast forward to the present, I’m happy to report that Teri has been taking Protandim for over a year and so far all of her tests have come back normal and some improved. Of course no one knows what the future holds but for now Protandim has given us HOPE, which by the way is where the idea for my website came from, www.Where-Hope-Begins.com.
You can find out more about Michelle at her website www.where-hope-begins.com or her Facebook Page
If you are interested in being included in our Facebook Fan Spotlight and having information on you and your business shared all you have to do is connect with us on Facebook and be sure to stop by and say hi and share relevant information we share with those that you know. We select a Fan of the week every week and then feature that fan the following week in the Facebook Fan Spotlight
Using LinkedIn – Building a Great Profile
February 8, 2012 by admin
Filed under Blog, Social Media
LinkedIn is a great tool and one that should be utilized by all professionals. Using LinkedIn can help you increase and expand your sphere of influenced and connections and begin generating leads for your business.
One key to using LinkedIn is to ensure you have the best possible profile. Your profile will help showcase who you are and why people should connect with you and do business with you.
This post will provide a few tips to ensuring your LinkedIn Profile is helping you put your best image forward.
Keep Your Profile Public
When you set up your LinkedIn profile make sure it is set to public. This will ensure that people can find you when they search by your name or business or keywords that highlight what you do.
Your Profile Picture
LinkedIn is much different than Facebook, so please don’t use a photo of you and your family or you out having fun. Use a professional photo on your LinkedIn Profile. It may be a good idea to find a photographer that can take a few professional headshots with you putting your best image forward. Remember your photo will be one of the first things a new connection may see.
Make Your LinkedIn Profile SEO Friendly
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term that refers to using the right content and keywords to be found when someone performs a search. LinkedIn utilizes its own proprietary search algorithm that produces results based on the keywords listed in your profiles. If you are a Realtor be sure to include this in your profile and the title of your profile so that if someone is searching for Realtors in your location they have a good chance of finding you.
Don’t Ignore the Skills Section
It is very important that you add all of your relevant skills in the skills section of your profile. You can add up to 50 so there should be no reason to miss your key skills that highlight who you are and what you can do. To add skills, in the Edit Profile area, scroll down below your experience until you find the skills area. Click on add skill and add away!
Be Descriptive When Adding Links to Your Website
LinkedIn allows you to add your website and blog and a couple other links, which is great, but this is often an overlooked opportunity. Instead of labeling this as my website be sure to use your keywords and pick a descriptive keyword rich phrase, like: Homes for Sale in Denver (if you are a Real Estate Agent).
Now, take a little bit of time and make sure your LinkedIn Profile is up to date and be sure to make any needed adjustments to make you stand out.
