EDITOR’S NOTE: This is not our article, but the information is well worth your time.

by Gary Smith

The Web 2.0 social media revolution is in full steam. Are people finding your website?

As an entrepreneur, how do you make your business website stand out amongst 435 million other websites and more than 1 million blogs competing for your audience’s attention?

It’s not as hard as you might think.

To begin, let’s look at the demographics of Web 2.0 social networking sites, Myspace.com, Facebook and YouTube.com. This will give you an idea on how to position your message in the Web 2.0 World.

The Web 2.0 Social Networking Revolution

Web 2.0 is a real revolution on the Internet. And these aren’t just college kids…

- 62% of MySpace visitors are older than 25 (40% are 35+), and 83% are making over $30,000 a year. Nineteen percent (19%) are making $100,000 and up…

- On Facebook.com 46% are over 25 and 34% are 35+, but they’ve got deep pockets. Eighty-eight percent (88%) make more than $30,000 and twenty-three percent (23%) make $100,000 or more.

In the years ahead these numbers will get ridiculous…

- Social media giant Facebook is currently ADDING a million 25+ (non-student) adults per week to their rosters. That’s 52 million new users a year.

- YouTube.com gets over 50 million unique visitors per month. That equals over half a billion a year.

- Facebook and MySpace have the equal daily traffic of Google. Experts predict within the next year they will DOUBLE the daily traffic of Google search.

So your prospects are there. The traffic is there. The spending power is there. So NOW is the time you want to establish your presence on the social networking websites.

Web 2.0 Strategy: Why You Should Be a Maven, Not a Marketer

As a website owner, how should you position your message in the Web 2.0 world?

The increasingly savvy buying public will quickly shun marketers. Internet readers want information from the Internet. They don’t want advertising, marketing, or a “pitch”.

According to Schefren in his Attention Age Doctrine, the solution is to become a social media “Maven”.

A Maven is a trusted authority, like a friend, on the social media websites. As you gain their trust, your audience will return to you over and over again wanting to invest in your advice.

Five Steps to Becoming a Social Media Maven

Social Media Maven Step 1: Get in the Game

Begin blogging immediately. Create a video explaining how to solve a problem and put it on YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook with links back to your main website. Just those two things alone will establish more Web 2.0 presence than 90% of your competition.

Social Media Maven Step 2: Share your passion

Build your Web 2.0 website around your passions. Thirty-two year old Gary Vaynerchuk transformed his wine knowledge to his video blog, http://Tv.Winelibrary.com. It now has thousands of subscribers and does $50 million dollars a year in wine sales.

Social Media Maven Step 3: Be Controversial

Your audience will remember you more when you challenge the status quo. Controversy sells. Think like the tabloids and the local news channels here. For example, Web 2.0 Business Coach Rich Schefren challenges traditional marketing wisdom in each release of his Attention Age Doctrine special reports at www.attentionage.net/doctrine

Social Media Maven Step 4: Create World Class Content

You will drive repeat traffic to your website by offering top notch “how to” information. Gary’s wine tastings are highly educational on the benefits of wine, how to cook with wine, and how to choose a wine for your special occasion. Rich’s reports teach Web 2.0 marketing principles.

Remember, as soon as your audience feels that you are “pitching” them, you’ve lost them. So provide content not advertising.

Social Media Maven Step 5: Engage in the Conversation

Web 2.0 is a dialogue not a monologue. Internet businesses profit more when they observe and listen to their communities first before they broadcast their messages. Savvy mavens such as Gary and Rich encourage their audience to ask questions. The answers to these questions then become part of their user-generated content.

How Marketing in a Web 2.0 Social Media Environment Is Exciting

Visualize it like a big radio or television station or movie screen where you’re the star. You’re building a fan base so you need to entertain, inform, and deliver consistently for your audience.

You have more publishing power at your fingertips right now than at any time in history.

So use it.

Share your passions.

Reveal your trials and tribulations

Tell your story.

And, watch how quickly your audience builds.

=======================================

Master Copywriter, Gary Smith (www.rightbraincopy.com) has taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to write copy that persuades, motivates and inspires prospects to buy. He strongly suggests using Web 2.0 Internet Marketing Strategies revealed in Richard Schefren’s Attention Age Doctrine. Get it now for FREE at: http://www.attentionage.com/doctrine & discover never-before-revealed Web 2.0 tools and techniques to win in the Attention Age

===================================
Be sure to read our special bonus offer you
will not get anywhere else.
===================================

Dear Blog Visitor,

We’ve been reading a lot about the Web 2.0 in generallately, including it’s history and all of it’s uses…

There is VAST potential out there we are not using yet!

For instance, there is a very famous Marketer by thename of Seth Godin who pretty much pioneered Web 2.0, and he went on to found Squidoo.

One of the fundamental thoughts driving Web 2.0 is a quote of his; “Everyone is an Expert.”

It basically means that if someone is talking about the subject of what you ate for lunch today, YOU are the expert in that field.

Keywords out there are dedicated to you, 24/7/365. You’re the go-to person on several such subjects that could be searched in google for at any time!

(Scary, huh?)

We realize that it may be hard to think of this simple mindset for being responsible for all of Web 2.0, including the many big sites like YouTube, Squidoo, MySpace, Facebook, and Digg, but that is exactly what drives them and allows them to be profitable.

We already had a system in place to spread the biggest news’ out there. It’s called the Press and their AP newswire.

Web 2.0 makes YOU the new press and it is in fact cutting into a HUGE chunk of the profession’s profits…

Nearly half of America, for instance, reads Digg.com daily, so therefore isn’t turning on the Channel 4 news as much!

(TV Advertising rates have been dropping ever since Web 2.0 was created!)

So what does this mean for you? What impact should this have on your day?

Well, if YOU are the new press, why aren’t you being PAID to submit your news each time you use digg, squidoo, or any other web 2.0 website?

Think about it… A huge central focus of where we get our news is changing rapidly, but the new business model is to NOT PAY the new Reporters!

Well, you know SOMEONE is getting paid…

Luke Parker figured this out earlier than most of us and created a system that allows you to get paid for using Web 2.0… And paid well.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

Believe it or not, he’s got a list as long as your arm of different places you can go to submit your news every day for cash!

That’s right, you can get PAID to report about your weird toenail clippings now… And in fact you really should have been paid for it all along, according to Luke!

He goes one step further and shows a way not just to get paid for the random gossip we mostly see out there, but to compound your income by thinking smarter…

For instance, if you have a business online you’d like to advertise, then he suggests you use these resources to get paid to promote that business!

Press for your business is another kind of news, and Luke makes tons of cash every day doing just that! We’ve been watching his Surefire Success System since it was just a ‘Version 1.0,’ and it was pretty impressive stuff already… But starting tomorrow at 11am EST, it’s graduating to full 2.0 status…

He’s added all kinds of tools and beefed up his strategy even more, so we really are looking forward to learning all about it ourselves!

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Luke’s exciting free film on his site right now before he takes it down and puts up the new offer page:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

This really eye-opening film shows exactly how to become TRUE winner in Google and Yahoo using web 2.0.

It’s really excellent stuff that will open up your mind to all kinds of new possibilities. You don’t even have to opt-in to watch it, simply head over to that page to start watching:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

And remember, the doors open for that at 11am EST tomorrow, so be sure to check out his offer then!

All the best,

Diane/Scott

P.S. READ THIS SPECIAL OFFER YOU WON’T GET ANYWHERE
ELSE!

==================================

OUR AMAZING BONUS OFFER TO YOU:

$175 of free advertising done for you! Includes:

o Google indexing and backlinking of your best article or blog post within 48 hours from time of submission

o Safelist emailing to up to 2800 lists created for you

o 6 Line Ezine Ad submitted to over 30 publications using your material or we’ll create it for you (subscription required)

Many will offer you “stuff” but few if any will offer you direct hands-on marketing and advertising to get your web 2.0 off to a resounding bang!

All you need do is make sure to CLEAR YOUR COOKIES.

THEN follow our link to the website. When you join, send us a copy of your purchase receipt. We’ll double check to make sure you joined through us and contact you to get your information for this free offer! We must see you in our affiliate office to correctly credit your signup. So be sure to clear your cookies first! It’s that easy.

Post a comment if you need cookie-clearing directions

===============================

It’s late, but I don’t want you to think that’s what has me slightly grumpy, it’s not. What got me was a short piece written in the Webpronews.

Writer David Utter, in his featured article Beware Social Networking Ad Buzz does another one of his quick looks (without much fact) and provides a sweeping opinion (without declaring it is opinion) on whether or not social media sites like Facebook and Myspace are really designed to help online businesses grow. He (continues) to insist that these sites are filled with college-types not much interested in anything business related. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen him say this very same thing… and it drives me nuts. Every time I read his absolute-sounding statements I wonder what he’s basing these statements on? Statistical fact or personal opinion? Because statistically he’s wrong.

I’m not about to disclose my age but suffice to say college has been several years in my past, yet I frequent social media hot spots and I’m aware of numerous individuals my age and older doing the same.

Social media communities are filled with all kinds of people, of all ages. A trip around any of them, checking profiles and seeing who’s who, can show you that much. Facebook even provides demographics for heavens sake…!

After reading his article, it became apparent to me that the person most “in the know” was the first commenter to his article, Lyn Mettler. Lyn wrote:

“I personally think that the way to go online is not to pay to have a presence but to actively get involved, such as by setting up a page for your business on MySpace or Facebook and using that as a tool to reach out to your target audience.

I’ve never been convinced that paid advertising online fares much better than paid advertising in traditional media. It’s much better (more credible and authentic) to get a story about your business published in the newspaper than to pay for an ad, and similarly it’s better to have a page on MySpace than to pay for placement there (excluding pay per click).

One other point, these social networks are definitely not just for the 20-something, college-age crowd. All age groups are getting on in huge numbers. A couple stats I found:

More than 50 percent of all MySpace users are now over the age of 35, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Between May 2006 and May 2007 the number of unique users on Facebook over the age of 35 grew 98% to 10,412. — comScore Media Metrix”

Hats off to Lyn for stating so clearly the reason for any internet marketer to venture into the social media arena. “To actively get involved” is the key phrase there. Clearly social websites are not the place to go barging in and spamming the living daylights out of all and sundry. Common sense, a sense of community and fair play, and above all an understanding of these communities can and will take any online entrepreneur far.

Seems like David needs a wake up call – and a research partner. Give it a rest David

(I did weigh in, couldn’t leave Lyn just hanging there alone lol)

Currently BlogCatalog is without a doubt our favorite place to hang out, make new friends, and post our most interesting posts. The people hanging on BlogCatalog go above and beyond to reach out, friend you, and then actually participate with you.

Many of these types of services appear to have a “clicky” mentality, you get a visit but no real interaction; isn’t that the point of socializing?

To further enhance BlogCatalog’s likeability, the setup is easy as can be. You do need to know some basics, but they are put in a simple to follow, logical arrangement. Once you are logging in, and if you stay logged in, moving around is a breeze.

We’ll go over some of the fine points here, and then below you’ll see a few links – a How To Setup BlogCatalog YouTube via (with great voice over!) as well as a link out to MattNutts blog (which we advise using Firefox if your IE gets a bit wiggy on you).

So here’s our pointers for making the most of BlogCatalog which are extremely easy:

1. Sign yourself up
2. Validate your email
3. Log in
4. Choose Edit Profile
5. Create a widgit for your blog
6. Start looking around discussions, communities, etc.
7. Up on the right, join stuff as you see them

It really is that simple; no where near the complexity of something like say Facebook or Myspace!

The great thing is your page will also come with some current event stuff going on – so use your right side panel to get off to a good start. To friend someone is also easy (though they call it a “Add to My Friends” right up there under your logged in information).

Frankly, this community is so great that the whole thing just naturally gathers its own steam. There is absolutely no arm twisting and begging here, people are just nice, friendly, helpful, and informed. You can gather a wealth of new information just be taking the time to visit your friends pages, and the pages of their friends. Take the time to interact. Use the My Shoutbox and leave a few words as you visit, watch your inbox and click out to broadcasts and new notices you receive.

A few final words/requests before you watch the video or go read the How To BlogCatalog posts below:

1. Use a real inbox for BlogCatalog you’ll want to get these notices

2. Please leave your feedback here so we know what’s on your mind, what you thought of this post, and any questions or suggestions you have. Even a simple Hello works for us.

3. Right below this article you’ll see some “Be Social Please Tag Us” buttons. Hover over the icons and please do submit our work to these online systems. We’d sure appreciate your efforts!

Okay, here is the video that’s worth the few minutes if you’re a visual person and need assistance with BlogCatalog, along with another How To BlogCatalog advice article. Thanks for reading! Comment, Rate, Enjoy!

And for additional reference (though again my personal experience is Firefox as is loads the page best):

Complete Guide to Use and Help for BlogCatalog