Anton Koekemoer http://www.antonrsa.co.za social media strategist, web entrepreneur, web 2.0 enthusiast Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:07:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Content sharing is vital for online marketing http://www.antonrsa.co.za/social-media/content-sharing-is-vital-for-online-marketing/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/social-media/content-sharing-is-vital-for-online-marketing/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:07:25 +0000 Anton Koekemoer http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=249 Online content that you publish is one of your most valuable assets on the web. By sharing your content online you can enhance your company’s brand, broadcast your message across the web and demonstrate your expertise to name but a few benefits. Did you know that you can allow the visitors of your website or blog to share your content with others?

Why do you want to share your online content?

By sharing the content found on your blog or website is quite different from someone taking your content without your permission and then brand it in their own name and re publishing it. By having simple content sharing tools such as social bookmarking buttons on your blog or website, your company’s byline and branding will remain intact with a link to the original content source – your website or blog.

The most common way websites have been sharing content in the past is through an easy “email this” to a friend function on the content where you can click the email sharing button or link and the content or blog post can be emailed to anyone.

By encouraging your readers to share your content with others is a really powerful way to drive targeted traffic to extend your brand and to drive traffic to your website or blog.

Find below a couple of tips on sharing your online content.

  • Search and register on content sharing Web 2.0 channels. There’s many free ones available. These systems provides easy ways to share your content with their members as well as to the search engines.
  • If you own a blog, there’s many third-party plugins available for free that you can install that automatically places content sharing buttons (social bookmarking) on your blog posts with little or no modification from your side at all. Have a look at Add This and ShareThis that provides an easy way to add sharing buttons on your website or blog.
  • Not all of your content will make sense to share. Content that you don’t want to share should not be on the internet (public view) open to anyone to read. If you don’t want people to have access to some of your content, keep these content items behind a restricted password section. Content worth sharing is anything that others can use and isn’t proprietary to your company, yourself but it has a more universal appeal.
  • Create content that others will find useful. You can keep track of what content is shared the most from your website or blog.  This will also give you an indication of what your readers find interesting. Always think of ways to build on the content that you have provided or on providing additional information.
  • If a certain type of content you have provided works and it is shares quite often, produce more of the same content to achieve some of your business goals.
]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/social-media/content-sharing-is-vital-for-online-marketing/feed/ 4 Part 2: General Tweeting Twitter Tips http://www.antonrsa.co.za/twitter/part-2-general-tweeting-twitter-tips/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/twitter/part-2-general-tweeting-twitter-tips/#comments Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:57:54 +0000 Anton Koekemoer http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=247 This is a follow-up to a post I have made a couple of days ago titled “General Tweeting Twitter Tips“. In that post I listed a couple of links to “General” Twitter tips.  What if you are only interested in Twitter for business marketing?

Twitter is an excellent tool for marketing purposes and quite allot can be said in 140 characters or less. There’s a couple of Web 2.0 tools available including MediaPress where you can post directly to Twitter by adding more than 140 characters to your Tweet. On Twitter it will only display 140 characters but it will also contain a link back to the full content.

Find below a list of Twitter tips for business use.

]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/twitter/part-2-general-tweeting-twitter-tips/feed/ 0 Backlinks from Web 2.0 sites http://www.antonrsa.co.za/web-2-0/backlinks-from-web-2-0-sites/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/web-2-0/backlinks-from-web-2-0-sites/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:28:05 +0000 Anton Koekemoer http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=241 Search engines simply adores Web 2.0 websites as it brings a new evolution to the internet. Building backlinks is still a powerful off page Search Engine Optimization method in the web marketing world but the process can be tedious and tiresome. Building backlinks for your website requires time and dedication as it is a long and slow process. Most of the time you will only view the backlinks you have built-in a couple of months time.

To get back to the topic: If you are in the process of building backlinks for your website, why not start building backlinks on popular Web 2.0 websites and channels?

Find below a list of Web 2.0 sites/channels/directories where you can submit your website to. Most of these websites are quite popular and search engines loves them. Please note that most of these sites/directories are “Social Bookmarking” and “Social Networking” sites.

]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/web-2-0/backlinks-from-web-2-0-sites/feed/ 1 Web content sharing with MediaPress http://www.antonrsa.co.za/mediapress/web-content-sharing-with-mediapress/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/mediapress/web-content-sharing-with-mediapress/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:41:10 +0000 Anton Koekemoer http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=227 Content sharing can only mean one thing…more people viewing your content and this can increase your business leads and sales.

An excellent way to share content is through blogging (social media) because search engines simply adores blogs! This doesn’t mean it’s the only way of sharing valuable information.

What if you had a simple tool to make the sharing of content easy?

I’ve started a new content sharing social network (MediaPress) to allow the sharing of content in an easy way.  You can create unlimited blog posts that includes a link to your website and blog on a dedicated author box on each blog post – instant exposure and backlinks!

Blog voting

Members can vote for your “blog posts” and the quality of it.  Higher rated items stays at the top the longest. All of the blog posts features an integrated system with popular social networks and other Web 2.0 tools to make it easy to share your blog posts on other networks.

Activity stream

MediaPress features global, personal and group activity streams with threaded commenting, direct posting, favoriting and @mentions. All with full RSS feed and email notification support.

Social bookmarking

The network also features a comprehensive social bookmarking tool (Links & Bookmarks) where you can submit quality YouTube videos, blogging articles or any other links with informative and valuable content where other members can vote for your links and comment on these bookmarks.

Create niche groups

MediaPress members can create niche groups and full powered discussion forums built directly into groups allowing for more conventional in-depth conversations.

Link External RSS feeds

External blog RSS feeds can be linked to groups for automatic feed integration for those that only want to create blog posts on their own blogs. Automated syndication!

Tweeting the Press

Setup your Twitter account with MediaPress to allow for Tweeting from MediaPress to Twitter. You can also Tweet directly from Twitter to Mediapress by using the #mediapress filter in your Tweet.

Friend connections

Let your users make connections so they can track the activity of others, or filter on only those users they care about the most.

Private message

Private messaging will allow your users to talk to each other directly, and in private. Not just limited to one on one discussions, your users can send messages to multiple recipients.

The MediaPress network is focused on only one thing – sharing of content so that you can get better exposure.

Register for free on MediaPress to start sharing your content immediately!

]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/mediapress/web-content-sharing-with-mediapress/feed/ 2 General blogging tips for bloggers http://www.antonrsa.co.za/blogging/general-blogging-tips-for-bloggers/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/blogging/general-blogging-tips-for-bloggers/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:10:58 +0000 Anton Koekemoer http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=220 Social media is all the hype right now even though it’s been around for a while. Social media includes social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, blogs, Wikis like Wikipedia, YouTube and other social media (Web 2.0) websites. All of these can be used for marketing purposes, but none are more effective than marketing with your blog.

Some experts will tell you that blogging is how social media started to take flight online.  I must say, I believe them. Blogging is not just a simple marketing tool – it’s a branding tool as well. After browsing the web last night for new blogging ideas, I came across a site (a couple) that lists 101 blogging tips.

I’m especially quite fond of #1 “Choose Wordpress” – Can’t do it on your system? Find a way to do it with Wordpress

101 Blogging tips

  1. Choose WordPress
  2. If you use blogspot, get your own domain
  3. Choose the right hosting provider
  4. If possible, have keywords in your domain
  5. Use dashes for long domain name
  6. Opt for .com or .net and avoid the rest
  7. Have the post-install checklist
  8. Optimize your permalink
  9. Plugins does wonder to your blog
  10. Choose the right plugins
  11. Too many plug-ins will slow down your blog
  12. Pick your niche carefully and stick with it
  13. Be passionate about what you write
  14. Aim to be an expert in your niche
  15. Don’t lose your credibility by faking it
  16. Be accountable to what you say write
  17. Posting frequency is over-rated
  18. Read more than you write. Organize your RSS subscription
  19. Avoid chunk of long article. Break it down into paragraph
  20. Use bold headings
  21. Use list
  22. Write long article to get traffic
  23. Picture speaks a thousand words. Use images
  24. Start and end with questions whenever possible
  25. Proofread twice before you publish
  26. Focus on keywords in post title
  27. Write for both readers and search engines
  28. Your readers come first, everything else second
  29. Learn the importance of keyword research
  30. Being #1 on Google doesn’t necessarily brings in the traffic
  31. Keywords must be searchable. Check its average search volume.
  32. Don’t be afraid to link out
  33. To get attention, link out to inner pages and not homepage
  34. Explain What is RSS? Not everyone is tech-savvy
  35. Use feedburner
  36. Offer email subscription
  37. Don’t display your subscribers too early
  38. The first 100 is the hardest. The next 100 is easier to achieve
  39. Back up your blog
  40. Speed up your blog
  41. Optimize your blog
  42. Design matters, first impression counts
  43. Get a premium theme (better yet, use Thesis)
  44. If budget isn’t an issue, get a custom theme
  45. Unclutter your sidebar
  46. Have an “About Me” page. It makes it more personal
  47. Don’t hide behind your blog
  48. Mascot is the trend but real picture improves your credibility
  49. Always have a “Contact Me” page
  50. Dofollow your blog to get your community off the ground
  51. And nofollow it when it gets too many spammy, useless, irrelevant comments (just like this blog)
  52. Promote your blog via commenting and article marketing.
  53. Leave relevant comments. One-line comments are frowned upon and often deleted.
  54. Get yourself a gravatar and see #48
  55. Link to inner pages when commenting
  56. Use Fast Blog Finder
  57. Be the first to comment
  58. Avoid A-list blogs when you are new since
  59. No one cares about your opinion unless you are John Chow (no pun intended!)
  60. Moderate your comments. Use Akismet.
  61. Always reply to comments
  62. Don’t underestimate the use of keywords on your comment
  63. Visit your commenters’ sites. Reciprocal commenting is the key
  64. Activate top commentator plugin (you have no idea what kind of comments this blog is getting each day, really)
  65. Enable “Subscribe to Comment“
  66. Join my PageRank list
  67. Learn the art of pin-point commenting
  68. Reward your top active commenters
  69. Don’t monetize too early
  70. Adsense isn’t going to make you rich overnight
  71. Adsense works best with organic traffic
  72. Cost-Per-Click (CPC) is higher on niche sites
  73. Subscribers don’t click ads
  74. Learn the art of affiliate marketing
  75. Write product review
  76. Setup Amazon Store i.e Wii Fit Accessories, Kindle Covers or Black Wii
  77. Check your stats
  78. Study your popular pages and monetize those pages
  79. Optimize your old articles for search traffic
  80. Learn basic SEO
  81. Make use of SEO tools
  82. Duplicate content is a myth
  83. Google sandbox is real
  84. Focus on one-way link building
  85. Have keywords on footer
  86. Write a guest post and invite guest posters
  87. Promote your blog site with article marketing
  88. Learn the power of outsourcing
  89. Use signature links on “dofollow” forums
  90. Join Twitter and use it creatively.
  91. Digg is useless
  92. Use Squidoo HubPages and promote with SheToldMe
  93. Join Technorati and claim your blog
  94. Be patient. There isn’t any shortcut to blogging success.
  95. Have perseverance. Your passion is your passport to success.
  96. Find out what people want and help them get it.
  97. For blogging tips, read ProBlogger
  98. For copywriting tips, read CopyBlogger
  99. For personal development tips, read Steve Pavlina
  100. The ‘gurus’ are not always right
  101. Create a 101 list
]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/blogging/general-blogging-tips-for-bloggers/feed/ 4 General Tweeting Twitter Tips http://www.antonrsa.co.za/twitter/general-tweeting-twitter-tips/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/twitter/general-tweeting-twitter-tips/#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:44:26 +0000 admin http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=207 Twitter is the best Web 2.0 micro-blogging tool available online.  It has countless features and in my opinion, Twitter search is awesome.  Nothing beats real time search! Although there’s many tips and tools available for Twitter online, find below a couple General tips that will help you get the best out of Twitter for your business marketing efforts as well as personally.

For a great Twitter tips list – Twitter tips: the ultimate guide

]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/twitter/general-tweeting-twitter-tips/feed/ 4 Part 2: Wordpress 3.0 – Exciting features http://www.antonrsa.co.za/wordpress/part-2-wordpress-3-0-%e2%80%93-exciting-features/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/wordpress/part-2-wordpress-3-0-%e2%80%93-exciting-features/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:46:05 +0000 Anton Koekemoer http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=202 Update: WordPress 3.0 is projected to be released on May 1st, the same day as WordCamp San Francisco. Feature freeze is pushed to March 1st, 2010 at which point there will not be any new feature requests taken (Only Bug Fixes).

I have found this blog post detailing some extra features regarding Wordpress 3.0 by WP Beginner.  You can find the full post here: What’s Coming in WordPress 3.0 (Features)

Custom Post types

Combining Post Types and Taxonomies will make WordPress a much more robust CMS option. This feature will allow you to have different type of posts for example Portfolio listings, Products, and then Normal posts.

Better navigations

Custom Woo Navigation will be included to the core in this release in order to allow for better menu management. This menu system has the drag and drop ease of the widget management screen, it could combine Pages, Categories, and Links.

Canonical plugins

Have you used a plugin that you loved, and the author discontinued providing support. No bug fixes, no upgrades, and the plugin initially breaks in newer versions. This is a common issue therefore with WordPress 3.0 there is a mission that Jane Wells is carrying which is to unite the plugin authors and come up with canonical plugins. Canonical plugins are developed by a community instead of one developer, so if one person steps down, the plugin does not die.

  • New default theme (at last).
  • Welcome guide in every installation.
]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/wordpress/part-2-wordpress-3-0-%e2%80%93-exciting-features/feed/ 2 Pingbacks and Trackbacks http://www.antonrsa.co.za/blogging/pingbacks-and-trackbacks/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/blogging/pingbacks-and-trackbacks/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:42:30 +0000 admin http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=197 For those that seek more knowledge about blogging pingbacks and trackbacks, find a quick explanation below from the blogging masters Wordpress. I often get asked about pingbacks and trackbacks so decided to share some information about it.

What is a trackback?

TrackBacks was designed to provide a method of notification between websites: it is a method of person A saying to person B, “This is something you may be interested in.” To do that, person A sends a TrackBack ping to person B.

A better explanation is this:

  • Person A writes something on their blog.
  • Person B wants to comment on Person A’s blog, but wants her own readers to see what she had to say, and be able to comment on her own blog
  • Person B posts on her own blog and sends a trackback to Person A’s blog
  • Person A’s blog receives the trackback, and displays it as a comment to the original post. This comment contains a link to Person B’s post

Source: http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging#Trackbacks

What is a pingback?

Pingbacks were designed to solve some of the problems that people saw with trackbacks. The official pingback documentation makes pingbacks sound an awful lot like trackbacks:

For example, Yvonne writes an interesting article on her Web log. Kathleen reads Yvonne’s article and comments about it, linking back to Yvonne’s original post. Using pingback, Kathleen’s software can automatically notify Yvonne that her post has been linked to, and Yvonne’s software can then include this information on her site.

Source: http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging#Pingbacks

To view the full source: http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging

]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/blogging/pingbacks-and-trackbacks/feed/ 1 Check your backlinks with this free online tool http://www.antonrsa.co.za/seo/check-your-backlinks-with-this-free-online-tool/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/seo/check-your-backlinks-with-this-free-online-tool/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:02:14 +0000 Anton Koekemoer http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=191 Here is a online tool that you can check the number of backlinks to your website or blog. This is a useful tool as you can see the number of backlinks to your domain with some interesting info regarding your backlinks. It shows the backlink url, backlink anchor text, backlink page rank (PR), etc.

Getting backlinks is still one of the best SEO methods to get ranked and this is a useful tool as it can show you the quality of your backlinks. If you are a savvy Google Webmasters fan you must have noticed that it takes a while for Google to list your links but with this tool you can check it up. Find below the link for the website backlinks checker tool.

You can find more backlink checker tools on the net if you do a simple search on your favourite search engine for it. I have found most backlink checker tools only provides you with the link of your backlink but this tool provides more valuable info regarding your link that can be of good use.

]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/seo/check-your-backlinks-with-this-free-online-tool/feed/ 6 RSS broadcasts your message to the world http://www.antonrsa.co.za/blogging/rss-broadcasts-your-message-to-the-world/ http://www.antonrsa.co.za/blogging/rss-broadcasts-your-message-to-the-world/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:23:10 +0000 Anton Koekemoer http://www.antonrsa.co.za/?p=174 RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is truly at the heart of what makes your blog work.  A blog (short for web log) allows for easy web publishing with CMS (Content Management System) features.  Your blog with the help of RSS, notifies the online world each time a new article is published.  So how does it work exactly?

When you create a new post or a article, you can make this public by publishing what you have written. When you publish (submit) your content, a couple of things happen at once.

  1. Your new content becomes immediately available to your blog readers.
  2. Your blog automatically creates an RSS-XML compiled file that is easily read by the search engines and blog aggregators. These RSS-XML files consists of a text file written in XML and it is called a “feed”.
  3. Your blog “pings” blog aggregators and search engines that is connected to your blog that you have new content.  This invites other users and subscribers to these systems to look at your new content.

Ping

A blog ping is sent out that consists of a small XML file that contains the title of the blog, a brief description and a link to where the content can be found. This blog ping is usually sent to all the major services which notifies the search engines of the new content that you have published.

Blog search engines will either display the RSS-XML feeds that they have received or they will send their own bots to go and retrieve the information.  The results of this procedure is quite amazing. What you wrote a couple of minutes ago is immediately available on the internet. This is a similar process to the way that news stories are release on the internet and it becomes immediately available.  Real time news!!!

The subscribers to your blog feed can be notified by their RSS feed readers immediately if new content is published. These readers usually retries the XML files with short descriptions of the content and a link back to the full article.

Content syndication is king!!!

]]> http://www.antonrsa.co.za/blogging/rss-broadcasts-your-message-to-the-world/feed/ 3