Biz Tips Blog: Online Marketing, Visibility and Business Blogging Tips

POLL: Social Networking Sites

Social networking. It's all the buzz right now. So, we want to know...what is the primary social networking site you use to market and promote your business?  Please take our poll!  If your preferred site is not on the list, please use the comments to let us know. We're very curious to know where you're spending your time online.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

It's amazing how many social networking sites there are. Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of sites. There's something for everyone.

How Authors Make Money on the Internet...for REAL

Authors waste too much time worrying about the wrong things when it comes to selling books online.

They spend precious time, for example, fretting about the perfect shade of lavender, the primary color at the site, so it doesn't clash with the green cover of the book that's displayed prominently.

Missing are a gold mine of free articles, a link to a content-rich blog, pages optimized for the search engines, and one of those obtrusive boxes that bounces down from the top of the screen as soon as a visitor arrives.

Facebook Tools and Tips

If you're into Facebook or thinking about checking it out, I received a link this week to a list of 100 tools and tips to tap the Facebook Customer Base.

This is a list of links to articles on subjects ranging from money-making opportunities on Facebook to how-to guides for using Facebook to build your network.  There is a lot of information on this site and depending on your interest and commitment to using Facebook as a marketing tool, could be worth your time to study.

My particular interests are in leveraging what The Blog Squad is doing and reaching a bigger audience. Currently I'm using the Events section to post info about our teleseminars and interviews. I also have my blog feeds posting on my profile so my content gets a bigger reach as well.

I'm still learning and I'm working my way through the articles on small business strategies.

Related posts:
Facebook Finally Got Me
Facebook Can Drive More Readers to Your Blog

7 Social Media Tools: A Conversation

Next week is crazy for us.  First, on Monday Facebook expert Mari Smith is interviewing us about how we're using Facebook as a marketing tool. This is not a public event, but a link to the audio will be available at some point through Mari's Facebook Fortunes program.

On Wednesday, we join Leesa Barnes, conference organizer extraordinaire, for a conversation about 7 Social Media Tools.  This is a free event and precedes the Social Media Telesummit that opens on February 20. The 9 day extravaganza features two dozen experts (yes, that includes The Blog Squad!) helping you understand and use the myriad social media tools available to businesses.

Back to our conversation with Leesa.  We're going to spend 30 minutes talking about how these tools can be used in business:

1. Microblogging - Twitter, Pownce & Jaiku
2. Blogging - Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad
3. Podcasting - live using BlogTalkRadio or Talkshoe, recorded using Podango or Wordpress
4. Social networking - Ryze, LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook
5. Social bookmarking - StumpleUpon, Digg, del.icio.us
6. Photo sharing - Flickr, Bubbleshare
7. Video sharing - Blip.tv, YouTube, Revver

The call is free, but you do have to register.  The conversation is at 8:00 pm Eastern Time (5 p.m. Pacific) on Wednesday, January 30. Note: we are guests of Leesa Barnes. Please direct any questions about the preview call to Leesa. The call will be recorded, but you must be registered to get the audio.

I'll let you know what's coming up Thursday in a future post...

Audio - How to Prevent Business Blog Failure

If you missed it, here's the audio replay for the interview we did today about how to avoid business blog failure: http://www.boostyourbusinessblog.com/replay.html

We are offering a $100 Early Bird discount on our Better Business Blogging program, sponsored by Leadership University, that begins on February 5. The discount expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, January 25.

If you're a member of Leadership University, tuition is included with your membership.