If you do a search on this blog, you’ll soon discover that we’ve been fans of Jumptags for quite a while now. Surprisingly it snuck up on us, and if we hadn’t been paying close attention to our search engine stats, we might never have realized how very wonderful Jumptags can be to your search engine linking.

A simple website, Jumptags gives you the opportunity, with a minimum of fuss, to (more…)

Back on the 15th of February, we did a post about YouTube videos. In that post, we talk about the benefits of putting video on your site either by creating it yourself (a possible chore) or pulling in existing videos from YouTube and other video storage web sites.

The simple fact is videos are good business. As a marketing strategy, not using video is not a very bright thing to not do.

People love watching videos! Whether entertainment or to learn specific marketing techniques or review programs and products prior to purchase, having video on your site is a for-certain winner.

Also back in February, we started our test of (more…)

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.

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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

Here’s another great way to handle much of your website social media marketing all from one central spot.

The Bloggers Choice Awards website allows you to enter your own blog (or get someone to do it for you) into their voting system. It also is a great one-stop spot for visiting other bloggers and leaving your comments and more (for backlinking where allowed or just building your standing in a social community by participating).

Visiting others and establishing relationships is what it’s all about

There are numerous categories and you can enter your blog into more than one. Choosing the best categories, of course, makes the most sense.

Then, after the approval process, you can log into your account, click on your blog, and “Get Code.”

You’ll notice in our right-hand side bar, in the same box as our Entrecard drop box, we’ve got a “please vote for us!” button.

For BloggersChoiceAwards, and most all websites like this, you do need to create an account. You can create an account even if you don’t have a blog you want to enter. Sign up just for the fun of it, and, of course, use it as a community to meet and greet others!

So… your assignment for today (lol!), please vote for us!

Yes, it’s all about numbers. The more votes you get the higher your information goes in their system.

But again, there is more here than meets the eye. Comment and voila! you’re getting traffic!

And, it doesn’t end there…

In fact, our blog was entered on March 18th. Yesterday, March 19th (!) for our website url return results in Google, the BloggersChoiceAwards link is already showing (with an indent to boot!).

Screenshot Showing Our YouTube In A Box, BloggersChoiceAwards, and BlogCatalog All Make the Front Page For Our Domain

List your blog at Bloggers Choice Awards! And please take the time to vote for us

Enjoy!