Reading a recent article on Mediapost, I found myself silently cheering because I loved what I was reading; and, know that what I was reading is truth.

Yet, if you read the one comment, the person who commented, did not understand what the article was saying.  And that is the truth as well.

Marketing has changed so dramatically with the widespread use of social media.  A few years ago, most people wouldn’t have thought to use short videos on a YouTube branded channel to find interested prospects who would turn a book launch from easily forgotten to wildly successful.  But the article referenced above and the YouTube Channel I’ll post here as well, shows that a series of short, branded and focused videos can sell books (excerpt below from the Mediapost article):

“Bender’s first idea to market the book prompted the grandparents to shoot an iChat video and become spokespeople. So he talked them through recording it. In the first video they would explain how to pre-order the book. He got back the video and realized grandma had never disconnected the sound and camera after shooting the prepared remarks.

“It was perfect because in that extra footage, my grandma looks in the camera, talks on the phone, and my grandfather dances in the background,” Bender says. “We uploaded the video to YouTube and it got a really big reaction.”

That “big reaction” sent pre-orders for book sales rocking. The video got picked up by AOL and Huffington Post and Random House had the second most successful prelaunch for a book behind “The Girl With The Red Dragon Tattoo,” according to Bender.

The grandparents became the spokespeople in the marketing campaign. They’re family. It’s real. It made the campaign ambitious and natural. Random House ran ads for the book based on the videos of the grandparents. Awkward Family Photos has been on The New York Times bestsellers list for more than 16 weeks.”

Take a look for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/user/AwkwardFamilyPhotos

Or watch this one which has had over 130,000 views to date:

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you are considering the development of a professional web site then don’t underestimate the importance of a good web hosting service.  Not all hosting companies are created equal!

First of all, do not ever – in any case – choose a free hosting account provided by your ISP, etc.   Some main reasons are:

-Generally the service provider will force you to display their advt. or banner in your website. They want this in exchange of the free service.
-In 99% cases free hosting services will not provide you with unlimited bandwidth and disk space.
-They may not give you FTP access. Means, they will force you to edit your site with online editors only.
-You may not install new CMS or Blogging software like Wordpress

So what should you look for in a paid and professional hosting service?

The most important thing you must keep in mind while choosing web hosting is “the reliability and up time”. Your site will surely lose many visitors if it is down frequently and does not load fast. So, always go for hosting with the provider which has reliable uptime and has good record. The uptime must be at least 99.9%.

I believe the second most important thing to look for is if they list an 800 support telephone number that is available 24/7.

Always choose service provider giving unlimited band width, data transfer and disk usage. You must have FTP access, PHP, SSL, SSH,.htaccess and the flexibility in installing scripts and software (CMS, blogging and others) which will allow you to grow your online presence.

Most people can use a shared hosting account (the least expensive).  Others may find that a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or a Dedicated Server is necessary – but for the average website a shared account is just fine.  However,  inquire with your prospective hosting account as to the secu

Here are my favorite two hosting companies.  Click on each to find out more:

Bluehost

Hostgator

Staying both inspired and continuing to believe in yourself are two ongoing skills that all authors, entrepreneurs and creative people need to embrace in order to overcome self-doubt – especially when the going gets rough (which we all experience at one time or another). I wrote “The Land of I Can” to assist with that journey and the ‘download’ process of that message arrived in my head all at one time and complete in it’s message. When I listened to this talk offered my Elizabeth, it gave me pause to remember that process while giving me an ever deeper insight how others have had that similar experience.

Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

“Why do I have to list my book on Amazon?” is a common question when I am working with an author and their website development.

Amazon is the Good Housekeeping seal of a approval and lends credibility.

While many authors try to bypass Amazon for their books because of the huge percentage they give up on their book sale to do so, another reason has now surfaced as to why you must have your book for sale on Amazon.

Amazon and Facebook have now partnered for more exposure of books and demographics.

Read the full story here at Mashable

Take 10 minutes right now and watch Will’s insights on the power of believing, the power of “I Can”, the power of focus and how he moves past fears. I particularly loved his approach of building a wall one brick at a time.

Confucius said: “He who says he can and he who says he can’t are both usually right”.

Even though I believe in all things ‘online’ and own a Kindle, ebooks will never replace the printed book for me.  I have a treasured library of antique books along with current hardcover favorites.  There’s something so tangible about a ‘book’ in your hand from the smell of the ink to the tactile experience of turning the page.

It appears I’m not the only person who feels that way.

Take a look at today’s Mashable article:  Reading Faceoff: E-books vs. Print Books and click on the Poll results in the middle of the page.

At the writing of this post, these are the results:

Fast Company has joined the social media bandwagon with “The Influence Project”.  Why?  Because social media platforms work!

Now Fast Company magazine wants to include your photo in the November 2010 issue, as part of a neat project it calls the “2010 Most Influential People.”  This is a terrific chance to generate publicity from a magazine with a circulation of more than 538,000, as well as knowing how influential you really are.

Sign up here where I have just influenced you, and you can begin to influence others:  http://fcinf.com/v/apb5

This is what they write on their About the Project page:

“We started with a simple question: Who are the most influential people online right now?

That’s what The Influence Project is designed to answer. By participating, you will have your picture appear in the November issue of Fast Company magazine as part of an amazing photo spread. The more influence you demonstrate, the bigger your picture will be.

You may discover that you’re more influential than you think.

Influence is not only about having the most friends or followers. Real influence is about being able to affect the behavior of those you interact with, to get others in your social network to act on a suggestion or recommendation. When you post a link or recommend a site, how many people actually bother to check it out? And what’s the likelihood of those people then forwarding it on? How far does your influence spread?

This is the type of influence we’re looking for. We want to find the most influential person online.

Who knows? It might even be you.”

Go here now to get a unique URL which you can then share with your followers via email, at your website and blog, and on the social media sites.  It took me only a few minutes to sign up and upload my photo. I’ll look for you in the November issue!

Go to http://fcinf.com/v/apb5

Spread your influence!

A client sent me this video because he knows I’m an animal lover.

However, this wonderful dog and his human parents demonstrate:

• Acceptance
• Love
• Focus on your strengths

Take a couple of minutes to watch a video that so perfectly shows what is possible when theses principles are applied to anyone’s life!

I’m jealous!

Ebooks, online publishing, new publishing devices – so much is changing.  Newspapers and magazine never though they’d see the day that online publishing would reign.  Great topics to be covered by amazing industry leaders will be speaking, like Trip Adler, CEO and Co-Founder, Scribd and Mark Coker, CEO, Smashwords to name only two.

Penny, take copious notes

Once again, online options level the playing field for authors.

Yes, your book has be meet some basic requirements like having an ISBN number; and must be approved by Apple.  But this next wave of hand held phones and readers are about to give authors a way to reach the masses easily.

Read the full story here at:

Apple opens iBookstore to independent authors

Some of you may have found your pages on Facebook all disfigured this morning. The images on the pages got resized to 399px in width.   An associate of mine  found information in the forums that apparently Facebook went through and cached the pages and somewhere there must have been a glitch in their caching and it resized and saved all the images as 399px wide even it they were setup as 520px.

At this point we are still trying to figure out how to advise people deal with this issue and are hoping that Facebook will correct this soon. For everyone to go in and change all the images would be a huge task to accomplish and if Facebook fixes this on their end it would be a lot easier.

Change is ongoing as this mammouth social media sites grows and expands.

Here are the first ten, and there is a pdf  report available at the end of this post where you can read all 50:

1. Make the videos viral, and spread them to as many websites as possible.

2. Use other social media sites like Twitter and Digg to post your videos.

3. Create well thought out, professional style videos that are edited properly.

4. Make sure the sound on your videos is clear and mixed and edited well so users can clearly hear it.

5. Keep content funny, engaging, and informative so viewers will watch it from beginning to end.

6. Try to keep the videos you create clean without too much controversial material.

7. Embed your logo and website into the video somehow. You can do this with text at the end or beginning, or by including your logo or URL throughout the entire video.

8. Have goals for your YouTube videos, but remember that there are thousands of videos on the site, and some have millions of hits while others only have a couple hundred. Set realistic goals.

9. Make sure you have good camera and editing equipment which is available in even many of the small recorders.   If you don’t want to sink the money into these things, consider hiring a professional or calling the film department of your local college.

10. Keep the resolution of the video as high as possible, so it’s as clear as it can be.

Read All 50 Social Media Tactics for YouTube

This web site that contains amazing knowledge data base – so much so it’s made Google obsolete!

Take the 13 minutes to watch the video – lots of cool things you can do with this site whether it be for science, finance, medicine, etc.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

This is an amazing free website! It instantly calculates so many things; math, science, chemistry, physics, financial data, weather, nutrition, health, history, people, etc.

Watch the video to see some of the cool information it is capable of showing you.

Here is the link to the actual site after you view the introduction: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

The bar has been raised for search engines!

It’s often the perspective given that makes a difference – not the situation itself.

As on Online Marketer since the late 90’s, I’ve seen many changes in publishing both online and offline.  Ebooks have been around in Internet Marketing for years.  Now the traditional book market enters in the ebook format and new devices like Kindle, Nook, Ipad, etc bring it mainstream. Along with that comes controversy.  Good or bad?  It’s often just your point of view as the view below demonstrates.

What’s your point of view?

Please comment here!

Last week, Facebook changed their Fan Page setting from becoming a Fan of the Page to choosing to “Like” the Page.

Facebook says that, “Starting today people will be able to connect with (Fan) Page(s) by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” We hope this action will feel much more lightweight, and that it will increase the number of connections made across the site.”

Many Facebook users have become so used to clicking the ‘Like’ button on people’s photos, videos, and statuses that they may not even notice that they are actually becoming a ‘fan’ now by clicking the “Like” button. Facebook has also changed the wording on each fan page, however, to now say that 506 people “like” the Page, for example, rather than 506 people are “fans” of the Page. I think this is a smart move on Facebook’s part, because it seems like a lot of users are hesitant about becoming a fan or joining groups, but everyone clicks the like button! And Facebook knows this.

Many people my feel that Facebook has “pulled a facebook,” a phrase that means “changing things suddenly and without notice in ways that confuse, frustrate and irritate customers.” However, I like to think they keep improving the site and ways to encourage communities. Fan Pages are still ranking incredibly well in the search engines and I believe a ‘must have’ for every author/book.

Read Facebook’s explanation as to what a Fan Page can do for you: Why a Facebook Fan Page?

I read a post at TechCrunch that mentioned, “Some time in the last few days Google launched a new feature called the “Search Stories Video Creator“. And damn if it isn’t fun. The new feature prompts you to input up to seven search queries spread across Google’s search features (including Images, Maps, and standard web search), choose a song, and it generates a video in the same style as Google’s other Search Stories.

The whole process only takes a few minutes (the tool automatically uploads your video to YouTube when you’re ready). And while there are plenty of parodies already out there, we can expect a whole lot more of them to pop up in the next few days.”

I gave it a whirl and it’s easy, fun and uploads directly to YouTube.   Here’s mine I titled:  Who’s on Search?

Have some fun and hurry on over to make one of your own: http://www.youtube.com/searchstories

You probably already know that Wordpress is the most popular blogging CMS (Content Management System) on the Internet.  We do website development using Wordpress that are easy to update and are great for search engine marketing.

But did you know that the open source nature of this excellent weblog platform means there are absolutely tons of plugins that can turn your average WP blog into a powerhouse when it comes to online publishing.

There are plugins for almost anything you can think of: SEO, Polls and Surveys, Reviews, Ecommerce, Affiliate related, Marketing and Business, Mobile, Galleries, Video and Audio – the list is endless!

It doesn’t matter whether you are an author, a blog publisher, marketer or web designer, there are plugins for everyone.

AND, did you know that you can have a plugin developed specifically for your needs – or, to help market your book?

Recently during an Amazon promotion, I got the idea of having a plugin developed that could capture the highest rank achieved. We are still in beta, but take a look at  here on this site (Right column under book covers) to see it in action. We are tracking two books (The Land of I Can and the Idiot’s Guide) at both Amazon and B&N.

Be sure to leave comments as to what additional functionality you would like to see in this plugin – and, ideas for future plugins as well!

Here are the first ten, and there is a pdf  report available at the end of this post where you can read all 50:
1.  Make sure your page on Squidoo looks its absolute best. A polished page gets more results.
2.  Don’t be afraid to promote and market your business and website through your profile or content.
3.  Title your lenses effectively and use keywords to get attention.
4.  Make the introduction and description captivating and helpful so people want to read more.
5.  Add photos for visual interest in the description.
6.  You can set up multiple lenses for multiple keyword phrases. This is highly recommended.
7.  Use tags to your advantage, and do so by making the most effective tags
possible using powerful wording and linking to the best sites that will get you real results.
8.  Understand the link flow on Squidoo, so you know how people find you, and how your links get distributed from the source page.
9.  Make a “lens of the day” to keep people interested in your page and they’ll want to see what you have to say more often.
10. Find your voice on Squidoo. Think about who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish. Brainstorm some content ideas and think about your plans in advance before setting up your profile and lenses.

Read All 50 Social Media Tactics for Squidoo

If you ever wondered about the practicality – or necessity – of participating in Social Media, watch this video.

Inbound Marketing is defined as marketing focused on “getting found” by customers.

Think relationship marketing and Seth Godin’s idea of permission marketing. David Meerman Scott recommends that marketers “publish their way in” (via blogs etc.) in contrast to outbound marketing where they used to have to “buy their way in” (via paid advertisements).

Inbound Marketing encompasses the use of blogs, social networking, article marketing – all things online exposure; and, is also often referred to as Pull marketing because you are pulling people into your sphere of influence by being findable and available for communication.

In traditional marketing (outbound marketing) companies focus on finding customers. Think the term intrusion marketing and Godin’s term interruption marketing.

Outbound marketing is also referred to as Push Marketing where the advertising or promotion is Pushed into the media.

Three successful uses of using this marketing approach are:

(1) Content – Your blogs, articles, videos, etc.

(2) Search Engine Optimization – SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. It is the practice of building your site and inbound links to your site to maximize your ranking in search engines, where most of your customers begin their buying process.

(3) Social Media – using networks to develop authentic relationships that draw qualified customers to your site.

The world of marketing has changed and if we are going to be effective in this new online world, we need to have the awareness of what it takes to do so!

I am often asked:  What is a backlink? and Why should I care about them?

Backlinks are essential for a successful website, and when you are deciding how you will go about obtaining additional backlinks, you must consider the quality of the backlinks that you will obtain.

You want to make sure that the search engines give you full benefit for any backlinks which you obtain, so try to make sure that are all from high quality and/or relevant sources.

If you allocate time to obtaining quality backlinks, you will be rewarded with improved rankings in the search engine listings.

Take some time to implement a few of the following tips, and you should see the number of backlinks to your website increase.

The  Anchor Text In Your Links Should Be Keywords.
Always use your keywords in your backlinks. Never use something like “click here”. The text that the reader seeing in a backlink is usually referred to as the “anchor text”, and is a very powerful factor for SEO, and something you should consider very carefully. Try to work your link into the main text of your article, and try and make it grammatically correct, so that it looks as natural as can be. When assessing the quality of links pointing at your website, the search engines will give greater weight to links which are within the text of the article.

Submit To Link Directories
Submit your website to link directories that have lists of similar themed websites. Many website directories offer free inclusion, so they are a good source of backlinks. You can save time on the submission process by hiring a submission company, or by using submission software. Automated submission can be very effective and might actually save you a lot of time.

Use Article Submission
Write some useful articles which can then be submitted to article directories. Make sure that the articles contain at least one backlink to your website. Because the search engines give a higher precedence to one-way links, links from article directories will be quite valuable for your website. Although it sometimes takes more time to create quality content, you should invest the necessary time, as high quality content is much more valuable to your website than poor quality content.

Use A Blog For Backlinks
You can make posts to free blogs which you can get at sites such as Blogger and Wordpress. Take some of you quality articles and post these to your newly-acquired blogs, and remember to include links back to your website. Over time you will build a useful resource which will contain many useful posts, which can be used to link back to your websites. Always make sure that these are quality posts so they will not be discounted by the search engines.

I’ve just started testing a free service called CoTweet.

It’s a tool for managing Twitter conversations like no other.

I’m really impressed and changing my entire Twitter strategy based on what they let me do.

They’re free right now, but they promise when they start charging for the service it will be reasonable.

Amazing stuff:

http://www.CoTweet.com

When Google Wave was first announced, it was confusing to understand what it was and how it would work.

Then I saw this video and thought it was perfect to share with you….

As I answered questions via email recently that became rainbow hues of colors during the volley, it made me wistful for the Wave as I await my Invite…

Did you know the Invites are actually being auctioned on Ebay?

Google Wave will start to become a lot more valuable once more users get access to the site. It seems that Google is trying to roll out Wave to people as quickly as the service will allow, so the wait for those of us who haven’t been lucky enough to snag an invite yet hopefully shouldn’t be too bad.

This post has nothing to do with business or social media and everything to do with life.

With two senior dogs in my life and an elderly parent, I was moved deeply by the connection demonstrated in this video.

I’ve posted it on my Facebook page, and wanted to make sure that if you aren’t one of my friends there, you see this:

You can read more about Baxter on his web site:
www.momentswithbaxter.com

Baxter is on Facebook, also