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Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Can Help you Track your Web and Online Success

Guna — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 16:58:11 +0000

As mentioned in my previous article web giant Google is attempting to become more social with the launch of their upcoming Google+ service, Google’s most recent attempt at success in the social media sector. However Google does not only want to innovate the way you use social media, they want to help you manage and track your online success using the social media already out there.

Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools have added new tools for tracking information like tweets, likes and +1s in your website’s traffic with the ability to then analyze that information. The basic features of these new tools include a “+1 Metrics Section” which provides feedback on the impact of the +1 Button on a search. The analytics then show how these +1s affect your website’s (CTR) click through rate, tracking the amount of +1s per page visited. This tool then maintains an accurate graph, so you can track the data over time.

To go along with those new tools Google also added the Activity report and Audience report features to their improved Webmaster Tools. The Activity report displays how many +1s your website pages have received. While the Audience report takes it a step further and displays geographic and demographic data about users that have +1′d your website.

Perhaps the most intriguing feature in the updated Webmaster tools is the new Social Plugin Tracking tool for Google Analytics. This tool compares the impact of different types of social actions on your website. It tracks +1s as well as other social network actions like Twitter tweets and Facebook Likes. These social Plugin Tracking features are broken into three categories, Social Engagement, Social Actions and Social Pages. Social Engagement tracks visitor behavior such as, time spent on your site, pages viewed etc. Social Actions tracks the numbers of actions done on your site including, +1’s, tweets and likes. Social Pages compares your page to others based on the number of social actions they receive.

For people who have their own websites, myself included this is a great tool. Not only does it track your web success as per the number of likes, +1’s etc. It provides data outside the Google network delving into Facebook and Twitter. While information such as the demography and geography of your visitors is an extremely valuable tool to have as you can see exactly who your audience is so you can better appeal to them. Fellow entrepreneurs and web enthusiasts out there, let’s use this knowledge to empower ourselves and our websites and ventures to new, unseen heights! Because as they say: Knowledge is power.

Google’s Proposed Attack on Facebook Juggernaut Gives Hope to Entrepreneurs

Guna — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:42:27 +0000

In 2011, there is one thing that is a certainty in the digital world, social media sells. Facebook more than anyone else has proved this by becoming the most visited website in the world, you could call Facebook an overnight sensation, although that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. But obviously the website launched by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 has grown beyond any logical expectations in a very short period of time, but we all know that story of course, after countless books and 2010’s Hollywood smash hit: The Social Network. Facebook’s rise has been so massive it has others following it dying to catch up; including fellow digital giant Google. Although now it appears Google is ready to finally launch a legitimate challenge.

Following its disastrous first foray into social media with Google Buzz in February of 2010, Google needed a Plan B and it seems they have found it with the newly launching: Google +. Google + which is currently on a field trial period, meaning it is available by invitation only is said to include new features such as, a group sharing feature which allows you to share “just the right things with just the right people.” Users are encouraged to create groups, or as they call them “circles” of contacts with which you share information. Groups can include anything from, “your friends from the tennis club,” “your family,” and as quoted by The Wall Street Journal “your boss in a circle by himself-just like in real life.”

Google + is content and contacts grouped specifically and exclusively setting up a new degree of privacy in the social media world. Furthermore Google + allows users to have video chats, similar to a feature within its Gmail service, but with one key upgrade: users can talk to and see numerous friends simultaneously. Also part of that service is a service called “Sparks,” which suggests articles to read and videos to watch based on what the service knows about the user’s interests. While its “Huddle” feature lets text messages be sent to several different people at once, known as group texting, an attractive feature since group-texting companies such as GroupMe Inc. have attracted thousands of users.

Where do we entrepreneurs fit in you ask? Well for that we have to backtrack a little bit in our story. Following the flop of Google Buzz in 2010, which included privacy complaints and unwanted information sharing, Google responded by buying up quite a few smaller social media applications including entrepreneur Rohit Khare’s Angstro (KNX.to) a real-time search engine and API that looks up most recent social information about your friends, from their LinkedIn profile to their Facebook profile. Thus, Google was looking to others, the innovators and forward-thinkers of social media to try and compete with Facebook. Rohit Khare was even hired by Google following his company being purchased.

So there you have it my friends go off and innovate, create and forward think. Social media is all about how we share, sharing be it, ideas, music, data, really anything you can imagine, so if you think of a new way to share new things, maybe you too can change the face of social media.

Six Ways to Make Easy Money on the Internet

Guna — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:05:42 +0000

Making money on the internet is apparently the most used and simple method of generating a little extra bucks. All of us have the need for some extra bucks at some point. It is possible to work from your home to make money online. Online money making has taken an excellent trend in the recent years.

There are many methods whereby you can make money online and use it for even purchasing a brand new home or even a car. Yes seriously people are making ton of money online. If you have a strategy and if you have the time that you can commit, you can make money too on the internet.

Today I am going to focus on a few basic money making opportunities on the internet. Anybody can do it.

Tips on making easy money through internet:

Market items online – You can make money online by promoting items that you may find locally on web sites such as, auction web sites like eBay, Amazon.com or even Craigslist. However small or perhaps useless an item could be, you may be surprised to find out that there are buyers waiting to pay you for it. Like the saying goes “One Man’s Garbage is Another Man’s Treasure…” Trust me you will be surprised. Try a few listings on eBay. It doesn’t cost you much.

Earn via online surveys — You may also generate a little extra money by participating on online surveys. It’s an effortless way to generate more money. On the internet there are several web sites that allow you to definitely participate in their online research. There are surveys that will pay you anywhere from $5 to $25 or even more.

Start running a blog — A great number of people is into blogging because it is among one of the best ways to begin to making money online. It needs the absolute minimum start up costs; you could start a remarkable blog and start receiving visitors in a matter of a day. Once you figure out the way to get started, you will soon realize that there are many ways to monetize your blog. There are many platforms that will allow you to setup a blog for free.

Advertising your internet site — For those who have a web site or a blog, publicize it by means of various social network websites just like Fb, Tweeter, MySpace, Digg, and so on. Signing up with these kinds of networking websites generally will come for free. These social media sites will send you massive traffic if you build your profile correctly. Once you have a massive presence in the social networking sites, you can then promote products on your website. These visitors will eventually purchase a product or two.

Create internet affiliate marketing — Millions of dollars are now being spent every day buying products and services online. Today, you need to know you could end up being generating a percentage on this; you can actually take a piece of the action by referring your visitors to your affiliated sites. It’s one of the best ways to start making money online. To do this particular you don’t even need a website or even a blog, and you don’t actually need much money either. This is a method of supporting the buyer by investigating and selecting and providing them with the products they are looking for them.

Start freelance writing – An additional and very popular method of generating money online is through freelancing. If you have the power to generate innovative articles, you’ll able to earn great level of money through freelancing. You can write a couple of articles everyday and generate easily $50/day.

SocioClean dot com – Protects Your Social Network Content

Guna — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:38:10 +0000

Today is the era of social networks in the internet. Most of the people around the world make use of the social network sites as means of communication, self expression and business marketing techniques. Once you are joining these sites, you are exposing information about yourself and building your social reputation. The risk is how you protect your reputation in the World Wide Web. How to make sure that your profile contents are clean and would not do harm to your name.

Because you need to protect your name and reputation in these social network sites, socialclean.com is made available to help you scan, clean and secure your social network contents. It is connected to all major social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace in order to secure your public information from any risks. It has the capability of handling the highest level of security with content analysis and giving you detailed reports in the areas of your concerns.

Continue reading below for the detailed features of the site according to its founder Priyanshu Harshavat.

What is the URL of Your Website?

http://socioclean.com

What is Your Vision for this Business?

Socioclean was found to keep social reputation clean in this growing world of social networking. Social networks are quickly becoming the primary personal communication and marketing platform for business.

However, they introduce privacy risks and personal information leakage, which is becoming a bigger problem every day.

Our approach is to simplify the problem for end-users by allowing them to scan and clean their online profile for various social networks. Socioclean is the first comprehensive solution for managing and monitoring your online social network profile.

What is the Business Plan or model?

Value
Socioclean platform lets users:

Take Control: Help manage online profile with advanced monitoring.
Maintain Social Reputation: Drive self-governance with growing social networks.
Expand User Experience: Single portal management for various social networks.

Why Did You Start this Website?

Most users are not aware of the data in their social profiles and how it might affect them negatively. Socioclean unique service eliminates this blind spot. Through socioclean platform user is able to scan their online profile for any inappropriate content that might hurt their online social reputation.

How are You Planning to market it?

Wb 2.0, google, facebook

Who are the Founders of this Website?

Priyanshu Harshavat

Where are You Located?

Evanston, IL 60201

When Did you Start this Website?

10/2010

How are you Different from Your Competitors?

We are a self-governed site vs. The traditional big brother approach applied by competitors.

Collegeprepready dot com – Prepares Students for College and Onwards

Guna — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:09:04 +0000

We want to be assured before we get into college that we will be successful in our careers. But do we have proper guidance and tools to lead us to the horizon of success?

We will be reviewing a site which offers tools, learning materials, guidance and tutorials to help students prepare for college life. The site also offers news, projects and events to enhance the learning development of the students before attending college.

collegeprepready.com is your partner in achieving your successful college careers. Take some time to read the detailed information about the site.

Here’s the inputs from the founder of collegeprepready.com:
What is the URL of Your Website?

http://collegeprepready.com

What is Your Vision for this Business?

ALH Group provides educational consulting, tutoring, and expert speaker services through the CollegePrep Ready for future college students and their families. Our motto “Every success begins as a thought…Think.See.Do.” We stand on that principle for every student.

What is the Business Plan or model?

My business plan is structured to create a variety of products (books and courses) and services (consulting, webinars, workshops, speaking) to reach the target market (future college students and their families).

Why Did You Start this Website?

I started this website because I had challenges during the college application process, college experience, and after college. I want to show other students and families how to avoid roadblocks during the college experience.

How are You Planning to market it?

I am planning to market with multiple methods including through my blog, website, social networking (Twitter and Facebook), radio show interviews, and newsletter.

Who are the Founders of this Website?

Ashley Hill

Where are You Located?

Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

When Did you Start this Website?

July 2010

How are you Different from Your Competitors?

Yes, I have many competitors. I provide multiple methods for clients to receive my services and a more comprehensive preparation package for clients.

Tell Me More About You or Your Business:

I desire to expand my business to a national and international level. Also, I would like to market to students in other languages in the future.

Review of Social Compare – Compare Anything You Want

Guna — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:43:47 +0000

Choosing which is the best among the rest is indeed comparing things, people, products, etc. Today, we’ve got an innovative site to review which claims to provide an easy tool to compare everything and find out which is better and best. It is a multi-user site wherein users can use and participate in comparing, voting and rating its contents.

Socialcompare.com comes into the online world bringing new concepts and services to offer. Spend some time to read more detailed information about how this site works and how it benefits you.

Website:

http://socialcompare.com

Here’s the conversation between me and Alexis

What is Your Vision for this Business?

The slogan is “compare everything, your imagination will have no limit!”.
We want to provide an easy tool to create and share collaborative and interactive comparison matrix about everything (any domain). Users can also rate, vote and comment the content. Data are published under open license and can be updated by members, such as wikipedia works. Bloggers/webmasters can use this service embedding nice comparative tables on their blog/website and allowing their readers to participate and maintain them, or voting/rating the table’s content…

What is the Business Plan or model?

Advertising first, affiliation, premium accounts later

Why Did You Start this Website?

We wanted to compare unusual things (not only prices and products) such as places to give birth, and we wanted be able to maintain the table content by a large community to be sure to have latest updated information.

How are You Planning to market it?

Building a community and regularly add new content, SEO, Get blog reviews about our innovative service, Social Media (blog, twitter, facebook)..

Who are the Founders of this Website?

Alexis Fruhinsholz and Vanina Berger

Where are You Located?

France

When Did you Start this Website?

15 november 2010

How are you Different from Your Competitors?

Not exactly the same concept. Some competitors are: Price comparisons websites that cannot compare everything and do not let users enter the content. Spreadsheets/databases oriented services that provide less social, collaborative and interactive matrix (SocialCompare enables various criteria such as image, video, ratings, vote, and finally comments…).

Tell Me More About You or Your Business:

Here is a video presenting the website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxKm7hRa9uE

Here is another video introducing how to create a comparison:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z00G0c39Rbg

Why 95% Of You Will Fail in 2011 – #1 Reason Why You will Not Make Money on the Internet

Guna — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:49:22 +0000

You probably wonder why I am starting off with such a negative posting as my first post for 2011. Well the truth is that about 95% of us will fail in 2011. We will not meet our goals nor get anywhere closer to where we want to be at the end of the year. I have been putting a lot of thought into StartupBoooster.com itself. I was trying to figure out where I want to be by end of the year. During that thought process, I thought I need to share my findings with you so you don’t waste your year as well.

A year is a very long time to waste. A year could be defined as having 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8, 760 hours or 525,600 minutes. I don’t want to get into seconds. Now that is a heck of a lot of minutes to waste! Do you really want to waste it this year? Well what would you have done differently if you were to go back in time to 2010 that would have made your year (2010) a successful year?

You may wonder where I am going with this. Well my friend, today I am going to lay it out for you why you will fail this year. It is then up to you to make sure you don’t fall into the trap like the rest of the 95% of the Entrepreneurs that wants to make money on the internet will. If you have an answer to the question I’ve posed above regarding going back to 2010, that is good. Unfortunately with today’s technology, you can’t go back in time. That time has passed. You will never get it back. However, you still have a choice to implement them for 2011! With a fresh year ahead of us, let’s start off fresh.

This post will be a bit lengthy. So I suggest you grab a coffee before you start reading it but MAKE SURE you DO READ the entire post. I don’t want to have to tell you that “I said so when 2012 rolls around!”

Are you ready to dig in a little deeper? Well the sad part is that about 95 % of the people that are trying to make money on the internet will fail at the end. You could be a web designer, you could be an internet marketer, SEO guru or whatever you call yourself.

Most of you will give up after wasting so much time and money. You will waste money because there are thousands of marketing materials and money making online materials out there on the internet. You are literally flooded with information such as ebooks, coaching, membership sites promising to make you a millionaire overnight, manuals, etc, etc. Their sales pitch to sell you the material is so convincing that it is hard to say “NO” and click away. I have done this many times myself. I have purchased eBooks that I’ve regretted the next morning because I wouldn’t know what to do with it OR the book didn’t give me anything more than what I already know.

DO YOU AGREE WITH ME SO FAR? How many of you have wasted money like this?

Now let me ask you this – Why are you reading this post? What will you do at the end of reading this post? Go back to what you do normally OR will you take action? Write down the answer and continue to read. We will get back to it.

Majority of the time, in my case all the time, we don’t go back to return the material we bought. We are true entrepreneurs and we don’t want to steal efforts put in by other entrepreneurs. Therefore, we suck it up and move on. Only thing is that we have less money in our pocket for the real expenses.

Please don’t take me wrong. Nothing is wrong with most of the marketing materials available online. Their intention is to help you make money on the internet. They do provide good information that you may already know. But it is you that have to do the work. It is you that can make a difference. They are not going to do it for you. This is the real challenge.

So in summary, you may belong to one of the following groups of people:

You have a big dream but you haven’t taken any steps to fulfill your dreams. You don’t know where to start so you stumbled upon my posting. Well I am glad you did! Make sure you read the rest.
You have been doing this for a while. You have purchased ton of materials promising to make you money online. You’ve implemented every one of those tips and techniques. However, you are not achieving your goals. You find it that no matter how closely you stick to the materials, you are not making huge strides.
You have been online too. You’ve bought some materials but instead of implementing what is suggested in those materials, you are constantly on the look out for someone to hand over a golden key to internet money making opportunities. You are just procrastinating and hoping that the door will open for you real soon.
You have been online too for a while. You’ve bought some materials as well. You have implemented a few things suggested on the materials but you spend most of the times on Forums and other sites digging for more and more insights on to how you can quickly make money. However, you are not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Then its you. You bought every single promising materials out there. You participate in many member forums and paid forums. Instead of implementing what you learn everyday, you are jumping from one branch to the other. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO! All you want to do is to make money on the internet but don’t know where to start?
and finally its you. You are making money online. You have had some success but your dreams are big. You know what you need to do to achieve your goals and dreams but for some odd reason, you are filled with excuses. You are just not taking the steps required to achieve your dreams.

SO WHICH GROUP DO YOU BELONG TO?

There may be other scenarios out there but I am sure you belong to one of the groups mentioned above. No matter which group you belong to, the reason why you are not making money on the internet is SAME FOR ALL!

So what is that strange factor that connects all of the above groups and keeping you from being a successful entrepreneur? What makes you different from successful people?

What am I talking about?

Well before we go any further, how many of you have actually made a New Year’s resolution this year? How many of you have made similar resolutions last few years? How many of you have actually kept them?

Well let me tell you something. If you have kept them, you will probably not be reading this article. You will probably be cruising in a nice paradise island for the holidays.

So now, let’s get back to my point why about 95% of you will NOT make money on the internet this year. Are you ready for this?

I have just finished reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. I strongly recommend you consider reading this book. It is not a new book but it has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. In that book, Covey talks about human programming – not so in those words but he is referring to scripts that are operating in our system on a daily basis. Those scripts define who we are and how we handle all of the situations. Those scripts will define our success.

Covey talks about how majority of those scripts are provided to us through our parents, our friends and family when we were young. Basically someone else wrote the program for you! Strange eh if you think about it.

Many of us don’t realize that those scripts are running within us on a daily basis. Covey says, “the way we see the problem is the problem.” We are programmed from the early days in a certain way. In order for you to be successful, you need to start looking from within – an inside out way rather than looking from outside in. You have all the solutions and the knowledge required for success. There is nothing secret out there that is going to make you million dollars online overnight. You need to build a base and you need to build it slowly. That is going to take time but you need to first look at the programs that are currently running in your brain – your system – YOU!

ACT or BE ACTED UPON

The difference between successful people and the 95% of the people that will fail this year, is that the successful people know how to exercise initiative and the rest don’t. It takes initiatives to create success. It means understanding yourself and reprogramming your scripts so that you can be successful. Yes get rid of the programs that were programmed by someone else for you.

Many successful people take advantage of weak people to build their wealth. Weak people tend to be reactive and they continue to believe they will never be successful as his/her boss, peers, etc. These reactive language is programmed into their brains as built-in boundaries. Imaginary boundaries to success. They are not real but it provides the weak with an excuse not to believe the alternative is possible.

These scripts are embedded in our belief system. Therefore with these scripts still running, we are unable to…

be successful in anything we do
set higher goals because we don’t believe we can reach them
confront problems when it arises and believe me we all have problems to deal with on a regular basis
get a pay increase because we don’t know how to ask
fulfill the dreams of the children and family
live the live to the fullest
etc, etc…

Why because these scripts are programmed to tell us that we will never be successful with anything. Therefore strengthening our own inner belief system will help us succeed in real life. It will help us succeed with online marketing so we can make money online.

So How to ACT instead of being ACTED UPON?

Well it is simple. Just like you can modify or erase a software script from your computer, you can do the same for your own system. You just need to believe that you can do it. So find the script that is holding you back. See how you need to reprogram it. Make the changes in your head and live the life with the new script – yes the “can do script.”

Your belief system will either make you successful or make you fail. Once you learn to program yourself, you will be able to make everything a success. Not just to make money on the internet but also to deal with everyday problems in your lives.

So going back to the above six groups – no matter which group you belong to, your success will be limited by your inner belief system. Start reaching out to the other successful people. Create a relationship with them. Appreciate their relationship. Contribute and start building wealth for yourself.

Here is an example:

Let’s say you spent couple of hundred dollars to buy an eBook. In that eBook it talks about building a foundation around an email list. So you pull together a website and started with marketing. So far you’ve paid for the eBook and the designer for the website.

Now you are pumped up. In your own eyes, the site looks wonderful. You want to get the email list going so you go and join Google Adwords. You want to do some ad campaign to drive your initial traffic. You do some quick keyword research; pick a few keywords and setup your ads overnight.

Google started to send you some good traffic within a few hours. You stay up all night checking your email list for new sign ups… a few hours later, you see your first subscriber. You are excited! A few hours pass by. Now the next day has gone by. So far you have manage to grow your list to 3 subscribers. However, your Google Adwords account says they have sent in 500+ people to your website.

At that point, you may say – “oh well, it is just starting to come in and that you may need to change the website’s look and feel a little and the sales page.”

So you go off and spend a little bit more money with your web designer. Now you believe you got a convincing website or a blog and that your sales page is good to capture your subscribers. Well Google Adwords is continuing to send people but after 7 days, you only have about 10 people and 2 have already unsubscribed. Therefore, leaving only 8.

You thought you were going to have about 250+ subscribers by now and that you will be on your way to make lots of money. You are disappointed. Your Google Adwords account used up some cash to send all those visitors to your site. No one wanted to sign up with you. You basically believe that you are late in the game. There are better sites out there and that people will never go with what you have to offer. YOU GIVE UP!!!

It goes on and on and on until you either run out of money or your partner or your parents kicks you out of the home. You are programmed to try something quickly without a lot of thought into it and then give up.

This sort of failures only going to provide reassurance to your existing “can’t do script” that is is functioning properly. It is going to continue to strengthen your belief system that you will never be successful no matter how hard you try.

So working within that boundary belief system, as an Internet Marketer, you will never make money on the internet. You will only make others richer!

TAKE A BREAK!

Just take a break if you haven’t already. Just sit back and relax. Think about how you conduct business on a regular basis. Think how you can reprogram a certain script that will make you be more proactive and successful. Stop spending so much time gathering information after information. Take action!

Take your time to proactively plan out your new venture. Don’t just run and buy a new eBook or subscribe to a paid membership. there are ton of programs out there that is free. Just like this article, there are many articles out there that will help you. You don’t necessarily have to pay to learn. You just have to sit back and plan it properly.

So in conclusion, you will fail if you don’t change your own belief system. Get rid of your self-imposed limits and boundaries. Believe that you can do it. Start building it slowly and don’t try to make millions overnight. It takes time but if you plan it right, you will be the next millionaire to make lots of money on the internet.

What Action Will You Take?

Now going back to the question I’ve posed above – What are you planning to do after reading this post? Why did you read it? Why I am asking you this question is that I want you to take something with you. I want you to take action and do something for yourself in 2011. I want you to believe that you that you will be successful.

Download my free ebook and subscribe to my newsletter. I will keep you posted on my progress this year. I am just in the middle of hiring a full time Virtual Assistant out of Philippines to help me. I will share my experience with you.

Good luck and God Bless You in 2011! I wish you a prosperous year…

MicroMobs – Making Group Discussions Easier

Guna — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:31:44 +0000

So what are Mobs and what are MicroMobs? Well MicroMobs is a messaging platform for groups with similar interests. This group messaging service allows you to easily manage and communicate with multiple groups in a private and controlled environment.

Travel Discussion Mobs

Recently I was contacted by Ajay Kamat, one of the founders of MicroMobs.com, to have his website reviewed on StartupBooster.com. I was able to ask him a few questions regarding the website. See below for his response.

What is the URL of Your Website?

www.micromobs.com

What is Your Vision for this Business?

micromobs aims to be the tool people utilize when communicating in groups. Today, getting in touch with an individual is easy through Facebook, but where do you go when you want to communicate with a group? Usually people use email threads, which are good for making announcements, but are not sufficient for a back and forth conversation. micromobs focuses on quick temporary group discussions by making the conversations easy to manage and setup.

What is the Business Plan or model?

micromobs will provide customization tools for groups that have additional requirements. These include redirecting to a unique URL, css customization, themes, etc. micromobs will also allow brands to sponsor mobs based on the topics being discussed across mobs.

Why Did You Start this Website?

We started micromobs because we felt that there was a fundamental problem with group communication. While most tools focused on enterprise or long term groups, no one was adequately addressing the fact that most groups are temporary in nature. micromobs was built to address this problem.

How are You Planning to market it?

People seem to identify quickly with the problem we are solving. We are targeting our audience through Facebook Ads, Adwords, and through grassroots campaigns.

Who are the Founders of this Website?

Ajay Kamat, Himani Amoli, and Gordon McCreight

Where are You Located?

California, USA

When Did you Start this Website?

May, 2010

How are you Different from Your Competitors?

We do have some competition in Facebook, Google groups, and Yahoo groups. We are different because we are focused on the temporary nature of groups and the fact that people dont want an extensive setup process to start a group. micromobs focuses on simplicity.

It certainly looks like MicroMobs is out to fix some of the fundamental issues of social media platforms – many of today’s mediums tend to be more complicated and rather difficult to have private group discussions.

I wish them all the best with their new ventures.

Please visit their website at MicroMobs – Group Messaging.

How to Make More Money in 2010 – Best of 2009 from StartupBooster

Guna — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:08:39 +0000

Happy New Year to you! May it be your best one yet! I hope you are enjoying the first day of the New Year and is excited about the changes to come… As an year end tradition at StartupBooster, I have picked out a few of my best blog posting throughout the year to help you achieve your financial goals – to make more money online!

This will be my last post for 2009… I have many new plans for 2010 and I hope all of you will share the excitement with me. In 2010, I will be focusing on helping startups make more money online. Many startups are going under everyday without making a penny. My goal will be to help every startup make some money; enough money for them to pay for their own expenses so they can keep going for a little longer. To give them a little boost so they can keep trying for a little longer. I hope you will help me help others this year. This is my New Year’s resolution… What is your’s?

List of the best postings of 2009 at StartupBooster

I hope you find this list useful. If you do, please share it with your friends.

Again, I wish you all the best in 2010. Have a wonderful day.

Social Media – A History of Social Media and Social Media Marketing

Guna — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:23:46 +0000

FRIENDSTER, MYSPACE, FACEBOOK, TWITTER – what more can we have in the coming years? These social networking sites have been setting the whole online world ablaze for several years now. Today, new words have been lexiconized like tweet, digg, wall posts, aggregator, atom feeds, blog and the like. Many of these have become household names to some extent.

The comfy lifestyle and convenience that these social networking sites have brought to internet savvy users have become much priceless that tens of millions of people have been signing up, updating and maintaining their social media pages daily or to some extent, even 24/7. Several years back, on the early conception period of these online social media sites, the situation was much different than it is today.

To say that social networking sites have improved is an understatement. In all fairness, the social networking market has grown and heightened by light years in a span of a decade or so. To measure the extent of improvement that social networking have achieved and surpassed, it is necessary to open the book of its times of yore- how was social networking in the past decade and how far has social networking trekked in that span of years?

A brief history of Social Networking sites would be a good place to start off before we get into how Social Media has evolved.

Social Networking in the Pre-90s Era

Many people would think that the first online social networks appeared in the 90s decade, being the moment when internet service providers were on the loose. The truth is, the use of online social networks has actually been used since the 70s through the innovativeness of Ward Christensen, a former IBM employee and Randy Suess.

Source: Wikipedia - Ward Christensen and the First BBS

Initially, they envisioned a place where they can immediately contact their co-employees for announcements, i.e. meetings, reports, and other affairs, rather than making multiple phone calls, distributing memos, and the like. They were looking into creating a computerized bulletin board, which is why they named the program CBBS (Computerized Bulletin Board System).

Soon enough, more and more employees came chipping in with their ideas and comments in the said online community. That event was a momentous episode in the history of computer and internet. It was the birth of online social networking.

Luckily, the CBBS platform was made known to other companies and luckily, has been used for specific purposes. It’s breaking into the mainstream was inevitable and sooner than they thought, the Bulletin Board System was expanding largely.

The Rise of the Dot-Coms

It was during the rise of the Internet Service Providers during the early 1990s when social networking sites began to flourish. Along with the availability of internet service to people, many people rummaged to have themselves acquainted with this new technology.

With the fast response of people to the budding internet community, the bulletin boards which were usually used by companies have started to expand their roles by offering their service to more people around the globe.

More and more people joined the bandwagon with the innate goal of creating an identity in the online space and at the same time exploring the vast place that is the internet. Because of this many internet savvy companies gave what people wanted- getting to know more people and sharing common interests and points of view; that is through websites where they can socialize, websites which we now call SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES.

The Birth of the Forerunners

BEVERLY HILLS INTERNET, which was eventually named GEOCITIES, was probably one of the earliest most popular social networking sites. It was initially created to allow users to create free homepages in specified cities/areas which the users would choose from. It was bought by Yahoo for several billions only to lose it in the third quarter of this year.

During the reign of Geocities, many other similar sites mushroomed. Sites like TRIPOD and ANGELFIRE came into existence and soon, these sites came competing face off. Practically all of these sites provided users with the same features and user-experience, being able to create their own identity on the web, connecting with people of similar interest and getting to know more people online.

CLASSMATES.COM was a very wise move because it targeted not only those youths who are enthusiastic about the internet, it made possible the participation of adults by giving them the chance to reunite with their old classmates and buddies, see how their ex-crushes were doing and the like. This flavor which Classmates.com has added was an ingredient never present in the previous social networking sites, thus making classmates.com as one of the earliest most successful online communities.

The same way other sites have gone through, classmates.com suffered from hard blows left and right, rooted from their monthly subscriptions, spams, and other ambiguities on the site.

The Internet Bubble Era

This era is referred as such because of the increasing demand for internet services in different sectors of business. The role of the internet during this era is growing by exponents it was followed by the internet boom- an era of steady internet growth in the market, and eventually the Bubble Burst which hurt both established and fledgling internet companies.

During this era, one of the best things that happened in the history of the internet is the discovery of Instant Messaging. It greatly shaped the mode of communication and up to these days, IM is still and probably will forever be widely used.

REUNION.COM, started to redo what classmates.com had done while expanding the latter’s function and features. However, everything remained very liquid before and the life of a social networking site is highly contested by mushrooming sites with similar purposes and functions.

SIXDEGREES.COM, on the other hand, was also conceived at this era. The said social networking site is considered a forerunner in the field of social networking as it has many similarities with the social networking sites popular nowadays. Basically, sixdegrees.com created circles of friends via online registration and matching-up of likes, dislikes, interests, or what have you.

The Golden Period of Social Networking

Social network reached the almost-pinnacle of success with the launch of the then very popular FRIENDSTER.COM. Creator of Friendster Jonathan Abrams concocted a perfect mix of popular features from earlier social networking predecessors. Friendster became an instant celebrity and gathered about three million members who signed up in its early months of launch.

As years passed, Friendster reached an overwhelming hundred million users from all over the globe. With much demand from its users, Friendster unfortunately got out of hand and suffered from too many glitches in the server. Today, Friendster has been announced as a newly owned entity of a Malaysian Company, and outshone by present social networking sites but still remains to be patronized most especially in Asia.

The conception of MYSPACE.COM opened the internet users to vast opportunities of self-expression which includes wide control over a user’s profile content. Practically different people from all walks of life have dedicated pages in MySpace- may he be an artist, a budding rock star, a preacher, a politician, whatever background he has. In MySpace, users experienced the best of creating unique identities to show to the online world.

MySpace remained as the uncontested favorite among all the social networking sites until 2005 when it met its future competitor in the market. Soon enough, MySpace created additional features like application, mobile features and the like in order to keep up with the latest trends in the online community; and at the same time be at par with the growing popularity of contemporary social networking sites, more specifically the next thing in line.

Face-Off with Facebook

Facebook started as a local social network made for the students of Harvard. Being Mark Zuckerberg’s brainchild, Facebook was actually made by hacking Harvard’s database containing ID images of students. The initial idea was actually to compare students’ faces with images of animals, for entertainment purposes. However, due to the potentially damaging contents of the site, the creators decided to put it down before it catches the attention of school authorities.

Although shut down, the idea of creating an online community of students came to existence. The platform was then improved and sooner than they expected, Facebook was released in campuses other than Harvard. Thereafter, high schools were already starting to get attracted with the idea of having online communities, thus opening the site to the younger population.

It was in 2006 when FACEBOOK.COM ultimately offered the opportunity to the rest of the world. As 2007 approached, the registrants reached an overwhelming digit- roughly a million dozen. Facebook has grown to become the biggest and most popular social networking site today with a population of about 350 million active users, surpassing the entire American population of 307 million. With 70% of the Facebook population outside the US, Facebook has indeed set the online world on fire.

Growing Social Networking Trends

Other social networking sites continued to appear in the scene. Blogging sites like BEBO, MULTIPLY and many others came into view. MICROBLOGGING partnered with social networking became popular with the launch of TWITTER. In Twitter, online users can post their Tweets, basically a 140 character phrase or line about what they have in mind.

With the help of API (Application Programming Interface), microblogging sites like Twitter and Tumblr and other dedicated sites like Flickr, Photobucket and many others were able to connect with popular social networking sites, making an unending link of information in the World Wide Web.

Waiting For the Next Rocket to Come

Social networking sites have changed the way people live and interact for more than a decade’s existence. People from one corner of the planet can reach out with others in real time, artists can be created and re-created even without the director’s lights-camera-action spiel, old friends meet again, and new acquaintances occur every second of the day. Lifestyle has been radically altered by social networking sites, all to the benefit of the majority.

What these social networking sites hold for us in the years to come? We still haven’t got any idea but one thing’s for sure; social networking sites will continue to improve the lifestyle of online people in the years to come.

Evolution of Social Media and Social Media Marketing

Today people around the world are transforming how news is broadcasted throughout the world. Social Networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, etc, etc, are providing live broadcasting of real life events as they take place. This is really putting a lot of financial pressure on traditional media market.

People using their platform created on one of these social networking sites are able to broadcast to thousands of people within minutes of an event taking place. Those that are receiving the information can then disseminate that information further to their own viewers/followers. The news tends to spread like a wildfire and before you know it millions of people across the world is talking about it. This is the new information super highway. User generated content played a larger role in spreading the news in 2009; however it is expected to play even a larger role in 2010 and beyond. It will be interesting to watch the evolution of Social Media.

As consumers are spending more and more time defining their own content and distributing their own contents, the marketers are taking advantage of the situation to market their products using social networking sites. This concept is called Social Media Marketing – using sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and other sites to market, sell and to provide services such as customer care.

Social Media experts are able to take advantage of the people power and create a buzz around a product or a service they are marketing. Using this buzz, they are able to get the word out to thousands, if not millions, of people in a matter of hours. This sort of marketing is cost effective and tends to reach many more consumers than traditional marketing.

Today, according to a survey done by CMO Survey, about 3.5% of the marketing budgets is spent on Social Media Marketing. This figure is expected to grow to 13.7% within the next five years. Therefore, you can expect more and more players entering the social media market and as a consumer you should expect to take part in it. You should be able to make money with Social Media. In order to do that, you should build a community around you. You should have your own fans and people that follow you. If you don’t have a community around you, I suggest you start one today either at Twitter, Facebook or even setup your own blog. It will definitely help you down the road.

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