Resources on Web, Mobile, SEO, Outsourcing and more.

Here is a video I like about social bookmarking practices and thought of sharing for those who don’t like to spend more time in reading long articles about social Bookmarking and more interested in straight to the point

This video demonstrates explains how effective and easy social bookmarking practices are and comparatively you will know how much it is been complicated when it’s been explained in texts as articles or blog posts

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU

Even before we started using SEO, Just after building the sites we started using a Site visitor analytic tool. Initially we used Goldstats; It was more than sufficient when we had only 20 pages, and no much SEO really done. It was a nice start.

But when we added articles, and  really wanted to know more about the readers, and what keywords they use. We needed a better tool actually, and found Webstat in 2002. Again we were really happy until we found we reached a number of pages. We also found urchin an interesting tool, and finally settled with Google analytics – which gives everything an SEO company needs.

We do not recommend Google Stats to everyone.  Spending time each day to study your visitors through Google stats might not be easier, unless you have a passion about your site visitors. If you need to know some simple reports to study in 5 minutes use some simple hosted solutions like Webstat or Gostat’s simplified versions. We have also written very simple custom Stat solutions in PHP/mySQL, write us if you need a Demo and a free version. It gives every detail you need to know in 3-5 minutes. We haven’t named it, as we have no intention of selling it until now.

I believe even if you use Google Analytics, you may need a simple analytic tool. 

 

Its Web2.0 era, and many of us know how a web 2.o site would look like. We are also developing web 2.0 sites, especially Social networking sites, though we still have no clarity on Web2.0 impact in business. But everybody wants to make it. We get at least 2 requests per week for Social networking application development in Web 2.0 mash ups which are already aplenty in the market. Due to the recent popularity it received,  venture capitalists pour money over such applications, and they get one for them with a “BETA” tag under their logo.

I recently found few directories with a list of web2.0 sites. I was wondering what is the need for this huge list? Are they going to be used by people? How many of us are registered with more than 3 or 4 social networking sites? While I appreciate specific group based social networking sites, what is the need for 200 similar social networking sites for one community? Is that not looking potentiality waste of money. After investing few thousands of dollars what will happen if the site is not promoted due to the fear of its competition it already has? What market can the site catch? 20 registered users in 2 years? How many users will come back to the site after 2-3 visitors?

Here is a list of diretories which has 100s of web2.0 based sites, under different categories. Are they worth visiting and registering?

http://web2.econsultant.com/

http://www.go2web20.net/

http://www.digfoot.com/

I do not say there should be no competition. But uniqueness is needed for any web2.0. Many of them are offering free services, and that can not be the only reason for their success. I beleive the following points should be considered by anyone who wants to develop a Web2.0 application.

1. Does the market or the society need this application?

2. Does the site going to make impact in the market or the society?

3. Can I make money out of this site and this is not just my hobby?

4. Am I offering unique features that will attract used in my web2.0 site?

5. Am I NOT wasting my (or my VC’s) money by making Just another web2.o site?

6. Do I have enough funds to market the site heavily and to overtake my competition?

7. This is not just a trial I want to make since I have few thousand excess money in my Bank A/C, Right?

If you say even single “NO!, you should really think about your stratagy.

Have you ever wondered how to get your business details published in Wikipedia? You might have tried it and found after few days or weeks the links and the content are thrown out. In the following YouTube Video Dr. Ralph F. Wilson interviews Mike Svatek about to do this genuinely. It’s worth a watch – Mike shares some tips to get your content listed in Wikipedia, which will support your SEO.

Social media optimization (SMO), a type of search engine marketing, is a collection of practices used for networking and promotional needs, via word of mouth. This is produced not through family or friends but by the usage of networking in online community sites, video sites, social bookmarking and photo sharing sites. There are various ways of imbibing SMO, for example, by adding RSS feeds, including buttons of various SMO sites, blogging etc.

If you are new to the world of SMO, then there are chances that you might be swept over by many SMO sites. Here are four sites that might be of great use to one who is on the lookout of good SMO sites.

Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is (part of the Yahoo family) one of the most quondam social networking sites and also one of the best among SMO sites. Also very popular in the US, this is a collection of favorites of its members. This site allows saving links of favorite articles, sharing them with others while also discovering new sites and articles of interest.

Digg.com

Being one of the most preferred and famous social bookmarking sites, this site has become one of the predominant names in the field of SMO. The articles in the site have been segregated into two portions called the “Popular” and “Upcoming”. As the names clearly suggest, Popular means the articles that are popular among the members and Upcoming contains articles that are gaining popularity and importance.

StumbleUpon

Another great way to know and share great websites is through this site. Contributing to SMO to a greater extent, StumbleUpon allows rating of various sites, articles etc, which proves useful for the fellow readers. This site allows discovering new sites and also networking between like-minded people.

Technorati.com

This livewire site is an all time-updating part of the web that includes tagging, blogs and anything that is found of use, by its members. The site also allows commenting on topics by other members, thus developing a community of similar minded people. This site also promotes Blog reactions, which are articles or blogs that are connected or linked to your blogs. Your rank or authority in the site is decided, depending on the number of blog reaction links that your blog has.

With the field of SMO enriching and gaining importance very rapidly, these sites go a long way in making one understand what an SMO site is and how useful it can be to promote your business online.

So you want to blog. But why?

“We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.” – Says Herman Melville.
When you want to link your thoughts with others, when you like others to learn from you or others to make you learn – the good way is blogging. You have a though on personal, business, or social – and you need know what’s others view on it. Blogging helps you to do this – you share your thoughts, and make others to share their thoughts on their thoughts.

Read below, if you need a blog for you:
You need to choose the right blogging tool first, as all are not same, and all doesn’t provide the same. Most of them are Opensource scripts or free services, so you pay a little or nothing.

1. Hosted services:

If you want to start blogging right away, hosted services are the best bet. If you do not have your own hosting space, if you do not know how to install your own blog application, hosted services like blogger, Livejournal or Tyepad would be the right choice. You can straightaway register with them and start with them. Typepad charges a little as monthly fee but the others are free services.

2. Installable scripts:

You need more control with your blog, and want to host under your domain name (eg.blog.yoursitename.com) check with your hosting provider first. Many hosting solutions comes with some default preinstalled blog scripts – with their support manual you should be able to configure it easily.

If you do not like the installed scripts you should evaluate scripts like wordpress (PHP based), Movable type (Perl based), and install them in your server.

I personally recommend wordpress, Reasons:

1. Its free, ever.

2. PHP 4.x based, and most of the hosting supports this.

3. Easy to setup with simple mySQL setup. Again most of the hosting should support mySQL.

4. You do not need to be a big programmer to install, configure or change the designs which you like.

5. Hundreds of free themes are available – You have to just upload and enable/disable them.

6. Easy to configure plug-ins – which are additional features you would like

7. Easy to backup – just back up your database and keep a copy of your data

8. Good SPAM blocking (I like the plug-in akismat)

8. …and many.

We will post regular blogs on blogs, Visit here after some days to learn how a blog can help you to promote your site business.

If you still prefer someone to get your blog ready for you, Just write us. We charge a minimal fee to make your own blog ready under your domain, contact us for more details. In 3 days you will get your blog ready to shout.