Daily Bits

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

Guinness World Records 2011 Gamer’s Edition

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So you think you’re the best Guitar Hero player ever born? Think again! You’ve seen all those YouTube videos about little kids kicking the butt of everyone else – never mind that we are twice or three times his age. If you want some “light reading” that is all about gaming, then Guinness has the perfect thing for you – the 2011 Gamer’s Edition. Just to give you an idea, here is an interview with the record holder for the highest scoring female Guitar Hero player. Hats off to you, Annie Leung.

It’s not all about “serious” records, though. In case you have ever wondered about all that swearing in video games, you can read up on that in this edition. Other pieces of trivia that you can start memorizing (to use as pick up lines, conversation starters, or whatever):

  • The oldest gamer included in the book is John Bates of Onalaska, Wisconsin.  He is 85 years old, a former high school principal, and is a certified Wii Bowling addict.  His feat?  He has the highest number of perfect games on Wii Sports Bowling: 2,850.
  • Mitsugu Kikai from Tokyo is only 25 years old and has 5,400 items of Super Mario-related memorabilia.  Does anyone out there have more? Let Guinness know!
  • Angry Birds is the Top Paid-For Apple App Store Game.  But then again, we already know that, don’t we?

Find out how to get your hands on the book from the Guinness web site.  If anything, it will be a good way to pass the time when you don’t have anything else to do.

Darth Vader Does the Blues

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We all feel the blues sometimes. There is no need to be embarrassed or ashamed when you don’t feel 100 percent. Heck, apparently, even the supposedly indomitable Darth Vader felt the blues! I guess that with a life story like that of Darth Vader’s, one really will feel down every now and then.

What do you think the father of Luke Skywalker does when he is down? He plays the harmonica like you may never have heard before! (What? You didn’t know that Darth Vader can play the harmonica?) This is a perfect example of how music spans cultures. 😉

Here’s a funny video that can get you through the mid-week slump. It’s several years old, but it should still do the trick for those who live in 2011. 😉

White Google Nexus S in the Horizon!

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Take that Apple iPhone! Apple fanboys and fangirls have been waiting for what seems like forever for the white version of the iPhone, and it doesn’t seem like their yearning is going to get satisfied any time soon. In the meantime, the boys at Google (and Samsung) have been busy and are taking things one step further.

The online rumor mill is now abuzz with news about a white Google Nexus S. According to BestBoyZ, the white version just might be hitting the shelves in the very near future. The new Android phone from Google has been out in the United States and the United Kingdom for a while now. If you visit the Google Nexus S page, you’ll be redirected to Best Buy to purchase the phone. However, the only available model right now is the black one. With a new 2-year contract with T-Mobile, you can get the phone for only $199.99 (instead of $529.99).

So anyway, if a white phone is what you want, you might want to consider the Nexus S instead of waiting – indefinitely – for the white iPhone. I am not sure if the white version is going to be available worldwide or if it is only going to be released in Germany. The guys at BestBoyZ say that they have a “confidential and trusted” source. (I hope I got the words right as the site is in German and rely on Babelfish for translation accuracy.) They also say that the phone will come with Super AMOLED.

Without any further ado, here are the leaked photos.

Google Nexus S White FrontGoogle Nexus S WhiteGoogle Nexus S White Side
Unfortunately, the front still comes in black, so the whole thing will not be white. Half white is better than no white at all?

Source: BestBoyZ

Where Do You Update Your Facebook Status?

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facebook addict
At work? In the living room while watching TV? In bed?

I don’t know about you, but I am online pretty much throughout my waking hours. I have a convenient excuse reason, too: I work online! I am not addicted to the Internet. Neither am I addicted to Facebook. It just so happens that I need these tools for work. Just because I update my status all the time does not mean anything. I’m not like those people who update their Facebook status from – you guessed it – the loo!

Where is this coming from? I just read a press release from AIS Media, a digital agency that recently conducted a survey on where people usually update their status on Facebook; that is, where they are physically located when the access their Facebook accounts.

I don’t know what they were thinking, but they did ask a very personal question in the survey: “Do you ever use Facebook on your mobile device while you’re in the bathroom?”

I suppose the survey was anonymous as, according to AIS, 27 percent of their respondents answered yes. Of those who answered yes, 54.4 percent were women while 45.6 percent were men. More so, those who do use their mobile devices in the bathroom to update their Facebook status mostly fell in the 30 to 49 age category.

AIS, being focused on social media marketing, had some pretty important-sounding conclusions:

While it may seem humorous to survey people about their Facebook usage while in the bathroom, the results underscore the proliferation of consumer social media usage and their strong need to stay connected. For businesses and brands, social media offers an opportunity to engage potential customers like never before.

They’re probably right, but I think it means one thing: we need to get a life. (Ooops, did I just say we?)

Perfect Valentine’s Gift: A Tweet-ring

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Not everyone celebrates Valentine’s Day, but for those of you who do, here is a great idea. We’ve seen just how technology has invaded our daily lives. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are being incorporated into t-shirts, shoes, and whatnot. You may, of course, opt to choose these items as your gift for your partner on Hearts’ Day, but why go the ordinary route when you can do something (relatively) unique?

This is where tweet-rings come into the picture. Some guys in The Netherlands have decided that some tweets are meant to last forever. Cheesiness overload, I know, but I guess they’re really targeting those who are in romantic bliss. In any case, they are offering a service wherein you can have your favorite tweet engraved on a ring. You can choose from stainless steel, silver, or titanium.

Following true Twitter tradition, the maximum number of characters is 140. They even make a concession for non-Twitter users. If you do not have a favorite tweet or you do not use Twitter at all, you can choose whatever text you want on the ring – as long as you are under the 140-character limit. (Nice of them, but it defeats the tweet-ring purpose, doesn’t it?)

Here are two sample rings.

Steel tweet-ring

Here is a tweet-ring “in action”.
tweet-rings-woman-steel-full

They are both made of stainless steel – which is obviously the cheapest. I have to say that I like the idea of engraving a great tweet, but the problem is that I have more than one favorite tweet. At 89 euros a pop for a stainless steel ring, that’s going to be a bit pricey!

You can buy your tweet-rings from their web site.