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Using MySpace To Promote Your Business
by OmaroAiloch
Date Submitted: 8/15/2008
While the MySpace social networking website is predominantly seen as being a music related site, it can be used for much more.
While the MySpace social networking website is predominantly seen as being a music related site, it can be used for much more. Integrated into your online marketing mix, and treated properly, it can form a good basis for Social Media Optimization and for Search Engine Optimization. Certain social networking sites, including MySpace, naturally receive a lot of weight from search engines. As such, a link to your own web pages from MySpace pages can giver search engine rankings a boost. However, perhaps the biggest benefit of using MySpace is the ability to network with people that are naturally inclined to use the service you offer or buy the product you provide.
Be Ethical
Possibly the biggest tip you will ever get on using MySpace positively is to avoid spamming other users. Always use ethical means and ensure that you establish a MySpace page that offers genuine value to somebody other than yourself. MySpace spam is a fairly big and extremely annoying problem – if you are seen to be a perpetrator of this annoyance then you won't be promoting your business or website in a positive light and you will actively deter new leads.
Joining Relevant MySpace Groups
MySpace offers a number of Groups, and many of these groups are business related. The forums are an online community where members can get together and discuss related topics that interest all members. Spam is often found and deleted, anyway, but you can still promote your own service as long as it is done ethically and properly. Signature links are the most common method – a method that has been employed in forum advertising and more recently blog advertising for some time. Post relevant comments, useful tips, and answer people's questions with a conclusive response – other members of the community will be inclined to read your post and click your signature link.
Create A Powerful Profile Page
Ensure that your profile is easy to read, includes relevant links to your website (but not an over abundance of them), and offers genuine information. It's perfectly acceptable to include information pertaining to your business and your website in your profile page. Members of your new MySpace network will click on your username and view your profile page. This provides you with the opportunity to sell your services in a positive light.
Add Media Regularly
If you sell products, write articles, or create video content or music, then your MySpace page can include any and all of these. Adding media and links to related pages is essentially what MySpace is about and what it is most widely used for. Create your page, invite others to visit it and join your network of friends. This allows you to keep in regular communication with those people.
Help! I'm New, I Need Links, What Can I Do?
by debramastaler
Date Submitted: 4/9/2008
If your website needs inbound links and you're not sure how to get them, here's an outline of things you can do to secure quality links.
If you're a new website trying to attract an audience and rank well, you'll need a stream of inbound links from quality sites in order to get your site indexed and rank well. Here's a handful of linking methods you can use to secure one-way inbound links.
Apply to the Yahoo! Directory
Submit to solid directories such as Joe Ant, GoGuides, BOTW, Ezilon, Rubberstamped and Massive Links.
Join a Chamber of Commerce, your industry Association and related clubs
Issue a press release through one of the news release services annoucing your new website or a news-worthy promotion you are hosting.
Buy a list of high-profile journalists and contact them directly for one-on-one interviews.
Backlink your competition and those ranking ahead of you for the keyword phrases you want to be found for and look for advertising and linking leads.
Develop a "how to" video for your site and/or products. Add the video to your site, and then add to places link You Tube and the How-To sites.
Buy ad space in offline publications annoucing your new site.
Find an established business in a complementary industry to host a co-promotion or buy their mailing list to send out link incentives.
Find out who's podcasting in your niche and buy space, offer to be a guest or donate products to be given away in exchange for a link.
Locate the prominent bloggers in your niche and note where they are linking and who's linking to them. Work these sites for links.
Leave thoughtful, well written comments on the blogs in your niche, get your name known throughout the community.
Be sure to incorporate an incentive to link program in all your external correspondence such as autoresponders, confirmation emails, reminders, etc.
Create a corporate blog and invite bloggers, journalists and your customers to contribute. Continually promote the site and it's writers and in turn, they'll support your site by linking to it. Don't forget to add an RSS feed as well.
Add your blog to all the blog directories as well as the RSS feeds to the RSS directories.
While some of these tactics have a moderate cost to them, a good many are free. Not only will you gain links, but you'll also gain the much needed influx of traffic competitive sites need to break into the race.
