What this means to any business – online or off – is that there’s a congregation of potential customers just browsing these sites in their idle hours when they might be bored and have nothing else to do. This is a perfect opportunity to drop a bee in their bonnet about you and your business. Thousands of companies have done this, and thousands have found success.

However, for an offline business attempting to tackle the social media market, you’ll have an easier time of it if you approach it with the proper attitude. While both online and offline businesses will use social media as a way to engage the customer, the online business deals with social media the way that an offline business would have television ads. It’s a straight way to the sale, since a customer visiting an online business’ site is doing the closest thing to physically visiting the business itself.

If you have an offline business, this is not the case, as the customer is ostensibly at a computer and not at your physical place of business while browsing social networking sites. It’s important to consider this difference and use it to take a different approach to advertising your offline business using social media. While an online business is bringing customers to the storefront, you should be looking to create an impression of your business and try to entice them to come to the physical store.

While it is definitely advantageous to consider making an online version of your site for ease of purchasing, you want to have the customer come to your physical store. This means creating awareness of your products, brand, content, and expertise – and creating that drive to experience the whole package by going to your store.

While it’s likely that the most profitable way for offline business to generate customers in terms of long-term revenue is still offline, the virtual market is taking off fast, and it’s likely that the current state of affairs will change over the next five years. Now is a good time to get involved with marketing through social media and figuring out how it can best serve your offline business before it takes off to a whole new level.

Just about every business that has a website on the internet is now adding some sort of video advertising to their sites. This ranges from car dealerships, travel agents, real estate agents and even manufacturers. They realize that they get the attention of a viewer right away if a video comes onto the screen instead of a simple advertisement.

Department stores are also beginning to use video advertising on the internet not only on their websites, but also on internet advertising engines such as Google. It simple captures the attention of a potential buyer more than just a plain photo.

Imagine that you have a website that sells T-shirts, for example. A person goes to your website and sees a variety of T-shirts that are for sale. These are often pictured in photos either by themselves or on models. The prices are included, along with an ordering form. Most websites have a search option so if someone is looking for a particular T-shirt, they can find it easier.

The reason models are depicted in T-shirts is to make the product more attractive. More people are apt to purchase a garment featured on a striking model than an average person or on a mannequin. This is simply another way people are visual. They imagine themselves as the model in the T-shirt and feel that they will also look this way once the garment is acquired.

Now imagine you have this same website but decide to implement video advertising as part of your campaign. Instead of clicking on to a website that just depicts a bunch of models in T-shirts, you have a video where a model is wearing the T-shirt and talking about how much she loves her T-shirts from your company.

Or, you decide to go the humor route. A video depicts an unpopular, geeky kid wearing a white shirt with a pencil protector in the pocket and getting his books knocked out of his hands at school. He says something like “I’ve had enough of this, I’m getting myself over to XXX T-shirt company!”

The next clip shows the same student wearing one of the T-shirts and surrounded by a bevy of women. He winks at the camera and says, “XXX T-shirt changed my life – they can change yours, too.”

Corny? Yes. But entertaining and memorable. As a matter of fact, the more humor or unusual aspects you can add to your video, the more people will remember it. They may even like it so much that they post it on their blog or on “You Tube.” Then you get even more advertising for your business. For free.

Travel agents are quickly discovering that video is the way to go when it comes to advertising on the internet. More and more travel agencies are not just depicting photos of exotic places, but videos of the attractions that can be seen when visiting these places. People feel as though they are taking a trip. They sometimes call this a “virtual tour” and it is really quite effective. A virtual tour takes the viewer on a mini vacation all from their home computer. They get to see highlights of the wonderful sights, the hotels, the beaches and a lot of people enjoying themselves. This sparks their imagination. They envision themselves on the tour and it makes them want to visit as well. The more someone knows about the positive aspects of a particular tour, country or vacation spot, the more apt they are to want to book a vacation to this destination.

Speaking of virtual tours, we have already talked about real estate agents in the last chapter. Many real estate companies are now adding video advertising to their websites. Instead of just seeing photos of a home, they see the entire home, just as they were touring it.

In addition to large businesses and professionals using video advertising on the internet, musicians are learning the value of this technology to promote their music and bands. Music videos came out in the 1980s and were frequently depicted on MTV. This was a very popular concept, but soon became very competitive. More and more money was being used to make a more ‘creative video” for the band. Bands who had creative videos depicting models or something unusual were selling more music than other bands who did not have the capital to create such videos.

In the 1980s, video cameras cost over $1,000. And if you wanted the video to look professional, you had to hire a director and some actors. The music videos of the 1980s were actual commercials for a particular artist or a band. And they cost a lot of money to produce.

Today, not only professional musicians advertise by video on the internet, but amateurs as well. Video cameras no longer cost over $1,000. They are easy to use and the content can easily be downloaded into a personal computer. It is just as easy to upload a video into your webpage as it is to upload a photograph or music. So amateur musicians began promoting their bands on the internet. On MySpace, for example, there are thousands of artists doing this. They do not even have to pay for their MySpace page. It is free. They simply have to have someone film their act with a camcorder, upload it to their site and they are advertising for free on the internet. It sure beats the old days of recording demos for thousands of dollars and trying to find someone on the radio to play them.

Individuals who have something unique to sell are also using video advertising on the internet. They can do this with little or no expense if they choose a venue like You Tube. You Tube allows anyone who is a member to upload their videos for others to see. The more clever the video, the better chance of it being discovered. If you want to draw people to your website, mention it in your funny video and put it on YouTube. Millions of people use this website every day. The videos are often either e-mailed to friends or put on blogs and other spaces. Suppose you have invented a special item to sell. You have a patent but have no idea how to sell it. You have a website and are trying to promote it, but are not having much luck. You can advertise on television, but it costs a fortune; even on cable TV.

Maybe you can come up with a funny video that will draw people to your website that involves your product. You can post this on your site and then wait for people to discover the ad. You can also place it on such video websites as YouTube.

Have you ever dated on the internet? Guess what? You are advertising yourself. You are adverting yourself in the hopes of finding a perfect mate. Many people put false photos of themselves on these sites and many internet daters have grown leery of some of the ads. Yet internet dating is big business. In today’s busy world, few people have time to go out and meet a special someone. So many people are taking advantage of the internet dating world.

Some internet dating sites offer their clients a way to communicate with another individual through video instead of just plain text. For a small fee, they can post a video of themselves on the site and talk about their likes, and dislikes. In addition to just seeing a photo, a person who is interested also gets to hear a voice and finds out a little bit more about the person he or she is thinking of contacting. It is very difficult to ascertain what a person is like from a photograph. They may have a voice that sounds like Mickey Mouse and really gets on your nerves. Or they may have such an engaging smile and a sexy voice that you really find attractive. This person may look similar to many others who have turned up as your “match,” but chances are, you will watch the video and, if you like what you see, you will be more inclined to contact the individual. They will seem like a real person to you, instead of a photograph and text profile.

Car dealerships are another business that are using video technology to advertise on the internet. Car dealerships have always been known for their “over the top” approach to advertising. They sometimes run specials depicting happy customers getting great deals, or they show a video of a car being driven down the road and being able to make great turns. This cost them much less than advertising on television.

No matter what business you are in, video advertising on the internet can help you attract more customers, gain more exposure for your company and generate new leads and sales. Best of all, it is easy and relatively inexpensive to use. We will discuss how you can do this in the next chapter.

Once you have decided the forums to use, go through their rules and regulations. Each forum’s rules are different. Many have some topics banned, some allow advertisement and some don’t. First learn the rules of the road. Not following the rules will make you banned in the forums. Even if it is allowed you should not advertise through your posts or comments. Rely on the signature to promote you and your business.

Before you start actual postings go through the contents of the forum thoroughly once. By reading the forum you will have a good idea about what the forum is all about and the best way you can approach it. If you try to barge in, that will have a negative impact within the forum and that is one land mine you would surely want to avoid.

Always remember that along with the new comers the best known brains in the online marketing industry are also posting in these forums. So, before you post something on a given topic or try to comment on a post make sure you have the necessary expertise to do that comment. If you do not have the necessary knowledge and shoot from the hip then at best you will be ignored or at worse, experience marketers will call you to task and that will ruin your reputation.

There is nothing wrong in creating a little controversy in these forums. I sometimes acquire some of my best and most successful business ideas from such forum topics which have created some form of arguments within the ranks. But this is entirely different than from being called a fraud.

Comment when you can help someone with a problem otherwise keep num. the forums is all about helping each other with a common goal. If you can provide help then go for it. Good or bad the reputation you create in the forums will be synonymous with you through out your online career and internet marketing.

1. About Me 3000: You can easily add an about widget using the standard text widget but this plugin adds an easily customizable about widget. The widget has all the styling included so it will always look good. You simply add your email and it will use your current Gravatar for the pic. It also offers you the ability to add your social networks which are displayed in a neat row of icons under your picture.

2. Most Popular Posts: There are widgets that will rank your posts on page views, but that can be exploited. This widget will rank your posts (any number you set) by comments. This is a great idea because then your posts are ranked by community interaction, which I think is more telling than simple page views. It can also encourage people to comment so they can get their favorite posts ranked.

3. Random Posts Widget: This widget will randomly show any number of posts you set. This is an interesting widget because it exposes your older posts to new visitors. A recent posts widget will show you the most recent posts, while your old ones are buried. This widget will make sure your old posts aren’t forgotten and that people who regularly come to your site won’t see the same old posts always showing up in the sidebar.

4. KB Countdown Widget: This widget will let you add a countdown to your sidebar. You can use this for products launches (My eBook price will be going up in….). You can also sue this for personal countdowns on more personal blogs (Our wedding is in…). If you want to add a countdown on your site, this is an easy and effective way.

These four widgets are a drop in the bucket. You can visit WordPress.org and find a huge list of widgets that you can search as well. If you want your WordPress site to be more user friendly and unique you should consider non standard widgets.

1. Music: I am a big fan of music (who isn’t?) and it is one of the my top inspirations. One reason it works for me is because I blog about music a lot. When I hear a great song, or great album, I instantly feel like blogging about it. Even if I wasn’t blogging about music, I would still be inspired by it. Music is really all about emotions. Certain songs can effect our moods, and sometimes those emotions will inspire us to create. Even lyrics without the music can inspire you if they are well written. Anything that effects your emotions can inspire you to create a blog post. If you are feeling down or uninspired, fire up your itunes and you might find yourself writing a blog post in no time.

2. TV: I know it is cool to hate TV these days – but besides the internet, this medium is one of the most all encompassing ones we have. You can see just about anything on TV, and anything you see can be possible inspiration. I was watching an old TV show the other day that reminded me of a certain part of my childhood, instantly I wanted to blog about it. When I watch the news, and see a topic I am passionate about I want to post my thoughts instantly. Even watching something as banal as realty TV can inspire you. Watching people react to each other under the pressure of the camera, can stir up a lot of emotions that lead to a great blog post.

3. Life: Everyday life can inspire as well. I am not talking about helping you think of blog ideas, I mean the inspiration to post…about anything. Whether you are inspired by positive factors, or negative ones – your life will throw enough of both at you. You will see beautiful things that make you want to post, and horrible things that will make you want to post. That is the reality of life. This is a good reminder for those people who are always connected to the net – sometimes going out and actually living your life will make your online work that much more effective.

Blogging regularly isn’t always thinking about content or topics. Sometimes you need to be inspired to post anything. By using music, television and living your life to the fullest you should be able to find reasons to post as often as possible. Next time you are struggling to produce content, leave the internet behind, and check out some of the above inspirations.

In addition to sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world, did you know that you could also make money from your blog?

You can signup for affiliate programs or other programs like Google Adsense. If you are using your blog to make money then you will defiantly want to promote it.

When it comes to promoting blogs, there are many blog owners who decide to let the search engine do the work for them. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN use special techniques that reads the content on your website. That content is then used to rank your website with particular keywords. This means that you run a blog on graduating from high school in New York, there is a good chance that your blog will appear in searches done on New York high schools. Although many blogs are successfully ranked in search engines, not all are. That is why you are advised against relying solely on search engines, when it comes to promoting your blog.

As previously mentioned, if you love meeting with or talking to people online, there is a good chance that you belong to a social networking website or community. The individuals that you talk to and that are in your community are likely the individuals that you wish to target. Since most social networking websites work to connect Internet users who have the same goals and common interests, there is a good chance that your online friends will enjoy reading your blog. But, before they can read your blog, you have to let them know that it exists.

When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so. The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.

Although there is a good chance that you are already a member of a popular social networking website, you may not be. If you are not already a member, but would like to become one, you will need to find a social networking website to join. This can easily be done with a standard Internet search. In your search, you will likely find a number of popular network sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, and Orkut. Before becoming a community member at one of these networking sites, you may want to first examine the website to ensure that it is everything that you want it to be.

As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can go about promoting your blog on online social networking websites. You never known, but, in addition to promoting your blog, you may also make new friends along the way.

The question being, though, is that in the case that a business owner is searching for those low competition keywords, where might they be found? The first place to check is, of course, your own head. Or a thesaurus. Look up all the synonyms for your main high competition keywords that you can and see which ones seem to make the most sense insofar as your products or services are concerned.

Of course, the usefulness of the word game stops at some point. Low competition is important, but you also want the keywords to be relevant and current. For example, “horseless carriage” might well be a synonym for “car,” but it’s not exactly highly relevant in the current market. It’s likely a keyword that has low competition, but it’s not very likely that a car dealership selling Ferraris is going to find it particularly helpful to their cause.

The real secret to using low competition keywords correctly is to find the keywords that are both low competition but yet highly searched for. Yes, these do exist! But where to find them?

The long and short of it? Software.

The bad news is that most of these software programs are paid deals. The good news is that once you have the software under your belt, it will end up saving you tons of money in the long run, so its definitely a worthwhile investment if you’re looking to use low competition keywords to the best of what they can offer.

There are several software programs on the market that are entirely dedicated to finding what keywords are low competition but yet deliver a major impact on the Google charts. Another good thing about having the software that searches out these keywords be for-profit is that it means that not as many people are taking advantage of the software as could be doing so, so those low competition high click keywords stay ripe for your picking.

Simply do a Google search on “keyword software” and you’ll get several options from which to choose. Do some research and pick the program that seems most intuitive to you – and then buy. You won’t be disappointed, and you’ll make up the cost of the purchase in the long run.

First, don’t assume that your prospect remembers all those great advantages you so painstakingly mentioned earlier in your copy. Instead, do a quick recap. The recap does not have to be an exhaustive replay of all those benefits. In fact, something as simple as a quick bulleted list will often do the trick. This simple device makes it possible for the reader to see the benefits one more time without having to scroll backward to review them.

Next, don’t forget those ancillary values that your product provides. It can be anything from easily installation and storage to working well in another common but less likely setting. The idea is to convey the fact that the product is versatile and there is a good chance it will take the place of more than one product the prospect is currently using. That usually sets very well with consumers who want to get the most for their money.

Last, offer something that must be taken advantage of right now, such as a limited time offer of a discount on first purchase, or free support for a month. Everybody likes to get something a little extra when buying a product.

How many times have you noticed toothpaste manufacturers enticing people to try a new brand with by including a free travel size tube along with the main product? You can do the same thing as part of your copy presentation.

Getting consumers to buy now rather than later is to your advantage. The sooner someone buys and actually uses the product, the sooner you can look forward to having one more satisfied customer who will provide good word of mouth. Try out these approaches and see how much good they do for you.

Let’s start with some of the basics. A blog is really nothing more than an online journal, and is a short for web log. The best part is that you can start blogging for no cost. Even better is that there are some online blog services that make it really easy to get up and running, regardless of how computer savvy you may or may not be. It typically takes anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or two to get your blog started.

Your first task is to decide what the main topic of your blog will be. Your goal is to blog for money, but if you can choose a subject that you’re interested in, it will be much easier to keep on blogging. On the other hand, if you just want to make as much money as possible, then you should take some time to learn about the various methods of choosing hot niche markets. This will give you more return on your efforts if you go about it the ri