Social Media for Promoting a Web Site/Blog


Social Media is a great tool for Everyone these Day’s, It helps everyone to carry out various activities. It refers to a place where the content is not given by the Web Site employees, But given by its various user’s. Social Media is mainly used for Communication or Marketing.

Communication:

It refers for communicating to people through Social Media. Like chatting to Friends with Facebook and interacting to people and participating in various Forum’s.

Advertising/Publicizing:
Advertising someone’s blog or Web Site through Social Media is a great advantage of Social Media.
It involves the following steps.


Steps undertaken for Advertising/Publicizing in Social Media:

Social media marketing
This thing has 2 important aspects

1.The first is a way in which a webmaster can improve a website for the age of social media by on-page tactics. Such optimization method includes adding links to services such as Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us and Bookmark links so that their pages can be easily ‘saved and submitted’ to and for these services.

2.The second one involves the task of building ways that fans of a brand or company can promote it themselves in multiple online social media venues.

Social media optimization :

These are the method’s for generating publicity through social media,community websites and online communities. It includes optimizing websites so that it’s content can be easily spread to web by website’s own visitors/users it involves installing buttons like using RSS Button, Social news buttons, social bookmarks, track backs and widgets to a site’s page, such as “add to del.ici.ous” links and the MyBlogLog widget and stuff.

The Aim is related to that of Search engine marketing but the difference is the aim is to get traffic from Social Media rather than Search Engine’s. This is the first step and its not enough alone. If we want these thing’s to benefit us the page should have compelling content. A content which user will like and may share with his/her Network.

Other related thing’s:

Social network marketing
:
It is the method of advertising one’s product(Any sort of Product) in a Social Networking Web site which leads to increase in Web Presence. This ranges from simply advertising directly on social networking websites, viral marketing which spreads throughout the web, email or word of mouth, or providing niche social networking sites focused around the item being advertised.

Search engine marketing :
Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a type of Internet marketing that helps to promote sites by boosting their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization(SEMPO), SEM methods includes : search engine optimization (or SEO), Paid placement and Paid inclusion, contextual advertising. Other sources, such as New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings.

Starting a blog, keeping it run and having good traffic

Blog

A blog is a type a website in which it is maintained by an individual or group. Maintaining refers to having regular entries of anything[Which is meant for reading] . It is a medium through which every common person becomes a reporter by publishing their own articles. There are mainly 2 applications for creating and managing blogs. That is WordPress and Blogger.

Blogging
Its the term used to say when a person adds a entry or article of any matter in a particular blog.

Why
Most people do blogging to earn. And some do raise their voice or express their opinions on net, some people might to blogging as it is simply their hobby.
These day’s every one is starting their blog’s and blogging especially Teen’s. For a newbie there are many stuff’s to come over with before having a successful Blog. Therefore I am sharing some basic step’s for starting a blog and keep it running.

Starting a Blog

Choosing the Host

Choosing the host is one of the main, It decides Thing, there are mainly two types of Host’s available.

1. Weblog :
Its a free hosting thing great for beginners but doesn’t gives as much flexibility as blog publishing
application gives. But still Its brilliant in my concerns as it is totally free and gives enough Services[I am using that only] which are required like Blogger and WordPress.com.

2. Open source blog publishing application :
Most of the user’s use this as it has a major advantage that is flexibility and you can customize it as per one’s need’s and don’t need to be dependent upon the Hosting server, As you host yourself. It is not free you have to pay some Hosting Rates which caries upon $6-$50 depending upon packages to packages of hosting. Examples WordPress.org , MovableType

Most of the blogger’s start with Free clients like ‘Blogger‘ and then move to paid one like ‘WordPress.org‘ the major advantages of Self-Hosting is there flexibility.

What to blog about

You can blog about mainly two things

1. Techie or some professional things. In this type people blog about some Niche[Which can be anything] and most of the time being very professional. Like problogger.net

2. Thing happening around and physical infrastructure
This type of blogging is practiced mainly by Celebs and teens. In this type people share what is happening around them and where are they and what are they doing they gain more of stardom with this. Like http://www.aamirkhan.com/blog.htm

Whats Recommended

You should blog about the niche in which you are professional. Like a Auto expert will blog about cars not internet, The most demanded niche these days is ‘Making money’ and ‘Blogging Tips’ blog’s of these category receive huge traffic and make a successful strike.

How much blogs to maintain
You can maintain as much Blog’s you want to maintain But it’s always better to have one. Rather than Writing number of post’s in many blog’s its better to write a few and a good one in one blog.
But still if you are pro at many stuff You may blog in all the stuff you are good in. But having Quality is more important than quantity.

Don’t Know something never mind, Google It !
Even though you not be knowing something, But you can still blog about it. There is no need of writing only in the Niche you are professional in. You can try some other niche and always assist Google and try Blogging in new topics.

What after blog has started
Now after starting a blog the question everybody think is that they don’t get traffic at all.
This is very true no blog gets Traffic in beginning and it feels like Shouting alone in dark room but still the Traffic gets increasing if you keep running your blog. I don’t like those people who start a blog and then leave blogging after 1-2 article complaining that they didn’t receive enough traffic.

This is the first step after you have made a blog that is popularizing your blog.

1. Chose the right template
Your template selection is one of the main part of making a successful blog. Chose right template that is one which is related to your blog. Example- If you have a blog related to gaming you should have template that is related to gaming. It will look funny if you will use a flowers template in a gaming blog. Like Finalsense

2. Submit it to We
b
Submit your site to internet by giving the URL to search engines, there are lot of sites these days which offer Blog submission to a particular category. You can submit it to Google webmaster tools or Google Base. Blog submission sites are like Blogged Technorati

3. Publishing
Have regular entries of posts which should offer unique content. This will attract the readers.

4. Labels
These labels are just like normal labels which you apply in your daily life. These are used to classify posts of your blog. Like in a Gaming download’s blog there could be posts varying to different gaming consoles like PC or Xbox 360. So there is a column having the different labels.
5. SEO(Search Engine Optimization)
This what most people do these days and receive good traffic.

3 top sites which I use the most

Google

Google is the best and the most popular Search Engine at net, Even though Google.com is ranked 2nd in traffic terms but its superior Indexing provides with a Search result which is worth. Google helps everyone to find a useful resource, When Google Inc(By the name Backrub search) started in 1998 it main aim was to give all information to everyone available on the net and it was soon succeeded in it. But sometimes it may give rubbish if the thing(Site) you are looking is not a popular one as It goes on for a site depending upon its Page Rank. Google helps everyone, Google Indexing also gives and many more illegal things like hacking(This is not an advantage). It generates its income from mainly Google Adsense and its e-mail services. At the date Google Adsense is the best and highest paying Ads program. But company main focus is on Search Engine. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University.

It helps to search me anything I need that is anything which I require to work upon with like using Google for my Holiday Homework, Things l need to learn for writing and many more stuff. Its a wholesome web directory.

Facebook

Facebook is the social networking which is currently receiving the most Traffic Rank as compared to any other social networking site. It has a Good User interface and GUI and a User Functionality. Earlier I was pro-Orkut types, But now I am a typical Facebook user. Facebook has started in 4 February 2004(Very Young), as for connecting people within Harvard University, But it grew like anything and I is now accepting people of Age over 13. Overall Facebook is the best Social Networking Site I found on the Web 2.0.

Many of my friends are there In facebook so it helps a great extent in interaction(Chatting,Pics Sharing and stuff) and the great good feature is that it has a ‘Status Message’ thing and inbuilt Chatting and a various number of applications(But some are really useful [Like Twitter]). I have added a Twitter Applications in My facebook account whic automaticly changes the Status message of Facbook to that which is in Twitter.

Twitter

Twitter is a micro blogging service started in 2006. Through Twitter people communicate to outer world and express their concerns. Twitter is a free social networking site, Thus generating no Revenue. People regularly update their twitter accounts by giving new status message which is also know as Tweets. The Updates are shown in the User Profile and displayed to those who are following that User. Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts and by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008 which was a fivefold increase in a month.

I use twitter for sharing my Status updates , Some times giving the links of my new post’s and The good thing is in facebook by adding a Twitter application we are automatically able to convert a Tweet into a Facebook status message.Like- During Exams I use it to tell my people which is the next Exam going to have and how was my last exam. Twitter Rocks ! There are also some 3rd Party Apps available for twitting.

Blogging for Earning

Most people are attracted to blogging as they see it as a income stream by showing Ads and stuff. Ya, Its true many people succeed in it and make huge bucks. Some didn’t got to such height and have a very wannabe income stream some don’t actually earn a single penny. These days many Bollywood Stars are attracted towards blogging in order to have a better Fan base and share their life with the Fans and advertise for their upcoming films.

So most of the people earn by blogging it can be anything depending what the Blogger wants from the user.

Why there is a need to Earn
Earning can be done for anything many students now days blog in order to have better Pocket Money or People do it to have a Better Income Stream. There are many full time blogger’s these days and it is taken as a career now.

How to Earn

Earning from blogging requires very basic steps.
These steps can as simple as using Text Link ads or writing Paid reviews or blogging for some organization or finding sponsors and there are many more rays of hope.

Ads Programs available
There are many Ads Program available so I decided to include some good one’s.

1. Google Adsense 

It is the one used by majority and majority can’t be wrong Its actually the best one giving the Highest Prices.

 

2. Chitika

 

 

3. Amazon Associates

 

 

4. YPN(Yahoo Publisher Network) U.S. Only

 

 

 

 

5. Microsoft® adCenter Publisher Program

 

 

6. Bidvertisers

 

 

7. Clicksor

 

8. Adbrite

List of blog submission directories

Web Promoting Services are the things which have helped blogger’s to make their Blog a hit. It doesn’t only boosts up the Alexa Rank but also a sort of Free Advertisement that can be made for one’s Blogs Which results up in popularizing your blog. Many Pro-Blogger’s as well as newbie’s have starting using these things and It is proved that it helps to grow a Blog much faster.

These day’s using web services is a great thing now in order to increase one’s Blogs/Websites Traffic there are many tools available OR Web Services accessible for doing the same.

We may use Bookmarking Sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Technorati etc.Which come in category of Social Bookmarking to popularize our Pages .

Some people also use Twitter for promoting there posts Like they write “New in [blog name] [post name] [Brief Description] [Link(Most of the time in the form of tinyurl)] ” as their status message in Twitter or Facebook . Thing works great for Newbie’s as well for Blogging Pro’s. I mainly use Google webmaster tools and some Blogging Directories [Full List in the end] like Blogged. Google Webmaster Tools adds your pages in their indexing.

Search Engine displays a site according to its Traffic Rank so you can’t help it. Rather than giving good Meta Tags. We may also just Add the URL to Search Engine. RSS Feed Submission also helps a lot there a lot of them available for them [Full List in the end]. SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is also a foremost step for these thing’s there are some Steps which help’s in increasing the traffic. There are many more services available in the net. Dmoz is a Good example of SEO

List of Directories

Blog Directories:

5starblogs

A1Weblinks reciprocal or $$$

Addyourblog

Allafrica

All-Blogs.net fee or reciprocal

Answers

Autosmoto

Aviva fee

Biggerblogger

Birminghambloggers

Blawg

Blawgrepublic

Blloggs

Blogarama

Blogaz

Blogburst

Blogbib fee or reciprocal

BlogCatalog

Blogcode

Blog-collector

Blogs-collection

Blogdir

Blogdir.com

Blog-directory

Blogfolders

Bloggapedia

Bloggerhq

Bloggerschoiceawards

Blogexplosion

Blogfinds

Blogflux

Blogged

Bloggapedia

Bloggernity

Bloghints

Bloghop

Bloghub

Blogion

Blogintro

Bloglines

Bloglisting

Blogmob

Bloggernow

Blogotion

Blogrankings

Blogs.com

Blogsbywomen

Blogscanada

Blogscholar

Blogsearch

Blog-search

Blogsearchengine

Blogsrating

Blogtree

Blogs-collection

Blogscholar

Blogville

Blogz

Blogz

Blurt It

Britblog

Browseblogs

Chefsblogs

Christiansunite

BoingBoing

BOTW Blog Directory fee

Bulletize fee

ContentsMatter

Crayon

Dfwblogs

Directorybest

Diarist

Dmoz

EatonWeb

Ezilon

Eponym

Feedboy

Feeddirectory

Feedmap

Feednuts

Flookie

FindingBlog

FyberSearch

Geekyspeaky $$$$ or reciprocal

Genwi

Getblogs

Globeofblogs

Gnoos

Gobignetwork

Google

Gozoof

Grokodile

IBlog Business Directory fee

Jewishblogging

Kmax

Leftyblogs

LSBlogs

Mkeonline

Mozdex

Mvblogs

Myblog2u

Myblogdirectory

Nitle blog census

Nycbloggers

Orblogs

Outpost-earth

Poddop

Quickblogdirectory

Rateitall

SmallBusiness.com New

Spicypage

Sports

Sportsblogs

Somethingjewish

Strategicboard

Submitblognow

Superblogdirectory

The lefty directory

Theblogresource

Theseoking

Portal.eatonweb fee

Regator

Scienceport

Small Business Blog Dir fee

SmallBusiness.com

TheVital

TruthLaidBear

Wilsdomain reciprocal

Weblogs.com

Weblog directory

Webloogle

Websandiego

Yahoo local

Yahoo.com

Blog + RSS

Blogbunch

Blogoriffic

BlogPulse

Blogstreet

Feednuts

Gogreece

Icerocket

Info-listings

Photarium

Rateitall

Regator

Today

Topblogarea

Multi-Ping-Services

Pingomatic

Pingoat

Ipings

RSS

2Rss

4guysfromrolla

9rules.com

Allheadlinenews

Automotive-links

Blogcensus

Blogdigger

Blo.gs

Bulkfeeds

Chordata

Crayon

Daytimenews

Design-feed

Devasp

Feed24

Feedage

Feedbase

Feedbees

Feed Burner

Feedboy

Feedcat

Rssfeeddirectory

Feedfury

Feedplex

Feeds4all

Feedmailer

Feedooyoo

FeedsFarm

Feedsee

Feedshark

Feeds2read

Feedza

Finance-investing

Findrss

Free-rss

Gabbr

Goldenfeed

Itsmynews

Jordomedia

Medlogs medical feeds

Millionrss

Mobispine

MyMSN RSS Directory submi feed to ’search’ for content

News-feeds

NewsGator

Newsknowledge

Newsnow

NGOID News Network

Octora

Plazoo

Postami fee

Pressradar

Purerss

RDFTicker

ReadAblog

Readburner

Redtram

RocketInfo

Rssbuffet

Rssfeeds

Rsshugger

Rssmicro

Rssmountain

Rssmotron

Search4Rss

Security-protection

Solarwarp

Strategic Board

Swoogle

Syndic8

Tailrank

Technorati

Topix

Twingly

Weblogalot

Wingee

YahooRss

Xmeta

Zimbo

Adding to these Directories will surely improve the Amount of Traffic you get in Blog/Website.