2008 : Comparison of Top Social Media Sites Performance

Year 2008 saw the emerging domination of social media on the internet like never before.
Sites like facebook and blogger retained the top lead while msn live shows a down trend.

The Top 5 as as expected, Blogger is not much ahead of facebook while myspace is catching up in the visitor counts.

Top Social Media Sites (ranked by unique worldwide visitors November, 2008; comScore)

1. Blogger (222 million)
2. Facebook (200 million)
3. MySpace (126 million)
4. Wordpress (114 million)
5. Windows Live Spaces (87 million)
6. Yahoo Geocities (69 million)
7. Flickr (64 million)
8. hi5 (58 million)
9. Orkut (46 million)
10. Six Apart (46 million)
11. Baidu Space (40 million)
12. Friendster (31 million)
13. 56.com (29 million)
14. Webs.com (24 million)
15. Bebo (24 million)
16. Scribd (23 million)
17. Lycos Tripod (23 million)
18. Tagged (22 million)
19. imeem (22 million)
20. Netlog (21 million)

Source ( TechCrunch)

Here is a graphic representation of the fierce competition between the web2.0 and more doing websites on the internet.



The essential tool for todays media advertising and brand building is Social Media Communities and sites without any doubt. The SEO's (Search Engine Optimizers) and SEM's (Search Marketers) who ignore this major and "less cost" promotion opportunity, are not using the internet to the fullest.

Top 4 Traps by Fake SEO's and Search Marketers

Checkout the Fake SEO case studies, its very common to lose money when you dont know where to put your faith and trust in...

1. Guaranteed inclusion in Google
The most killer line you can observe in most of the so-called Great SEO's in any part of the world.
Some say we will make your site listed in Google's Search engine ( some go beyond and say we will do it for Yahoo! and MSN too.+ 100000000 other search engines)

Remember the term inclusion ( means your site is there in the search engine's index) and ranking ( get top positions for targetted keywords) are totally different and used to confuse the potential client.

The fact is if you have a site , Google will be crawling it as per DNS (Domain Name Server) Updates. Most of the webmasters or net surfers dont know the fact that Google is also an Authorized Domain Registrar, meaning that it has the power to search and crawl the WHOIS database as per wish.
There is a concept of "Sandbox" with search engine (can assure for Google), which may delay the indexing of the site for some time, a new site therefore does not show the instant it is registered.
If your site is still not indexed you can submit a Google Sitemap via Google Webmaster tools.

2. Top 10 Ranking in 24 Hours
Is it a magic trick? well read the complete story first before following these SEO gurus. They have some "special" terminology for that and also have some "conditions", which you will come to know only after you pay.
I have checked with some sites:
One says, the top ranking you will get is for the keyword " Pravin Shivarkar is the best SEO in India". When asked about 24 hours ... well they say, they will submit the site and then "influence" the search engines to rank me for the keyword ; well is it a keyword anyway ;)
One site goes beyond the logical ( Sorry....) imagination limit to say that, they are not talking about the organic ranking, they mean the top ranking is for the Sponsored results ( generally we get on the right hand bar in google) and they will rank your site ( here the really mean a paid advertisement)

3. Do you want guaranteed search engine ranking on Google, Yahoo , MSN?
Who will say no, unless and until he dont know why it is all about ...
The advertisement copy DO NOT Say which ranking, what rank to be exact.
We might have seen for years that if you link a particular site via n number of backlinks ( one way linking) then it is considered that the site is important by Trust vote, which some Black Hat SEO's do try to experiment or spam.

4. Guaranteed 100000000 visitors !!!
If you dont want to know who is coming from which site, or you want to show your client the sudden "Growth" that has incurred because of your "Magical" SEO techniques yesterday , this can be an ideal situation to be in with your money running out of your pocket...........
There are many "businessmen" who buy 1000+ domains and put some "engine" to show some data on each of those "websites". So do employ people (Data entry operators) to add ( copy and paste) content on these sites. Now most of them are directories with whatever subject in this world you can imagine of. So if you are selling for a washing soap and are getting visits from college library sites ( well can be good no doubt) are you expecting any sales after that?

Its all about asking exact questions in life and while dealing with Online Search Optimizers and Marketers!

Google Search Insights Evolution !

Lets welcome, the latest offering from Google. Yes I'm talking about the Google Search Insights, a search tool which would be of immense help in Keyword research from the search marketers point of view.

Google insights for search provide deep dive statistics for keyword searches via volumes, countries drilling to seasonal and geographic trends and not to forget its a category wise option.

Previously only Google Trends was available to get a "hint" of the keyword competition which was to get a general guessing idea, as 100% reliability was not assured, and cant be :)

Lets check the difference with both the tools :

Searching for : search engine optimization , search marketing

Google Trends gives a nice "crossing" graph, showing the trend of search engine optimization is giving up to search marketing over the years.


Search on Google Insights :
Now when the same keywords are searched for the "interest" in several years, a similar but simple graph is observed giving the output and winning to search marketing (keyword)


Drilled down to India + Maharashtra + 90 days span


Shows a wide graph, here the more you categorize and drill, you will get a deeper insight, as the name suggests and when used with commonsense, can be an effective tool in keyword analysis and research.

How Offline Website Optimization help Online Sales?

Most of the online business analyst and strategist under-estimate the power of offline channels which influence on the online buying behavior of the user.

A study conducted by iProspect partnered with JupiterResearch ( June 2007) to develop and field a survey to U.S. search engine users to gain a better understanding of how exposure to offline channels influences their search and purchase behaviour.

The study and the approach must be considered as a serious metric in judging how the online buying activities perform and webmasters and Search engine marketers who are now mostly dependent on online marketing should raise their view towards offline promotions. That is how a complete marketing action would take place resulting in sure shot success formula.

Here are some of the statistics :






Source : IProspect

Adsense features with Mobile and YouTube

Saturday morning got some good news from Google's Adsense by newsletter.

It said exactly as:

AdSense for mobile now available

If you currently run a website designed for mobile phones, or are planning to set one up, you can now monetize your site with Google AdSense for mobile. Similar to AdSense for content, AdSense for mobile automatically serves targeted ads to your mobile webpages, enabling you to earn money while providing useful information to your users. If you'd like to learn more about the specifics of the program, check out the policies and requirements. Or to get started right away, simply sign in to your AdSense account, visit the AdSense Setup tab, and select AdSense for mobile as the product.

Announcing Video Units

We're excited to announce video units, a new way for publishers to enrich their sites with premium, relevant video content on an embedded YouTube player. We know one of your top goals is to enhance your users' experience, so video units allow you to choose which video categories to target to your site and which to exclude, as well as to customize the color scheme and layout of the YouTube player. Plus, the ads provided with the videos are highly targeted and non-intrusive. If you're looking to monetize and enrich your site with premium video content, learn more about video units or simply log in to your account to get started.

US Presidential Candidate's Online promotion campaign

If we believe in News, there is some Confusion over US Presidential Candidate's Online promotion campaign.

Republican presidential candidate of Mitt Romney who is also the former Massachusetts governor may be surprised or rather worried to see the way his online marketing/ brand building campaign's stats.
Everyone of us could react strange if such a thing could happen to you!

According to according to Nielsen Online,reported to show some banner advertisements of the candidate on a rather irrelevant or objectionable site, which is a major concern for the reputation of the candidate as US elections are coming by.

This is an example of uncontrolled media spend and zero analytics application.
Simply automation of media buys or putting the money which is asked does not fit to a successful online advertisement/ brand building campaign.

What can Google Do with your Mobile Data?

Google using mobile data?

In what to be called as the next gen of ecommerce using consumer data for specific advertising and targetting consumers something in line with MOSOSO ( Mobile Social Software) , Mercury news reports a unique field which is being explored by Google recently:

Google is working on a service to let mobile-phone users find and buy items such as ring tones, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

The technology will allow consumers to use Mountain View-based Google to obtain lists of companies that provide the content they're seeking and links to where the products can be purchased, the Journal said on its Web site Monday.

Google and competitors such as Yahoo are bolstering their mobile offerings with services including maps and calendars after handsets outsold personal computers by more than 4-to-1 last year, according to researcher Gartner. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in May that the company's biggest growth opportunity is in mobile phones.

For the new services, Google is working with entertainment companies and smaller mobile-media providers to index material and make it available through searches, the Journal said.

Get Exponential Promotion with YouTube for Free!

Youtube from Google is the next hot Viral Marketing funda. Many future thinking SEO's have already capitalized/accepted on the enormous power of advertising & promotion on the net and what better than YouTube. There is a saying 'A picture speaks a thousand words'. If that is taken true, what will you say about a video ?

Believe me, if you want to get noticed easily with enormous visitors and quaility referals, the next Mantra of online adversiting is Video at Youtube.

Videos I like for the Killer ideas and innovative concepts :

Here are the list of videos that I recently found interesting.
Mostly are the ads with innovative ideas on youtube.

Nissan 4x4 Naturally Capable: Animation at the best



US WeightLifting TV Commercial: Women on Top


Sinking !!! Language difference



Trust your wife : A social Message

Yahoo! Photos is Closing

In a mail that was sent from Yahoo! its now clear that its photo sharing service Yahoo! photos is set to close giving preference to Flickr. A good move for the future !!

Here is what most of the users got on mail :

------------------------------------

Dear Yahoo! Photos user,

For some time now, we've supported two great photo sharing services: Yahoo! Photos and Flickr. But even good things come to an end, and we've decided to close Yahoo! Photos to focus all our efforts on Flickr — the award-winning photo sharing community that TIME Magazine has called "completely addictive."

We will officially close Yahoo! Photos on Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. PDT.

------------------------------------

How to Make Money From a Website ?

A .com stands for commerce in practical sense.
It means if you have a website , more probably you want to earn, in general essence of business.

Million dollar Question is , How to achieve that?

Two options for you :
1. Using Affiliate Programs:

Affiliate marketing is a method of promoting web businesses (merchants/advertisers) in which an affiliate (publisher) is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided through his/her efforts.

Affiliate marketing is also the name of the industry where a number of different types of companies and individuals are performing this form of internet marketing, including affiliate networks, affiliate management companies and in-house affiliate managers, specialized 3rd party vendors and various types of affiliates/publishers who utilize a number of different methods to advertise the products and services of their merchant/advertiser partners.

Affiliate marketing overlaps with other internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates are using the same methods as most of the merchants themselves do. Those methods include organic search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing, email marketing and to some degree display advertising. More on Wikipedia


2. Showing Ads : Using Third Party Banner Ads

How to Earn money via web advertising
Pay-Per-Impressions (PPI)
Here in PPI, you get paid on the basis of number of impressions (pageviews) of the specified ad/banner - the advertisement - on your web page. More the impressions more you get.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Here in PPc, you get paid only for the clicks made on the advertisement shown on your web page. More the clicks more you get. Now a days intelligent online advertising shows relevant ads as per your page content, atlease Google Adsense does so for web publishers.

Pay-Per-Lead (PPL)
A practical approach to Return On Investment ( ROI) where you get paid once the lead is generated, say by filling up a form or filling up a survey for the advertiser. Costs higher than PPI and PPC models but more success oriented.

Pay-Per-Call (PPCall)
Similar to PPL, here in Pay-Per-Call approach is to get the Return On Investment ( ROI) when the advertiser gets a call from the visitor or who-ever is interested. Costs higher than all of the above models but more success oriented and if you are into a business of precious things and want to have a record of the phone number, this is the most suitable way.More the calls more you get. But tracking is little bit hard here as phones may directly go the advertiser.

Choose the best option that suits you, do let me know your experiences , all the best !!

Vlog : Video Blogging : Promotions and SEO

Have videos or not, but you can start your own video blog or vblog just in minutes.
Its basically a blog with videos and little or no text at all. Vlogs , the latest hit in online promotion arena, are blogs that mostly feature video shorts and not the text as compared with other blogs.
In short we can say Vlog = Video + Blog

According to mefeedia.com (a major online vlog aggregator) 2,580 vloggers who have created over 100,000 videos since last year.

Why Vlog (or Videoblog)?

Its a great opportunity to show/share some videos for special occasions.
- For Team Events
- Parties / Personal events
- Social Events and social media marketing
- Brand building by sharing and distribution
- Politics and Campaigns
- Advertisements and viral marketing
- Product Promotions

How to start a Video Blog >>
All you have to do is:
- Create a blog
- Upload you video(s)if you have or share using Google video or you tube
- Provide title/descriptions

Vlogs extend the reach of traditional blogs making it more on the interactive audio-visual level of promotion. Although videos cannot be search anyhow for content inside, Social media Marketing and referrals can make it a huge success. This is one form of Indirect Search Engine Optimization with great success ratio!!

Affiliate Marketing and Web Promotion

Definitions of Affiliate marketing on the Web:

This is a system of revenue sharing between one site (the affiliate merchant) which features an ad or content designed to drive traffic to another site (the advertiser). The affiliate will receive a fee based on the amount of traffic generated.
www.internetworld365.com/Content/Pages/Glossary.aspx

Affiliate marketing is the use by a Web site that sells products of other Web sites, called affiliates, to help market the products. Amazon.com, the book seller, created the first large-scale affiliate programme and hundreds of other companies have since followed.
www.adoofa.com/services/services_glossary.asp

A system of advertising in which site A agrees to feature buttons from site B, and site A gets a percentage of any sales generated for site B. It can also be applied to situations in which an advertiser may be looking for marketing information, rather than a cash sale. Popular among startups with very small marketing budgets.
www.expedite-email-marketing.com/internet_marketing_glossary_internetmarketingtermsdefinition.htm

Revenue sharing between two web sites. Affiliate site normally provide free advertising for an ecommerce site and compensation is based on performance ie sales, clicks, registrations, or a combination of all.
www.positioning-search-engines.com/glossary.htm

A risk-free form of advertising in which a company pays its Affiliate partners a commission for sales and/or leads generated through the Affiliates marketing activities.
www.webbloom.com/Help_Centre/Glossary/

A business relationship with a merchant or other service provider who allows you to link to that business. When a visitor clicks on the link at your site and subsequently makes a purchase from the merchant, you receive a commission based on the amount of the sale, a referral fee or a pay-for-click fee.
www.showtheworld.com/glossary.htm

A system of selling products or services in context over the Internet that allows online merchants to promote their goods or services within the content of tens of thousands of Web sites. Affiliate marketing allows merchants to pay their affiliates based on performance.
www.getrichfree.com/glossary_of_terms.htm

(also partner, pay for performance, performance-based, referral-based or revenue-sharing marketing) a revenue sharing partnership between a merchant and one or more affiliates, where the affiliate is paid a commission for referring clicks, leads or sales to the merchant website.
www.shareresults.com/about_us_glossary.php

Affiliate Marketing is a widespread method of promoting a website, in which an affiliate is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through his efforts. It is a modern variation of the practice of paying finder's-fees to individuals who introduce new clients to a business. Compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit (Pay-per-click), registrant (Pay-per-lead), or a commission for each customer or sale (Pay-per-Sale).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing