Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Mysteries of MySpace Explained

November 26th, 2009


MySpace is a hugely popular social networking platform and has currently over one hundred million participants! MySpace, like many other social networking websites allows you to create your own profile, which is your own personal web page.

Once you’ve created your profile, you can ask other members to become a member of your network and visa versa. As well as having a traditional profile page with your personal details, you can also display lots of pictures, short videos and music downloads. And MySpace is completely free of charge.

MySpace has literally taken the world by storm. This is because, in what seemed like no time at all, MySpace has grown to become one of the most popular social media websites in all of cyberspace. Particularly popular with music lovers. many bands have developed a following and released music videos through Myspace.

Recent studies have shown that over 50% of the users at MySpace are over the age of 30, so it’s no longer just a place for teens to share pictures and chat about the latest music!

Business people are now using MySpace to build their network of customers and drive traffic to their business websites. A Myspace profile should be a key part of your social media marketing strategy.

The first step to join this online social network is to register for an account. This can be done in literally minutes and is simple to do. Although you can look at MySpace pages without registering, you can’t really be very involved without your own MySpace account.

Your Personal Page

Once you join MySpace, you can create your own profile page. Don’t put up with the normal profile page they start you out with!

You’ll need to alter this profile immediately so it looks different and matches your business brand. Use the editor option to alter the colors, add background images and pictures, and add your bio information. Then add plenty of good content, including pictures and links to your other websites.

To help the beginner, MySpace has a fairly large collection of templates available to spruce up profiles. These templates not only have an impact on the background of your profile page, but the text fonts as well. In addition to using the pre-designed templates, you can also create your own, especially if you have basic knowledge of HTML. You can also buy custom layout profiles or hire a professional designer to make you something really unique if you wanted. Try googling for “myspace templates” to get an idea of what you can do.

Bear in mind that your MySpace profile represents you in this cyber community so you need it to be a good indication of who you are and why someone would want to get to know you. Get across your personality and don’t just post loads of spam or business discussions; remember surfers visit MySpace to meet other people so if you appear to be a fake on your page then you won’t get on with this site.

You can (and should!) even post an auto responder form right on your profile page and offer visitors a free gift for joining your newsletter!

After after creating your own MySpace profile it’s easy to search for others. You can search for others with a huge range of different keyword phrases. If you are looking for a local person, you can search for your town. If you are searching for a person who shares your interest in soccer, you can look for sports fans. If you find the MySpace page of someone who you’d like to make friends with, you can invite them to be added to your network. In addition to inviting others to join your network, there is every chance that you will be asked to join others this is the biggest benefit of being on MySpace.

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Marketing a Portfolio Site 101

November 10th, 2009


For web designers and web developers (as well as other professionals, such as photographers) the portfolio website is one of the most important assets. In many cases the portfolio site will be a leading source of inquiries from potential clients, and it is the best way to showcase your work to anyone who is interested.

Although the importance of the portfolio site is obvious, having an effective one requires that people actually see it. Having a great portfolio is one thing, but getting it seen is another. There are so many designers out there that competition is very stiff and without marketing your site it is likely to get very little attention.

Here we will go over several tips that can help you to get more out of your portfolio site by increasing its exposure to potential clients.

1. Consider Search Engines

SEO (search engine optimization) is a huge topic that could never be covered in one brief article. However, one of the basics of optimizing a site for search engines is to simply make it easy for the search engines to crawl the site so they can accurately determine what the site is about.

To make your site search friendly, use valid code that is clean and well-organized. This includes proper use of headings, and choosing not to do anything that will trick search engines or make it difficult for them to crawl your site.

2. Include Keywords and Phrases in Your Page Titles

Page titles are critical for search engine rankings, more so than any other on-page factor. Give lots of thought to the titles that you choose for your pages and try to match them up with the same words and phrases that people are likely to use in a search to find that page.

Since there are so many sites out there already that are about web design-related topics, it’s best to pick more specific phrases that can narrow down the amount of competition you have and increase your chances of ranking high.

Try using a specific phrase like “custom WordPress themes.” This will be highly relevant to the services that you offer, plus it will give you a better chance of actually getting search engine traffic since there will be less competition for your keywords.

3. Don’t Forget About Localities

One way to make your website stand out is to optimize it for local searches. For example, instead of targeting the phrase “web designer,” try targeting “Philadelphia web designer.” This will drastically decrease the competition that you have for search rankings and it is something that local clients would actually search for.

4. Build Links

Along with the page title, links from other websites are as influential to search engine rankings as any other factor. In a way, search engine rankings are a bit of a popularity contest. Google views a link as basically a vote. When you link to another website you are essentially endorsing it.

Anyone that aspires to build a site that gets lots of search traffic will need to focus on link building. Here are a few ideas of ways to get links to your portfolio site:

Put a blog on your site – Portfolio sites and blogs are popular combinations, and part of the reason is that blogs attract links from other blogs. It will take some work to maintain the blog and publish new content, but it is one of the best things you can do for search traffic.

Market your site and blog via social media – SMM is a great way to get links. Articles that draw a lot of attention from social media users will generally get a lot of links.

Exchange links – You can make an agreement with other website owners and bloggers to link to each other.

Submit to galleries – If your site has a high-quality design you may be able to get a lot of traffic and links from web design and CSS galleries that showcase sites.

5. Create Something Amazing

In order to get your portfolio site accepted at design galleries it will need to be of very high quality. When designing and developing your portfolio site don’t rush and lose quality. Take the time to make it the best that you are capable of.

6. Use Freebies to Draw People In

Giving to get is a popular method of promoting a website. People love free stuff, so if you can give something of quality that people will want, you will increase the number of people that come to your portfolio site. You could give away free website templates, code snippets, or anything else that will attract links and visitors.

Steven Snell is a web designer and freelance blogger. He maintains a gallery of portolio websites and a gallery of ecommerce websites.

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