Megedagik's Blog

Online Business Opportunities and Squidoo

megedagik — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:34:18 +0000

Squidoo.com is a web 2.0 website that specializes in hosting personal web pages for anyone who has 10 minutes to build one. They are referred to as “lenses” instead of website because each one focuses on a particular topic or idea.What the heck are Squidoo lenses and how can you relate them to online business opportunities?

You can create a lens for whatever reason. Whether you want to share your opinion on a particular online business opportunity or just complain about the electric company, Squidoo gives you a quick and easy venue for getting your message out to the masses. It it so easy anyone can do it.

Squidoo lenses are simple to set up, requiring absolutely no technical knowledge or programming experience. With a few clicks you can easily add youtube videos, Flicker photos, polling surveys, google blog searches, RSS and much more to your personalized lens.

In addition to providing a social outlet, Squidoo can also serve as a highly effective and risk-free marketing tool for your onlinebusiness opportunity. Below are the top 7 reasons you should create a lens to help give your online business opportunity a kick:

1. To increase traffic to your site. Squidoo lenses can include inbound links to your website, boosting your site’s credibility in the eyes of search engines and increasing your overall link popularity. Plus, the lenses themselves are indexed by search engines, so your personal page can achieve a high ranking with strategic keyword placement. Get a few links to your Squidoo lens and you can easily get your lens to rank favorably in search results for some competitive keywords.

2. To save money on advertising. Unlike costly print ads and direct mail campaigns, creating a personal Squidoo page won’t cost you a dime. It takes about 10 minutes to build a Squidoo lens and you can really boost your credibility and brand yourself as an expert in your industry.

3. To highlight multiple aspects of your online business opportunity. You can create as few or as many lenses as you want. It’s possible to have hundreds of different lenses focusing on different components of your business, all driving traffic back to your website.

4. To piggyback on other Squidoo pages. When your lens is nestled among hundreds of thousands of other interesting lenses, it’s more likely to benefit from the traffic generated by those neighboring pages.

5. To sell stuff. A great way to get your feet wet in the e-commerce arena, Squidoo lets you sell items from Ebay and Amazon and earn royalties from each sale. It also lets you have direct affiliate links to any of the affiliate programs you endorse.

6. To conduct surveys for your business. Squidoo pages are a great way to gauge consumer attitudes and reactions to new products and services. The Squidoo polling feature is really easy to set up and allows you to survey your customers.
If you’re still unsure about Squidoo, ask yourself just one question: what do you have to lose? It’s free and easy, which are two of the most desirable qualities for anyone promoting an online business opportunity! I highly recommend it!
To interact with potential consumers. Visitors to your lens can add their comments and links. Every time an update is made, it makes your lens that much more appealing and relevant to search engines.

Posted in Advertising, Online Business, Search Engine, Searchengine, Webmaster Tagged: Business Opportunities, Online Business, Squidoo

Google – The Personalities Test

megedagik — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:31:48 +0000

Trying to put it all together and make coherent written statements about Google Universal is difficult as there are so many unique pieces of information to assimilate.It has been about ten days since the rollout of Google Universal and the early analysis is starting to come in. For a deadline driven writer, that sort of situation is problematic. Perhaps however, the problem itself helps explain the subject.
I do a lot of searching. As a writer, I pull information from an enormous number of sources. While researching, I need to read a lot of material and extract nuggets of information, sort each nugget for relevancy and importance and pull together an A – Z story line. In short, I need to produce complex information sets in a format viewers are comfy seeing.
My primary source is my own experience, the stuff I can see with my own two eyes and filter through the scatterings of search marketing knowledge I’ve gleaned.
My secondary sources tend to be my colleagues, the hundred or so other bloggers, broadcasters, analysts and writers toiling away around the world. My supplemental sources tend to come from other webmasters’ experiences often found in forums such as WebmasterWorld, Searchenginewatch, or Cre8asite. As I am my own primary source, the interpretation of all incoming data is likely going to be fairly subjective or rather, personal.
To recap: I have all these sources and only 600 – 1200 or so words to express their ideas them in. As I said, it can be problematic but on the whole, I can’t complain. Try to imagine what it must be like to pull, sort and compile lists of data from every part of the Internet live-time and feed them to the largest audiences ever assembled.
It can be done with accuracy and grace. Google has proven that time and time again but moving past the ¾ way mark of this decade, those times are rapidly changing. As file formats and new user habits supplant or bypass search results, accuracy and grace aren’t enough. As noted in my last post, Google appeared to be losing users of its vertical search options to newer, more person-specific technologies such as RSS feeds, Facebook and Fickr.
Google Universal is going to be integrating information from what were once separate databases like news, images, books, videos and maps into the general SERPs. It will display results based on an order it determines is most relevant to the search query entered by the user. During a discussion of Google Universal on our WebmasterRadio show yesterday, SEO Dave Davies and I speculated on exactly how Google is going to determine which result would be relevant to which user. That’s when I thought about a short piece Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide had posted just as Dave and I went on the air.
“Am I the Only One That Thinks Google is Getting Creepy?” looks at comments made by Google CEO Eric Schmitt to the Financial Times, quoting a section that reads:
From The Financial Times:
Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world’s information.
Asked how Google might look in five years’ time, Mr Schmidt said: “We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.
“The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’”
How is Google going to decide which results to display to which user as it becomes (in effect), a Google-verse meta-search engine? My gut answer is, “With personal precision”.
Here is an example that, though it hasn’t actually happened yet, is likely to happen sooner than later. It gives me an idea on one way SEOs should adapt to a Universal environment.
I travel frequently and power-use Google Earth and Google Maps when making arrangements. I research hotel selections and information about the surrounding areas. Before I get to another large city, even if I have been there before, I want to know exactly where specific buildings, transportation routes and, most importantly, nice restaurants are in relation to where I plan on booking a room.
Cars give me the creeps so I prefer everything be in walking distance of each other. There is never any spare time on business trips so if I need water, coffee, snacks, sodas, dry cleaning or shaving cream, I need to know where to get whatever quickly. As I don’t like getting late-night lost coming back from those infamous search-marketing shindigs, I memorize routes through different cities before leaving. I know generally where a few eateries, drug stores and other conveniences are before I even get there. Such is the convenience of search.
Google is aware of this habit. It also knows which hotels I book as the name and address often form parts of my search-queries. As a matter of fact, Google knows exactly who I am interested in speaking with, what tourist attractions I might want to see, and which cites I am likely to visit next. All that information is easily available in my recorded search history.
It is only a matter of time until a search for “SES NYC” or “SMX Social Media”, for me, turns up results that include, maps of Manhattan, random notations regarding bars, lounges, buildings, pharmacies, and restaurants, images from previous SES and SMX events, and affiliate-driven results about hotels I have booked in the past. It is as Orwellian as it sounds but it’s a pretty cool spread of time saving information that could be sent directly to me. My own, situational, personal total information awareness network, so to speak.
How do SEOs deal with this? That’s simple. Find out who your clients’ clients are. Search marketers are going to need to get a lot more granular in relation to who the site visitors are.
Most SEO firms work with medium to smaller sized businesses. These businesses are using search to expand their marketing base and/or as a platform from which to make sales. Because personalization will affect the results shown to individual users, the habits and traffic-patterns of those individual users are of increased interest to SEOs.
Where, or more precisely, who are the top referring websites or web pages? How or why are those sites and pages referring traffic to the client’s site? Are there similar sites that could also drive traffic?
If the client has one or more brick and mortar locations, are there complimentary businesses nearby?Figure out the reasons and actions of your various clients’ groupings of visitors and you might go a long way to furthering your clients’ search marketing needs. I am thinking specifically about clients in the hotel and hospitality industries but obviously the concept is similar across the board. Groupings of people tend to gravitate to similar things for a reason.

Posted in Advertising, Google, Search Engine, Searchengine, Webmaster Tagged: Google, Searchengine

Article Writing Process

megedagik — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:24:49 +0000

After a while you start to wonder, “Is there an easier, faster way to write articles?” I think there is. If you’re doing article marketing for any length of time you’ll find that you’re doing a lot of writing, writing, and more writing! The goal is to write an article of excellent quality with minimal time and effort. Coming up with a standard writing process that you’ll use each time is very helpful at side railing procrastination and jump starting the writing process. Here’s an effective writing method that I use that will help you write articles more efficiently: 1) What will your article be about? I encourage you to think about writing articles that teach your target market something. The free reprint articles used in article marketing are educational articles (rather than sales pitches). So, when you’re trying to think of an article topic, think in terms of teaching. ‘How to’ articles are great, and so are ‘Top Tips’ articles. You might ask yourself, “What are the top 10 questions that customers frequently ask me?” Or, “What are the top 10 areas of misunderstanding or problems that customers ask me about?” From there, you’ll likely be able to pick out an area that should be covered in an article. If you’ve come up with 10 ideas, then each idea can become a separate article. 2) Make your notes. After you’ve determined your topic, start writing notes on the points you’ll cover in your article. These are just quick, brief notes–no need to try to craft an amazing sentence or paragraph (you’ll be doing that later). What are the points you need to cover? How many points do you have? Is this topic generating too many valuable points to cover in the space of one article? If so, you can always save some of the points for another article. Note: If you do create 2 or more articles out of this same topic, please resist the urge to title your articles Part 1 and Part 2. Each article needs to be able to stand on its own, as a reader won’t necessarily be seeing all of your articles–they may be seeing just one of your articles. So, you shouldn’t mention Part 1, etc or say in your article body “This is Part 1 of my 3 part series”. Just treat each article as if it were your only article, so that it makes sense even if a reader stumbles across just that article. 3) Organize the order of your article. After you’ve got all the major points you’d like to cover jotted down in note form, it’s time to get them in order. If you’re doing a Top Tips article, then you might try the strategy of including 2 of your strongest tips as the first two items in your list, and one other of your strongest tips as your final item in your list. This is a little trick for leading readers through you article–by starting off strong you lure them into the body of your article. By finishing strong you lure them into reading your resource box (and leave them with a positive impression). 4) Create a rough draft. After you’ve got your list of the points you’d like to cover and all the points arranged in the proper order–write! Don’t over think things. This is your first draft, and you’ll have time later to polish things up. Right now you’re fleshing out your content and seeing how much valuable information you can provide in the limited word count of the article. I always shoot for a 700-800 word article because articles of that size are most attractive to ezine publishers. That’s also long enough for a decent amount of information to be conveyed. After your first draft is complete, take a word count and make adjustments as necessary. 5) Step away from your article. Yes, that’s right–I know you’re eager to submit it, but patience has it’s rewards. Put the article away for at least 24 hours and then read it over with fresh eyes. By giving your mind a break from the article, you’re better able to see any errors or awkward phrasing. Make your edits, and then you’re ready to submit! By following a writing process such as this one, you’ll save yourself time, and you’ll produce quality articles more quickly. It may sound like extra work to do all this pre-arranging, but believe me it cuts down on the overall writing and editing time. This is how professional writers work–why not learn from the pros?

Posted in Advertising Tagged: Ads, Advertising, Article

More Major League Baseball talk

megedagik — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:52:59 +0000

The Cubs are close to trading Mark DeRosa to the Indians in exchange for 2 or 3 young pitchers. The pitchers have not been named but they must have some good upside since the Cubs have stated that they did not want to move DeRosa. More details when they come in… In addition, the Cubs have signed Aaron Miles to a 2 year deal which would allow them to move DeRosa, as they would have another 2B/Utilit Infielder. Miles hit .318 last year and was a bargain last year at 1.4 MM. This deal is 2 years at 4.9 MM.

Update: The deal is official for 3 minor league pitchers. This lets them move 5.5 million net dollars after their recent deals. This could mean Milton Bradley’s deal is imminent.

Buster Olney reports that Jason Giambi and Bobby Abreu may need to settle for 1 year deals. This is good for the A’s andRays who are not looking to spend a ton for them, and would only want to go a maximum of 2 years anyways.

The Yankees still do want Andy Pettite back, but are firm on their 10 million dollar offer. They have leverage on Andy, in the fact that they know he wants to pitch again in NY and in the new stadium. I would suspect a deal gets done within 1-2 weeks
The latest on Derek Lowe is that the deal is probably inevitable. However, they will probably need to up the offer, but they would like to keep it under 15 million a year. They also do not want to guarantee a 4th year as that would take him into his 40’s. The Mets have stated that they will only likely sign 1 out of 3 out of the group of Lowe, Perez, Wolf.

A deal for Milton Bradley to the Cubs appears imminent. By moving Marquis, the Cubs cleared 5 million dollars and can now sign Bradley. Bradley will add the left handed bat that they need, as well as an OF. Bradley had a career year last year, but did get hurt in the end. He is a nice pickup for the Cubs, especially with that great rotation they have.

Willy Taveras has officially signed with the Reds, 2 years 6.25 MM. Taveras set a career high last year and had 68 steals.

Ned Colletti has been contacted by Scott Boras about free agent Manny Ramirez. Not surprising, as Boras is now the one feeling pressure becuase the Dodgers can look at cheaper alternatives in Adam Dunn or Bobby Abreu instead of Manny. If Manny does not sign with the Dodgers, he will have a tough time finding a team. However, if the Yankees are able to trade one or two of their outfielders, like Matsui and/or Swisher, don’t be surprised if they try to sign Manny as well…

The Dodgers have just signed Claudio Vargas for a 1 year deal.
The Mets have just extended a 3 year offer to free agent pitcher, Derek Lowe. The deal is believed to be for 36 million dollars over 3 years, less years and dollars then Lowe was expecting to garner. I doubt this will be enough to get Lowe, as he was looking for a 4 year deal for 60+ million. However, he might take the lure of NY, their new stadium at Citi Field, and a revitalized bullpen held down by Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz.

The Rockies and Cubs are close to making a deal. The deal would send Jason Marquis and nearly 10 million to the Cubs in exchange for set up man Luis Vizcaino. Vizcaino will only make around 4 million next year. This deal is great for the Cubs, adding Vizcaino to a bullpen with Kevin Gregg and Carlos Marmol. Marquis gives the Rockies another starter that they were looking to get instead of signing someone like Josh Fogg.

Posted in Sport Tagged: Baseball, Major League Baseball, MLB, Sport

Hello world!

megedagik — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:18:37 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

Posted in Uncategorized