To be right in the forefront of the pack, here is a guide to an effective marketing in forums to step off the path of mistakes and to achieve your goals.
Choose wisely the forums that you will join in

You do not just join any forums but only the ones that are worth investing your time in.  Take the time to study and find the right one for you.  If you want your marketing in forums to be effective and successful, you need to search for the best and appropriate community that is in line with your online business.
To get you starting, here are some of the things that you may try when searching for a suitable community forum:

•    Survey for popular forums that focuses on your niche topic so you would have an edge already.
•    Ask your staff, customers, and suppliers on what community forums they are in.
•    Use specific keywords that are related to your niche when searching for forum hub sites.
•    Reduce your list to 5 forums where you can concentrate most of your time by following the criteria of having at least 1,000 members with 10,000 posts.  Another criterion that you must set is the daily post that it is receiving.  It should have at least fifteen new posts each day to keep the forum alive.  Avoid those forums that are filled with spam.  Most importantly, keep away from community forums that are being hosted by your close competitors.

Sign-up immediately for an account

To be a pioneer in a community forum is also significant in marketing in forums.  There is an advantage to being a senior in the forum as deference is accorded more to you than new users.
Make no mistakes so check the forum guidelines and agreement

Reputation and respect is built through time and if you observe the rules and follow their guidelines then it will be easier for you to plan out your next moves.  Link building is one form of technique that you may implement in marketing your business but you should be wary of the forum’s policy about this and so with your other marketing strategies.
Pick out a name and a photo that will be easier for community members to remember you by

Avoid using names or avatar that is not related or does not say something about you or your company.  Give them something that will stick to their head.  Your name should say it all and should be able to deliver what your company is and what it can offer them.  You know what they say, “it’s all in a name!”
Just take note of these guidelines and you will be able to hit your target in effectively marketing in forums.

A lot of the search engines have taken a great consideration on the domain’s age, number of inbound links that are of quality, how long visitors take time to browse your site, and other numerous elements.  To enable one to build authority on their website, they have to pay attention to and take part on influencing the social metrics that will help them give boost to their own site.  With the social media around, there are various things that can be done to build authority and here are some pointers that are worth remembering.
There is no room for pretentions
In seeking authority in your particular industry, you have to be passionate, be creative, and most importantly, be real. People will definitely spot the fake or pretentious ones so it would be just a waste of time and effort if you try to mask what you can offer and share to others.  If you think that you lack or you are weak on a certain area then you need to develop and enhance it to be able to gain authority in your field.  The lack of knowledge and expertise will definitely outrun your website so you have to remember that it is very important to educate and train your staff to keep them on the lead.  Do not ever pretend to know something about what you really do not know because people can easily detect it.
Take time to know who your audience are
Research is the ultimate task that you would need to perform in order to determine your target demography.  This is often taken for granted but the information that you will get from this can be used to strategically approach your customers or visitors through the social media sites to create a better impact.

Knowledge sharing
Gone are the days when you have to keep your knowledge to yourself to gain edge over your competitors.  In today’s world where sharing is very common already in the net, people would greatly appreciate your expertise sharing.  Find where your strengths are and offer your secrets, tips, and suggestions that would be able to address the questions of the people, be useful in data research, and build that reputation as an expert in the industry.

Develop and expand your network and social community

It is very critical that you have circle of friends and peers that make up your network in order to help you build and maintain your site’s authority.  You do not have to do things by yourself.  You can spread the words through the network via the different social media platforms that you belong to.

To build authority to your website would mean that you have to make a holistic approach and be mindful of your social realm.

A thumbs-up blog post

What are the characteristics of a quality blog posts?  How do you make your blog posts stand out from others?  How can you entice people to stay and read your stories?  These are just some of the questions that you need to ask yourself if you want to have a thumbs-up blog post.  Let us walk you through some of the simple and yet often taken for granted things when writing post blogs.
Choose an appropriate design – The background design of your blog posts creates a big impact to what you write.  Even if you have a great article but the design is sore to the eyes, people will not be that attracted to reading your blogs.  There are a lot of cool and chic designs from which you can choose from.  Select a design that is simple, cool, and most importantly, appropriate to your blog.  For instance, if your blog is all about something that is a call for action, you would want a design that is something fiery and bold to enhance more your readers but make sure that your blog post is still readable.

Write in paragraphs – This is something basic.  People would usually get bored the minute they see chunks of text in your body.  What you have to do is to separate your ideas into paragraphs so that readers would appreciate it better.  Some people also scan your blog posts so they would normally have an idea if you use paragraphs in your content because this makes it easier for them to read your blog posts.

Be natural – Readers will be able to feel that you are trying hard to impress them.  This is the common mistake of bloggers.  They would sometimes use jargon words or sugar coat things when they could simplify it for a more realistic and natural manner.  If you stick to being natural, there would be a natural flow in the way you write your blogs.  Sense would come out of it and it would be much easier to understand by the readers.

Revise, revise, and then rewrite – We would always want to live with the cliché “make it right the first time” but if you feel that there is much a better way to send your message across then go ahead and revise your blog posts.  Do not be afraid to experiment and put things into perspective.

What is Micro-continuity?

Micro-continuity is developed by Russell Brunson which is a marketing model for online business.  In essence, this model specifies that for online business to work, useful product information should be regularly shared to customers in developing or improving their own business.  The key to micro continuity is not a one-time payment but the monthly billing of their customer’s continuous subscriptions.  This gives their customers a little and more affordable amount of spending for a subscription.  For instance, you are selling a program that you offer with 6 videos for over 6 weeks and customers will be paying on a recurring basis.
Micro-continuity program is currently being applied to businesses such as specialized training courses or seminars, mentoring or coaching programs, and other internet marketing programs.  Micro-continuity is also about the principle of providing free physical products initially then sales pitching your recurring program at the end.  Although this might be something doubtful at first, Russell Brunson has convinced a lot of people that this has worked and that his data and results of his research can prove such success.

Regular continuity program vs. Micro-continuity program

In a regular continuity program, one enrolee or member has no conclusive membership date which seems like one is forever enrolled in the program until they take action or decide to cancel the membership.  For instance, a cable or phone bill is considered a regular continuity program because there is no absolute date as to when your subscription to it will end.  Whereas in a Micro-continuity program, one will find a definitive start and end date for a member’s subscription.  If a customer sign-up for a course, they already have an idea that it will run whether it is on a 6-week, 12-week, or 1-year subscription program.

Another difference of the regular as against micro-continuity model is the maintenance and set-up.  In a regular continuity program, you would have to create a variety of things to build up your product.  Such things would include graphics, landing page, sales letter, payment processor, a membership site with script, and others.  With the micro-continuity program, you would only need three simple things to set-up: a landing page, an auto-responder, and a free merchant account.

Finally, the difference also lies in the program’s completion.  In a regular continuity program, you have to keep on improving your content and adding fresh, unique, and useful content because the membership is not definitive.  Since the micro-continuity program has an exact period of subscription, you don’t have to worry about adding content from it since you already have an exact program.
19.  Title:  Basic tips on how to be a successful article writer
Keyword: writing articles

Home-based online business has become a popular trend nowadays.  The boom of article writing and blog and forum posting created a lot of job opportunities especially for those who are looking for a part-time or even a full-time job.  Writing an article is really easy but what makes it difficult is writing an effective article.  Note that one word makes a lot of difference.  There are many factors to consider for an article to be considered effective.  This article offers and shares with readers some tips on how to effectively write their own piece of article.

A complete and comprehensive article doesn’t need to be a novel but it should be able to include a title, an introduction, the content, and a conclusion.  Let us try to discuss briefly each one.

Create an interesting title or headline – This is your primary seller or the starting point of getting the attention of your readers.  Your title or headline should be as catchy or as interesting as your body.  Your content will initially rely on your headline so make sure that you spend some time thinking about what your headline should be.  You also have to make sure that your headline is related to your content.  Otherwise your content or story will not be able to catch your reader’s attention if you have a misleading title.  Catching the attention of your readers or visitors to your website would depend on how great your title is.

Introduction – What is your article all about?  Make a brief statement on what readers should expect from your article or a summary of the details of your content.  To sustain the interest of your readers, you should be able to come up with a good but short introduction.  Make sure that there is no overlapping with the introduction and the body.

Content – This is where you discuss extensively your point in your introduction whether it is something of a problem that needs a solution to be detailed or introducing a breakthrough by laying out all the details.  It is also important to note that you have to make a few separate paragraphs so as not to bore your readers.  A sub-heading is also suggested to let your readers know what and where are you in your discussion.

Conclusion – Finally, the conclusion is a brief ending or closing to your article.  It summarizes the whole point of your content.  If you have offered different or a variety of solutions or actions in your content, make sure that you give some recommendation or suggestions as to what is the best course there is.   It can also be a final call for action or a final statement that you have to emphasize at the end of your article.

These are just a few among the many basic tips for writing an effective article.  You must also maintain consistency, clarity, and conciseness as you write your article from the top (title) down to your conclusion.  There should be some cohesiveness in what you say all throughout your article otherwise it would be just another useless or non-sense article.

Understanding microsites

Before we proceed to giving out essential tips, it would be best to understand first the basics about microsites.  It is basically designed to meet specific objectives with a separate URL or web address from its homepage.  Generally, a microsite is also on the same web server and its existence does not sacrifice the branding of the company as it still retains the holistic visual design of its mother website to which it is associated.  In essence, instead of putting all your products and services cramped in one website, one builds a microsite where you focus on one product to attract a big sales lead.

Essential tips to developing your microsites

a.     Drive prospects to your microsite by using different or several channels.  Your microsite will be useless if you just use direct mail marketing in advertising your product.  You would be losing many prospect clients with direct mail so you have to make use of other microsite offer such as TV solicitations, newspaper ads, online banner ads, and email blasts to emphasize your microsite.  The more channels that you use the greater the opportunity there is to drive people to your microsite as you cover all the angles.

b.    Give them a reason to visit your microsite by making it relevant.  People would usually have this question, “What is in it for me?”  You have to make sure that you run an offer or promotion content that is unique which they would not be able to find in other competitor microsite.  Once you have established that you may already give them your sales pitch because you have more or less convinced them that there is some benefit that they can gain from your products and services.  So you have to work hard on your microsite and elaborate considerably what your prospect customer would want to see or read on your microsite.

c.    Give your microsite a personalized touch for your customers and visitors.  Getting more personal with your visitors and prospect customers is a good way to build a long-lasting relationship and develop a good foundation of trust and earn your reputation.  For instance, you may set-up a registration page where you can gather valuable information about your visitors.  From there you will be able to think about how to customize your microsites according to the demographics of your clientele.

d.    Encourage your visitors to repeat visits to your microsite with the user-generated content.  This will allow people visiting your microsite to upload their opinions, thoughts, and other information which can be through the form of videos or pictures or just plain stories.  Naturally, they would be curious to know what other people think about what they just have shared.

The Top 5 Social Media Sites

1.    Facebook – is the ultimate and king of all social networking sites.  It is perhaps the social media site that has the biggest membership coverage.  In fact its population count of Facebook users is almost the same as that of North and South America combined demographics.    Facebook has been famous because it has been one venue where people can connect with their long lost friends, far away family or relatives, old classmates or teachers, and even customers or employers from the different side of the planet.  Relationships have been stretched from being personal to business which has even made it a more popular platform.

2.    Digg – This social media site is more concentrated on social news or stories within which visitors or members are allowed to post their links to the news stories.  The links and news stories are strategically used to optimize page ranking of a certain website which is why Digg has been a significant tool in SEO.  Links are usually posted to popular news stories or articles that are receiving many “Diggs” which can also be interpreted as increasing the ranking of that particular article or story.

3.    LinkedIn – is Facebook’s counterpart but is geared more towards networking of professionals.  This social media site has been popularized with its platform of helping out users to find business partners, job opportunities, business growth, and other professional networking agenda.

4.    Twitter – This is the online text messaging version with a blend of a micro blogging feature.  A tweet is a post or a message that you send out to everyone and it can be anything from your personal feelings, to a link that you like, or an opinion that you want to share.  You can follow anyone’s twitter and at the same time you can be followed by anyone.  Although your tweet only gives you a 140 characters which already include your twitter ID name.

5.    YouTube – This widely known video media resource is another of those social media sites where users can freely share their videos online by uploading it to the site.  It has also been tagged to be producing viral videos because everyone has access to it, can watch it, and is free to comment about the video.  The power of this media tool is slowly being recognized as one important tool in driving traffic to a website as well as increasing its page rank.

All the mentioned social media or networking sites were included in the recently held survey on what are the most popular social media sites.  This survey was last updated November 2011 by eBizMBA Rank.

How to create and embed high quality videos

YouTube has options that will enable you to switch your videos to a high quality but this is not applicable to all videos.  To check if your video is compatible for a high quality format you may append the following:

“&fmt=18′(stereo, 480 x 270 resolution)”

If you want to embed the videos with a higher quality format, you will need to append the following in the embed URL:

“&ap=%2526fmt%3D18″ and “&ap=%2526fmt%3D22″.

Link and embedding interesting part of a video

If you are going to attach a YouTube video but only wants the interesting portion, you may cut to the chase and shorten the clip by just adding at the end of the URL the following:

#t=XXmYYs (where XX is for minutes and YY is for seconds)

It is a smart move for you to be straight to the point with your videos.  People would not want to view a long-time playing video when the other parts of the video do not really relate to your subject at all.

To embed the shortened video, you can modify or adjust the number of seconds with which you want to skip the video and have to append the following:

“&start=XX” (where XX is for seconds)

How to auto play and loop an embedded YouTube video

Generally, when you load a YouTube video, it would not automatically play unless you click on the play button.  When you embed a video in your webpage, it would be best to have it automatically played to make it easier for your visitors or readers.  To automatically play the embedded video, you can add the following on the URL part of the embedded code: “&autoplay=1”

If you want to repeat the video again without the intervention of the visitor or user, you have to append “&loop=1”.

How to sidestep regional filtering

Some of the YouTube videos have regional filtering by which the videos can only be viewed in certain or specific parts of the world.  What happens here is that the IP Address of the viewer is used to identify the location which will determine the viewer’s right to access to the video.  To enable viewing of the video without the regional filtering, you must change the URL:

FROM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<somecode>

TO: http://www.youtube.com/v/<somecode>

A lot of the tips and tricks here are used to further enhance your YouTube videos that are related to promoting your online business, products and services.  Of course, without a quality video content this will not still be successful and effective.  No matter how great your visual presentation or graphics are it should still include relevance and uniqueness for a more successful blog or article posting.

When it comes to promoting your products and services, LinkedIn groups is a more effective and useful social media networking site that you can join in.  Adopting the right and effective strategies will help you grow a long way while building your influential networking.  While you are allowed to join a maximum of 50 groups in LinkedIn, you wouldn’t be able to maximize your efforts in achieving your goal.  So it would be best for you to really focus on a handful of groups that you think you would most benefit from.
Evaluate and Identify the LinkedIn Groups with the best opportunities

When you asses the groups that you wish to join or you are already in, you consider the top five LinkedIn groups that is near or closest to your aimed demographic.  While you already have a specific target and may want to increase your community, you would not want to join a group that has a large count of membership.  Ideally, it would be better if the group only has hundreds of members and not thousands because it decreases your chances of being visible or being noticed.  Once you have already chosen the best groups, you should be proactive in these groups which would mean visiting and participating in activities and discussions for about 2 to 3 times a week.

Check out the popular discussions

Do not just engage in any other discussion but concentrate with the ones that are very popular as this offer you the most visibility.  With these discussions, most members would be actively participating and by joining in and sharing your unique and useful thoughts to other members.  Actually it would be easy for you to find out which one is popular as it can be usually found at the top of the group page.  Aside from giving out what your insights are, you will also be able to learn something from other feedback or comments.   If you have given worthy or valuable sharing or opinion related to the discussion, this will give you the chance to be recognized from the group.

Create a compelling question to trigger you own discussion

Another powerful tool that you can use within the LinkedIn groups is strategically creating your own discussion.  Start by asking a thought-provoking question which will entice other users or members participate in the discussion.  This will also give you an insight as to what are the member’s goals, concerns, or objectives which will ultimately help you understand what is important to them.
Getting to be established in the top LinkedIn groups that can provide you more opportunities relative to your business is the way to build your prominent connection and improve your online business.

Rule # 1 Avoid stumbling upon your own content

Although not explicitly stated, it is an implicit rule that you don’t stumble on your own blog because that defeats the purpose.  This does not mean that you can never submit your own blog, article or post but it would be to your best advantage for other people to submit your own content.  This gives other people an added sense of value if there are other readers or visitors who stumbled upon your content and it would not feel like a self-promotion.  Make your content be stumbled by others and not the other way around.
Rule # 2 Submit various quality content from different sources

Researching is one skill that you need to have when you use StumbleUpon.  Submitting or stumbling upon diverse websites and blogs with various topics and a range of videos and photos is a positive point.  Make sure however that what you stumble upon contains the best and interesting content which is worth sharing to other users.  It would be a smart move to also know or identify which topics or blogs are of interest to the majority.  By determining what subjects would be popular you can do your research and filter the ones that are useful, unique, fresh, and interesting.
Rule # 3 Make your titles and descriptions attractive and interesting

This might have been repeated so many times in many articles but we cannot overemphasize its importance.  Taking time to creating a powerful and an attention-grabbing title and description is a must to entice readers to go through your article and know the worth or value of your content.  If people do not find your title impressive enough then your content is doomed because people would not even bother to go through it.

Rule # 4 Build a relationship
You would to make some friends and dedicate some time to know them better.  Having a relationship and earning their trust will benefit you at the end.  Your presence will easily grow if you have friends around that can help you grow your network and raise your reputation and credibility in the community.  There is power among friendship and do not underestimate the relationship among the community as it will give you the edge in achieving your goal.
Rule # 5 Do not make multiple accounts

Having multiple accounts do not really help out establish a reputation.  It would be much easier for you to create one identity and only one account.  Trust is important and so you must earn it.  You would not be able to go far if you do fool users with your multiple identities or accounts.  It might also be a cause of your account being suspended and you being banned from the community or social media site which will hurt or damage your profile.

1.    Add connections to increase your profile visibility – The chances of being noticed and more visible to the people is by adding members to your account.  When people search for someone they want to do business with or someone to hire, it is likely that your profile would appear first and people would be more willing or interested to work with someone who they are friends with and whom they know and trust.
2.    Work with your resume to improve your connections – You would not want to limit your connection with other people so make sure that you complete your profile as if you are applying for a top corporation.  This means that you have to ensure that your profile covers everything including work history, affiliations, educational background, and hobbies and activities.  You may opt to include a link to your profile which you could use in all your signatures.  This will provide people information about your credentials.
3.    Use links and URLs to improve your Page Rank in Google – When you become a member of LinkedIn, search engines will be able to index your profile information that you have created on the social media site.  Google gives a lot of fair credit and high page rank to LinkedIn profiles and this is a good way to start for your profile to be noticed by other people.  Your chances of being searched in search engines gives you a lot of chances.  However make sure that you create a very quality profile and choose “Full View” in LinkedIn.  It is also suggested that you use your actual name in your profile’s URL for easy search.  To further enhance your page’s visibility in search engines, adding a profile link to your signature in every social media site is a big help.
4.    Assess the company or industry’s health – Use LinkedIn’s advanced search to gauge a company or industry that you are eyeing.  With this specific LinkedIn tool, you will be able to see the rate of turnover and some feedback from previous employees.  It will also give you a chance to know the comments and opinions of people who have worked for competitors and evaluate whether which company is better in terms of a specific aspect such as compensation and benefits, performance management, leadership, and others.