My opinions, my views, my blog. Site reviews and more..
Wasting money is a big problem for us, especially for businessmen who wants to maximize their income as much as possible. For the fast growing technology nowadays, they cant seem to choose which is proper and which is necessary for their type of work. Well, Boston IT Consulting has much means to lend you a very helping hand. Their group is like a super-intellectual, very techy and very sophistacated secretary.
Boston IT was formed so as to minimize or should I say eliminate all excess or unnecessary things in your business, such as the computer you are using right now, printers, programs and every little gadget that your office has, they will replace it with the most useful, suitable and practical tools that will eventually help your business to save money. Isnt that great? Well, thats not all Boston IT Services can offer you, they can also send one or more of their staffs to help you with problems in technology, who knows, one of your co-staffs could even be recruited as one of their growing organization.
So why not take a peek at what their services has to offer, just go to www.spirinet.com and discover what your business is missing or should I say wasting.
A wiki refers to a collaborative website, or the kind of website that allows everyone to edit and contribute to the page. This includes the text, the images, and the references. A wiki is different from other websites that require hard coding programmer skills.
Wiki websites are easy to build, and can be edited straight from the browser. It can be used for many purposes, like in school, group activities, clubs and the like. It’s an effective way of building up information by adding to someone else’s comments or making new pages.
Everyone hates spam, right? It clogs our mailboxes online and off. It shows up with weird subject lines like “F.r.e.e. i-pod 4 u” and “V**g*ra at lowest prices.” Even with a good spam filter (I use and recommend spambayes) we spend way too much time deleting emails for bogus offers from people who can’t spell even four letter words. So why would anyone want more spam? Well, I do.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want the spam with the four letter words or pleas from Mr. Mbogo who’s trying to get a large sum of money to his family in Nigeria and wants me to “hold” it for him. (Does anyone on the planet still fall for that?) I want the spam about niche marketing, SEO, free e-books on internet marketing and article writing.
Sure, most of it is information that anyone can find with a search on the Net and some time spent reading blogs and forum posts. But, the thing is, you have to find the information first. Why not have it sent to you, so that you can give it a quick look, save it or discard it, and read the useful stuff at your leisure?
Whether you’re a newbie or have been an internet marketer for years, there’s always something new to learn that might help your business. I have a directory labeled “new free stuff” in my documents folder just for files that I download from free offers. When I find something that I think I might want to refer to later, I put it into another folder labeled “keepers.”
I’m a morning person when it comes to energy levels. (I’m also 56 and am homeschooling my two kids, so my energy level isn’t that high any time of day.) I try to do the bulk of my work that takes thought and judgment before lunch, so that’s when I help my kids with their learning, write articles, tweak blogs and answer emails from paying customers. After lunch (okay, I’ll be honest, after lunch and a nap), I do tasks that don’t take a lot of thought. Browsing the “new free stuff” is perfect for the couple of hours in the afternoon when my brain has that fogged-in feeling we morning people get after lunch.
At night, after my youngest goes to bed, is another good time to look over the e-books and files. Sometimes I get lucky and get a little squirt of energy. That’s when I brainstorm article titles and ideas that I can use in my next day’s writing. I don’t rewrite articles. Instead, what I do is absorb as much information as I can about the subject of my article. Then I funnel it into as tight an article as I can, while still providing useful, unique information.
There’s plenty of debate about the phrase “Web 2.0.” Coined as the name of a conference on online trends in 2004, there’s a debate within programming, development, and Internet marketing communities about whether it is meaningful.
The phrase may sound like it refers to an entirely new version of the Internet. But it actually stands for a change in the way people use it. To put it simply, Web 2.0 is all about you-and your friends. Today’s users are finding new ways to express themselves online, through pages on MySpace, blogs and podcasts, and file sharing on sites like Flickr and YouTube. They’re also connecting to their friends and meeting new people through these and other social networking sites.
User-generated content. Perhaps the most common quality of true Web 2.0 sites is that most of the content is provided-or heavily influenced-by users themselves. Just look at some of the prime examples: YouTube, Wikipedia, MySpace, Flickr, and hundreds of others are all places where users supply the content and determine what they see based on their interests and recommendations from others in their social networks.
Ads are secondary. If you think about it, Google’s website is a perfect example of Web 2.0. Go to their home page, and you won’t see any ads. You’ll just see their logo and a window to type in your search phrase. But even though there’s no overt advertising, Google is a big source of revenue for many businesses. With Google, money-making opportunities involve crafting a website that people want to see.
With most Web 2.0 sites, it’s the same. There isn’t much of a formal business model, and direct advertising is rare. When they see it, users tend to be unwelcoming. But these sites are still a powerful venue for savvy marketers who truly understand the community-and know how to deliver the type of content it’s looking for.
A social network. Web 2.0 sites thrive on social networking. They give users a platform to talk about themselves and connect with others who share the same interests. The software has evolved to allow that to happen: blogging, social tagging, peer-to-peer sharing, and wikis are all Web 2.0 applications that allow users to express themselves, share files they like, and leave feedback for others.
As a marketer, social networks can work in your favor. Make an ad, write an article, or create a compelling blog that people like, and you’ll find your readers or viewers are your best advertisers. They’ll forward links to everyone in their network, who will forward to everyone they know-until you’ve reached a huge number of people.
Web-as-platform vs. desktop-as-platform. When defining Web 2.0, many people talk about the evolution of the web as “the platform.” In the past, overarching operating systems such as Microsoft Windows were thought of as “platforms,” because they provided a base on which other programs could be built. Every Windows-compatible program, from Quicken to The Sims, is built to work on a Windows platform.
With Web 2.0, these overarching applications can actually be built to run on a specific website instead of an individual computer. Programmers can then build programs that run on these platforms. For example, Google has mapping services that runs on its API. Social networking sites have their own API’s, with programs that allow users to connect to others, manage bookmarks and favorites, build their own pages, and express themselves through blogs, podcasts, pictures, and video.
A signature look. It might seem a bit superficial, but most Web 2.0 sites share a specific aesthetic-and it’s part of the social nature of the sites.
Web 2.0 relies on user content and feedback to get a site off the ground. To encourage users to participate, most Web 2.0 sites cultivate an approachable, friendly, low-key image. Some, like Craigslist, have an incredibly simple text-dominant look, with almost no distracting graphics. Others rely on cheery primary colors, rounded text, and plenty of white space to give a clean, simple, and accessible impression.
Cutting-edge technology. The technology you’ll find at work on a Web 2.0 site can include Ajax, CSS, Wiki software, tags and tagclouds, blogging software such as WordPress, and open-source software. Many of these technologies make it easier for users to connect and recommend sites to each other, and better express themselves through content and design.
Whether you like the phrase or hate it, Web 2.0 is here to stay. And despite the fact that successful social marketing sites attract millions of visitors every day, many businesses have not learned how to harness the power of marketing to networking sites. Learn all you can about Web 2.0 marketing, and you’re sure to be ahead of the curve.
G Davies works for http://www.gsinc.co.uk . For more information on social media check out the video interview with Ben Wills at http://www.gsinc.co.uk/tips/social-media-websites.html
In a rapidly changing world of technical jargon, many terms are popping up in everyday conversations and the non-technical professional might be overwhelmed. Podcast, blog, IM, domain, URL… the lingo can make your head spin. However, one such term, RSS, has frequently been showing up everywhere and seeping into the world of Online Marketing as well. For business professionals today, the terminology might be a daunting task to keep up with, but utilizing the Web to your advantage doesn’t have to be.
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a Web format that allows for certain information to be pulled from multiple Web sites into a central location. What exactly does that mean?
Well, for marketers it means that RSS can be used to either:
A.) Keep prospects up to date with information that your business is constantly updating, like press releases or events.
B.) Increase returning visitors to your site by setting up an RSS feed to display current, pertinent information from other Web sites on your Web site.
For example, let’s say that you manage a local community Web site. An RSS reader could be set up within your Web site to display items like current headlines from the local newspaper Web site or school closings from the local school district site. Also, if sections of your Web site were RSS-compatible, like the news and events section, community members who have RSS readers could keep up to date with local information easier, and encouraged to visit your Web site more often.
RSS feeds are created in a language called XML (or eXtensible Markup Language), a technology already used for various other purposes on and off the Web. Since it is so widespread, many Web developers find it relatively easy to set up these indexes on existing sites. Not only can you keep your existing patrons coming back more often, it can help boost SEO to increase new site traffic by providing another way for Web users to experience your content.
There are many different reasons to use RSS feeds today, from making your Web site’s articles easily accessible to a wider audience, to making it easy for clients to keep up with your company’s blog. The possibilities are endless and so are the sites that are adding RSS everyday.
The best way to learn about how RSS works is to setup your own personal RSS reader. There are a number of readers out there, an example of which is Google’s new Reader. To try it, go to http://reader.google.com (you need a Gmail account) and follow the instructions — it is easy to setup and starts out with a quick video tour. Once you do this, you’ll have a feel for how RSS works from the perspective of someone using it to view your content, and how setting up RSS capabilities on your business Web site can help you boost Web traffic.
Heather Jewell is the Manager of Planning and Administrration of NuRelm. NuRelm is a Web software and services firm that focuses on helping non-technical people compete on the Web. For more information on the benefits of RSS feeds, how to integrate them or any other interactive capabilities for your Web site, Click here to contact us or call 1.877.2NuRelm ext. 204. Don’t forget to visit: http://www.NuRelm.com
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