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Steps In Etiquette When Changing Your Site Name

February 18, 2010 by 3 Comments

Moving a site from one domain to a different and taking a whole new name is a tedious process. Of course, anyone could just move on a whim, but that might cause a bit of confusion if your site gets a nice chunk of visitors. Sometimes the reasons behind making this change are important:

1. The previous domain name no longer reflects what you are trying to convey to the public
2. You found a better domain to help brand you either personally, or as a business
3. You hate the domain name and got lucky enough to grab up a cool one
4. You hate the domain name, it is about to expire, and so you found a better one

For what its worth – It happens a lot! However, here are some things you might want to do before you move.

Announce your move ahead of time. You may have just grabbed that domain, and have already started moving the files, but you need to tell your visitors. Two weeks is good. One month is even better.

Move in stages. You should put a redirect on your current site two weeks before you make a final move. Park old domain and redirect it to the new one afterwards if you still own the registration. Whether you keep that domain, sell it, or eventually let it go, for those who missed the memo, this might allow your site to retain as many as your usual visitors.

Inform your link exchanges and affiliates immediately. If you change even your site’s blog address, your link exchanges need to know. These are suppose to be people you have contact with.

Inform all of your visitors and social network followers several times. It might be annoying, but people forget or miss the message because they were not online when you made the site announcement. Make sure to encourage them to subscribe to the new site’s feed, newsletter, and also pass the word on about the exchange.

Tell your search engine that you moved. You can do this by putting a 301 permanent redirect. However, for sites that have been around for years, you might want to park the new domain on top of the other and promote the new one to not lose traffic.

It might seem dumb to have to tell people you moved, but it really is nice to do and allows people to follow you. I have moved in the past and there are people that find me on occasion. Until last year, I still had a very old Geocities site with notice that the site had moved to Blondish.net. I was pleasantly surprised that there were people that were still finding me through there too. Even though Yahoo! Geocities no longer exists, I am grateful to have retained a heavy amount of traffic from my visitors that have been around for the past few years.

What other suggestions do you have for people that are changing their domain name or will be in the near future?

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With:

Guest Post: Building Presence on Social Media from Scratch

February 18, 2010 by 3 Comments

[This is a guest post by Gagandeep Singh. Gagandeep Singh is a freelance writer and mainly writes on social media, making money online, affiliate marketing, web 2.0 and conversion rate optimization. Feel free to contact him on twitter at gagan4687 ]

More than 70% of online buyers visit social media websites before buying anything and around 50% of them take the decision on the basis of the information they get from these websites.* As the impact of social media on consumer behavior is growing at rapid rate it is very important for every business owner to have a presence on these social media websites.

What follows next are the seven tips which will help you in building your presence on social media from scratch.

Defining Objectives- Before working on your social media presence it is very important to figure out what you’re trying to accomplish from it. Are you joining these websites for taking feedback from your customers or for reputation management of your brand or just to increase your brand awareness or to increase your sales? Having clear goals at the beginning will help you to track the effectiveness of your social media campaigns.

Be everywhere– Whenever we talk about social media only few popular websites like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin comes to the mind. But there are hundreds of websites out there which means that there are hundreds of ways which your customer can use to find you. Try to get listed on as many websites as possible. Use same profile name on all social media websites so that it becomes easy for your users to find you. Connect all of your social media accounts to each other, so that updates in one website appear on your other profiles too and each profile shows the latest information about your company.

Listen first – It is always good to listen to your target audience for few weeks in beginning before participating in conversations with them. Set up alerts for conversation relevant to your industry. You will definitely learn something about your industry from each conversation you listen.

Contribute regularly – Try to be consistent on social media websites. Keep your Twitter and Facebook profile updated with current information. Contribute interesting and useful information to community regularly. The more consistent you will be on social media website, more influence you will have in the community and more quickly you will be building relationships with your target audience.

Be patient- Don’t expect overnight results. It takes time to get noticed on social media platforms depending on the amount of efforts you are putting into it. Don’t get discouraged with failures and learn to deal with negativity. Remember that you are using social media to build relationships and credibility for your brand and it takes lot of time, dedication and hard work to build them.

Launch Contests – Organizing exclusive contests or offering discount coupons is a great way to connect with your target audience. Organizing such contest not only help you to create a buzz amongst your community but also provides you with a great opportunity to interact with your customers and to earn some credibility.

Track results – According to survey by Mzinga and Babson 84% of companies don’t measure results of their social media campaigns which mean that they are making their strategy on the basis of mere predictions. So don’t do the same mistake. It is very important to find out which social media sources are sending you most of the traffic and why? Why you are getting poor results from few? Each social media platform has its own ecosystem and rules. Monitor results and continue your campaign with the top performers.

Creating a presence on social media websites is not difficult but it demands lot of time, effort and patience from you. I hope that these seven tips will help you whenever you jump to social media bandwagon.
* – Related Resource: Marketing Vox, Nearly 70% of Online Adults Use Social Media, Often Research Products

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: ,

Social Network Sites And Blogging Are Hurting the News Industry?

January 26, 2010 by 7 Comments

Come on, really? Well, it was enough to read this over several sites, including a recent WebProNews article named Do Facebook and Twitter Threaten or Complement the News Industry?. A lot of news syndications have handles online and I doubt they are hurting. In fact, the choice to have an internet handle, I am pretty sure it has been a great help. People are spending more time online than they did years ago, so of course, even big news stations want a piece of the attention. In fact, Nielsen Ratings published in December 2009 that users were spending over 5 and a half hours on social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. Apparently this was an 82% increase from 2008′s statistics.

However, let me share this. Those social networks are made of people sharing information from various sources, including news sites like Yahoo!, CNN, MSN, TechCrunch, Mashable, and more. There is a wealth of information being passed around and retweeted or shared. This takes nothing away from news sites. Social network sites are a means to share the news with others who have similar interests. I do not have to be the one to tell those reading this article. You only have to watch your Twitter streams to see it happening in real time everyday.

So no… I do not think social network sites are hurting the news industry. Maybe it is hurting the small time news that might want to look toward having their own handle to keep or attract more readers/ viewers.

Do you feel social networking sites might be hurting the news industry?

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: ,

Share Your Location With Others With Gowalla

January 23, 2010 by 2 Comments

GowallaI saw through my Twitter stream someone using Gowalla, and was curious to what it was all about. Gowalla (@gowalla on Twitter) is a site made for people to share where they are in the world. Might sound a bit like telling too much or a way for people to become a bit stalker-ish, but those on the go and use to being social, this is a way to allow people who are interested to know more about you.

You can share if you had a beer or shopped at places like the Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Or if you have been to a place that has not been covered, you can create a place, or as they say at Gowalla, ‘pin’ a place.

The site is really user-friendly and allows you the option of connecting your Gowalla account with your Twitter and Facebook accounts. The systems is even courteous enough to check through your followers to see if anyone is using the system, so you can friend them at Gowalla too! :)

Gowalla even has a couple phone apps for users to be able to check-in and automatically update on their profile.

Have you tried Gowalla? What do you think of it?

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

Google Might Pull Out Of China? So…?

January 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment

So Google seems to be seriously looking into reasons why they should stay in or pull out of China. Whether it is the right thing for Google to pull out of China for business reasons as mentioned in TechCrunch, or for the greater good – the fact is that Google can do what they like.

Hacking happens all the time. Ten years ago, we were raving about Yahoo! getting hacked on New Year’s Eve. I remember that because I was online as it was happening and was in shock like the rest of the users on. I have nothing really against China. Their economy is growing and yeah, I wish the United States could be in the same situation, but for any of our home grown companies to venture to another country, it is not my problem to judge Google if they pull out of China.

While some would say that Google is not profiting well in China, and others argue it is stupid to pull out because the country has 1/6 of the world’s population – who cares. If Google pulls out, what can the common techy online do – NOTHING (but grouch about it.)

Perhaps as mentioned in the TechCrunch link above (and I will put a quote from it):

This may be the most shocking part: In retrospect Yahoo has played China far better than Google. It pulled out of the country years ago, knowing it wouldn’t win and owns nearly 40% of the Alibaba, a company that very definitely knows how to grow in China. Entrepreneur and angel investor in China Bill Bishop —who hasn’t always agreed with my China coverage in the past—pointed this out, adding “Not often Yahoo looks smarter than Google.”

Perhaps Google could learn from this and invest smartly in Chinese web companies as Yahoo! has.

What do you think?

Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,

What Happens When A Web Developer Is Underappreciated

January 14, 2010 by 9 Comments

Recently I came up with a dilemma with my own scripts PHPads and PHPurl. Because they have been so popular, and I have been hosting the zip files on my own server, it has been eating up my bandwidth. Believe me this year, the downloads for both have skyrocketed compared to last year. Link promotion from many websites have been awesome, BUT… I have only received $60 in donations last year. I am lucky to have received what I have and appreciative. That is just 3 hours of my time….or even for those who want another smaller comparison – at minimum wage, which covers 1- 8 hour day.

I had to take the files off my server and host them at a free host. I am hosting them at FileHosting.org. I also found a lot of people were going directly to the page and not enjoying the rest of my site, which has a lot of articles that are very useful.

So… in the near future, I am moving it to another page, and putting 125×125 banners on my sidebar. By the way, the site is about to go through a bit of an overhaul. Nothing too extravagant, but something I feel is needed. People who have linked to the scripts in their articles, I will be going through and asking that they either link the Hotscripts listings for each script or my main site.

———–
I know I am not the only web developer that has had issues. Some have removed their free versions and re-posted to charge a small fee. Some simply removed their script for good. Some could not keep their sites up because of bandwidth from the downloads. Some no longer bother to answer support emails, even if there is a FAQ. The script might be free, but let me ask: If it has helped you quite a bit and you have a few dollars, you might consider pitching in a few dollars. It is not much and it keeps future scripts coming in, and staying free.

It also helps for web developers with smaller websites who might need more bandwidth and space, or even database resources.

Other ways to appreciate your web developer is to either check out their sponsors, or possibly become an advertiser. That way, you still get something for your money. You can also visit other parts of their site. If they blog, perhaps they might be someone you might want to connect with, or find that they have a lot of great information.

Have you shown your appreciation to your favorite web developer lately?

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

Using Social Media & Support Systems

January 10, 2010 by 6 Comments

The two things in the title of this post might be a bit vague, but really you can use social media marketing as a support system. While there are people out there willing to teach these methods in exchange for money, your time, and an open ear, there are many more online more than willing to connect and help you – for free.

Forms, social networks… blogs, and other websites are just some of the ways. Really, all it takes is some knowledge, how resourceful you can be, and how imaginative – the same things in regular marketing practices. While blogs are not forums, some blog sites are so active, you can really feel like you are in a community that is giving you a hand – whether for your personal site or your business.

Here are some places I believe you should hook up to for your own social media marketing support system:

Social Media Club (you can even find local or area SMC groups near you!)
Chris Brogan
Liz Strauss at Successful Blog
Problogger
Wired PR Works
Mashable
Social Media Clubs on Facebook and LinkedIn (all you have to do is search)
Cre8asite Forums
UTalkMarketing.com

Feel free to leave links to other places that are helpful to people needing their own support system. I am actually gathering links for my resource project for several areas I cover on Blondish.net

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , ,

2009 And Social Media

December 30, 2009 by 1 Comment

Social Media – it was a word that popped up in the mainstream and blew everyone away by storm. Well, at least those who were not as computer savvy nor marketing savvy.

We learned Social Media and Social Networking were not the same, where social media was a technique to market yourself or your company a social networking were the sites you could exercise your marketing strategies. Of course, there are still people who get those two words mixed up a lot.

This past year, we saw social network giants clamber to be the top, making unique features to draw more users. In fact, there are probably more users that jumped on the bandwagon of social networking versus blogging. In fact, users found more ways to flex their social media muscles on the social networks to attract people to their blogs. Some users found web celebrity status this year, overpowering teeny bopper half clad girls on MySpace who just wanted you to leave a comment while debasing themselves.

We saw governments crack down on Twitter usage, even countries banning their own people from telling the horrible truth about them to the world.

We even saw celebrities and normal everyday people gets sued or even fired or literally roasted online for their Twitter usage.

It has been quite the year for Social Media. Can it get better? Yes. But it could get worse as well. In 2009, spammers crawled out from their holes and found they could play with the social networking masses.

What is in store for 2010? Who knows? For myself, of course, I would love to strive to be better than last year. I went to having a Google PR of 1 to a Google PR 4, and on Alexa, I am doing better than 200K. I actually made my goals, AND beat my goals. I even improved my content. I have more than one blog – each focusing on some of my major interests. I opened Blogrity, a social bookmark site for bloggers that is built with WordPress. I started guest posting at other blogs. I educated and influenced people. I believe I am a blog rockstar, but nothing huge…yet. ;)

What have you noticed this past year in social media, and have you met your goals? How did you go about achieving them and did you use social networking to do it?

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,