With recent phenomena like Ron Paul raising 4.2 millions of dollars in a 24 hour period (that’s approximately 3 thousand dollars donated every second) and the plentyoffish.com creator making millions of dollars a year from internet advertising, everyone (even Hillary Clinton) is waking up and smelling the potential! Too bad Hillary’s party didn’t do their research on YouTube before posting a campaign video for internet enthusiasts without watching it first! Using the internet and social networking as leverage to spread your message is becoming a powerful tool in your company’s arsenal. Growth can spread more rapidly with the viral marketing effect and travel far and fast without the cost of using the traditional mass media.

What all of this means is, if you want to get your company or your name out there, you need to get started with social networking and using web2.0 services. Internet Marketing geniuses like Ed Dale and Brad Fallon are teaching everyone the importance of web2.0 with free courses like Thirty Day Challenge and paid programs like StomperNet. Joel Comm found the Next Internet Millionaire by creating the first internet marketing reality TV show (like an online version of the Apprentice). RSS feeds allow you to syndicate your message over video, audio, or text. In combination, these tools can accelerate the process of establishing yourself and they can give you significant amounts of traffic, allowing you to use that traffic and convert your visitors into buying your products!

To begin establishing your online presence, you need to start signing up on social networks. Like investing, diversifying your name and spreading it in as many places possible is a good ingredient to becoming established and driving people to your website. Services like Digg can send massive surges of traffic to your website (sometimes enough to crash your server!), while del.icio.us and stumbleupon can deliver loads of balanced traffic over a long time period. This helps people recognize your name and deliver targeted traffic. Below is the list of bare essentials with bunch of extras (over 100 in the lists), and aggregating services to help you keep track of them all.

The Essentials

1. Digg - Find great articles here. The community decides what stories make it to the front page of the website by digging (voting for) or burying (voting down) stories. If one of your blog articles makes it to the front page, you’ll see huge spikes in your traffic. Just make sure your server can handle the load from thousands of people visiting your website at the same time. Sorry, that means paying more than $2.99 for hosting!
2. del.icio.us - The original social bookmarking site. You bookmark pages you like with a description and list of relevant tags you create. Then you can network with people who have similar interests as you to share and exchange links that interest you. If you use this service a lot, you can even get the RSS feed for your newly bookmarked sites and put your recent bookmarks on your blog!
3. Technorati - The original blog aggregating service that allows you to syndicate your blog articles. This site takes all of the blogs on the internet, crawls them regularly, and feeds them to you on their site. It keeps account of who’s talking about who and gives sites an authority ranking based on the number of people talking about that blog on their own blogs. This is a great way to discover other bloggers with your interests and syndicate your own articles for everyone else to read.
4. BlogRush - A new, innovative way to rush people to your blog by syndicating your article headlines on other blogger’s sites. You get a widget that you put on your site and you get credits based on your amount of traffic, referral traffic, and other various variables. It’s a great way to drive targeted traffic to your site from other bloggers’ websites. In a way, it’s like free advertising that leverages your existing traffic to get ad space on other websites.
5. Twitter - A microblog even more informal than the Tumblr microblog, Twitter allows you to blog about everything you do. You can blog from your phone, house, car, airplane, taxi cab, movie theater…you get the point. You are limited to 140 characters per entry, and you just tell Twitter what you are up to at the moment. You can make friends and follow them to see what everyone’s up to at the moment. It’s strangely addicting, check it out!
6. Facebook - Many people think of Facebook as a time-wasting website you visit to keep up with your friends. While Facebook is great for keeping up with old friends, they are inventing new ways to get your business name out in the world using a popular social networking platform. Now you can develop software products purely for Facebook and even start making money from your facebook application!
7. StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon is an addicting service to find interesting and entertaining articles, videos, and photos on the internet. StumbleUpon is different because you are directed to different websites randomly rather than you choosing where you navigate. Of course, with SU comes a profile page where you can add friends and share links.
8. YouTube - It’s a lot easier to watch a video on something rather than reading a long article about it. That’s why video and audio will be a main ingredient to internet marketing in 2008. If you aren’t afraid to start video blogging or creating entertaining or educational videos, you should start. You can reach millions of people in days with this new platform and it’s a fun community to discover and learn through video.
9. A Social Network/Community of your choice. I am a member of the CodeIgniter forums for PHP/MySQL programming that uses their MVC php framework and I try to participate in there when I have time. I also always find awesome new stuff in different niche interests at 9rules.
10. An Aggregating Service - There are so many social networking, bookmarking, and article websites now that it’s really hard to keep track of it all. The popular ones that I use are MyBlogLog, Lijit, and FriendFeed. FriendFeed, for example takes the RSS feeds from all of the popular services like Digg, delicious, twitter, and youtube, and makes a news feed similar to the facebook feed. It’s a good way to have one RSS feed for everything you do online instead of one feed for each individual service. MyBlogLog takes your blog and social bookmarking services and makes a community out of your own personal internet presence. You can join communities that you like and network with other bloggers. Lijit does something similar and they both provide a widget for your blog that helps keep traffic stats from other community members.

Blog Platforms/Hosts:

1. Aeonity
2. Blog
3. Blogates
4. Blogetery
5. Blogger - Google’s blogging platform. There are many built in widgets but not much flexibility.
   
6. Blogr
7. Blogsome
8. Blogster
9. Bravenet.com/webtools/journal
10. Clearblogs
11. Easyjournal
12. eHow
13. Googlepages
14. Hubpages
15. Iseekblog
16. Myspace
17. Sampa
18. Squarespace
19. Thoughts
20. pbwiki
21. Wikispaces
22. Squidoo - A cool platform to create pages about anything you’re an expert at.
23. Stikipad
24. Tumblr - An awesome personal blog platform that Google likes.
    
25. Typekey
26. Livejournal
27. Socialogs
28. Wordpress - A great blog platform that BizWidgets is using until our own blog platform is released

Social Bookmarking and Submission Sites (like del.icio.us):

1. Sphinn - If you add a bookmark button on your blog besides digg and delicious, sphinn is also a good one.
   
2. Google Bookmarks
3. Furl.net
4. Diigo
5. Wirefan
6. Bibsonomy
7. Blinklist
8. Blogmemes.net
9. Bluedot.us
10. Myjeeves.ask.com
11. Simpy
12. Spurl.net
13. Netvouz
14. Folkd
15. Blinkbits
16. Bmaccess.net
17. Shadows
18. Smarking
19. Blogmarks.net
20. Plugim
21. Linkagogo
22. Mister-wong.de
23. Sk-rt.com
24. Webride.org
25. Connotea.org
26. Kick.ie
27. Thoof.com
28. Corank.com
29. Megite.com/discover
30. Metalz.info
31. Emodrama
32. Musigg.org
33. Screamfeed
34. Yample
35. swik.net
36. Backflip
37. Dotnetkicks
38. Jumptags
39. Fark
40. De.lirio.us
41. Explode
42. Relevantlogs
43. SocialPoster - An aggregating service so you can post to tons of bookmarking sites in one trip
44. SocialMarker - Another aggregating service so you can post to tons of bookmarking sites in one trip

News Article Websites (like Digg):

1. Upcoming
2. Propeller
3. Reddit
4. Indianpad
5. Newsvine
6. Slashdot.org
7. EZineArticles - Submit articles and get traffic to your own site

Social Networking and Community Websites:

1. Google Groups
2. LinkedIn - A professional networking service like Facebook, except for business professionals.
3. Flickr - a cool photo sharing community site
4. Last.fm - A music community that gives your iTunes music a feed that is syndicated on last.fm’s website.
   
5. Bebo
6. Friendster
7. Google Calendar
8. Jaiku - A microblog like twitter.
   
9. Pownce - Another microblog like twitter.
10. Jumpcut
11. MySpace
12. Plaxo
13. Metacafe - Video sharing community like YouTube but with less restrictions and ability to monetize.
14. Bumpzee
15. Orkut

Cool Extras:

1. eBay
2. Amazon
3. Alexa - A Traffic Ranking/Analysis website. Very cool.
   
4. Wikipedia - If you can find relevant articles to your blog or pages, Wikipedia articles have high page rank and can deliver traffic, just make sure your site is relevant before you add a link!
5. RSS Feeds - Use these to keep up with people and their blogs! Almost everything has an RSS feed you can subscribe to now.
6. Netflix
7. OpenID - Use one username and password for everything.
8. Second Life - A game where you have a second life. It’s truly changing how games work and you can actually make real money in this game.
   
9. Shelfari
10. Textamerica
11. The DJ List
12. Amazon UnSpun - A list ranking service.
    
13. Squidoo Plexodex - Another list ranking service.
    
14. 30 Boxes
15. Wakoopa
16. Wink
17. Zorpia
18. Taggly
19. Teenwag
20. Lipstick
21. Rawsugar
22. Hi5

Wow, that was tedious creating all the hyperlinks. I know I probably left a lot of cool services out, so feel free to add services you enjoy in a comment below.

Try to use the same username on all of the services. This can help search engines know that the username is really you. Also, add avatars, fill out personal information, post pictures, and add friends! This will help expand your online presence and people will feel more welcomed at your profile pages. They will be more likely to add you as a friend and you will stand out from other users who don’t have profile pictures or information attached to your username’s profile.

Also, make sure you have a tracking service like Google Analytics or StatCounter so you can keep track of what parts of your website that your visitors like, and you can figure out what’s bringing traffic to your blog and what’s not.

Wikipedia defines Really Simple Syndication as:

“RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.”

Basically, RSS is a way for you to keep informed from your favorite news sources and even on topics you choose by subscribing to feeds generated by those websites. So, instead of bookmarking all of your favorite sites and wasting time throughout the day checking for newly posted articles, you can just have them delivered to computer’s mail inbox or your favorite website reader such as Google Reader. I posted a picture below of Mac OS X Leopard that has your RSS feeds right inside your Mail program:

Click the picture for full size version.

And, if you don’t like reading, you can also subscribe to VIDEO podcasts (sometimes called vlogs/video logs or vodcasts/vcasts) or AUDIO podcasts. If you use iTunes, you may notice the podcast icon in the navigation list on the left. Subscribe to your favorite stuff there! If you want to browse a directory of podcasts that can be automatically delivered to you, go to the bottom right corner of iTunes and click “Podcast Directory.”

Click the picture for full size version.

While you’re at it, you can subscribe to my blog by clicking the RSS icon at the top right of my website!

Watch a video on “What RSS is:”

This post is a teaser of what we are releasing in the next few weeks. We haven’t given it a name yet, but it will be an open source web publishing and content management system built in PHP, specifically CodeIgniter. We are integrating the best features from the popular content management systems and blogging platforms like Wordpress, Tumblr, Expression Engine, etc. and building a CodeIgniter library that you can edit easily and use for your own websites. Since it is open source, we will always accept your suggestions and implement them in new releases. It’s going to be simple, functional, and it won’t be packing any extra weight. We like how CodeIgniter is structured and we build our applications the same way: the basics are always there, but if you need customization, there is always room to flex.

Plus, if you remember our user management system that we released a while ago called EzAuth, this new content management system will integrate perfectly and seamlessly. We appreciate all the great feedback on EzAuth and we take a great amount of pride in the interlocking web solutions we are developing for small businesses.

Thanks everyone. If you want to be informed when we release our new CMS system, please send an e-mail to cms@bizwidgets.biz and we will send you download information when it comes out. Again, thanks for the support everyone!

- user registration (with optional e-mail verification)
- user login
- lost account retrieval
- password changing
- user session management
- password protecting certain pages or sections of your website

It is built using the CodeIgniter PHP framework so you will need that installed until we port it for general use. Check it out, there’s a fully working online demo and user guide with lots of documentation as well!

This is a 5 step list in a nutshell what Ed Dale teaches with the 30dc method:

1. Find a corner of a niche market gaining entry using keyword phrases. For example, ‘weight loss fad book’, ‘psych yourself skinny’, ‘organic weight loss’, etc. This way, you learn which phrases are untapped but profitable and which ones won’t get you anywhere.
2. Write articles on these niche markets to see if there is monetary potential.
3. Start selling an affiliate product, such as an e-book or physical product about your niche market.
4. As soon as the magical number of 200 unique visitors a day is reached (roughly 1 sale a day for every 200 visitors; for a $14.95 book with a $7 commission that equates to $2,555 a year), develop your own informational product, an e-book, physical book, software package, newsletter, etc…
5. An extra $2,555 a year is nice, but creating your own product will give you around 95% profit in the long term, the 5% being the cost to write the informational product.

• Selling your own product at 95% commission ($14.20) equates to $5,138 a year
• This is only based on 1 sale a day. increasing this to just 3 sales a day will make you $15,564 a year from a few weeks of work. Once this becomes an established business, you can move on to other business ventures.

Using this business model you can create a 6 figure PASSIVE income from a few weeks of work in particular niche markets.

Why is passive income good?

• Wikipedia definition: An income stream falling into this category is one where money is received usually on a regular basis, without continuing effort. This does not mean no effort at all; most passive income streams require great effort to start with.
• Good for a retirement plan, since you are creating money from nothing your savings aren’t trickling away. You are creating value from nothing and basically inventing money.

I hope you enjoyed the article, comments are appreciated!

Why?

Before my time, Microsoft introduced Windows as a revolutionary new platform for developers make everyone’s lives easier. Apple came out with their aesthetic, remarkably easy interface that made (almost) everyone want a new Mac.

It wasn’t long before these big companies like IBM, Xerox, Microsoft, HP and of course Apple knew what was coming down the train tracks. These revolutionary new personal computers were going to change everyone’s life.

And they did. Bill Gates became the richest man in the world and Steve Jobs continues to lead the technology industry with their classy products.

So where does Facebook come in?

Microsoft and Apple have maintained their operating systems for many years now and will continue to dominate that market. There are a few new systems that pop up, such as Linux and Ubuntu, but the two that will always be there are Windows and Mac. BUT as you may know, we are going through a rapidly changing era where the internet is transforming business, medicine, law, and daily life! The transformation of web2.0 technology enables us to entertain ourselves with YouTube, read news stories from hundreds of different sources, and outsource business projects to other companies for cheaper than ever possible. We can meet our future husbands and wives online and write on our friends’ virtual walls on Facebook and MySpace.

OK, so I know about web2.0, what about Facebook?!

This last spring of 2007 Facebook launched its developer platform, unleashing web developers to create their own online software programs enhancing user profiles on facebook, providing more content and entertainment while in the process making lots of money! Everyone wants software to be interactive these days. In the U.S., I can say that most of everyone I meet has broadband internet access. Businesses can’t work without e-mail, internet access, and instant messaging. People can’t sit on the computer for 18 hours out of the day without internet access. The wave of the new internet has brought so many opportunities and there is still a lot to come. Instead of programming a game to play against a computer, we now have Wiis, X Box 360s, and computers that rely on your connection to the internet as a necessity to play. People want interactiveness, and they’ve got it with web2.0.

Web2.0 allows for mass collaboration, information sharing, and social networking at an overwhelming pace. In order to keep up, you almost can’t stay off the computer learning the new stuff for a day!

With that, I would like to say: If you haven’t joined facebook, do so. You will have a blast, especially if you know people already on it. If you are a developer, check out the developer platform and get to know it. It just may provide a new business opportunity!

Thanks for reading, comments are welcome!

If the list doesn’t exist, create it! Then invite your friends to review and rank your list.

You can make a list for pretty much everything. Here are some random examples:

• Cars you are looking to buy
• Cooks on the Food Network
• Best TV Shows
• Bottled Water Brands
• National Food Chains
• Beers
• Best Movies of All Time

We think this is a great tool that can be used for pretty much everything. Signup is free, and ListRankr just requires a valid e-mail, username and password. Beware, however, because once you start voting, you can’t stop!

Our Facebook version is currently in beta testing, look for it soon! If you want to be involved in the beta testing, you can visit the facebook application page at apps.facebook.com/listrankr/, or visit the stand-alone site (a tad faster) ListRankr.com.

If you go to www.weebly.com and sign up with your username and email you can start building your website in seconds. It uses a pretty AJAX interface, so that means you need to have Javascript enabled or you won’t be able to use Weebly. You can drag and drop any desired element to the page, including paragraphs, pictures, custom HTML or even pre-built Google Map widgets! If you have used Microsoft Word, you will probably find this tool a piece of cake!

For those of you who have looked into other WYSIWYG editors you probably know that they can be very expensive, especially if you don’t have time to learn new programming languages and spend a bunch of money. If you like cool web2.0 freebies head over to weebly and learn how to create website pages using WYSIWYG editors!

1. Learn XHTML.
2. Learn CSS.

These two components are essential to building a solid website. If you build a large business website without knowing XHTML and CSS, you will be banging your head on the desk from troubles with cross-browser compatibility, search engine optimization, maintainability and more later down the road. If you need help learning XHTML and CSS, you can visit W3Schools or search for tutorials on Google. They aren’t very hard to pick up, and I can show you what your starting XHTML/CSS code will look like if you visit this test page.

That is the core part of any webpage. None of it should be left out, however you can always use a separate file for styling called a style sheet so the top of your webpage doesn’t have a bunch of styling in the header. Most of the what you will be editing will be inside the body tags, such as adding layered divs, images, text and hyperlinks.

After you are somewhat familiar with XHTML and CSS, you can find XHTML/CSS layouts so you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. There are some that are better than others and just make sure that the layouts you find use layered divs instead of tables. Layered divs may be harder to learn, but they save a lot of time down the road. You can use the layouts as a starting point to building your webpage. Some things to remember while building your first web pages are:

• Use heading tags (h1, h2, h3). Search engines place more weight on keywords in these tags. Make sure not to overload your pages with keyword phrases, however.
• XHTML is only more cross-browser friendly if you close all of your tags. If you comply with this standard you will have an overall better website.
• Try to substitute text for images when possible. Less images means less loading time and more content for visitors and search engines.

After you create your new XHTML/CSS webpage using my tutorial on how to design a website, you can validate them at validator.w3.org to make sure they are compliant with XHTML transitional.

In order to create dynamic, interactive pages you need to learn a programming language such as PHP. PHP is used in conjunction with a MySQL database if you need one to provide more functionality such as an online store, blog, or just for capturing visitor information. I use a PHP framework called CodeIgniter that takes care of the basics when it comes to building websites such as session handling, database connetion and data retrieval, and also provides you more organization when building websites. If you want to learn more about CodeIgniter, read my article about building your first PHP web2.0 app.

The guys over at Thirty Day Challenge have come up with some great ways to research niche markets using FREE online tools. These tools are:

• Google Search
• Google Trends
• Free Keywords @ WordTracker.com

They are simple yet they can determine almost EXACTLY how much traffic you can expect with a particular product and keyword phrase you are going to use in your website. I could try to explain how to use these tools, but I am just going to let you watch some video tutorials instead. There are three parts to the tutorial and the first link is a podcast, not a video.

Part 1

If you are unfamiliar with the terms they are using but still interested in what these guys are talking about, Sign up for the Thirty Day Challenge. It’s a free online course on how to start making money online.

I don’t know why he uses the graphic search term that he does, but it is very useful information if you can get past that part. And that’s step 2 to building your online business!