Top 5 Sites for Social Networking and Micro-Blogging (Leslie Lyon (c) 2009 Spas2b Inc. )

1. LinkedIn - Use LinkedIn for business referrals and leads. A great way to introduce men to your business. This business-oriented site is used for professional networking and has a primary demographic of males averaging 41 years of age. Your developed "connections" are people you know and trust in the business. Your connections, connections & their connections (called second degree and third degree connections) allow you to be introduced to possible business opportunities. You can join relevant alumni, industry, or professional groups of your choice.

2. Twitter - Use Twitter to notify your clients of latest business developments; promotions and business initiatives. Demographic of 35-49 is biggest. This "follow-me" site allows you to put in up to 140 characters which are displayed on your profile page and delivered to those who have subscribed to, or are following you. You can restrict or allow open access to your "tweets". It's free unless you use SMS (short message service). 6 million unique visitors monthly. Currently the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category for 2009. Although discovered by the media, still under 7% of the population uses it, but growth over last year was a whopping 1,382% .

3. BizNik - Use BizNik to establish yourself as an expert in your industry through articles and content. BizNik is for people building real businesses. It's a good place to go to share conversation about your business and entrepreneurial endeavours. The site is based on relationships, not referrals. You can teach a seminar; post on the boards; download your articles; host an online event; attend an online event, etc.

4. Facebook - Use Facebook to "tap into the fountain of youth". Join in by city; workplace; school, etc. You can choose your friends and use privacy settings which allow you to control what type of information is automatically shared. The most popular application is the ability to upload unlímited photos. You can now also send "gifts" for $1.00 with a personalized message to your friends; and post free classified ads to those in your network. 228% growth year over year, with the fastest growing demographic being those 25 years and older.

5. MySpace - Use MySpace to recruit, educate, introduce and boost awareness of your business and industry as a whole. One of the fastest growing websites of all time, with the primary user being 18 years of age and older. This interactive network is a user-submitted site of friends, groups, videos, musicians, photos, blogs, etc. You can use "bulletins" to deliver your message; designated groups can share a common page and message board; full service classified listings are available; you can upload recordings, and much more.

Leslie Lyon (c) 2009 Spas2b Inc.

10 Tips For Creating a Brilliant Landing Page (Joanna Colek, SiteProNews )

- Relevant Content

A landing page's content should be directly related to organic search results, PPC campaign, anchor text in inbound links and any other targeted inbound advertising, online and offline. If people don't get what they expect, they will be more likely to leave.

- Multiple Landing Pages

A landing page shouldn't necessarily be your homepage. In many instances a homepage is a good landing page. However, for more targeted traffíc and better results, you want a landing page to be focused on a specific offering and specific call for action. To accomplish this, a given website should have multiple landing pages. Create some deep link landing pages that will focus on a specific proposition and your conversion rate will be higher.

- Focus on Functionality

More and more visitors seem to judge the professionalism and credibility of a site by its design. To satisfy this, many website owners concentrate on the design aspect instead of focusing on its functionality. A well-designed landing page is essentially worthless if the prospect can't accomplish anything. While I wouldn't suggest skimping on the design, it shouldn't be your priority. Focus on the exact steps you want your visitor to take and design a page with that in mind.

- Call To Action

You got visitors to your landing page, now direct them to take action. Make it clear and highly noticeable without overwhelming your audience. Whether it's a sign-up form or a "buy now" button, make it the focus of your page.

- Send a Clear Message

Keep your landing page clean and clutter free so your visitors stay focused on your message. Emphasize the biggest reasons that they should carry out the applicable call to action with larger text, contrasting colors, images. Make it easier for them to scan the content by using lists and getting right to the point.

- Provide Incentive

Bribing your visitors with freebies and samples is a proven method of enticing them to sign up. Provide more than your competition but don't sell yourself short either. Provide a list of reasons why your offering is better and what exactly the visitor can expect. Provide references and testimonials.

- Make Visitors Stay

Avoid sending your visitors to another page unless it is absolutely necessary. That includes any internal navigation as well as external banners. If you eliminate all distractions and limit navigation options, you stand a better chance of keeping your visitors around.

- Simple is Better

Make it easy for your visitors to complete the action you want them to. Less confusion and decision making for your visitor means better conversions rate for your landing page. Don't provide multiple choices and throw in optional extras. Focus on the pitch the page was created for.

- Power of Freebies

Everyone likes free offers. They are hard to resist and can be a powerful conversion tool. Whether a call to action is free or something free is receíved as a result of carrying out a call to action, it certainly doesn't hurt. If your competition charges for something and you provide it for free, you'll win the customer. Remember, just because you make a free offer doesn't mean that it shouldn't be quality.

- Testing

In a recent post "How to Turn Website Visitors into Buyers", I've stressed how important testing is in finding out what your visitors like. Testing various text, call to action forms, layouts will give you a true idea what produces the best results as far as conversion.

Using a tool like Google's Website Optimizer you can easily monitor the conversion rate, bounce rate, and tons of other useful metrics found in most modern day web analytics apps. Using these metrics you can easily figure out which version will be your optimal page, one that maximizes the results.

Creating a successful and effective landing page takes a lot of work but should be the focus for anyone involved with a website. Whether you are a website owner, web designer, web developer or a web marketing specialist you must be aware of the components that comprise a solid landing page. After all this can mean a website's success or failure.


Joanna Colek is the owner of Joanna Ciolek Web Design Studio, based in North Denver, Colorado. She offers affordable, custom and effective web design services to small business owners.

ARTS REVIEWS: Isabel Pérez del Pulgar - SERIES: Second Skin - Screens Play 1

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Isabel Pérez del Pulgar (Plastic Artist; Granada, Spain)

http://www.blogger.com/profile/15628438162098204343
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One extraordinary triptych. Any saturation of means or technical equipment does not guarantee a decent and creative product. Otherwise, what need did Van Gogh have of paying tribute to his boots by painting them in a canvas?

Imagination has no rival. And neither has self-discipline!

"Three screens. Three Space fragmentations. Consecutive and silent among themselves. Or fighting one another whilst disputing their very own refraction. Three screens. Three mirrors dubiously sharing an image. Isabel Pérez del Pugar."

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Systematic Consistency in Business Coaching Business (Neil Sinclair, Action Coach)

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More 'Tips' and advice on 'How to become a profitable Business Coach'...

Tip #2 from Neil Sinclair and his team at ActionCOACH Business Coaching -

Do you understand all the business systems you need in place in a Coaching Business to help you achieve a profitable Business Coaching Business? You need multiple marketing systems, Sales systems, Coaching systems and operational and support systems. All these systems are there to help you and your business achieve one thing - 'Systematic Consistency'.

Just consider how 'empowering' it would be for you knowing that these systems can consistently deliver results. To get this 'Systematic Consistency' first you have to have systems and then you need to gain 'Mastery' in the application of these systems. We will show you how an ActionCOACH Business Coaching Franchise has all these systems in place and the benefits to you of having access to them so you can achieve success much faster...

To find out more about ActionCOACH Business Coaching go to: http://www.actioncoach.com/neilsinclair

Neil Sinclair.
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