7 Great Ways To Improve Blog Advertising

If you have a blog that you are particularly proud of, and that you want to share with other people, there are a lot of free ways that you can get your blog noticed. Discover everything you need to know about advertising your blog in this two part mini series. There are 4 great ways today followed by another three great ways to improve your blog advertising very, very soon.

Discover everything you need to know about advertising your blog.

In this first part of a two part mini series you will learn about:

* Advertising Your Blog In Your Email Signature

* Blogger Forums - A Great Place To Advertise Your Blog

* Blogging Directories - Great Advertising Venues

* Blogging Traffic

In the second part, we’ll look at:

* Email Groups - Hidden Treasure Troves For Advertising A Blog

* Join A Community To Advertise Your Blog

* SEO Importance In Blog Advertising

Good Luck !

Using Facebook To Generate Targeted Traffic To Your Website

As an affiliate marketer or as a person who owns an online business, you have to remember that internet marketing is very important. You first need to be successful in internet marketing in order for you to get customers. You have to remember that if you want customers, you need to get targeted traffic in to your website.

Using Facebook to Generate Targeted Traffic to Your Website
There are quite a lot of methods to get targeted traffic. You can try writing articles about the products or services you are selling and posting them on article publishing websites. This is a great way to market your website as well as the products or services you are selling, but what if you don’t have the knack for writing? What if you have people skills instead?

If talking to people is your forte, you might want to join social networking websites. One social networking website that is so popular is Facebook. Here, you will see that there are now over 62 million people who are actively subscribed and millions of people are logging in and out every single day.

With this amount of people, you have to consider that this is truly an internet marketer’s dream.

Facebook Marketing Tips
By joining Facebook, you will be able to create a profile page for yourself. Complete the profile page. In this page, it will state basically everything about you. It will contain your interests, your age, gender, as well as your political views.

If you already have friends who are registered and actively using Facebook, you might want to try to add them to your network in the website. You can also invite your other friends to join through email in Facebook. By building your network of friends, you will be able to gain access to other networks in Facebook. Here, you can start communicating with other people, and even build new relationships or make new friends.

What's a Referral Really Worth?

Business owners often look on networking as purely a marketing activity. After all, getting out into the community or taking part in industry events helps build name recognition, and contacts that can lead to new business.

But there's another side of networking, too. It can be a way to locate resources to help your business grow. Go to a business meeting and mention you are looking for a web designer, and chances are someone will refer you to someone who designs websites. The same is true if you need a bookkeeper, computer repair person, insurance broker, or hair dresser.

Referrals that come from someone who has actually used the service they are recommending can save you time and effort finding what you need. But unfortunately, not all referrals are based on personal experience or have your best interests at heart. Sometimes people give referrals because they owe another company a favor, are friends with the owner of the company they are referring, will get a commission from the company they are referring, or because they hope the company they refer will do them a favor in return.

To help weed out the good referrals from the bad, ask the referrer if they have used the products or services they are recommending. If they say yes, ask them to tell you more. For example, "What specifically did Sally do to help your business grow?" "How long did it take John to build the website for you? And how quickly does he make a change when you need it?"

Research the business before you contact them. Look at their website. See if there are samples of their work posted or case studies to read. Does the company look professional? Is there a contact phone number and address listed for them? If they will have access to sensitive information or will have access to your business property, are they bonded and insured?

Once you do contact the company, ask enough questions to determine if the company has the knowledge and experience to do the work you need done. Ask for references and be sure to check them. If possible, test the supplier or service provider with a small order or small job first to be sure the work is satisfactory.

WARNING! Watch A Fraud Out !

One of the drawbacks of selling on the Internet is the high incidence of credit card fraud. When you accept transactions over the Internet you have no card to swipe, no photo ID to look at and few other clues as to whether the person presenting a credit card number is the owner of that credit card or authorized to use it. As a result, banks hold you 100% liable for all fraudulent transactions – even if they have been approved by the bank.

Thieves have a variety of ways of getting credit card numbers. Sometimes they use computer software to generate numbers at random until they find one that matches. Sometimes they retrieve charge card carbons from the trash at small retail stores, or they call consumers or send them email telling them that due to a technical problem they need to "confirm" their credit card information (by telling the credit card number to the person who called, or typing the number into email or a form if it's on the web).

There are several steps you can take to help minimize the potential for fraud.

Use address verification for card-not-present sales. (If the address entered in the billing fields don't match the address the credit card company has on file for the card holder, the transaction doesn't go through.) If the credit card processing service you use has a fraud detection feature or add-on, consider using it. You might also block some or all foreign sales (however, in a global market, doing so might result in you losing a lot of sales.)

Be on guard for unusually high dollar amounts of sales, an unusual number of sales in a short period of time, and anything else that might signal a problem. Ask for a phone number as well as the shipping address. Before processing any sizeable order or any order that seems strange for any reason, call the credit card holder to verify that the purchase was made. (Consider looking up a phone number for the business or consumer on the Internet and calling that number first.)

Have a field for email address on your order forms and make it a required field. Be sure the address comes from a valid domain. Have your web developer set up your shopping cart to send a "thank you for your order" message whenever an order is placed, and have it set up so that if the email to the customer bounces, you get notified. Whenever an email bounces, first look at why it bounced. (For example, was it a simple typo such as mysite.cmo instead of mysite.com?) If there's anything that arouses even a little suspicion try contacting the cardholder before shipping the order to verify they made the purchase.

By 10 Tips for Successful Business Networking

Effective business networking is the linking together of individuals who, through trust and relationship building, become walking, talking advertisements for one another.

1. Keep in mind that networking is about being genuine and authentic, building trust and relationships, and seeing how you can help others.

2. Ask yourself what your goals are in participating in networking meetings so that you will pick groups that will help you get what you are looking for. Some meetings are based more on learning, making contacts, and/or volunteering rather than on strictly making business connections.

3. Visit as many groups as possible that spark your interest. Notice the tone and attitude of the group. Do the people sound supportive of one another? Does the leadership appear competent? Many groups will allow you to visit two times before joining.

4. Hold volunteer positions in organizations. This is a great way to stay visible and give back to groups that have helped you.

5. Ask open-ended questions in networking conversations. This means questions that ask who, what, where, when, and how as opposed to those that can be answered with a simple yes or no. This form of questioning opens up the discussion and shows listeners that you are interested in them.

6. Become known as a powerful resource for others. When you are known as a strong resource, people remember to turn to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, etc. This keeps you visible to them.

7. Have a clear understanding of what you do and why, for whom, and what makes your doing it special or different from others doing the same thing. In order to get referrals, you must first have a clear understanding of what you do that you can easily articulate to others.

8. Be able to articulate what you are looking for and how others may help you. Too often people in conversations ask, "How may I help you?" and no immediate answer comes to mind.

9. Follow through quickly and efficiently on referrals you are given. When people give you referrals, your actions are a reflection on them. Respect and honor that and your referrals will grow.

10. Call those you meet who may benefit from what you do and vice versa. Express that you enjoyed meeting them, and ask if you could get together and share ideas.

Killing SPAM ? Try This At Home !

Spam. Nobody likes it. Nobody wants it. No, we aren’t talking about the canned meat, but those unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or even inappropriate messages that hit our email in mass quantities. While most mailboxes have some type of spam filtering software built into their system, they never seem to do a very good job of catching what you want them to catch, and letting through what you want them to let through. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to turn to some type of additional spam filtering product. One such filtering system, designed for Outlook and Outlook Express users, is receiving rave reviews for its superior detection and low rate of false positives (i.e,. what you want to get through does)

Cloudmark Desktop, formerly known as SpamNet and SafetyBar, uses a unique community-based filtering process. This community-based filtering system relies on users to report any new spam. Within minutes of a spammer being reported, they are placed on a blacklist. At that point, no other member will receive that particular spam. Cloudmark also applies the same basic process to phishing email scams.

What is interesting is how Cloudmark creates a digital reputation model of reporting spam. Each user starts with a neutral reputation. A user’s reputation will rise if they are among the first to identify undesirable content. On the flip side of the coin, a user’s reputation falls when they falsely reports spam. The result is a system that is automated, highly scalable and resistant to tampering.

An added bonus is that because the software doesn’t depend upon the user to configure its settings, it installs in minutes and is easy to use. Cloudmark blocks over 98% of spam from reaching your inbox and boasts over one million users worldwide.

The cost of program is $39.95 for a one-year subscription. The subscription is renewable annually. For those wanting to test drive the product, a free 15-day trial period for either your Outlook or Outlook Express is available.