Facebook is a great community to be a part of to catch up with old friends, keep up with the current ones, and even find contacts and new friends. A lot of people do use Facebook to just waste their time, and there is nothing wrong with that. Everybody is responsible for themselves and their own times. If you are a business owner or want to start an online business, you can’t afford to do the same. There are plenty of ways that Facebook can help you take your business to the next level and make some money in the process as well.

Paul Dunay has done such a wonderful job with his presentation on this topic, that everyone should take time to go over his recommendations on this subject.

1. CafePress: I have talked about CafePress and how you can make money from it in the past. By using Facebook, you can sell products on Facebook and put more money in your pocket. Here is the app that lets you do just that. Continue reading 5 Ways To Make Money On Facebook

Linkedin is one of the top social networking sites on the Internet these days. It has been around for a while now, but it still doesn’t get the respect that it deserves. Many businesses focus too much on Facebook and Twitter and don’t pay enough attention to Linkedin and similar services. In reality, Linkedin is an amazing network to be a part of if you want to build business relationships, gather leads, and network with experts in your industry. Being involved on Linkedin is more than just creating a profile and telling others what you do for a living. Creating a killer profile should be on the top of your agenda but it shouldn’t be your only contribution to the Linkedin community. Depending on your business model, there are plenty of ways to reach out to your prospects on Linkedin and build long lasting relationships.

If you are looking for ideas on how to use Linkedin to build leads for your business, here are some tactics that you can try:

• Your Linkedin Profile: your profile is your first impression on folks who find you on the web or through LinkedIn. Make sure you have information on your skills and recent projects. Add your relevant experience to your work history and don’t forget to mention your education. Don’t forget to use the right keywords so people can find you through search engines and Linkedin search. Make sure you provide an accurate description of what your talents are and how you can help others.
• Past colleagues: don’t wait for others to find you on LinkedIn. Take action and add your former colleagues to your network. You never know when you are going to need their help and vice versa. Don’t let your past relationships to go to waste.
• Linkedin Groups: Linkedin groups are a great way to connect with others and build your network. Just don’t join them. Participate in them. Join sub-groups and volunteer for activities in those groups.
• Relationship Management: don’t forget that Linkedin is about networking with others. In order to do that, you need to be connected with them. Being an open networker can help you a long way towards achieving your professional goals. You should also get your Twitter and Facebook friends to join you on Linkedin.
• Contact Management: thanks to LinkedIn, you have a decent contact management system that you should definitely use to manage your professional networks. Don’t hesitate to add new connections from the groups that you are a part of or people who have answered your questions on Linkedin.
• Your blog/websites: you should take time to add your blogs and websites to your Linkedin account. Don’t forget to change “My Website” text link to something more descriptive.
• Share Info: whether it’s sharing articles, answering to polls, helping others with their questions, or sharing your travel information through Linkedin applications, you have got plenty of choices to be involved on Linkedin.
• Add Company: don’t forget to add your company or business to Linkedin. Don’t just rely on your personal profile to push your business.
• Recommendations: don’t be shy to ask for recommendations on LinkedIn. It’s much easier to get folks to recommend you on LinkedIn. Your clients and past colleagues can provide your business with much needed boost to score more clients in the future.
• Turn on Applications: you should have done this by now, but if you haven’t, make sure to check out the applications available on Linkedin and add the appropriate ones to your page.

Linkedin is a wonderful community to be a part of, and the noise is much lower on Linkedin than Twitter or Facebook. If you have taken time to get more involved on Twitter and Facebook, there is no reason you should take the time to do the same on Linkedin. You’d be surprised once you see your results.

YouTube has quickly become of the best sources for small businesses to generate leads and dominate the search engines. In a previous post, I talked about how you can use search engine optimization to drive traffic to your small business website and take your business to the new level. Guess what? Video optimization is going to be a part of that process as well. Whether you decide to put your content on YouTube or on your own service, you want to make sure that you give it the best chance to be found by searchers and your visitors. YouTube is especially attractive for small businesses as they don’t have to pay a whole lot of money to host the videos, and they can go viral with the help of the YouTube community.

Creating videos for business is much different from making them for fun. There are a lot of talented individuals on YouTube who make killer videos, and as a small business owner you can always recruit these folks to push your brand. But you can’t model your own videos after these people. Your business, its brand, image, and reputation is too important to experiment with. So it’s always good to have a strategy on what you want to accomplish with your YouTube videos and go about executing it step by step. Not having a plan is the easiest way to go bust on YouTube.
Continue reading YouTube For Business 101: How To Get Started

Whether you own a business or just have a blog that you are treating as a hubby, you are going to have to drive traffic to your  business if you want to survive. You can always try paying for traffic and get lots of traffic with pay per click marketing, but that is going to depend on your budget. It’s so easy to spend a fortune and blow through your budget without making real profits. Pay per marketing is effective but you have to be very good at it, and even then you’ll have to combine multiple tactics (SEO, offline, …) to manage your cost per acqusition and increase your margins.

One of the best ways to drive traffic to a website is by using social networking and bookmarking sites to get the word around it. Think about it. If your site is submitted and dugg on Digg.com, you are going to get a whole lot of free traffic that you wouldn’t get otherwise. And if you have real good content or services that you can offer to your visitors, there is no reason your site won’t get some love from Digg or other social networking community members. Let’s not forget the SEO ramifications of submitting your pages to social bookmarking sites either. Not only you get back-links that could help you climb the search engine rankings, you may even get ranked for highly competitive keywords through your pages on social bookmarking sites.

Taking advantage of social bookmarking sites is a no brainer, but there are hundreds of them around and submitting each page to these sites can be a hassle. Most of these sites require you to create an account and verify them before you can use their service. You’ll also have to manage your passwords, secret questions, and so on. It’s just too much hassle for a business owner to go through. And you can use your time on other more important chores. Thanks to social bookmarking automation services such as Social Maximizer, you won’t have to do it all by yourself.

Social Maximizer is a cool social media automation service that lets you submit your pages to hundreds of social bookmarking services without having to lift a finger. You will have to set a title and description for each entry, but you won’t have to create accounts and submit stories by hand. What I love about Social Maximizer is the fact that unlike other social bookmarking automation services, you get to choose what goes live. That way you can not only avoid spamming these networks but also get more value out of your each entry.

Services such as Social Maximizer are life savers for your business. They let you concentrate on more core business activities and still drive you lots of free traffic to bring down your costs per customer. Best of all, they don’t spam these social bookmarking sites, which means you won’t get banned. Best of all, they don’t cost much (18 cents per submission in Social Maximizer’s case). If you own an online business and are looking for more traffic, Social Maximizer is a no brainer.

Twitter is one of the fastest growing Web 2.0 properties around. Everyday, thousands of people join Twitter and millions of tweets are posted. When you have a fast growing community, you have the potential to make a lot of money. As long as you are there at the right time with the right product, there is no reason you can’t build a business on Twitter. Twitter API is a great way to start building a service for Twitter, but that’s not the only way you can make money on Twitter. With that in mind, here are a few ways to build your business on Twitter:

1. write free applications for Twitter.
2. write a paid application for Twitter.
3. sell backgrounds for Twitter.
4. create training courses for Twitter.
5. be a match maker on Twitter.
6. be a job finder on Twitter.
7. help others find internships on Twitter.
8. Promote affiliate products on Twitter.
9. Make money with your links on Twitter.
10. create account management services for Twitter.
11. offer Twitter analytics.
12. write an innovative URL shortening service.
13. write an iPhone app for Twitter.
14. write a Web 2.0 mash-up with Twitter.
15. create a Wordpress plug-in
16. create a Twitter friendly community theme for Wordpress (MU).
17. build a “yellow pages” service based on Twitter.
18. help companies build their online reputation with Twitter.
19. offer Twitter (social media) consulting.
20. sell your products.
21. throw Twitter auctions.
22. throw non-profit events on Twitter.
23. network with super-connectors.
24. Build JVs.
25. drive traffic to your blog.
26. help others go green.
27. make money rotating ads on your profile.
28. create a Q/A mashup.
29. build a video-Twitter service.
30. let people go over 140 characters.
31. build a Twitter chat system.
32. create a niche Twitter portal.
33. sell Twitter scripts.
34. write a book!
35. create a video-cast.
36. build a radio-show around Twitter.
37. build exclusive membership sites.
38. create a social shopping portal.
39. offer free services and go viral.
40. offer horoscope on Twitter.
41. become a c-level job resource.
42. create a medial portal.
43. create a legal Twitter mash-up.
44. offer fitness services on Twitter.
45. write a trend analysis app.
46. create a retweet software suite.
47. build an innovative Twitter client.
48. create a movie portal based on Twitter.
49. sell shirts on Twitter.
50. raise funds for a great cause (twestivals).
51. build a troll hunter service.
52. create a productivity tool.
53. build an image/file/video service.
54. provide security services.
55. come up with new product ideas.
56. survey your current customers.
57. poll your followers for new product features.
58. build an automation tool.
59. build corporate Twitter management suites.
60. create voice services for the community.
61. add Twitter to your sales pages.
62. advertise on Twitter.
63. offer tutorial on Twitter API programming.
64. create an expense management service.
65. become a tweet-up coordinator.

Did I miss anything?

Everybody is talking about the social media these days. Just a few days ago we had Kutcher vs. CNN in the first Twitter challenge. The goal was to reach one million users on Twitter and also contribute to a great cause in the process. The social media industry may be maturing, but there is still a lot of money to be earned. Let’s not forget that as great as Facebook, FriendFeed, and Twitter are, they are not perfect. You all probably remember myspace and its dominance a few years ago. Where is it now? It’s barely holding on. Things change quickly in the social media, and that means entrepreneurs are always going to have the opportunity to make money with their products and services. If you are willing to learn new things and think outside the box, there is no limit to how much you can earn in this industry. With that in mind, here are a few ways to make money online from the social media:

1. Paid applications: writing an application for Facebook and Twitter is one of the best ways to make money online. As long as you provide a unique value, there is no reason you can’t monetize your work.
2. Free applications: free applications can help you get a lot of traffic back to your site and even promote your other products. You can’t beat free.
3. Services: there are many services that you can provide to folks who want to get in on this whole social media thing. You can help them achieve more followers or promote their businesses online. You could teach them how to get started with the social media. Consulting and coaching is one of the best ways to make money in this market.
4. Videos: you can take your service to the next level by creating a video product that shows people how to do things. It’s more than consulting. It’s teaching a lot of people how to get things done.
5. Products: you can always create products that let people do more with the social media. This goes back to item number 1 but these products will address a set of needs. You can create a program that lets people grab information from various social media sites and track their reputation across these networks. The sky’s the limit here.
6. Corporate services: most corporations are still not on board with a lot of things that are going on in the social media. They are proactively looking for solutions that help them manage their reputation and get more out of Twitter and Facebook. What a better way to make money than offering these companies a solution they can work with.
7. Reports: you can always sell reports as long as you provide real value. You can also put together a book if you have gotten real results on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

There are many other ways you can make money on social networking sites. The sky’s the limit here. You can create all kinds of mashups and get more specific with the above tactics. Social media is here to stay. Why not make

If you have a website up and ready to go, you probably want to drive traffic to it. There are many ways to drive traffic to a site (some which are discussed on i-netpreneur), but free traffic is by far my favorite. One way to get more organic traffic is by getting more links to your website. The more links you have from authority sites, the more traffic you can get, and the better your search engine ranking will be. Submitting your links to Social bookmarking sites is one of the best ways to get links to your site. Now, you don’t want to spam social bookmarking sites, but if you have a decent piece of content to share with others, there is no shame in sharing them on these sites.

The key to success on social bookmarking site is:

• Great content: if you don’t have content that people want to bookmark and come back to in a future date, you are just wasting your time. Do yourself a favor and work on your content before putting all your hopes on social bookmarking sites.
• Unique Anchor Text: you don’t want to submit your links to all social bookmarking sites with the same anchor text. You can make it worth your while by switching anchor texts around to get ranked for more terms.
• Avoid Spam: one thing you don’t want to do is spam social networking sites. It not only looks bad, it could get you banned too. Don’t go crazy on these sites. And don’t forget that you want to be a part of the community and provide value to others. One way to do that is to submit other people’s sites as well.

Social bookmarking sites allow you to get indexed faster and even get ranked higher for highly competitive terms. This tactic may not be the only thing you need to increase traffic to your site, but it helps a lot. Now you may ask, “how do I submit my site to 1000s of bookmarking sites available on the Internet?” You have a point. If you try to do this by hand, you are going to end up spending weeks and months doing the work. You can always pay someone to do it, but that is going to cost you money, and you never know if the job is getting done right.

The best way by far is a hybrid submission approach. What do I mean by hybrid? Simple. You want to have the ability to control the text and description of your submissions, but at the same time you want to use a software program to automate the rest of the process. That’s exactly what Bookmarking Demon does. Social Bookmarking Demon allows you to define multiple anchor texts for each submission and submit them randomly to the bookmarking services. So if you define 10 different anchor texts, the software will choose among them in random to make sure you get more value out of this channel. Best of all, you can add your own services to it as well. So if there is a site that you want to submit to but is available in Bookmarking Demon, you can just add it without too much fuss.

Who says you have to outsource your social media efforts. There is not a better way to do this than using a hybrid approach. You control the text, and the software controls the submission. Social Bookmarking Demon keeps you honest as well. Sometimes, it is easy to get carried away and spam these sites. But with Social Bookmarking Demon you can monitor your stats and avoid unfortunate scenarios.

If you are looking for a hybrid software solution that helps you get a handle of your social bookmarking efforts, you should try Bookmarking Demon. It’s simple, and it keeps on delivering.

The Internet has truly revolutionized the way we do business. You have probably heard that a millions times by now. But there is a difference between doing business on the Internet, and using the Internet to do business. Everyday, a new Web 2.0 service launches. Doing business online is now more than just being present on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. You not only need to be involved in these communities, you’ve got to use every single credible Web 2.0 service to build your brand and drive traffic to your site. You heard me right! Every single one of them. That doesn’t mean you should do all this work yourself. But it pays to outdo your competitors in the social media arena.

You may say, “I don’t have time to be involved in every single community on the web.” You are right. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t test them all to see which ones give you the highest ROI. It’s one thing to test and dismiss under-performing social communities. It’s another thing to completely ignore top social media sites just to come back in the game when it’s too late. With that in mind, here are a few technologies that you should be using to build business online.

Social Networking Sites: You can’t afford not to be involved in the social media in 2009. You should have a profile on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. And you should reach out to others and expand your network. Create your own group. Tweet interesting articles. Provide value to others. That’s what Web 2.0’s all about. Being involved in these communities is a no-brainer at this point:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Linkedin
• YouTube
• MySpace

Squidoo: if you are not using Seth Godin’s Squidoo, you are missing out. It’s a great way to build business and credibility. You can always sell your lenses, but I am personally in it for networking and driving traffic to my sites.
Digg: a lot of people say, Digg is overrated! But it’s not. Just because you can’t get anything out of it, doesn’t mean you are doing it right. Digg has proven itself to be a goldmine for a lot of businesses. If you are not taking advantage of it, you are just missing out. Take a look at what other top users are doing, and there is a good chance you can find the flaws within your own Digg strategy.

Orkut: Orkut is underrated but an absolute goldmine. It’s been around for a while and it’s a great way to build traffic and network with a global community.

StumbleUpon: another great site to drive traffic to your business and build up your network. StumbleUpon is more than giving a thumb up to your own story. You’ve got to be involved. You can blog and add friends on StumbleUpon too. And don’t forget that trust is everything. So don’t go around submitting all your pages to it without providing any value to others.

Wordpress.com: it’s one thing to host your own Wordpress blog. It’s another thing to own a Wordpress.com blog and be involved in that community. And let’s not forget that Wordpress sites do get ranked pretty well on search engines. It doesn’t take much to start a free blog on Wordpress.com, so you should try to do it. It’s worth the time.

Weebly: Weebly is another blogging platform that helps you get links back to your own site and network with others. Creating your blog on Weebly is a piece of cake, so no excuses here.

Tumblr: Tumblr is a rising star. A lot of tweeters are already using Tumblr too! It take a little bit of time to set up your profile and manage your blog, but it’s all worth it. You definitely need to test this.

There you have it. There are thousands of other things you can do to drive traffic to your website. But if you are not taking advantage of the above services, you are missing out big time! It may look daunting to manage all your profiles on these social networks, but that’s the name of the game. You’ve got to out-hustle your competitors if you want to dominate your niche. And before you know it, you get a handle of it all. You got to be in the game to win it, so are you?

*For more information on how to master these web 2.0 services, check out Web Traffic Secrets.

The social media has changed the way people communicate and do business. A few months ago, a lot of people would laugh at the idea of businesses using Twitter, Digg, and other social networking sites to drive leads and increase their business. But if you are still ignoring the social media sites these days, you are leaving money on the table. Sites such as Twitter are amazing channels to reach out to customers, prospects, and even partners and build and expand your business. And best of all, there is no monetary cost for using these sites. You don’t have to pay to build a Twitter profile nor do you have to pay others to follow you. All you have to do is communicate and provide value to others and folks will follow you.

If you are a business owner, you should not live without a Twitter profile. A couple of years ago folks didn’t know about Twitter, and the opportunity wasn’t that huge. But today, folks are searching out for companies on Twitter. They want to contact you. They want to reach out to you. If you are not on Twitter, you are missing out big time. Sites such as Twibs allow businesses to announce their presence on Twitter to the world. There are thousands of businesses already listed on Twibs, and if you are a business owner, you should list your business there as well.

Whether you are an individual or a small business, you can still benefit from Twitter. But Twitter is different from anything you have dealt with. The community is smart and can see through your efforts to make quick bucks. That’s why you should have a real plan to succeed on Twitter. If you are a small business owner, you should:

• Create a professional profile: your profile helps you make a good first impression on your followers. You should take time to write an catchy bio about your business (what you do, …). You should also change your background and put your business and website information as well as your logo on it(read our logo piece here).
• Link to your website: when you create your bio, don’t forget to give your followers a link to follow if they like what you do. I can’t tell you how many small businesses forget to include their contact information on their Twitter page.
• Create your business avatar: your avatar helps you make an instant connection with the Twitter community. You should take time to design an avatar that is attractive and portrays an image of what your business is all about.
• Not be stingy: a lot of folks decide to protect their updates from others. That’s the worst way to approach Twitter. Twitter is all about openness and contributing to the community. By locking up your updates, you are depriving yourself of Twitter’s full potential.
• Update regularly: a lot of small businesses set up their Twitter account, update it a couple of times, and then forget about it for a month. Your business doesn’t stop going on for a month, right? Then, your Twitter account shouldn’t either. You should try to post at least 5 valuable tweets each and every day. That’s really the bare minimum.
• Provide Value: the more you add to Twitter, the more you get out of it. People follow you for a reason. Give them valuable information, and they keep coming back for more.
• Throw Giveaways: giveaways are one of the best ways to go viral on Twitter. People like freebies, so why not give them some to spread your name and brand all around Twitter (see Twitaway for ideas).
• Network with others: don’t be scared to communicate with others and respond to their updates. Twitter is a networking site. It’s a many-to-many communication service. It’s not just about you!
• Know the limits: if you are a business owner, you should know that what you say on Twitter can help or harm your business name significantly. Don’t say anything you don’t want others to hear about in a professional situation.
• Put it all together: if you are involved in other social communities, you should use the twitter tools available to link your twitter account to those sites. Sites such as Friendfeed and Facebook provide you with the opportunity to do just that. By connecting your accounts on multiple networks you can realize synergies and further expand your following.
• Listen!: that’s probably the most important step in your Twitter journey. You’ve got to listen to what others are talking about, what products they are interested in, and what their needs are. Not only you can get product ideas from Twitter, you can address your business’ shortcomings as well. Be a good listener on Twitter, and the sky’s the limit.

Unlike what some businessmen want you to believe, Twitter does matter. It matters for small businesses, big businesses, and individuals. It’s a great branding tool, and it can drive lots of traffic to your website. But you have to connect with prospects/customers, provide value and listen to others to get the most out of Twitter. If you are not doing that, you are wasting your time and hurting your business.

Are you a Twitter believer yet?

For more information on how you can expand your presence on Twitter, read the Twitter Report to find out marketing angles which can help you drive thousands of leads to your business every single day.