We are not talking about poultry or vegetables here. However, when we search on a search engine for “farm blogs,” most of the results that come up are blogs about different kinds of vegetable farms, chicken farms or even owl farms. However, turn it the other way round and type “blog farms” and you are taken into the world of blogs pertaining to internet marketing.

Blog farming has been around for a few years now. For people who are not aware of what blog farming is - this practice is nothing exotic and just a collection of blogs that are created to get back links to the sites.

Blogs are created and populated with unique content and then they are used to build back links to a destination money site, which is an AdSense site.

People who are into blog farming aim at getting the seemingly invaluable back links by the “blog and ping” method. This is said to get the sites crawled by search engine spiders and the AdSense pages indexed quickly and into the SERPs. This method is also said to make the search engines immediately notice whenever content is posted in the blogs as well as make them follow all the back links to the sites.

Many blogs within the blog farms cleverly (or is it detrimentally?) use actual content that is available through RSS feeds from other blogs or from other free sites. With so many blog farmers out there on the Web, this means that if someone is actually posting unique content on their blogs, there is every chance that some blog farmer or some such internet marketer grabs (steals) the content and repackages it. These people may not even credit the owner of the content. (more…)

Social networking is the talk of the day. We see it being mentioned with every strike of the key. Social networking websites connect people with others who share similar interests. People can have their profiles online and share media files such as videos, photos as well as music with friends.

The idea behind the social networks is that they operate on many levels, right from the family level up to the level of the nations. They have come to play a very important role in determining how problems are solved, how organizations are run, and the efficiency with which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.

Previously, there were bulletin board systems to communicate with people and network with them. This changed and gave way to a more open and personalized system, where it is possible to connect with each other visually and in the most appealing manner.

You would have heard of MySpace and Facebook, which are the top two social networking sites today. Both are innovative in their own way. MySpace is extremely popular and it allows users to customize their pages, share videos with friends as well as embed music. Facebook took the internet by storm when it went a step ahead and allowed people to create widgets for the site. These top social networking sites make people feel at home and this is what makes everyone from young to old feel comfortable about using these sites extensively. It is interesting to note that MySpace founder, Tom Anderson ensures that his friendly presence is felt among the registered users and welcomes each new member of the site by making them his “friend.” (more…)

A sign board says, “Caution: Heavy traffic ahead.” You do not have to travel anywhere to see this. It is right here on the internet. We are talking about “internet” traffic.

Look at the amount of data being processed online day-in and day-out. Researchers say there is increasing fear about the threat that video clips, games, movies and social networks pose to the internet. It is all very well to talk about the benefits of online communication and the immense entertainment internet provides millions of people worldwide but what about the damage being done.

The real problem lies with the bandwidth-sucking content, such as video images on the net. These high definition movies require a huge amount of bandwidth. One minute of video requires around 2MB of web hosting space, and this is with medium resolution. If this video is offered in different formats, the space needed will be around 20MB. For a 20 minute video provided in all formats, it could easily consume 400MB of space. The video monster is a hungry creature that hogs bandwidth. (more…)

The holidays may or may not be important to you, but they can certainly be important in internet marketing. Black Friday and Cyber Monday aside, are you taking advantage of the holiday shopping, while at the same time ensuring your websites and businesses are optimized for the New Year?

More Shopping
Based on estimates from the first few days of the season and the entire year, holiday shoppers are expected to spend 21% more between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is an extra week of shopping due to the positioning of Thanksgiving this year, but that increase also reflects higher incomes, more enthusiasm, and better response to marketing. The money will be spent both off and online.

Online Shopping and Increased Traffic
11% of shoppers will be doing more than 75% of their shopping online this year. Many more will be doing up to half of their shopping online. 72 million Americans are taking to the internet in search of holiday gifts. This is an increase from 60.7 million surfers in 2007. This traffic may be searching out holiday gifts, but all facets of the internet can benefit.

This shopping traffic means something to everyone in internet marketing – not just those with ecommerce sites. The sheer numbers of people online will have an impact on the whole of the internet. Directories, advertisements, ezines, newsletters and more all have meaning and impact with shoppers, especially women who will search for better deals and try and find related items.

Take Advantage of the Season
If you run any sort of online business, this increased traffic and increased spending can make a difference. Want to take advantage of the season? Here are a few suggestions: (more…)

The emergence of Social Media Marketing is the ultimate outcome of a balanced combination of Internet Marketing and Social Media. This integration though brought a revolutionary change, the success of an SMM campaign still depends on the situational model. Integrating the two modes, i.e. Internet Marketing and Social Media cannot run the show until the common goals of both are identified and planned accordingly, and this is what needs a thorough understanding of Social Architecture and designing marketing strategies in accordance with the prevailing situation.

Social Architecture in its original essence is one of the determining force of functionality of social media, and the major components on which it bases, are: users, their identity and the relationship of users with each other and their interaction with the rest of physical and or virtual environment. On the other hand content and context are the ruling forces of Internet Marketing. When combined, Internet Marketing and Social Media, a new Media Marketing Circle originates sharing the bases of both and having a strong bond in between them. The shared bases of Internet Marketing and Social Media generating the SMM Circle can also be termed as the pillars of Social Media Marketing.

For a better understanding of these pillars of SMM, let’s start with Users; being the only target of marketing campaigns users are of utmost importance. In fact the whole SMM circle revolves round users in one way or other. Considering this pillar as of prime importance, let’s keep it at the top. (more…)

Okay, it’s official. If you paid for links, your site most likely was punished. Or rather, if Google determined that your site most likely paid for a certain link, your site was punished. Paid links have been big business for companies, individuals and even academic institutions. But now the very same PR that earned the link funds has suffered because of them.

Major websites such as washingontonpost.com and forbes.com fell from a PR 7 to a PR 5. Statcounter.com fell from a PR10 to a PR 6 (or 8 according to other counters.) Ouch. How the change affected your own site may still be up in the air, but most feel as though the latest Google update is complete or nearing completion, and the biggest victory for Google was taking a bit hit at its nemesis, paid links.

There was a great amount of concern over the PR fall on websites in regard to traffic. Would traffic still find its way to sites through Google? So far the answer is yes. Of course, many webmasters are throwing up their hands about PR and giving up trying to understand. If it can’t be used to set prices for links, and it’s not affecting traffic, what exactly is its purpose?

Philosophical questions aside, one-way links to your website still have value for SEO and traffic. It’s only obviously paid links that are causing problems (so far), so the solution is to simple find alternative to obvious paid links. (more…)

Social Media Marketing or the SMM is the meeting ground for social media sites and certain internet marketing goals. Each business may have a different motive or priority while implementing SMM. Hence, a goal cannot be generalized; it will differ for every organization with an online presence.
In most cases an SMM is implemented to promote a service or product, however, it can also do wonders if it is successfully implemented to increase brand awareness and overall visibility on the internet. Both retaining and enhancing an organizations reputation can be done through SMM.

In most cases, online communities do not accept ancient selling techniques, such as too much advertisement or orthodox selling techniques, in such a case, an SMM may have to be executed, skillfully and under intense observation.
You must spend time in analyzing your target audience, and also ensure that your SMM campaign is successfully reaching the intended audience. Ensuring that you have an appealing message is also essential when it comes to building an SMM campaign for a few select communities or service buyers. Convincing information sent through a simple, though a heavy exposure medium such as an entertainment network is a simple way to guarantee success in your SMM campaign. (more…)

Social networking sites (such as Myspace, FaceBook, and Orkut) allow Internet users to form communities online quickly and easily, from groups of friends to business networking. These groups of networked individuals, often in similar demographic groups, have become a virtual gold mine for Internet marketers, who can place their message in front of members of their target market on social networking sites for little or no cost.

Social networking sites have also become an easily abused Internet marketing tool, forcing social networking sites to crack down on new types of spam (such as message spam and bulletin spam on Myspace). This spam is a result of people artificially inflating “friend” counts (the number of other members in their social network) through mass-adding and bots. The owners of these profiles will then sometimes market their own products, or charge others to have their URLs blasted to the bulletin board of thousands of other members. (more…)

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process by which webmasters and online business owners get their websites to rank highly in SERPs (search engine results pages) for keyword phrases that are both heavily searched for and related to their industry or niche. Two of the biggest types of SEO work are keyword optimization and link-building (increasing the number of incoming links to a website or specific page).

Here are a few SEO tips to keep in mind when thinking about keyword optimization for a new website or online business:

1. Use keyword suggestion tools to research keyword phrases related to the website’s or online business’ industry or niche topic.

2. Don’t focus exclusively on very general (often one-word) keywords or keyword phrases that would be very difficult to earn a high search engine placement for. At the same time, don’t focus on keyword phrases that no one is searching for. It’s sometimes better to be a “big fish in a smaller pond” than a “little fish in big pond” where you can’t likely rise to the top.

3. Include keyword phrases throughout a page, with particular emphasis on titles, highlighted subheadings, and early in any text areas. (more…)

Online advertising offers advertisers, both online and offline, an opportunity to reach very specific niche audiences and target markets that wasn’t previously possible outside of perhaps the niche and trade magazine market. The biggest difference between niche online advertising and niche print advertising is often cost. Online advertising options are often more affordable, and with new niche websites launched every day, online advertising opportunities are almost endless.

There are many different types of online advertising, from blatant advertising to subtle, seemingly natural links. Here are several common types of online advertising currently used:

1. Banner Advertising – Banner ads are image ads with a company’s or website’s logo, slogan, and advertising message (or something similar) included. Banner ads come in many different sizes, which would be determined by the space available on the publisher’s site where the advertising space is being purchased. Some banner ads are animated. (more…)