Even More Effective Short Linking Strategy

In a recent article on short linking I spoke about how you can use Pretty Link, a WordPress blog plugin, to effectively be a bit.ly or other commercial short link service which YOU control.

The creator of Pretty Link, Blair Williams, has recently posted an article on how to make short linking even more effective.

Essentially, you register a very short domain name, point it to your top level site, add a small amount of code into you .htaccess file (and if you don’t know what that is then just contact me for more details) which you need and Blair explains clearly the how and where and why.

Magic, all done. Well apart from one thing there’s a very reasonable one of charge for the pro version of the pretty link plugin.

So, if you want to build your brand, have effective links used for your brand in twitter, facebook and all forms of social media and save space at the same time then this information will be very useful for you.

Is Your Website Effective?

I am offering for the first 10 people to complete the survey and are serious about knowing if their website effective for their business my Website Effectiveness Report.

It's normally sold for $397 and I am offering it to the first 10 who totally and honestly complete the survey for $297.

Just complete the survey after you signup below and I will get back to you with the report.

The report will cover:

• structure of your website
• effectiveness of your site with the search engines
• major omissions and problems of your current site
• ideas for how you could improve your online presence

This is more than an SEO report, it's about fine tuning your online presence with the rest of your business.

Twitter Traffic – Is It Important?

How can I use Twitter for my business? What makes it special? There's so much written about the use of twitter already but "what does it all mean?".

Twitter offers a completely different method of communication.  It mixes social networking with instant messaging.  Posts are a very brief 140 characters each allowing you to answer that burning question, “What are you up to right now?”  

In order to answer this question you must make every word count.  You need to grab your readers’ attention quickly with each “tweet” (how a post is referred to on Twitter).  Twitter allows you to sign up and send messages to your subscribers and friends.  You can update your audience as frequently as you wish and they can respond to you quickly and easily.  

The way it works is that people follow your “tweets”, so the more followers you have the more you are likely to get as their friends see your details on the profile pages on others and choose to follow you too.  Each time you post an updated tweet, it will be transmitted to your group of followers immediately to their computers and cell phones if they have chosen that way of communication.  

If you send out regular tweets you will start to gather a faithful group of followers.  Make each tweet count and add value.  If you write reviews on computer games or create accessories for Avatars, then you can tell your followers when you have been working on something new or have something new to tell them.  

It is possible to grow a fanatical following who are so interested in what you are doing and offering that they look out for every new tweet from you.  For information marketers such intensity can quickly develop into a faithful band of buyers who react to any new offerings you put their way. 

Friends that want to arrange a meeting can tweet everyone to let them know the time and location of the meeting.  You can also send tweets that give notice of a latest update to your blog or lens update.  Remember to work your tweet carefully so you have enough room to include the link to your site. 

This is essential if you want to create interest in your website and branding yourself successfully.  Even a very brief post can give you an identity in such a way that followers are attracted to your particular niche.  Some people love Twitter and others just do not understand it.  

To understand how it works you really need to use Twitter every day.  Look at what other Twitterers are up to and how they use tweets to market their brand, build an identity, display their expertise and generate website traffic.  

Twitter is addictive and this is mainly down to instant gratification.  It is easy to use and allows you to get your message across to lots of people quickly.  Once you have chosen to use Twitter for your niche, hobby, profession, business, or sport, you will start to see how it is a great way of dispensing huge amounts of information quickly, one tweet at a time. 

It's more than just this though, you can use some of the social bookmarking tools mentioned in a previous post, that will make the tweet for you automatically, for example when you update your blog, or publish a new article. From a business perspective you can send information instantly and also get it back just as quickly. Remember though it's instant gratification and so you need to act fast if a customer contacts you. It's great for support issues, combine Twitter with your support desk and you can have a very effective result for your customers problem resolution and they will be thinking great customer service.