LaunchTags Offers Revenue-Sharing Model for Bloggers

LaunchTags is a newly released site that’s created a blog network with an ad revenue-sharing model for its contributors.

This service offers you mini-pages with which to create your blog. The idea is to become an authority on a given topic, and generate traffic to your mini-page as a resource to others. Revenue generated from ads on your mini-page are split between you and LaunchTags right down the middle. The blogging tools are pretty basic: enter a title, description, tags and text. There are “widgets” that allow you to insert hyperlinks, images, video, etc. into your blog entry. LaunchTags will help you out by suggesting the common ways in which blogs are promoted throughout the web, and also offering up some topics that you could write on.

The suggested topics list is continually updated, presumably based on what keywords are being searched frequently on the web. And while the ad revenue system has not gone live yet, you can still begin to build up some momentum by adding content to the site now. LaunchTags is very similar to HubPages, which will find the best color and formatting configuration for the placement of Google ads on your mini-page. There’s no indication that LaunchTags will be as customizable and automated as this, but HubPages has seen a good amount of success from its rev-share model, and LaunchTags is looking to have a similar experience.

Source:www.mashable.com

Social Music Service Launched On Facebook

Avvenu, the company that provides users with remote access and sharing of their personal media, has created Avvenu Music for Facebook.

Avvenu Music for Facebook lets users explore, profile and share their musical interests.
The service places stickers in users profiles based on users favorite artists, music styles and musical eras. User's can share stickers with friends, customize a "sticker wall," and comment on each other's stickers and collections.

Stickers are based on an unpublished rules system, which takes into account a number of factors when determining to award an individual stickers. More than 50 stickers are available including music categories such as "Unorthodox", "Metal Head" and "I Love the 80's." New stickers and social music features will be added to the service on a regular basis.

"Avvenu Music for Facebook will evolve into a deeply social music experience unlike anything that exists today," said Richard French, CEO of Avvenu.

"The Facebook Platform provides a unique opportunity to deliver compelling social applications to millions of people, and combined with Avvenu's own patented technology, will yield innovative digital media experiences."
Avvenu Music for Facebook is a free service and does not require software to be installed or an Avvenu account.

Source:www.webpronews.com

Google Maps Launches Mashups, Becoming Facebook for Maps

If Google’s launch of MyMaps killed independent mashups, then their latest move may be a saving race - or a nail in the coffin, depending on how you look at it.

While MyMaps allowed users to personalize and share maps, Google will go one step further on Wednesday: new features will allow the mashing of data from external sites like Zvents and ChicagoCrime.org. Like Facebook, they’re bringing mashups into a platform on the site itself, rather than having hundreds of independent sites using the API elsewhere (actually, in addition to).

Adding data to maps is done via Maplets, which are like gadgets placed on maps (Mapplets were previewed at Where 2.0). If you’ve already built something on the Google API, it’s very easily to create a maplet and thus get your app into the gallery. For users, meanwhile, the possibilities are endless: map crime data, real estate listings, events and more without any coding skills.

I expect data-based startups will rush at the opportunity, much like they’ve embraced the Facebook Platform. For many, it means more exposure, but mashup makers may also have a harder time getting pageviews on their own sites.

Source: www.mashable.com

Flickr Rises As Yahoo Photos Departs

Shutting down Yahoo Photos in favor of the popular Flickr service has helped lift Flickr's market share of photography traffic.

While Photobucket commands the photography category with 43.5 percent of the market, Flickr's 6.42 percent of visits measured by Hitwise for the week ending July 7 proved good enough for second place.
Hitwise research director LeeAnn Prescott said Flickr's US market share grew by 38 percent in the four weeks leading up to July 7. In June, Yahoo began encouraging its Yahoo Photos users to migrate over to Flickr.

Prescott also noted how Flickr's traffic has shifted. Where Google once represented Flickr's largest source of traffic, Yahoo Image Search has taken over that place. Yahoo Image Search now accounts for almost 18 percent of Flickr's traffic.

The consolidation of image services has worked out for Yahoo, both in the US and internationally. We will be interested to see if Yahoo continues to trim its duplicate services under new CEO Jerry Yang.

Source:www.webpronews.com

Piczo Launches Piczo Insiders

San Francisco-based social network Piczo will announce the launch on Tuesday of Piczo Insiders, a focus group of influential users who will advise brands on how to leverage the site. Certain marketing campaigns on the site will be passed to the Insiders for feedback, something that already happened with the latest NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) campaign.

Piczo is claiming 28 million registered user accounts and 12.5 million monthly unique visitors generating over 1.9 billion monthly page views. Last time we checked, the demographic was predominately female and many users were in the UK.

It’s intriguing that they’re roping in the users for feedback on campaigns, but ultimately Piczo may now need to ramp up on the consumer side to stay relevant.

Source:www.mashable.com

Do it Yourself Social Media Marketing

SEO Meet SMM (Social Media Marketing) was the most information-dense seminar that I attended at SMX Advanced, a multi-day conference geared for advanced web marketing professionals. As a result, it has taken a while to view my footage and pick out all of the best tips to share with you. The SEO Meet SMM seminar was paneled with an all-star cast of Rand Fishkin, Neil Patel and Cindy Krum. Between these three incredibly bright people, and my own experience and research I have put together this whitepaper on how to use social media marketing (SMM) to your advantage. I believe this is the most current (timely), accurate and cutting edge information available for those who want to start marketing in this field.

The ConceptSocial media marketing is a method of promoting your brand (be it yourself, a product, a service, or a company) by strategically making your presence known across various social media networks (such as Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Myspace, etc). This may seem overly elementary but “making yourself known” is the kicker because each category of social media has a different, sometimes intricate method for effective promotion.Business from Social Marketing is IndirectA key concept to social marketing is that it is not designed to immediately provide business but instead it provides the visibility your brand needs to ultimately convert fans into buyers. I often get clients saying “I don’t think being on MySpace will sell anything”. The truth is that often they are correct.

Having a commercial presence on MySpace that provides great content and interesting free tools (aka. widgets) serves to raise the awareness of your brand so that users remember your service for later and/or provides you with a podium to share the benefits of your brand. In short, it is important not to forget this essential concept: social media marketing drives brand awareness which later translates into sales.Social Media Categories and Associated StrategiesHere is an introduction to the various top portals segregated into their appropriate categories and mated with a recommended strategy. Please keep in mind the following is only a partial listing of some social media sites.

If you want a more comprehensive (but unorganized) list check out this list of web 2.0 sites which includes social media properties (very extensive list).I have organized Social Media Marketing into the following categories or themes:A. Social Networking SitesB. Business Networking SitesC. Social (Collaborative) Bookmarking SitesD. Content Voting SitesE. News Sharing SitesF. Collaborative DirectoriesG. Video Sharing Sites, andH. Photo SharingWe will discuss parts A through D in this segment and parts E through F in the following.

A) Social Networking SitesThe following social networking sites experience a volume of activity unrivaled in the social media marketplace. These sites provide it all; personal blogs, videos, music, classifieds, mail, and much, much more.1. MySpace: this site offers the widest variety of tools and social networking capabilities.2. Facebook: great for connecting with old classmates and creating a personal profile.Associated Marketing StrategyEach of these sites allow you to create a powerfully diverse and engaging web presence complete with photos, articles, and bookmarks.

MySpace even provides the ability to ‘skin’ your profile! In other words you can actually brand it to make it totally unique; a powerful marketing capability (To view a great example see [url=http://www.myspace.com/starbucks]Starbuck’s MySpace account[/url). Assuming the site is already done it is best to then start linking to the site from key areas of the Internet so the search engines will have no problem finding and indexing it. You can do this by linking to it from a social media section of your website; a section that I believe will be part of the status quo structure (as ubiquitous as the About Page) of all new websites in the near future.

B) How to Market on Business Networking SitesThese sites are devoted to networking business people and provide direct access to upper level management / executives for sales people and for those looking to create industry connections.
1. LinkedIn: the premier business networking site where job profiles are shared, jobs posted, questions asked and then answered by industry professionals (my current favorite).

2. ZoomInfo: a search engine index of company names and people. Find yourself (if you are there) and claim your space or create your profile.

3. Spoke: a database of contact information for people at all levels of business.

4. Jigsaw: a database of virtual business cards that can be traded and shared amongst members.Associated Marketing StrategyCreate a personal profile on each of these sites and connect, connect, connect. The concept is so simple I could almost stop there but it is important not to forget that some of these services also allow for interactivity in forums and Q&A sections. I recommend participating as often as possible in these interactive sections in order to gain positive references and to further expand your network.

C) How to Market on Social (Collaborative) Bookmarking SitesHere are a number of websites that specialize in social bookmarking. When you register with the service the service will collect and organize the sites that you choose to bookmark and allow you to share them with other others. The social concept allows each service to create content-specific directories of user-selected content; which states (theoretically) the content is of a high quality.

1. Del.icio.us: bought by Yahoo in 2005, Del.icio.us is the web’s leading bookmarking site.

2. StumbleUpon: in the past when my best content got ‘stumbled’ by users I found this community to offer the highest quality response in terms of traffic and buzz.

3. Yahoo! MyWeb: Yahoo’s huge following has made MyWeb a popular bookmarking property and a top property for promotion.

4. Backflip: started in 1999 (or possibly earlier) this site is the one of the granddaddies of bookmarking but it came on harsh times and was sold to passionate employees who maintain it now. This is not a leader in the industry but it was my first bookmarking site way back in ’99 so I feel I owe Backflip a little time in the limelight.Associated Marketing StrategyCreate a personal profile on each site and then spend some time using them as though you were a potential customer of your own service. In other words, search for terms you target in your SEO campaigns or ask questions you or your target market asks regularly.

After a while you will see a trend in the results you receive that you can use to your advantage.For example, after typing in “marketing tips” on StumbleUpon you may notice that many of the articles that are getting positive reviews are written like tutorials whereas the other articles are getting little or negative feedback. This type of observation will give you the insight you need to write quality articles that are more likely to get positive ratings; which ultimately translates into increased traffic to the article source (your website perhaps).

In addition, you can go back and bookmark tutorial content you have already written (as long as it is still viable).If you are not writing your own content at the moment it is still advisable to find other great content and bookmark it for your profile. Why? If you create a reputation for providing excellent bookmarks it is more likely you will get additional, positive attention when you ultimately feature content of your own.

D) How to Market on Content Voting SitesThe following are the top sites used for people to vote ‘on the fly’ for any content they find useful online. The resulting vote then adds the content or increases its visibility within each resource so that others have a chance to read the content. Once something has received a certain number of votes (this is a moving target) the visibility of the content may gain momentum as others have a chance to read and vote on it.

1. Digg: currently one of the most popular social media websites in the world and has been known to show a high degree of technology-based news.

2. Netscape: is in many ways a successful clone of Digg but Netscape has been accused of providing more entertainment news rather than technology news.

3. Reddit: the news here is more politically inclined and the site has a very strong following.Associated Marketing StrategyFirst a caution: it is crucial that you pay attention to the etiquette of these content voting sites; otherwise your promotions could backfire and/or you could be banned. To read up on etiquette visit the associated help files for each site (i.e. How Digg Works) and the FAQ – these will give you the necessary background info to get you started.To make these sites work for you I recommend participating in each group for a while in order to pick up on what articles do well and don’t do well in your selected industry.

In addition, creating a respected profile by bookmarking new and interesting content and posting thoughtful comments on other people’s bookmarks will go a long way to improving your chances of success on these sites. Once you have a respected profile you can ask other respected users to check out your new content to see if they deem it worthy of a thumbs up.

Whatever you do, I do not recommend voting on your own content due to the obvious bias and potential damage it could do to your profile’s reputation.In the second (and last) installment of this series we will examine:
• News Sharing Sites
• Collaborative Directories
• Video Sharing Sites, and
• Photo Sharing Sites

Source:www.stepforth.com

Google Launches Gmail Blog

Google’s got blogs for everything - have you even heard of CPG, Checkout API, and Librarian Central? Yet there’s a new blog to which almost all of our readers should be able to relate: the Official Gmail Blog.
As described by Bill Kee, Google’s Associate Product Marketing Manager, this blog will function pretty much as you’d expect; it’s “where we’ll keep you up to date on latest from the Gmail team,” he states.
It just occurred to me that we haven’t seen any fresh Gmail developments in a while; perhaps Kee has something specific in mind.

“We’ll post feature updates, productivity tips, and some insights into the people and the technology behind Gmail,” he continues. “And since Gmail works even better with Google Calendar and Docs & Spreadsheets, you’ll find posts from folks on these teams as well.”

I should inform you that, at the moment, you won’t find posts from anyone - Kee’s message is the only one that’s been published. That’ll change, though, and Kee writes, “[W]e look forward to sharing some of the fun and crazy things we’re up to around the office.”

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a soon-to-come announcement and upgrade (whatever it might be), and that’s a likely scenario. The last post on the Google Gears API Blog dates to June 11, however, so - just to be safe - don’t hold your breath.

Source:www.webpronews.com

YouTube Becomes Free For Helio Users

This won’t change the world, but it’s a nice gesture: Helio (“don’t call us a phone company”) has stopped charging its users for access to YouTube. The “mobile brand” is even refunding customers who already sent over some cash.

“Helio, a small mobile carrier that sells to younger users with features designed for MySpace and YouTube, was charging a $5.99 monthly fee for a YouTube application,” writes Nathan Weinberg, recapping the situation.

“Helio’s application, while powerful and allowing you to upload and watch YouTube videos, still came off as overpriced when YouTube started working with Apple TV and the iPhone, and released its own mobile site, and worse so when Helio actually tried to block access to YouTube’s mobile site so they could keep charging their customers,” he continues.

There’s also the upcoming YouTube phone to consider.
But, whether it saw the error of its ways or just made a smart business decision, Helio corrected its course. Gizmodo even carries a picture of a note from “Customer Care,” and the many comments that follow prove Helio is back in users’ good graces.

In related news, Helio is apparently still in its investors’ good graces, as well. Reuters reports that the company will receive $100 million apiece from SK Telecom and EarthLink, and “SK expects Helio to become profitable in 2009.”

Source: www.webpronew.com

Social Media Optimization: the best is on its way

We are dwelling in a world that is constantly evolving and growing. Each passing day is witnessing some or the other development and evolvement in some or the other field. The latest buzz in the world of World Wide Web is social media optimization. The World Wide Web seems to be undergoing constant changes and to keep up to these changes we all need to be in tune with the latest things that are taking a front seat in the world of the World Wide Web.

Social media optimization is nothing but diverse ways that are adopted to make an online site easily accessible to internet visitors and internet users. In this fast paced age people want information at extraordinary speed and in this case the faster and the earlier visitors can get information by accessing your site, the more popular you and your online site becomes in the World Wide Web. Social media optimization also works somewhat like search engine optimization but the only differences between the two are the techniques and the methods that each one follows to optimize a site.

There are several ways that can be implemented to go in for social media optimization and if you want to optimize your online site, social media optimization is the best solution. The basic idea behind optimizing an online business site through social media optimization is to optimize it in such a manner so the site is linked to other sites that are more visible in the social media search category. While opting for social media optimization, you must keep in mind that each business has different needs and requirements. This demands you to know your business requirements. Your business can become a success story only if you are fully aware of your business requirements. Apart from increasing links of your websites, you can even go in for exchanging your link with other related websites. Exchanging links is another criteria that social media optimization abides to.

Social media optimization ideally means promoting about something on all the social media platforms. Becoming famous in today’s competitive world is not an easy task. There are many things that need to be done to get famous and this also implements to any online site that wants to become famous on the web. Social media optimization caters to the needs of any online business who wants to get known in the internet circle. One of the best possible ways of undergoing a successful social media optimization process is to let the content of the website flow freely to webmasters who can easily help you and your site gain recognition.

If your website has a great content you must make sure that your content can be easily accessed by people. Living up to the criterion of social media optimization, webmasters make sure that any good content gets accessed by different people through different platforms in the web. This means that you will need to constantly write articles and blogs for your website and make sure that they are well distributed among various links and websites.

With the advent in technologies, people want to try out new things and in this scenario social media optimization has become a very in thing that has not only helped online sites gain popularity but has once again proved that the world is progressing towards a new and a better world.

Source: www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

Mister Wong Launches Social Bookmarking Tool in U.S.

Mister Wong is a social bookmarking site that originated in Germany, and has since become a popular and widespread tool in Europe. It’s recent launch in America is currently in private beta testing, in an effort to prepare for a full-fledged launching of its service, which is a direct competitor to del.icio.us.

There is an emphasis on the social aspects of Mister Wong, as you can join groups and share links with others. You can also see which users have bookmarked any particular link on the site, as both public and private status. The ability to contribute to Mister Wong has also been simplified, with its multiple browser add-ons for adding and accessing different aspects of your bookmarking account and the ability to import and export bookmarks from other services.

Most recently, Mister Wong has launched in several other languages including Russian and Chinese, and has also added mobile support, which is a directory of mobile sites and can be accessed on your cell phone as well. Despite the questionable name, Mister Wong has a lot going for it, though one group feature allowing members to vote for submitted links would be useful in every other area of the site. Otherwise, the tools included in Mister Wong make for a rather helpful service.

Source:www.mashable.com

SEOmoz Becomes A Link Millionaire

Rand Fishkin celebrated a big number showing up in Yahoo Site Explorer, one that plenty of search optimization-minded folks would love to see.

SEO professional and occasional WebProNews video host Rand Fishkin picked up seven digits of hot link love from Yahoo. He's hit the million-link mark after 33 months of blogging.

He's so happy, Rand shared the secrets of his achievement:
Actually, there were three keys to our linking success - Content, Community and Timing.

Content: Our blog, articles, tools & antics follow less of a link "bait" formula and more one of link "appeal." The content we put out isn't just designed for a link - it's really designed to make our readers into raving fans.

Community: I've personally met and interacted with between 2-4 thousand people over the last 3 years - shaken hands, shared meals and drinks, held conversations and exchanged business cards. As much as the online world connects us, the real world ties the knots in those binds.

Timing: When SEOmoz started writing about search marketing (way back in 2003, though we didn't start the blog until October of 2004), there was relatively little competition. SearchEngineWatch didn't start their daily blog (in a blog format) until August of 2004 and with the exception of the major forums and fewer than a dozen other popular sites in the niche, we were ahead of the curve.

While matching Rand's timing would require the invention of a time machine and solving a slew of temporal paradox issues, other bloggers in and out of SEO can work on content and community.As with any creative venture, talent, persistence, and a little luck will be the difference makers today.

Source:www.webpronews.com