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Web 2.0

The Ultimate Guide To Blog Promotion

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In the time it takes you to read this sentence, 3 new blogs will have come into existence. There can be no doubt that the world wide web in general, and social media sites in particular, are becoming more crowded and more competitive every second.  The result?  Standing out from the crowd is getting harder and harder.

Social media marketing is both necessary and extremely challenging. Blogs are an integral part of SEM, but simply building one isn’t enough. You need to get people to read what you write!

That being said, there are myriad resources that have become available which can help you promote and measure the success of your blog. Below you will find a definitive guide to some of the best resources online.

Overview of Blog Promotion

Promoting Your Blog

Some sweet, simple and easily actionable tips for blog promotion from Google itself, although we also love their disclaimer: “This is in no way a science or guarantee; it’s simply a few suggestions with which many bloggers have found success”. If you know little to nothing about blog promotion, it’s a good place to get an idea of the basics without getting overwhelmed.

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

SEOmoz offers some great, detailed advice for bloggers who want not just more traffic but better, more targeted traffic. There’s a lot here to help diagnose why your blog might be fledgling, and what to do to remedy the situation. [Read more…] about The Ultimate Guide To Blog Promotion

Adios, Google Wave! Is Buzz Next?

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All things come to an end, even the good ones; or maybe, most especially the good ones. For the longest time now, Google seems to have had a golden touch. It has reached such great heights, but even such a big entity makes wrong judgment calls every now and then. With Google Wave, it seems like one of those things.

Yesterday, an announcement on The Official Google Blog finally put an end to speculation about Google Wave. Launched around a year ago in June 2009, Google Wave generated tons of interest and excitement – not so different with many other Google products. The interest did not prove to be enough, though, and even the most hardcore fan has to say goodbye.

Here’s a snippet of the announcement:

But despite these wins, and numerous loyal fans, Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. The central parts of the code, as well as the protocols that have driven many of Wave’s innovations, like drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, are already available as open source, so customers and partners can continue the innovation we began. In addition, we will work on tools so that users can easily “liberate” their content from Wave.

There’s good news at least – fans will have till the end of the year to use the site. Users will also have the tools to extract all the content they’ve put in there.

Now I am wondering…will Google Buzz suffer the same fate?

Millionaire City Wants to be the Monopoly Game of Facebook

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I’m pretty sure that for once in your life you’ve wanted to become a millionaire.  To be exact, a millionaire who happens to be a CEO of a rich firm. Come on, don’t be shy, admit it. I did. Well if you are already a millionaire or a CEO, then good for you. As for us, poor, simpletons, the only way we can become a millionaire is on Facebook,  through Digital Chocolate’s new Facebook game – Millionaire City.

To be honest, I liked it when Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins tells us:

“Not even Zynga has a game like Millionaire City. We all grew up enjoying Monopoly but this is a real simulation and even easier to play. People who love property can now trump their friends on Facebook.”

Well, the game concept maybe different from Zynga’s Farmville or Mafia Wars, but bottomline is, it’s still just another Facebook game which could only be good as a time-waster, especially if you’re in the office.

So, Millionaire City lets you build a monopoly from the ground up. You purchase properties, build houses, and sign contracts to make your company grow. Yeah, just like what a normal CEO does.  The game also lets you select two game advisors to help you amass as much wealth as possible. Either you choose Ronald Goldtooth or Cindy Jewels.

Millionaire City also lets you decorate your city and build commercial buildings. To earn more experience and coins, you will be given several missions at the start of the game. Fulfilling these missions will earn you those experiences and coins.

For its social aspect, Millionaire City allows you to visit friends’ cities and help them in upgrading their houses. This deed will also earn you extra doughs and experience points. You can achieve various decoration that will enhance your city’s status and of course, in the end – for you to become a millionaire.

So, does the game appeal to you at all? Or have you grown tired of these Facebook games already that you don’t see yourelf playing Millionaire City on Facebook?

Wikipedia Sports an Easier to Use and Edit Site Interface

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For a huge website with contents and edited by millions of people, it will definitely take a long time before a site overhaul is implemented. Such was the case for Wikipedia which just rolled out its new design and interface for its website – wikipedia.org. In fact, it took Wikipedia more than a year to redesign its site after a year of usability testing and consultation with everyday Wikipedia users. It was certainly a long and hard work, but if there’s one consolation that the folks at Wikipedia should have, it’s the fact that they’ve done a great job!

So, have you checked out Wikipedia? Did you notice the following enhancements:

  • Look and feel – Wikipedia now sports the “vector” theme which makes it easier to find the site’s essential functionality.
  • Navigation – Tabs at the top of each Wikipedia page clearly identifies whether you are reading or editing a page. A collapsible navigation was included on the left sidebar that you can use to hide items that you are not using.
  • Editing improvements – The editing toolbar is no easier to use. Formating pages is simpler and more intuitive. In addition, a table wizard was introduced to make it easier for you to create tables as well as a new find and replace feature that simplifies page editing.
  • Link wizard: An easy-to-use tool allows you to add links to other pages on Wikipedia, or to pages on external sites.
  • Search improvements – Improved search suggestions that easily gets you to the page you are looking for.
  • Pediapress book creator: – Use the Book Creator from selected Wikipedia articles. This will be saved as a PDF so that you can read it anytime, anywhere.
  • Updated Puzzle globe and wordmark – The Wikipedia globe and wordmark have been enhanced and improved.

    • There you go. What can you say about the new interface of Wikipedia. Will you using the site more now?

    British mom seeks one million from odd-job web site

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    Million dollar pixel pages might be old hat now, but a British mom has twisted the idea with the launch of her “A Million Jobs To Do” web site.

    Spurred on by her dream to buy a £1m house, Chrissi Sharkey set up the web site to allow anyone to hire her services for a minimum of £1 per job.

    Prospective clients simply suggest a task that they need doing and the amount they’re willing to pay. The two sides then negotiate to find a favourable deal, the job gets done, and Chrissi gets paid.

    Jobs she’s taken on so far include testing out three floral bras for a bra review web site, organising a ballot, and theming a child’s party.

    Only via Internet could you easily, and cheaply, hope to reach such a goal. Let’s hope she gets more than the minimum amount per job, though, because a million jobs is going to take a long, long time to finish.

    Dream house aside, she may need to invest a bit more in web hosting, because the recent publicity drive seems to be hammering her web server.

    Google Wants You to (Re)Confirm Buzz Privacy Settings

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    True to what has been reported a couple of hours ago, Google has started asking Buzz users to confirm the new Buzz privacy settings. You’ll get the notification page the next time you click on the Buzz tab on your Gmail account.

    Google also explained why they are asking Buzz members to confirm their privacy settings again. According to a post on the Official Google Blog – “we quickly realized we didn’t get everything right and moved as fast as possible to improve the Buzz experience. ”

    Google has been making a number of changes since issues on privacy started to escalate such as replacing the auto-follow with suggestions for people to follow instead.  The good thing about this setup is that Buzz users are given the freedom to choose people that they will follow.

    Now, this is well and good for new Buzz users after the new privacy policy was implemented. But for those who started using Google Buzz earlier, the auto-suggest may not have worked. So, Google is issuing the Google Buzz confirmation page again to ensure that old users are given a chance to change their privacy settings or accept these settings as it is.

    The confimation page is the same privacy settings page given when you first activated Google Buzz. When you get it now, you are free to edit, unfollow and follow people before finally accepting it.

    So, are you going to accept the new Google Buzz privacy settings? Or have you totally deactivated Google Buzz already?