John A Simpson » Social Networking

2008 Comes To A Close

John — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 04:59:22 +0000

Since it is the last day of the year, I just wanted to thank all of my readers for following my blog faithfully for the past year. At times, I have gotten to the place where I did not know what to say or I did not want to say anything…but you continued to follow me.

In 2009, I have decided to make my online presence larger. My ultimate goal is to work 100% online and not have to go to an employer’s location 9-5 M-F. I feel that I am on the right path towards this goal, and with your help, I can make it.

With the economy the way it is, these words may be worthless, but I hope you had a great 2008 and I hope your 2009 is even better. If you ask my opinion, I think the economy has reached the bottom of the curve and things are turning around.

If you want to follow me even more, my exploits and spoutings can be found on Twitter, by email, on Facebook, or on LinkedIn. I can also be found on digg and can be reached by paper cup and string.

Happy New Year

If you enjoyed this post, please make sure you register to receive these posts via email. You can also follow me on Twitter, link to me on LinkedIn, or visit my other blog, at www.spendingless101.com.

Twitter Curiosity

John — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:44:11 +0000

I have been on Twitter for a while, but I just started tweeting on a regular basis. What do you know? People are starting to follow me more. I don’t know if it’s because of my good looks or because I have something to say that they want to hear. Regardless, today’s tip is to Tweet Unto Others As You Would Have Them Tweet Unto You.

A great idea for all blog readers…

John — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:52:34 +0000

Add my friends as your friends on Digg. WooHoo!!!!

Starting A Blog

John — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:05:00 +0000

This post contains FREE ADVICE for those of you wanting to start a blog. Some of the information can also pertain to starting a new web site.

Yes, it does take a while to get a site going, but I believe it’s just a startup thing. I think that once it catches, it will take off…like a virus, hence the term Viral.

This is a comprehensive and detailed list of site promotion tasks:

Load the Alexa Toolbar into Firefox and visit your site using Firefox: Alexa rankings are driven by the users of the toolbar visiting web sites. As you visit your site periodically, your ranking will go up. That goes for anyone else visiting your site so it might even make sense for you to write a post encouraging your readers to use the Alexa toolbar.

Comment on related blogs: This will give you an immediate incoming link, which is what you want. Leaving comments of substance on other people’s blogs is one of the primary ways of getting incoming links. You may want to set up a schedule for this one. Without a schedule, I’ll get caught up reading other people’s sites and I will end up not finishing my comments. 3 times a week (maybe Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) might work. I put things like this on Outlook’s calendar. You might be able to use Google Calendar.

When creating posts, refer to other blogs (blog posts), and use the trackback link from that blog for the link to that blog. A lot of times, when you are reading a post, at the bottom of that post, there is a link with the text “trackback”. Right-click on that, and click “copy link location”. This is what you want to use when pointing to that blog. This will guarantee that their system will know you are pointing to them. Doing this also creates a link on their site indicating that you are pointing to them.

Read, read, read: This one is not directly related to site promotion, but reading will give you other ideas. I suggest reading the RSS feeds of some SEO pros out there, such as www.cshel.com, www.mattcutts.com (although this gets a lot technical), www.seomoz.org, etc. Do a Google search for SEO export blog and subscribe to their RSS feeds using Google Reader. Google Reader is awesome for keeping track of RSS feeds. You can also listen to the podcasts of the big SEO and Internet Marketing people.

Generate your own content as frequently and consistently as possible. If you are blogging in advance, you can set the publish date on the post in the future and it won’t show up on your blog until that day. I am currently 12 days ahead in posting on Spending Less 101.

Save future ideas as draft posts: If you have blog ideas, but have not developed them into posts, put the title and any notes you have in WordPress and click “save” instead of “publish”. This will create a draft. Now the idea is in a safe place where you can expand on it or finish it anytime you want and it won’t be lost or forgotten.

Set up automated social bookmarking on WordPress: I have only been able to find plug-ins to post to 3 of the many social bookmarking sites automatically. I have them on my blog and they post to delicious, Simpy, and Twitter. I continue to look for this.

Submit your posts to social bookmarking sites: A good way to do this is to use SocialPoster.com or SocialMarker.com. I am playing with the idea of purchasing Auto Social Poster. This will do all of that automatically.

Monetize Your Blog: Place ad zones on your site. You can do this using OpenAds or similar products.

Use EntreCard: You know this one. Drop, drop, drop… 300 per day, per site. They use the credits to buy ads on other sites. This will get you links on other related sites…even if it is temporary. You can even use the credits to get people to comment on your blog through the EntreCard Shop.

Use various forms of media on your blog. You need video. You can find something on YouTube and embed the code.

Submit your RSS feed to feed directories: Do a Google search on RSS feed directory and submit your RSS feed to as many as you can stand to.

Submit your blog to blog directories: Do a Google search on blog directories and submit your site to as many of those as possible.

Write Articles: If you can write an article on a subject that is also related to your blog, do that. The article should be at least 2000 words. Don’t post this to your blog. If you do and others also post it, it will get flagged as duplicate content. Do a Google search for article directories and post to as many of those as you can stand. You will include with your article, a resource box at the bottom, which contains a little information about you and a link to your blog. When people use your content on their site, they have to include the resource box, which will link bank to your site. Check out my articles on EzineArticles.

Enlist the help of others: This includes all of your friends. You can ask them to do things like:
- Adding the Alexa toolbar to IE or Firefox (there is one for IE now).
- Having them comment on posts that relate to them.
- Promote your site by adding a link to their Facebook, MySpace, or other social networking account.
- Subscribe to your RSS feed
- Link to your site from their site(s), if they have a site
Install a plug-in on your blog that will link to other posts within your blog: This is basically the “If you liked this post, take a look at these” post. There is a plug-in like that, but it only does it in random posts. I found another one that does it in all posts. I can show you the results and how to install it.

Use Social Networking heavily: The reason all of my networks are large is because I see the value in networking with as many people as possible. You should get as many people in your Facebook, LinkedIn, Stumble, etc., networks as possible.

Work less on the design and more on the content.

Submit your site to DMOZ.org: This is big because this directory is used on tons of web sites.

Create A Site t-shirt: Make a t-shirt with your site name on it and wear it often. There are several places you can get this done, including http://www.customink.com/services/cheap-t-shirt-printing.htm.

Once your site starts to go Viral, you won’t have to do as much promotion, but you will need to have consistent content.

AutoPosting

John — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:00:00 +0000

In order to help your site promotion and blogging efforts, you need to find ways to automate what you do. One particular area that really needs help with automation is posting to social network sites. I’ve come across several FREE applications that allow you to automatically submit your blog posts to social networks when they are posted to your blog. Some of these are:

Yell it from the roof-tops…or at least from the computer screen…

John — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:10:40 +0000

Twitter has become the rage. People tend to use Twitter to tell the world what they are doing at all times of day and night. I admit that I’ve gotten caught up in it also. I use Twitter through the FireFox plugin, TwitterFox. Twitter can be used for SEO. There are a few WordPress plugins that automagically submit links to your new posts on Twitter. A few of them are:

OnlyWire Service + OnlyWire WordPress Plugin (free)
Auto Tweet
Twitter Tools

Even without automatically posting to Twitter, you can still keep your friends (and/or followers) informed as to when you make changes on your site and when you post new content. If your friends are using TwitterFox or one of the other Twitter-based interactive plug-ins, they will immediately know when you have new or updated content. Also, those viewing the everyone timeline in Twitter will see your update. More potential visitors to your site.

Thank You

John — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:04:48 +0000

I have been spending so much time looking for post ideas, chasing kids, and helping other bloggers that I have not thanked my readers recently. I’d like to thank all of you who read this blog by coming to the site and by subscribing to the RSS feed. At this time, I am not making any money on this blog. I continue to blog because I love the subject and I love to interact with others on the Internet. I appreciate you and I hope that you will continue to visit the site.

If you wish to reach me directly, I can be reached on Twitter or directly at john (at) johnasimpson.com.

Thanks…

Using Twitter To Promote Your Blog

John — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:30:00 +0000

You can even use the social networking site called Twitter to promote your site.

Here are some of the ways you can do that:

If your blog software is WordPress, you can install a plugin that will automatically post an entry to your Twitter account when you submit a new post to your blog.
Add your web address to your Twitter profile and a link to the web address will show up next to your account name on every tweet.
If your friends have a Twitter account (and even if they don’t—they can get one), have them tweet about your site and include a link.

I’m always on Twitter and I have clicked on links from there many times.

10 tips to drive massive traffic to a new blog

John — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:23:00 +0000

I have a process that I go through when setting up a new blog. I tried to get it all down on paper, but there are so many things. Here are 10 of the things I do…

Write your blog posts as if they were articles, then post them to article directories: This can drive a lot of traffic and can also get your work out to the public because your articles will be used as content on multiple blogs…all linking back to you.
Social bookmark your posts. SocialPoster.com is the best tool for doing this that I’ve come across.
List your blog in blog and site directories.
Add your blog to DMOZ.org, which is syndicated on quite a lot of sites.
Comment on other people’s blogs.
Join social networks, like Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, etc… #2 will drive this one because, most of the time, you have to be a member in order to post links on these sites.
Set up your RSS feed in FeedBurner.
Answer questions on Yahoo and LinkedIn. This will help establish you as an expert in the field of your choosing.
Add a link to your site in your email signature.
Write as much content as you can without forming blisters on your fingers. The more content you write, the more often the bots visit.

Good luck…

Related Posts:

125 Ways To Promote Your Blog

John — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:49:00 +0000

Web Site Promotion For The Small Business v2
January 25, 2008

You probably think 125 ways is too much to grasp, but hold on. This one is easy.

1. Write the most excellent blog post you have ever written.

2-125. Ping the following ping services:

http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping.php
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bblog.comping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogbot.dk
http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php
http://blogdb.jp
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogmatcher.com
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://blogoole.com/ping
http://blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2nd
http://blogsnow.com/ping
http://bulkfeeds.net
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping
http://effbot.org/rpc/ping.cgi
http://godesigngroup.com
http://godesigngroup.com/blog/feed
http://imblogs.net/ping
http://lasermemory.com/lsrpc
http://mod-pubsub.org
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://ping.amagle.com
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs
http://ping.blogg.de
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.fakapster.com/rpc
http://ping.fakapster.com/rpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se
http://ping.wordblog.de
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://pingqueue.com/rpc
http://popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger
http://rpc.britblog.com
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080
http://rpc.newsgator.com
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.wpkeys.com
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz
http://snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php
http://topicexchange.com
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://weblogues.com/RPC
http://www.a2b.cc
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping
http://www.blogoon.net/ping
http://www.blogpeople.net
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogsdominicanos.com/ping
http://www.blogshares.com
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.catapings.com/ping.php
http://www.chriselliottcopywriting.com
http://www.feedsky.com/api/RPC2
http://www.focuslook.com/ping.htm
http://www.focuslook.com/ping.php
http://www.godesigngroup.com
http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping
http://www.imblogs.net/ping
http://www.lasermemory.com
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc
http://www.lovepeaceproject.com
http://www.marketingrush.com
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.wasalive.com/ping
http://www.weblogues.com
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC
http://www.xianguo.com/xmlrpc/ping.php
http://www.zhuaxia.com/rpc/server.php
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
http://zing.zingfast.com

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast

See. Easy, just like I said.

SEO/Site Promotion Experiment: Day 2

John — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:59:00 +0000

This
is day #2 of the experiment and I guess I must not be taking this experiment very seriously because I didn’t do anything until it was almost midnight.

Today is Tuesday, January 15th, 2008.

I performed the following SEO tasks today:

None…

I performed the following Site Promotion tasks today:

Stumbled 12 pages and 2 for St. Louis Self Defense and Fitness
Dugg 2 pages…only because Digg was not working from Shareaholic
Posted 2 links to Facebook and 1 for St. Louis Self Defense and Fitness
Posted 4 links to Del.icio.us
Posted 2 links to Google Bookmarks and 1 for St. Louis Self Defense and Fitness
Posted 3 links to reddit
Posted an entry on the a forum

Tomorrow will be even better…

SEO/Site Promotion Experiment: Day 1

John — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 07:59:00 +0000

This is day #1 of my week-long SEO/site promotion experiment. My goal is to track what I actually do in a week to promote various sites and see if I am living up to the level of promotion that I should to put my sites on top. At the end of the experiment, I’ll provide a daily tasks list for download so newbies will have something to follow on their path to high search engine rankings. By the way, I split SEO and Site Promotion up because they are actually two different things. SEO is keyword tweaking, filling in ALTs on IMG tags, etc.; things you do to your site to optimize it in the eyes of the search engines. I consider Site Promotion to be things like blogging, posting comments on the blogs of others, link exchanges, etc.

Today is Monday, January 14th, 2008.

I performed the following SEO tasks today:

None…

I performed the following Site Promotion tasks today:

Posted article on new st louis self defense and fitness seminar/class.
Added newly posted article to to StumbleUpon, Digg, Del.icio.us, Facebook, Google Bookmarks, reddit, St. Louis Self Defense & Fitness Seminars page and all other related blogs.
Registered for an account at www.podcastalley.com.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be more productive.

10 Ways We Can Help Each Other

John — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:11:00 +0000

Web Site Promotion For The Small Business v2
January 11, 2008

The reason you are here is to get information on how to promote your site. I am here to give you that information, but I am also promoting my site. Let’s help each other. Here are 10 ways we can help each other:

Digg each other’s submissions. Here is a link to my submissions: http://www.digg.com/users/simpso1j/history/submissions
Stumble each other’s sites. My sites are:
- www.simpsonpropertiesllc.com – Where I work
- www.johnasimpson.com – This blog
- 1plus1plus1.blogspot.com – My personal blog…happens to be monetized
- www.stlouisselfdefense.com – Where I train (soon to be monetized)
- www.simpsonpropertiesllc.com – My real estate investment company (Simpson Properties, LLC)…notice that the company is in the red
Post comments on each other’s blogs. I am not even going to put a link to my blog here. You are on my blog or you are reading from my RSS feed.
Reddit each other’s links. My links are any individual posts in my blog.
del.icio.us each other’s sites and posts. My sites are in item #2 and a link to my blog is in item #4 or in your address bar.
Tell others about our respective sites. You can tell people that this is the best SEO site you’ve ever seen and it just keeps getting better each day. What? I didn’t say you had to tell them the truth.
Subscribe to each other’s Feedburner feeds. My user account name is simpso1j. Not sure if you’ll need that or not.
Put links to each other’s sites on our sites. Again, my sites are listed in item #2.
Technorati each other’s blogs. My blogs are:
Donate to our respective causes…starting with me…

Is that a lot to do? Yes, but I’m were worth it.

Post your information on these 10 items in the comments so I can help you out too.

Can you Digg it…again?

John — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 06:27:00 +0000

Web Site Promotion For The Small Business v2
January 4, 2008

One quick tip is to ask people to help you out on sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, and Technorati, so…

…Please Digg my submissions: http://digg.com/users/simpso1j/history/submissions

Just to prove that I'm not off my rocker:

Oh, and while you are at it, you can add me as a friend on Digg. Thanks…

Can you DIGG it?

John — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Web Site Promotion For The Small Business v2
January 3, 2008

If you are over at DIGG and you have some extra time on your hands, can you please DIGG my submissions: http://www.digg.com/users/simpso1j/history/submissions.

Thanks

10 Building Blocks to Business Success on Facebook

John — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 08:00:00 +0000

Written by Lennie Appelquist

There are several social media sites that you can participate in today like Myspace and Zaadz, and they all have their pros and cons. The best way to choose a social networking site to participate in is to see what kind of people who are members. To me, Facebook is one of the best internet destinations for networking – both personally and professionally. I also use Linked In and Myspace. Of all the social networks, Facebook is nearly perfect when it comes to all around marketing and networking.

I have been using Facebook for the past two years, and it is a great marketing tool to add to your marketing strategy. Following are ten ways you can use Facebook to introduce new people to your for FREE!

1. Make an Excellent Profile: This is absolutely the FIRST thing that you must do to make an impression on Facebook . Think of your Facebook profile as part of your branding. A excellent profile will include a photo of you. Don’t use the one of you at a halloween party, unless that’s what your selling. Make sure your new Facebook profile is complete. It should include your contact information, your website address (this is very important), education, work experience and your personal interests. A complete profile is the only way to go.

2. Add Friends: This is the really cool part – the ability meet new people, build relationships and watch them grow. The more relationships you build, the more meaningful your marketing efforts will be. You can use Facebook‘s own tools to search for friends that already belong to Facebook. Once you add your friends, you can search for people with like interests. Make their acquaintance, become their friend, build a relationship. One great feature on Facebook is that you can see friends of your friends. This will help you build a copious network in no time.

3. Join Groups: You can join groups within Facebook that are associated with what you do. There are groups for doctors, coaches, and instructors. Almost every possible kind of professional service provider has some type of group on Facebook. I belong to many Facebook groups and have made dozens of new contacts this way.

4. Create your Own Facebook Group: Can’t find a group that really makes sense? Create your own! You can add members, publish articles, carry on discussions, and more than likely meet quite a few prospects. And even if you find great group to belong to, start your own. This gives you the platform to be the guru!

5. Syndicate your Blog Using RSS: You can syndicate your blog on your profile page. This basically means that every time you make a post, it will automatically show up on your profile page. More Exposure equals More Readers equals More Leads equals More Business. And the bonus is the back links to your site. I syndicate headlines from my 3 blogs on Facebook.

6. Reach OUT: Are you a follower or devotee of someone’s work? Reach out to them on Facebook! Many of my business contacts check their Facebook messages more regularly than their email. They are also more likely to respond to Facebook messages. Don’t feel comfortable sending out a message to someone you don’t know? Don’t worry! Leave them a “just saying hi!” or “Your cool!” blurb on their wall. All Facebook profiles come with “virtual walls” where visitors can leave a message. The more comments you leave on your friend’s profiles the more exposure you get!

7. List your Events: Hosting a Teleseminar or speaking somewhere? Add an events page and invite all those you want. You can even see how many people RSVPed and get feedback from your guests. Marketing doesn’t get much simpler (or more inexpensive!) than this.

8. Send Virtual Gifts: Want to show your appreciation for someone? Send them a virtual gift. You can choose from Diamonds to an egg that hatches a surprise gift over 4 days (plus dozens of others). With all the Facebook applications for gift giving available, what are you waiting for. This is a fun way to “win friends and influence people”!

9. Use Some Cool Apps: Facebook has literally tons of applications that were built just for the site. Photo manipulators, sports, fashion and more. When you use an application, you get to invite your friends to use these cool mini applications (Apps). So just like number 8 above, this allows you another way to stay in touch with your friends on Facebook. Again, this helps you maintain long lasting relationships.

10. Build a Community: More than likely Facebook‘s greatest benefit is that it lets you to create a community. It provides you a group of people who are constantly connected to you, and your Facebook friends are open to hearing your message. Write on people’s walls, give them feedback, and introduce them to each other. Start building your brand and leveraging Facebook for permission marketing!

Facebook is a wonderful place to introduce yourself to several new people who may also become customers and/or clients. Just keep one thing in mind: don’t get too carried away and spend all your time there. Facebook is a tool, part of your marketing plan. Use the tips above, use them wisely and have a little fun at the same time.

About the Author

Lennie Appelquist is the Owner of FreeMarket Media Group. FreeMarket Media Group is dedicated to helping individuals and small businesses generate leads, convert those leads in customers/clients and build a web presence that works for them. We can show you how to make your online business profitable – IMMEDIATELY.

Related Information

Daily Podcast

John — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 07:13:00 +0000

The Daily SearchCast is a podcast that is provided through Digg.com. The podcast contains a lot of news about what is happening in the SEO world. If you are really serious about promoting your web site, listen to this podcast…maybe while you are promoting your web site, like I am right now…

Use Social Networks for Promotion

John — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Web Site Promotion Tips for the Mall Business v2
November 1, 2007

Just about everyone who uses the Internet has heard of MySpace, Facebook, and some of the many other Social Networking web sites. A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes. (from Wikipedia.org, 9/20/2007)

As it pertains to web site promotion, a social networking site can help you in several ways. If you provide resolution to the issues others are facing in your same field, you will be considered to be an expert. You can do this by sharing experiences with other by posting to their blogs, participating in forum discussions, and commenting on the posts others leave. Add useful content to your page(s) and dress them up in a clean, but interesting manner (templates, etc). You can get more people connected to you by using social network marketing to promote your business-related contacts. There are many clients out in the social network arena. By participating in other people discussion you can get more business contacts.