7 Sins of Internet Marketing You Should Avoid

Getting started in internet marketing has been made easier with today’s current technology. Years ago, starting an online business would require substantial investments, and in some cases, impossible. That’s no longer true, as today, there are free resources that makes it possible for anyone with the drive and determination to start and build a successful business online, regardless of its size.

Now, here’s the downside. With all the tools, guides, tutorials, affiliate networks, several monetization methods, etc. that are available, comes the problem of competition. There are literally millions out there trying to make something out of the internet, and the question is, how do you stand out from the rest? Well, you can start by avoiding some common mistakes that some business owners make. Avoiding these mistakes, or sins, as I call them, will most definitely help you stand out from the rest, who are still doing it.

These sins may not earn you eternal damnation, but your business will most likely fail if you don’t shun these internet marketing sins.

This is where most people fail online. It’s an art being a good procrastinator. “You must avoid posting that post at all cost.” “You must keep from growing your social network.” “Surely there must be something better to do then work on your dream?” So we all procrastinate and I believe it’s the deadliest internet marketing sin, but how do we keep from being cursed by it. Here are some tips to avoid the pitfalls:

Write down your ideas as soon as they come to you. Even if they are jotted down. Then religiously come back and make a post out of it.Cut out all the other things in your life that hold your success back. Perhaps you smoke… cut back and quit. Stop watching so much TV… etc.Designate a time to work on your blog.Designate a time to drive traffic to your blog.Designate a time to work on your social network.

When it’s your time to be working on your business a lot of us tend to have our Facebook open and e-mail. Then heck lets go check to see if we made some money over on Clickbank, Amazon or Google AdSense. No. You know what, lets look at our analytics’… that’s always fun. Sound familiar? People…Stop! Close all the noise off and work on your business and when you get your goal done. Then go check your e-mail, stats and social drama.

There are many loopholes and suggested traffic heists. When I first started I tried everything I could to get a sale. The long term dedication to make a real business just wasn’t there. So I started spamming Craigslist and to this day I have trouble selling a car or a washing machine. I think I made $5o bucks or so with all the spamming I did. I started getting into some of the sophisticated software’s and methods. It’s fascinating to see all the Black hat Ninja software that people can hack out.

“If a person would spend the time on their business that they spend trying to take shortcuts, they would have already succeeded. “

Ok, I confess that I’ve tried loads of niche’s. This is sort of a grey sin area. There is nothing wrong with having multiple niche sites as long as you can make them successful. Yet a real business person needs a brand and a central hub to gather a big enough following… and why a following and a list? So that in the end you can make your own products and have a large enough audience to make it a success. So find your main niche for your business and keep at it until it’s a success.

With all the content on the internet, it’s easy to be drowned out. Especially if your content is mediocre. Not only does your content need to be unique it needs to be super good. The days are over when you could throw a post together and expect to get traffic. Below are some suggestions to keep your viewers on their toes:

Make a superb headline for your articles that will pull people in and keep them reading.Make the content of your posts enjoyable so they keep reading.Cover controversial topics.Provide a different slant.Include Q and A in your posts.Make a poll as part of your posts.Be funny and intelligent.Paint a picture as you write.Be brief…Get the reader to perform an action at the end of the post.

There is so much to learn when it comes to building an online business. Don’t be afraid to learn something new (as long as it’s ethical.) Keep up on the latest trends, but don’t be boggled down by them.

With all the one click wonders and ninja traffic heisting mechanisms that fill your inbox, it’s easy to be caught up in the get rich schemes. I’m here to tell you that that stuff don’t work. There is no autopilot millionaires. Those people work hard to get your e-mail and swap it back and forth with each launch. Most of those products are re-written, re-branded and then re-launched. There is nothing wrong with software that will make your business online easier and a success though. As long as the product is inline with what you are already doing and it semi-automates some of the workload for you.

Has your business been suffering from one or more of the above? It’s time to turn from the dark side my friend. It’s time to turn from your black hat…procrastinating… autopilot riches ways. It’s time to give the Google god what it wants. Real good content … Before Google runs out of animal names to name it’s updates after.

Related Content - Check them out:

5 Worst Mistakes You Can Make In IM (internet marketing)10 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Running a GiveawayFaceBook For Business, Using Their Marketing Tools To Your AdvantageFive Tips For Video Marketing That WorkFour Things Blog Owners Should Avoid Doing With Guest Authors

View the original article here

Read More

IPv6 vs. IPv4 : Should You Care (Or Do Anything) As A User? [MakeUseOf Explains]

More recently, there’s been a lot of talk about switching to IPv6 and how it will bring a lot of benefits to the Internet. But, this “news” keeps repeating itself, as there’s always an occasional post which tries to push the Internet to the IPv6 protocol. Why is this theme recurring, you ask? Primarily because the transition to the new protocol is very slow.

However, does it really matter to you whether the transition is going slowly or not? Should you even care? Why is IPv6 better than IPv4 anyways, besides that 6 is bigger than 4? In case you haven’t been asking yourself these kinds of questions, now is the best time to start.

Shall we take a stroll down memory lane? Let’s go all the way back to before I was born – the 1980s to be precise – where the framework of the Internet we know and love today is being developed and implemented. The IP protocol, for those who don’t know, is the main protocol that, along with other services, makes the Internet work. The protocol sets up the entire system of IP addresses and data transfer. IPv4 is just one revision of that protocol, which became a de facto standard in 1981 and has been used ever since.

Back then, the developers couldn’t have possibly dreamed of how many people who will be using the Internet today, so they decided to use 32-bit IP addresses which would yield a total amount of 4,294,967,296 different addresses before the system would be completely loaded. This worked great back in the day and for many years beyond that, but not anymore.

Ever since Internet usage absolutely skyrocketed through simple adoption and the invention of the data-consuming smartphone, those available addresses have been filling up rapidly. In fact, as we speak there are no more IPv4 addresses available today, and we are only able to connect to the Internet because of some very complicated stuff the ISPs are doing temporarily. Foreseeing this problem, developers got to work and released the IPv6 specification in December 1998.

This protocol version, among with other new features, includes support for up to 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 different addresses using a 128-bit system. I don’t even know how to say that number using real words. Simply put, there will be more than enough addresses until we find alien life and invite them to use our Internet.

Now, notice when the IPv6 specification was released – December 1998. 14 years later, about 99% of the Internet is still using the overloaded IPv4 protocol. Progress is a bit slow, don’t you think? But that’s not even the worst part. While ISPs and the world’s websites slowly make the transition to IPv6, ISPs will still have to implement their workaround so that users can still access all websites, no matter if they made the switch yet or not. This workaround doesn’t come without a few issues.

Essentially, ISPs need to make an abstraction layer which will go in between the Internet and you, the user. This abstraction layer is a little picky, however, because when you communicate with an IPv6 site or service (and therefore require the use of the abstraction layer), you’ll have an issue with ports. Ports, in case you don’t know, are simply little “doors” on your machine or a server, where each door leads to the correct program on the machine to work with the data however it needs to. With the abstraction layer, port routing becomes a little simplified, and clogs up very easily.

For example, if you use a service like Google Maps which requires multiple ports, you’ll be fine. However, if two systems in the same house try to access Google Maps, it won’t work for one of the two systems because the other system is using up the needed ports.

The abstraction layer can also become a security concern, because the single IP address you receive via the abstraction layer is responsible for multiple computers, so successful hackers can access more computers with just a single IP address. IP addresses shared with a block of homes will make it difficult to determine where certain traffic is coming from, such as illegal torrents.

Another option instead of using an abstraction layer is to run both protocols simultaneously and translate the traffic between them. While it would work, it would create additional stress for your ISPs servers and add latency to your connection, which can frustrate not only gamers but most common users too.

To summarize and answer the question: should you care about IPv6 as a user? Absolutely! Not only is the transition to the updated protocol long overdue, but it’s becoming rather necessary so that we can continue to enjoy a beautifully working Internet. Feel free to write, call, or petition your ISP into making the switch in the hopes it’ll get them motivated. I mean, they’ll have to do it at some point anyways, so why not now when we need it more than ever? If they respond by saying it’s too hard to accomplish at the moment, maybe they shouldn’t have formed an ISP in the first place.

If you’d like to learn more about what makes up the Internet, check out one of our guides on the topic here at MakeUseOf!

What are your thoughts about IPv6? Why are people making the transition so slowly, and what else could help speed up the process? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Internet background with binary code via Shutterstock, Xeni Jardin, Jesper Rønn-Jensen

View the original article here

Read More

Smartphone Specs For Dummies: What Should You Look For?

It’s undeniable – more and more people are owning smartphones as they are becoming more capable of handling all our possible needs. Today’s smartphones have as much processing power as full desktop computers less than a decade ago, and that power is still increasing with the rise of the first quad-core CPUs for smartphones.

However, if you’ve lived on this planet long enough you’ll know that marketing techniques for new phones can’t be trusted 100%, so you’ll have the best results by looking at the phone’s specs yourself. This article will try to help you figure out what’s the best for you by showing you what you should be aware of and whether it’s good enough for your Android or iPhone.

First we’ll take a look at what you’ll probably see first – the display, size, and overall design. The size is actually quite important nowadays because some phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note are, simply put, massive. You’ll have to open up your hand pretty wide to hold those, and placing a device like that on your face might look a little strange is it’s so big. The international version of the Samsung Galaxy S II is 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm and just 116 g, which for my personal preference is just right. Don’t forget to look at how thick it is as well, as you’ll probably be interested in that as well.

You should also look at what type of display is in the phone, and what resolution it has. If you come across a name for the display, such as AMOLED or Retina, you should take the opportunity to google it for more information and reviews.

The overall design is up to your own taste, so just be sure to look at a good number of photos from different angles. If you prefer, you can also go to your carrier’s local store to look at it with your own eyes and get a sense of how it feels in your hand.

The next most important spec is the CPU. This little chip makes a huge amount of difference whether the device flies or manages to squeak by. There’s a lot of different processor names such as Cortex, Snapdragon, Tegra, and more, so if you come across them you should look them up as well. However, if you don’t want much technical information, then you’ll just need to look at two key items – frequency and number of cores.

The decision isn’t always as easy to make, but generally the more cores there are, the better. For example, a 1.0 Ghz dual-core processor will run more smoothly than a 1.5 Ghz single-core processor. Most programs and games can run just fine on 1.0 Ghz, so the extra boost to 1.5 Ghz won’t be as significant of a boost as you may think. On the other hand, if you add a second CPU core, you open the possibility of running more programs simultaneously. If you run a game fine at 1.0 Ghz, you can technically open up two instances of the game with a dual-core processor and still be fine, but a 1.5 Ghz processor would start to choke.

Another spec you should watch out for is RAM and memory (permanent storage). Generally, the more RAM the phone has, the more programs (or more resource-hungry programs) you can run on your phone without it slowing down. If you’ll make a lot of use out of your phone and run multiple apps in the background for your social networks and whatnot, more RAM will definitely be needed. 1GB should be good enough for any hardcore user, but some phones are offering even higher amounts.

The memory (for phones, it’s your consistent storage; not to be confused with RAM) amount is also important if you plan to install a lot of apps on your phone. For this, 16GB is usually plenty, especially if you also have an SD card inserted. You should also check for the maximum allowable size for an SD card, which can expand your storage space and is usually used to store your pictures and MP3s.

There’s plenty of other things that you should at least look at to see if you’re fine with it. Some other things to look for are how many megapixels the camera(s) have, whether there is a rear and front-facing camera, where the headphone and charge ports are located on the phone, how long the battery lasts, and which sensors are included (such as Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, etc). You may also care to see if your favorite after-market ROM is available for that phone, but if that’s the case then you aren’t a dummy!

Lastly, if you’re open to any phone, you’re probably open to the idea of switching carriers. Be sure to not only check the price of the plan you’d possibly get, but also how good their coverage is (such as at your house!), how good their customer service is, and whatever else you may feel is important in your decision.

Just remember that you don’t have to get the best of the best, but this article should help you in determining which specs will be sufficient enough. Of course it’s great to have more than you’ll need, but your wallet will definitely be paying for it in the end. If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this article or ask any of your geeky friends!

What’s most important to you in a phone? What new and unique features do you think may be coming out soon for phones? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credits: Nina Matthews, Johan Larsson, nVidia Corporation, 37prime, John Watson

View the original article here

Read More

Social Media Advertising: Should Bloggers Bother?

This guest post is written by Lior Levin.

Social media has proven its worth as a networking tool and a means of raising brand awareness, but the future of sites like Facebook and Twitter depend on convincing brands that that it’s worthwhile to invest in advertising on their sites in addition to interacting with customers.

Ads on Facebook usually appear in the right column, though Facebook has been experimenting with more socially-based ads that show up in the streams of users. With its simpler interface, Twitter relies on promoting tweets that show up in the tops of users’ update streams.

No one has any doubts about the value of social media marketing through engaging customers, running promotions, and creating company pages. The majority of doubts surround the ROI and overall value of paying to advertise on social networks.

Many brands are still engaged in social media advertising, and the data available changes from year to year. However, for bloggers, it can be difficult to decide whether social media advertising is worth it.

Here are a few of the current advantages and disadvantages of using social media sites for your advertising campaigns.

According to Kelsey Jones of the Social Robot, “Companies and organizations can experience a large swell of website visitors, new customers, or Facebook fans all within a single day, depending on the effectiveness of their ads. This type of viral activity can be great for events and product launches.”

There’s no doubt that the right campaign can make a huge difference in driving visitors to a website. This spike in traffic for some major brands makes social media advertising worth considering.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “Companies that have bought Twitter ads generally say they are happy with the percentage of people who click on their ads or circulate them to other Twitter users. But marketers also say these ads haven’t proven they can convert people into paying customers.”

Kelsey Jones writes at Performancing, “For some targeted campaigns, competition can be very high, leading to high rates for clicks on social media ads or sponsored tweet impressions (views). For certain industries, the cost to run a viral campaign of this magnitude can be significant, up to thousands of dollars per day.”

While the cost of social media advertising can be quite steep for national campaigns, running an effective social media campaign through a free account on social media can produce similar results if managed properly. The opportunity to engage users through a free account may make it hard to justify the cost of Facebook or Twitter ads.

Unlike ads in magazines or on television, ads on social networks may prove to be ineffective or even a liability for brands, as customers may view them as an unwelcome intrusion.

One Forrester analyst mentioned to Bloomberg that injecting ads into a social platform is like interrupting a conversation among friends in order to attempt a sales pitch.

In fact, ads on a social network may be perceived as completely counter to what users are trying to accomplish. Some suggest that the success of social advertising hinges on whether brands can identify the purchasing intent of users and find the perfect point to introduce an ad into their social experience.

Sean Jackson, the CFO of CopyBlogger, suggests that for all of the talk about being unable to measure the ROI of social media marketing in general, businesses should not be dismayed. Jackson says, “An investment is an asset that you purchase and place on your Balance Sheet. Like an office building or a computer system. It’s something you could sell later if you didn’t need it any more. Marketing is an expense, and goes on the Profit and Loss statement.”

Whether or not you agree with Jackson’s statement, the constant challenge of all marketing efforts over the years has been determining their ROI.

Social media advertising will undoubtedly produce greater brand awareness and user engagement with your brand, but the real risk is that brands may need to designate significant funds to their marketing efforts without necessarily receiving a guarantee that they’ll work.

That is a significant risk to take, but as brands seek to reach customers, we’ll see ongoing innovation among advertisers on social media platforms.

What do you think of social advertising? Have you tried it—or seen it? Let us know your take on these new ad media in the comments.

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for pre shipment inspection companies located in China and Latin America, and who also consults for a psd to html conversion company.

View the original article here

Read More