Facebook "Like" marketing experiment - update

Last month I posted about marketing on Facebook using their Like button. I was using it for my own marketing project, learning as I did it, and posting about what I did and how it worked.

In my project, I posted 15 flower pictures that I had taken last summer, and asked people to vote for their favorites with the Like button so I could narrow down the top 12 to make calendars. When the voting ended, I wanted to choose one person who voted to get a calendar.

Here are the earlier posts:
Marketing via Facebook "Like"
Facebook "Like" Marketing Experiment - Part II

Here are the pros and cons of what I did:
Pros -

• While I didn't get a lot of people involved, the few who did were very active and not only voted, but added comments to most pictures.
• I learned the difference between Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages and learned how to build a Page. (Here is an explanation about the difference between the two.) 
• I discovered a bunch of useful Facebook applications that help me do what I wanted to do within the Facebook guidelines. The list of links is below.

Cons -

• I learned that while asking people to vote is allowed, doing a giveaway on my own Facebook page is against Facebook rules. Facebook can only be used to lead people to a non-Facebook website where the contest/giveaway can be conducted.
• Giving away one free calendar with flower pictures did not create a lot of buzz. No surprise there. Giving away something free to everyone who participated would have created more buzz. More on that in an upcoming post when I tell you about Stacy's Pita Chips. Huge buzz.
• In order to comply with Facebook rules, I created Help Pick the Top 12, which is a separate website with voting buttons under each picture (actually it was a blog) and the challenge was encouraging people to click over from Facebook to vote. I did get some votes, but not a huge amount.
• While I did find sites and applications to help me market with Facebook "Like," I personally didn't have the time to work on this more and develop it into a bigger project with bigger results. I don't know if it would have mattered with flower pictures, anyway. 

While I didn't have any big Wow moments, I learned a lot about using Facebook as a marketing tool. I hope when you are planning to market your product or service via Facebook and want to take advantage of the Like button, my experience helps you to pick up where I left off. I'd hate for you to waste valuable time learning about this from the beginning like I have.

Meanwhile, here are links to sites that I have used or would use with my next Facebook marketing campaign:

Crowd Conversion - If you can look past the the hype, you'll find an interesting webinar, videos, and links.

Like Button - Yes, it seems strange that I have included the Like Button page, but this shows you how to add a Like button to your blog or website. When visitors to your website click your embedded Like button, it shows up on their personal Facebook page and your website/blog is broadcasted to all their friends. It's Like Button marketing in its most basic form. Here is what it looks like when added to your site. Click it and see how it appears on your Facebook profile. You can click Unlike to remove it from your profile if you want. (My feelings won't be hurt.)





Facebook for Websites - If you're a geek or have a geek working on your business website, this offers code and tutorials to integrate your site with Facebook. There are even options for Facebook users to opt-in to receive messages from you (your business.) One caveat is unless you're technically minded, this page might make your head spin. I consider myself a geek and still had a hard time with some of the info here.

Facebook Promotions - This is the one I should have used from the beginning. The description on the page says it best: "Promotions for Fan Pages is a Facebook verified application for companies & agencies to run branded interactive promotions on Facebook Fan Pages. Promotion formats include: sweepstakes, contests, coupon giveaways, special deals and more..."

My Merch Store - Not so much a page that helps you market your business through Facebook, but more a way to create and sell merchandise that markets your business. Merchandise that you can create and sell via Facebook includes t-shirts, cards, key chains, mugs, etc.

Do you have any other links or tips to share?


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Interactive share and subscribe buttons

As usual, my Saturday morning routine this past weekend included poking around interesting websites while I enjoyed my morning coffee. I click here and there, wherever something looks interesting.

More often than not I come across something I want to share here. This last week's discovery is an interactive button that invites readers to share a link with a multitude of social sites and another button that invites readers to subscribe via several different readers. This button is from www.addtoany.com

One option this free service features is a pop up when you slide your mouse over the button. While I think this is a great way to grab the reader's attention and probably increases clicks on the button, I can't decide if this is helpful of simply annoying. What do you think?

Here are both buttons. Slide your mouse over them and then comment with your thoughts.

Share This


Subscribe

PS: No, I haven't added this to any of my sites yet. Just because something looks cool to a blog owner, doesn't necessarily mean their readers like it. And we all know that if the readers are unhappy, that's bad.

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Social Bookmarking Icons for your blog

Do you have social bookmarking icons or chicklets on your blog?
Last year's explosion of social bookmarking sites like Facebook and Twitter have shown that people are influenced by their friends and online contacts when it comes to discovering new stuff online.

After a long search for a website I'm working on, I found two different ways to get these kinds of icons. One is super easy and the other, while still pretty easy, offers a ton of design choices.

The super easy method (for Blogger blogs) is to go to Sociofluid.com.
Check off the sites you want to include in your widget, decide on a size and how you want it to act when your viewers hover their mouse over the icons, then generate the widget. Easy Peasy.

Here's an example of their widget. I set the sizes at 32 and 48 and clicked to have it Grow Up with a mouseover. Here's what it looks like. Pretty cool. I wish it had a Flickr icon, though.

The other option offers lots of different designs. There are actually several sites with these free downloads, but the one with the choices I liked best is this page at wpzoom.com - yes, the WP refers to WordPress.

To use these, you'll have to download the file and install each icon individually, but you download each icon in all sizes so you can fit it into your blog or site perfectly. There are some really neat designs here.

As for me, I'll use the super easy method on one site, a hand-drawn design on another site, and bookmark both for when I want more.
Enjoy!


PS: Other sites I like that offer free social networking icons are:
http://www.bloggerplugins.org/2007/11/recent-posts-widget-plugin_25.html
and
http://www.wavemindedstudios.com/site/news/social-networking-icons








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Reactions to the 11,000 Twitter followers post

On Monday, I republished parts of a 28-page Etsy forum post about how CatherinetteRings got 11,000 Twitter followers and how it has helped their sales.

Today, I'd like to share some forum comments from other Etsyians:

I've already more than doubled my twitter followers in just a day thanks to the great advice! :)

Wow. Took some of the advice on this thread and I have so many new followers. Definitely see that it gets me more views.

I've gotten at least 2 sales from twitter and I have less than 2000 followers.

Actually, a single tweet that reaches a potential market of 11,000 people is a very good investment in time. I've found many a great item for sale on Twitter..

I too thought Twitter was the most ridiculous thing until I started seeing how many Twitter followers were actually visiting my sites using Google Analytics...really took me by surprise.

It's a great marketing tool, as long as you remember to not just Twitter about your business, or at least make your biz tweets fun and engaging.

Do your twitter research and see the BIG NAMES using it because it works. It doesn't matter whether you "get it" or not, it works. If it translates into even just one sale a month, it works. I get so amazed at the folks who simply don't use something because they don't like it or get it or whatever the reason. If Twitter is good enough for the Fortune 500 companies, then its definitely good enough for me.

I only have just over 100 followers, but according to Google Analytics, I get quite a few hits coming from Twitter. I don't know how many purchases that has translated into, though.

it sounds like another marketing tool that is going to stick around the way it has caught on. if barbara walters can tweet, so can i! :D

I tried an experiment: I listed two similar items on Etsy. I tweeted about one and didn't tweet about the other. The tweeted item got a phenomenally higher number of views!

I have a very different approach to twitter than the original poster, but to those asking it DEFINITELY can result in sales! I've had numerous sales and private custom orders as a direct result of twitter. I love it when someone says "I found you on twitter and I'd like to buy this..."

Next to blogging, twitter has been the best thing I've done for my little business.

I have at LEAST 15 sales because of Twitter in the last month, I ask people who buy from me where they heard about me and a lot of them said twitter. Oh and 2 of those sales came back and purchased items again

And my favorite comment:

marking this for when i get smart enough to twitter

You can learn more facts about Twitter in the second post on this page.

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Sharing my Twitter Strategy : 11000 followers

I just read through an entire Etsy forum post (26 pages and still growing) about how Etsy's CatherinetteRings has used Twitter to increase her sales. Her info is a fantastic example of how Twitter can help increase your sales, as well as a step by step tutorial on how she made it work.

The entire forum post is here, entitled "Sharing my Twitter Strategy : 11000 followers" and his tutorial is listed in the original post. Please check it out.

A summary of the next 26 27 28 pages includes a more in-depth explanation by CatherinetteRings:
(The quoted text that follows is used with permission.)

How has it increased Catherinette Rings's traffic?
"Whenever i post a link to an item , i get from 30 to 70 hits within minutes . You don't get that many hits by renewing items these days . "

Google Analytics stats:
"1. (direct) / (none) 4,139
2. adn.entrecard.com / referral 1,661
3. twitter.com / referral 1,652
4. google / organic 1,287
5. entrecard.com / referral 798
6. steampunkrings.blogspot.com / referral 551
7. craftcult.com / referral 436
8. facebook.com / referral 251
9. deviantart.com / referral 152
10. catherinetterings.deviantart.com / referral 135
And these figures are growing . 1652 referral would cost me 250$ of google add"

"Everything that brings more traffic , eventually brings sales . twitter is in 3rd position and represent 11 % of the traffic i get . I have received many Direct message after a purchase or note to seller saying they found me with twitter . "

Does this work?
"I get lots of sale from Twitter . Many buyers told me they found me on twitter . "

What does CatherinetteRings tweet about?
"Personal vs. Business :You can use twitter for personal but i recommend that you use a separate twitter account for your business . Personal stuff is not relevant to business , you need to build an image that reflects the nature of your business on twitter , for ex saying that you are going to take a walk because its sunny outside might not interest those who follow you for your craft . This way you can keep tweeting about something relevant to your business . Work in progress , new design , tips ...etc "

"You have to filter what you think will be interesting for those who follow your business on twitter , When you say your working on something , some of your followers sometimes replies to that , that's when you get in and interact with them and engage in a discussion . I dont tweet all day and say everything i do . That would be boring . "

"Also you can comment and reply to others tweet , when you find something interesting . You can RT : retweet content from someone you follow so that your followers can also read that tweet . "

Ok, so how much time do you spend managing this?
"Building a followers list to 11000 takes times but once you have them , you can post tweets that takes just a few second to write and get 100 hundreds of views from just a line less that 140 character long , hard to beat and less time consuming that blogging . Now , i can just sit and wait an still my followers list grows by it self , the more followers you have the more popular you become . "

"One advantage i have is that im a full-time artisan . My priority is custom orders , post office first and adding new rings to my shop . Then when im less busy i put all my effort on promoting . Then i get a rush and i have no time for promoting and i just do customs until it slows down . I alocate time to promoting depending on the flow ."

"The majority of twitter users are already using it to promote their store and I only have about 400 updates , i don't spam twitter . Twitter users have the choice to follow or not to follow so if you don't like the way someone use twitter you simply don't follow them . 56% of twitter users are using it for their business, so there is no reason to be afraid to promote your business with twitter . You can choose the way you want to use it . I use it the way i have learned to use it after reading a lot of business oriented tips from various sources on the web . "

Pam's note: There were a lot of questions in the forum, and several people mentioned their dislike for someone with so many followers, which is fine. Obvoiusly, 11,000 people don't have a problem with this and like CatherinetteRings said in the original post, it took some time to build the list. Other Etsyians voiced their concern over spam tweets, which CatherinetteRings addressed when discussing what he/they tweet about. While I didn't post a chronological repeat of the entire forum here, I did organize the info into an interview style for my summary of the post.

Thanks again, CatherinetteRings, for permission to republish!

On Wednesday, I'll post some of the follow up comments from this forum. Meanwhile, you can learn more facts about Twitter in the second post on this page.

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Promote your blog via Flickr - part II

I had posted earlier about how to promote yourself via Flickr. In that post I suggested submitting your photos to various groups. Here's an expansion on that idea:

Have you ever stumbled across blogs that showcase handmade items? Two fine blog examples are Gift Rap and Cuteable.

Where do you think they get their ideas?
Flickr.

Aha! I can just imagine the lightbulb going off in your head and the ideas are starting to churn.

Yes. You are correct in your thinking: Join the flickr group for these blogs and submit your pictures to them.

-------------------------

In fact, here's part of the Cuteable flickr group welcome page:

We regularly check the group for new pictures, and occasionally select outstanding entries for posting on the Cuteable blog!

To small and home-based crafts businesses: the Cuteable Flickr group is a great way to spread the word about your product(s) and get FREE advertising.

Be sure to include a nice description and high quality pictures, as this will increase your chances of getting some mega-primo-time on the main Cuteable blog.

Cuteable stats are here. Good news is they get a LOT of traffic. Bad news is that they have a lot of submissions. My advice is to submit your stuff and continue to keep up with your other promotion methods.

-------------------------

Here's a little blurb from The Gift Gurus flickr group page:

Get the latest tips and suggestions from the www.gifts.com "Gift Gurus," check out cool items from the "Gift Rap" blog and share your own gifting photos and stories with other gift-giving (and receiving!) aficionados.

-------------------------

Cuteable and Gift Rap are not the only ones out there who use their flickr group to collect new ideas. If you do a search for Flickr groups based on keywords that fit your item(s), you'll find more. Don't forget to check the following keywords: blog, gossip, shop, buy, baby, fashion... etc.

Now before you go running off to send your stuff to Cuteable, Gift Rap, and others, here are some rules and suggestions.

Rules:

• DO NOT include a link to your Etsy shop or any other commercial site in the description of any of your photos. Ever. This puts your entire flickr account at risk of being deleted without warning. If you must add a link, it can go to a blog or other NON-commercial site.
• Don't submit multiple shots of the same subject. It's overkill and can make you seem spammy and/or desperate.
• Refrain from adding "please feature me on your site" in your photo description. That's tacky and is more likely to get you ignored.
• Just use common sense when posting, follow the flickr TOS (even if other people are posting their Etsy links,) and have fun.

Suggestions:

• Include a non-salesy description of the item in the picture. Write as if you were showing it to a friend, not as a sales pitch.
• Use the best photo you have, with a clean background, good lighting, etc. Edit it to improve it, if necessary.
• Post photos of new items regularly, maybe once a week or so, to keep your flickr name reappearing. Psychologically, this builds your credibility as a serious crafter/artist.
• Just like in blogs, comment on other people's photos. Be complimentary, ask questions, and make your comments relative to their subject.
• Last, like in my earlier post, blog about your picture (if you have a blog) before submitting it to the group, and the include a link to your blog post in the photo's description. Here's an example -

The PlateWrap is a fun, re-useable cloth "gift wrap" for your Pass It On Plate.

This particular plate started its journey in northern California and you can track it here: passitonplates.blogspot.com/2007/07/200706150005.html

Excited about this? Go see what you can find out there. I'd love it if you would comment here with other groups come across.

Oh. And as of this writing, there are only 24 members in the Gift Gurus group (as opposed to 2500 at Cuteable). I'm going to watch and see how we can make this little group membership simply explode.

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Add a Recent Comments widget

Are you a comments junkie? While totally guilty of not leaving a trail of comments everywhere I go, I LOVE comments on my blog posts.

Here's a way to engage your readers in your blog content and possibly coax more comments from them: add a widget that shows off recent comments to your blog.

It looks like this.
These are the most recent comments from my family blog, The Adventures of Pam & Frank:





Want to add one?
Here's how you can do it in your Blogger Blog:

1. Start a new HTML widget in your sidebar.
2. Copy the code in this text box and paste it into your widget.
   
   <br /><script src="http://www.freewebs.com/filer/blogger/rc.js"></script><br /><br /><script>var a_rc=<br /><br />
   
3. Without adding any spaces, type in the number of comments to show. I have mine set to show the 5 most recent. Remember to type in the number - don't spell it out.
4. Now copy the code in this text box and paste it into your widget.
   
   <br />;var m_rc=false;var n_rc=true;var o_rc=500;</script><br /><br /><script src=""><br /><br />
   
5. Now for the good part. Where are the comments you want to show off? Copy the URL of that blog and paste it here without adding any additional spaces. Don't forget to include the http:// part.
6. Now copy this last section of code in this text box and paste it at the end of your widget.
   
   <br />/feeds/comments/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentcomments"></script><br /><br />
   
7. Save. Drag it to the location where you want this nifty widget, then save the layout.
8. Look good? Yay! Not showing up? Let me know here and I'll see what kind of troubleshooting I can do for you.
   
   
   
   
   

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Promote your blog via Flickr

Do you use Flickr? You'll love this tip to use Flickr to promote your blog.

1. First of all, when you log into Flickr, click on the drop down arrow by the tab You and select Your Account.

2. This will bring you the the tab that says Personal Information. Click the tab that says Extending Flickr. Look for Your Blogs and click Edit.

3. Click Add A Blog and follow the instructions. If you want to add more than one blog, repeat the process for each blog you want to add.

4. Next, go to a picture that you want to use in a blog post. Above the picture, click Blog This and follow the instructions to post it to your blog. You'll see that there is a place for you to add text to the blog post. If you know a little HTML you can also include formatting like bold and italic, as well as links.

5. Post the picture to your blog, then click the link provided by Flickr to visit your blog. (It will open up in a new window so you won't lose your place at Flickr.)

Here is an example of one that I posted to my other blog:
------------------------------------------------

Ta-dah! Dressed up gift box, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

You can make this in my quick and super easy tutorial: How To Dress Up A Gift Box

------------------------------------------------

6. While at your blog, copy the link for the blog post you just made, then go back to Flickr and click return to this item's page.

7. Just below your picture there is a box to add a description. The box turns yellow when you hover your mouse over it. (It's above Comments.) Add a description and invite viewers to visit your blog post for more information. Here's where you'll need a little HTML to insert the link. If you're not sure how to add links with HTML, just copy this code:
<a href="
then without adding any spaces, paste your link and follow it by
">
next, type in the text you want people to click on and follow that by
</a>
Your completed link should look something like this in HTML:
<a href="http://passitonplatesblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-to-dress-up-gift-box.html"> How To Dress Up A Gift Box</a>
and your readers will see:
How To Dress Up A Gift Box

8. Add tags to your picture.

9. Now you're ready to promote your blog. Near the top of the Flickr page, click the drop down arrow for Groups and click on Search for a Group. Start searching based on your keywords, but don't forget to use category keywords as well, such as craft, food, family, etc. Join any and all groups where sharing your picture would be appropriate. The more, the better. I really don't know how many groups are on Etsy, but I guarantee there are thousands and thousands and I'm sure you'll find at least one that your picture fits into.

Do you sell on Etsy? Try these groups:
Etsy-Look and Learn
Craft
Get Crafty
Crazy For Knitting
Artisan Jewelry on Etsy
Painted Furniture
Softies

10. Watch your blog traffic. Depending on the "interestingness" of your picture, you could get a lot of traffic. This gift box photo has given me a nice bump in traffic, and even though I posted it over a month ago, I'm still getting a trickle of traffic from it. Your Flickr stats also show how many views that picture gets and you can even learn what search keywords people are using to get to your photo. If you include these words in your actual blog post, that will help guide search engine users to your blog post as well.


Two very important notes:

1. Flickr TOS requires that when you blog about a picture, the picture must link back to its page on filckr. If you like messing with your HTML, don't change where the picture leads to.

2. Flickr TOS also forbids selling on Flickr. If you have photographed something you have in your shop, you can blog about it but you cannot include links to your Etsy shop or mention that the item is for sale in the Flickr description.

(And remember, all comments are do-follow, so your comment left here supports YOU.)

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So Pam, how do you use Web 2.0?

Glad you asked. This week I'll share with you several social networking sites where I'm active, to some degree. Yes, this is still part of that long email I sent my mom to explain what Web 2.0 is all about. I hope she's got the confidence to explore some of the sites.

And yes, EVERYTHING I do online I am proud to share with my mother.
How about you?

The following list is where you can find me. I'm sure I've forgotten at least a dozen more.

My (public) blogs:
http://passitonplatesblog.blogspot.com/
http://passitonplates.blogspot.com/
http://www.pamhawk.com/
http://adventuresofpamandfrank.blogspot.com/
http://pams-inbox.blogspot.com/

Here is my favorite photo sharing site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/passitonplates/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adventurespf/

Also:
http://digg.com/users/pioppam
http://delicious.com/pioppam
http://www.blogcatalog.com/user/pioppam
http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/pioppam/
http://pioppam.stumbleupon.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1064325097
http://www.technorati.com/people/technorati/pioppam
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pioppam
http://entrecard.com/user/27328/
and
http://entrecard.com/user/27343/

Since all my comments are Do-Follow, why don't you make a list of places where you're active and post them in the comments. Let's see who can make up the longest list, shall we?

Blog Bling: BlogUpp!

Today's Blog Bling: BlogUpp!

Instead of writing something new about BlogUpp!, I will copy and paste the Etsy forum post I made in mid July, inviting Etsyians to add a BlogUpp widget to their blogs. The nice folks at BlogUpp! also sent me an email clarifying how the widget works, and since I want to keep everything I do transparent, I have not edited anything. When I started with BlogUpp! I was in a hurry (as usual) and did not read the entire FAQ and didn't realize that if I spread the word about BlogUpp! it would benefit me. I am not posting here for my benefit, either, I just think it's a great tool to promote one's blog and invite you to give it a try if you haven't already done so..

I'd like to mention what I like best about this tool (besides the fact that it is very easy to set up and install,) before I give you the copy/paste. You know how when you shop at Amazon.com they tell you "People who bought this item also bought..." What a great tool to show you similar items that may be of interest to you. BlogUpp! has used a similar approach by promoting similar blogs on your widget. This means that your blog will be promoted on other blogs similar to yours (based on your recent posts) and you will most likely discover other interesting blogs on the widget installed on your own blog. It's a win-win, in my opinion.

On to the cut & paste. I initially introduced BlogUpp! in the Etsy forums like this :

Posted 7/8/08 at 11:32am
A new blog widget called BlogUpp! doubled my blog traffic but most of the blogs are mom blogs. We need more crafty blogs on the BlogUpp! network. It's free to join, no signup required - takes <1>http://www.blogupp.com/
-Pam
PS: Thanks!

Oh - if you want to see it in action, take a look at mine.
http://passitonplatesblog.blogspot.com/
It's on the sidebar under my Project Wonderful ad.
Hover your mouse over the images and you get the RSS feed from those blogs. Click and it takes you there. But like I said, they're all mom blogs - which is fine, but I'd love to see more crafty blogs out there so they'll get promoted on my site.

Once you put the link to your site in the box and hit the "Shoot ahead!" button, put their code on your site. Their admins take a look at your site, check the code, and (within about a day in most cases) you're live. Give it a day or two from the time you put the code on your site and you'll start seeing some nice results.

When you first put the code on your site, the BlogUpp! bar is grey. When you're approved the bar is blue. I think not approved is red, but that would usually be the case for gambling, and adult sites. Not a prob here, right?

Wow - when I started this I figured there would be maybe a handful of responses. I promised myself I would do my best to visit every blog adding (or using) BlogUpp and thank everyone personally for joining and helping to promote each other.

I think I visited all the blogs listed in the first 3 pages here, maybe 4? I'll have to check back tomorrow and try to thank everyone else who is participating.
Meanwhile, * * T H A N K Y O U * * to everyone!!
And holey cheese, people - do you realize just how much talent we have here? I have spent a wonderful evening visiting some amazing blogs showcasing all kinds of incredible things.

Posted on 7/10/08 at 2:51pm, about two days into the project...
Wow, I'm seeing a LOT more crafty blogs in rotation on that nifty little widget. Thanks everyone so far!

I went back to the BlogUpp site and clicked on stats.
Have you checked this out? They show you how many times your blog has been viewed, how many clicks you've gotten, etc. And if you post about it in your blog they give you more blog impressions on other peoples' blogs.
That's extra free advertising, baby!

During all of this, I had asked BlogUpp! a question about how it works. Their quick response:

Thank you very much one more time for sharing your finding of the widget. We are impressed how receptive has been the Etsy community to your invitation. As mentioned in our earlier email, we've updated our records and your weblog was assigned  additional bonus impressions, for its extra-promotion. You can see that in your stats under "Additional impressions".

Concerning your questions, you understood it right. Everything that's related to the promotion of your blog, stands under "Inbound", i.e. the clicks to your blog and your blog views within the community. Whereas "Outbound" stands for the clicks and promotion from your blog towards the community. And it's important to mention that for each 10 impressions displayed on your blog in the widget, your blog gains 9
more views in the community, which accumulate in your balance.

You might be seeing in your stats not big figures for the "inbound impressions" lately. That's only because you've been an active clicker, and the system looks to promote your blog on other community blogs with relatively the same click activity, in order to increase the number of actual visitor to your blog. It means that your
impressions sharing is more qualitative rather than quantitative. The growth of the community from your lovely category will render better results, and more new connections for you and your blog.

Please don't hesitate to let us know should you need further information.

Thank You!

Sincerely,

The BlogUpp! Team
http://www.blogupp.com

As usual, when you learn about a new bit of Blog Bling here, (don't you just love alliteration?) post your URL in the comments so everyone can check out this bling on your site. Remember too, that all blog comments are DoFollow, so leaving your comment plus link is an extra shot of Goggle juice for your site. Win-Win.

Ok? So come on, comment comment.

So then, where is Web 2.0 and how do I find it?

Last week I explained what Web 2.0 is all about. To fully understand Web 2.0, here are some well-known websites that embrace it:

• www.youtube.com - upload videos and viewers will comment on it and post it to other websites
• www.myspace.com and www.facebook.com - social networking sites where you can chat, share music and photos, and find friends with similar interests
• blogs such as those on www.Blogger.com and www.Wordpress.com, etc - chronological websites or online journals that are open to readers worldwide, and any reader can comment on what you write.
• photo sharing sites like www.flickr.com, www.picasa.com, and www.photobucket.com - upload your pictures for everyone to see, comment on, and share with others
• del.icio.us - a place to upload all your internet bookmarks online. You can see how many other people have bookmarked a particular site, you can browse bookmarks of other Delicious users to find other things that may be of interest to you, and meet new people who share similar interests.
• www.digg.com - submit interesting websites, news items, photos, blog posts, etc, and other digg users will vote based on whether they dig it or not. Submitted items that get a lot of "diggs" (positive votes) rise to the top of the digg.com page which increases visibility of that item. Things that are "buried" (negative votes) sink to the bottom rank and fade away until they're forgotten. It's a great place to find interesting stories, recipes, etc. Creating interesting content and submitting it to digg is also a great way to increase traffic to one's website.
• Blog networks such as www.mybloglog.com, www.fuelmyblog.com, and www.blogcatalog.com - submit your blog(s) and readers looking for your topics will read from these clearing house websites. Members who join networks based on topic will get more traffic to their blogs, as well as see what other blogs their friends read, what social networks their friends belong to, etc. It's a huge social network where you can meet people and find out who they're friends with and what they and their friends are interested - and expand your own network.
  
• www.twitter.com - I'm still learning about this one, since my phone isn't cooperating. You can send text messages from your cell phone to this website and instantly interact and chat with other "tweeters" (twitter users.) You can text a question and receive responses from other tweeters instantly.
• www.linkedin.com - post your background, resume, and people in your network in order to network with others. Many people have found employees and/or received job offers through linkedin.

I'm proud to say that I'm totally involved in Web2.0 and social networking. Next week I'll post a slew of sites where I'm somewhat active.

Blog Bling: Slide

Here's a bit of bling for your blog: Slide
I first discovered this at laurie beggin glass musings where she installed an interactive guest book.

Have you seen Slide sliding around the internet? It's a lot of fun to use to make your blog more interactive. Very easy to set up.

I've got a Slide slideshow at the bottom of my family's blog, The Adventures of Pam & Frank, where it chronicles a road trip to Seattle that we took this past summer. A Slide guest book is installed at the top of my Plate Diaries. I installed it recently and very quickly three visitors signed it. I know these people in real life (a very good friend I've known since 6th grade, my sister, and my favorite former neighbor who has stayed in touch for the past 8 years.) What I absolutely love is that while none of these wonderful ladies leave comments on any of my 4 public blogs, they signed my guest book. I had no idea they even read my blogs!

Here's my guest book.

Fantastico!!

Setting up and installing your Slide is so darned easy I'm not even going to give you a tutorial. You don't need one.

Now put your thinking cap on and imagine how you can use Slide to promote your site or product. If you comment here with your idea you get a gold star (figuratively) and everyone will learn what a brilliant thinker you are.

Go forth and slide! Leave a comment here with a link to where you put your Slide and we'll go check it out!

What the heck is Web 2.0 ? ?

My mom has been taking computer classes and is pretty comfortable with surfing and emailing and such. She reads my blogs periodically, and comments on them occasionally.

Recently, she mentioned that her computer teacher (and big-shot web designer in town I might ad) could not answer any of her questions about blogging.

*tsk* My poor mother is falling behind the times. (Ok she's 70. Sorry mom. You're awesome and you know I love you.) I took it upon myself to bring her up to speed.

After sending the email I thought there may be a few of you who would like a little info about some of this as well, as the internet has recently gone through a radical change that only geek blogs are buzzing about, and only in terms that are over the heads of most of us regular folk. (Sorry geeks, I love all of you too.)

If you're reading this, you deserve to stay in the loop on things here. This is written in layman's terms and if I'm a little off on something, please leave a nice comment to clarify.
Here's what happened to the internet:

• The internet has changed and is now called Web 2.0
• When there's a minor change in a computer program, the version number jumps by a 1/10th of a point. Such as Windows 3.0 to Windows 3.1 This was back when people started getting computers at home and the internet was just a series of message boards, circa 1989. Usually these changes are only noticed by programmers and people who constantly use the programs.
• Every time there's a major change in programming, the version number jumps a whole number, such as Internet Explorer 6.0 to Internet Explorer 7.0. The average consumer can pick up on these changes which include a whole new look to the program, major improvements to how it works, etc.

Lately, people have been talking about Web 2.0
This is a major change to the internet and it is not really a programming change, meaning some guys in a computer lab didn't re-write how the internet works. Instead, the people who use the internet and write programs that you can use on the internet gradually made improvements until the entire internet changed to a completely different kind of entity.
This change is called Web 2.0 - it's a social network.

So what's the change? Unlike other whole-number changes, you are not aware that you're seeing the new version, but when I explain it you'll say "Aha!"

During the days of Web 1.0, the internet was like an online encyclopedia, online class, and online shopping mall. Consumers went there to get information. Businesses had websites that provided information. That was it.

Web 2.0 is an interactive online community where the consumers take info and give info. Businesses provide info and invite the consumers to talk about it, share it, re-use and re-purpose it, and talk back to the business that originally provided it. Web 2.0 is more of a full-on online conversation.

To fully understand Web 2.0, come back next Wednesday and I'll share some well-known websites that embrace it.

What the heck is Blog Bling?

There are so many interesting and useful blog enhancing widgets available for free I thought you might be interested in learning about what's available, how they work, how to install one, and what you could use it for.

I call all of these little gizmos Blog Bling. Nobody pays me a dime to blog about them and I'm not asked to do any reviews. This is all based on what I find (and I mention where I found it), what it looks like, what my opinion is about the widget, how it works, how to install it, etc.

As I blog about them I'll add a link to my sidebar so you can find the link easily or refer someone over here to grab the link.

If you have one of the widgets I blog about on your blog, please leave a comment here with your URL. I have disabled the nofollow on my comments, so every comment counts. Plus, if you are reading about a widget and want more info before trying it out, I strongly encourage you to check out the URLs in the comments to see the widget in action.

Commenting and following is just good blog karma, anyway.

Video advertising

This morning, I saw an interesting email in my inbox offering a free video ad based on my own images uploaded to my uShops store. This is a brilliant idea. Merchants who take advantage of this free offer would be wise to post that video to their blog, website, social networking sites (such as MySpace, Facebook, Ning, etc.)

On a side note, check out the bottom of the email where you can share this email with various other social networking sites with just a few clicks. That's some very clever viral marketing.

Will I be making a video of Pass It On Plates? You bet.

Meanwhile, I'm intrigued by the links to del.icio.us, digg, etc at the bottom of the post. I will examine that further and talk more about it in an upcoming post.

Read on...

Hi,

Our mission is to help you sell online.

We, at uShops are excited to announce that we have partnered with companies to provide video ads to all shops. We think this will provide our users a great marketing opportunity to showcase their products in a interactive manner within their own community, websites , blogs or video sharing sites. More views will lead to exposure which will convert into sales.

For a pilot project, we are inviting your shop(and products) to be morphed into a online interactive video. If you choose, we will create and host a 30-45 second video of your shop (its products) and provide with you a link to post to any online site. We will post selected videos on the uShops blog as well.

Just send a email to shopAds@ushops.com and enter "I want my Video ad" in the subject to have your video sent to you by early next week (1st Sep 2008). By sending the email you give us permission to create video using your product images. We will need at least 5 products in your shop to be eligible for the video creation service.

BTW - This pilot service is free to use and you can post this video to as many site as you like.

Feedback , comments and other suggestions on this topic are welcome.

Thank you for using uShops
uShops Support team
http://www.ushops.com
Email: support@ushops.com

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