With some free tools and a bit of daily work (we are looking at around 20 minutes per day on average), you can grow your twitter follower count on a steady basis in a perfectly legal, semi-automatic way.

One way to grow your twitter account is to follow other users and let them follow you back. This guide is aimed at this strategy.

Before we’re getting to the instructions, first a bit of history on this approach.

A year ago, this strategy worked so well, that lots of users increased their twitter following to tens of thousands of users very rapidly, practically within days.

However Twitter then disabled this possibility and put a limit in place. You are allowed to follow only 2000 users and have to wait until 2000 users follow you back before you can follow anymore users.

Then you can follow a maximum of users that follow you divided by 10 at any given time.
For example, if 3000 users follow you, you can follow 3300 users until you hit the limit.
So if 5000 people follow you, you can follow 5500 users.
If 10000 people follow you, you can follow 11000 people and so on.

In order to automate this ‘following-method’ and drastically reduce work time, people have used free tools that enabled them to view the list of users who did not follow them back and were able to bulk delete all those users within seconds.

However last month, Twitter has eliminated the possibility of unfollowing users in bulk, you now have to manually unfollow users.
This also means that all automated tools that promise you 1000s of new twitter followers monthly and are based on this strategy will not work anymore and you should avoid spending money on these tools.

So, in order to still grow your twitter following on a constant basis, you can use some simple tools to automate manual processes as much as possible and reduce work time.

1. Get your twitter account and follow other users until you hit your limit. Focus on users who have large follower and following numbers in your niche. Follow their followers.

2. Wait 2-3 days to give users some time to follow you.

3. Install the latest version of the Multi Links Firefox plugin

4. Go to friendorfollow.com and view a list of users that you are following but do not follow you back.

5. With the firefox plugin in installed, right click and drag the red rectangle over about 40 links, then release the right button. Now 40 firefox tabs open up. Access each tab and unfollow the users. (Opening 40 tabs at once can take some system resources, if you have problems, reduce the number to 30 or 20)

6. Now after unfollowing, you can follow more users until you hit the limit again. Rinse and repeat on a daily basis to get new followers daily and  spread the word

admin Twitter

Writer’s block and a slump in creativity can really take their toll on an article writer. To help you out of that creative rut, here are 25 hot and fresh ideas to get your mind gears cranking again!

1) Make use any of the hundreds of free article writing templates available on the net.

2) Use ideas from your blog to help you write your articles so that they will be related with each other.

3) With a single topic, you can write in 2 different ways – one, writing for the newbies and uninitiated and two, writing for the more advanced readers. That’s already 2 articles out of one subject!

4) FAQs that are asked by consumers are a great basis for an article.

5) Utilize keyword suggestion tools, like WordTracker, in order to determine the keywords your target readers are submitting to online search engines. Afterwards, create articles that revolve around those searches.

6) Analyze the search statistics of your website and determine what search terms are people submitting to Google to get to your website. Base the content you will make on those searches.

7) Magazines covers are a great source of inspiration. Take note of which titles you think can be adapted to suit your market niche.

8 ) Template titles are fool-proof! Make use of the following no-brainers:

- Reader Question: “[add question here]”
- 5 Secret Tricks for (add subject here)
- 10 Major Reasons Why (add subject here)
- The Top 10 Mistakes We Make When (add subject here)
- How to (add subject here) In 8 Easy Steps
- 3 Surefire Ways to (add subject here)
- How to Conquer (add subject here)

9) Think of your article as an open classroom. Teach what you can basing on your experiences and skills.

10) Forums, blogs, and newsletters within your niche are great sources of topics that your target audience.

11) Set up one Google Alert for every one of your keywords, followed by scanning the titles to see what are well-liked subjects in that niche.

12) Ask for questions from your readers or your subscribers. Their needs and questions are the ones that need answering so base your articles on their queries.

13) Visit other blogs that share your niche topic then scan the posts that have long lists of comments. This is to identify the hot issues with your target market.

14) “How To” articles are always well-sought after since they are useful and instructional. List articles are also easy ones to make and yet gain much attention.

15) Look at your website. Take a good look at it. There are IDEAS there. You just need to look longer.

16) If you have an e-book on a topic in your niche, go to the table of contents and use it as an article ideas list.

17) Interviews are another way of setting up an article. Try talking to regular consumers about their reviews on a niche product or a real authority on your market subject. Easy, huh?

18) If you have given out an elaborate customer support reply, you can use it as a basis for an article. Customer questions can be a perfect opportunity to educate people about an important skill, theory, or ability.

admin Article Marketing, Web Content

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the systematic way of promoting your website to make it rise in popularity online, bringing in more traffic to your site through natural search indexes for targeted keywords. More traffic translates to more profits, since the more people visit your website, the higher the chances are that they will purchase something from whatever items you are trying to sell. Unfortunately, there are still many businesses who take SEO for granted or make erroneous SEO moves since even at senior management level, these people are unaware of what exactly it is you need to avoid.

Here are 8 top SEO mistakes to steer clear of:

1. Implementing SEO at a Later Stage
By beginning the process of SEO too late, companies jeopardize their business marketing success online. Technical implementation decisions are greatly influenced by SEO and copywriting and keyword selection are not that easy to get right the first time. SEO needs time to get right and starting early leaves you room for mistakes and making improvements based on them.

2. Selecting the Wrong Website Software
Be aware that a great number of Content Management Systems (CMS) lack fundamental SEO features. Examples of missing features in faulty CMSs include the capacity to select headings, title tags, and anchor text. Of course there are CMSs that have these basics; however, they aren’t search engine bot-friendly or they can generate huge content duplication.

3. Making Use of Search Engine Bot Unfriendly Design
Flash is a definite no-no if you want a crawler friendly web design. Many senior marketing managers think that Flash will make their site look more appealing. However, it is a fact that search engine bots prefer plain HTML text to content contained in Flash files. Aside from Flash, bots cannot easily read certain links in JavaScript. Be careful about the web design you choose by taking care to avoid this SEO issue.

4. Duplication of Web Site Content
Duplicate content can take place when you create print pages or refer to pages on the website with more than one URL such as www.copied.com and www.copied.com/index.html. Even though some websites allow these two URLs to co-exist, it is still a good idea not to use this as part of your SEO.

5. Poorly Filled Content Pages
If titles, heading tags and the prices are the only things that make a page differ from all the others, that web page will either be regarded by bots as duplicate content or as a low-quality page.

6. Bad Internal Anchor Text
By all means, avoid using “click here” or “more” as the anchor text on your links.

7. Over-Optimizing
Overly keyword-rich webpages will not raise your page rankings because these pages tend to look unattractive and can make the site visitor click through to another site that is less cluttered in appearance.

8. Failure to Invest In Website Promotion
Even after a site is launched, promotion must not stop there. A common mistake by companies is that they stop their website promotion efforts after they have launched their site. This is wrong because SEO is a continuous process if you really want to achieve maximum results since search engines nowadays do not just judge a website by the total number of pages but also you need to create buzz in online communities and receive new links on a frequent basis in order to ‘stay fresh and interesting’ in the eyes of search engines. To maintain and improve your site’s good rankings and prevent it from going down, maintain an updated SEO campaign that includes continuous on-page optimization and off-page optimization such as link building.

admin SEO, Web Marketing

With the onslaught of social networking giants such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, Google has resorted more and more in getting assistance from these sites when it comes to real time search results. Unknown to many, a less visible algorithm exists which can power search results and Google has been working on it to make it more real time.

The decade has been witness to hundreds of innovations in the Internet and in going with this trend, Google has been recently researching and developing a new system of indexing their search engine results for quite some time now. Although unknown to the general public, a great number of SEO experts are very aware of this forthcoming update in search engines. It’s code name that has been coined in the upper echelons of Google is “Caffeine“. Based on the statements made by the representatives of Google, the company has decided that the Caffeine update would not be released for mass usage before the opening of the year 2010.

And now, 2010 has finally arrived. According to reliable sources, Google has been testing their new system update Caffeine at one of the company’s high-tech data centers since the previous summer. Sources also share that the launching of Caffeine is fast approaching now that 2010 has rolled in.

Concerning hearsays and speculations, there are several bloggers who have reported that there has been an increase in speed regarding search results when they use the Google search engine. However, these reports should not be taken seriously because of certain aspects in the Caffeine design.

For one, Google has made it known that the launching of Caffeine will not cause a big difference regarding search results. This means those bloggers are wrong by saying that Caffeine has already been launched. Second, Caffeine is more like an out of sight worker, meaning to say there will actually be no visual changes in Google’s search results.

The only major change that will be felt by Google users is the fact that overall speed for search results to appear is projected to improve a lot. For searches for photos and videos, this will be highly appreciated.

More emphasis on news and social media for generic search terms will be given by Google Caffeine, according to an SEO company that had a study on the new system. Specific keywords, on the other hand, will bring out more regular websites as part of the results for the search. Generally speaking, it was determined that with Google Caffeine, search rankings will likely go unchanged, except for several websites that have not been updated in content for a very long period. Google Caffeine will thus prove to be exceedingly beneficial for websites that stay up-to-date and put out new content regularly once the update is officially put to use by Google.

admin Google, SEO

Social media marketing has reached the highly popular social platform Facebook. With over 40 million active members, Facebook is an international online superstar. Plenty of its internet savvy members simply avoid attempts at Facebook advertisement tactics and prefer using it as a venue for maintaining and making new friendships. To help you make the most out of your social media experience, here are eight steps in using Facebook:

Registration
Register yourself as a member and then work on your profile.
Use your full real name and upload decent pictures. If your email does not have a top-level edu domain, join a regional network derived from your zip code or global address. Change your regional networks later on to connect to your company’s network if you desire. Changing networks can be done twice within a 60-day period. Upload a good headshot of yourself (no group photos, logos, pets, etc.) and fill up the profile info with only the information you are comfortable sharing publicly. Do not change your relationship status often. All of these tips are to prevent others from viewing you as someone who is not trustworthy.

Invite Friends
Invite friends with the aim of making a network of 100 to 200 people. Use address books from free web email providers to seek out active users and you may also search for your real offline friends. Avoid adding celebrity profiles since these are usually fake.

Upload Media
Start uploading pictures and videos, separating them into categorized albums. Learn how to tag people and share your pictures outside Facebook by following the website admin’s simple instructions.

Write on Walls
Post items only on your friends’ walls and never write on your own wall. This is where you share notes, videos and links. Annoying posts can be removed by politely asking the erring person to delete the comment.

Join Groups
Gain friends and support for your cause by joining groups on Facebook which are related to your interests or even create one of your own (just make sure it does not already exist).

Events
Use the “Events” Facebook feature and invite people. If you host a party or other event, invite others to join. Fake friends will not invite you to their dinners, parties, etc. by browsing their public events.

Share
Participate in the sharing of notes and links. Every note or useful you make can include tags to friends so tag those whom you wish to read a particular note or helpful link. These tags will be shown on your friends’ news feeds or walls.

Check Daily
Open your homepage daily. Your homepage is different from your Facebook profile page and displays shared news feeds, invitations for events and groups, requests, etc. Keep updated with your friends’ lives by visiting your homepage as often as possible. Facebook also has additional applications such as the poke, marketplace, Facebook mobile, games, etc. Have fun with your Facebook experience!

admin Social Media, Web Marketing