The Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media

Social media is a phenomenon that seemed to overtake us overnight. Many hard-core, died in the wool marketers simply sat and scratched their heads as the wave approached. Some of them are still scratching away. Yet social media is just exploiting the core element of the Internet -- connectivity. As technology has advanced, communities have grown and as personal computers have become so small that they fit in your pocket, we have found every reason and every opportunity to connect with each other online.

For the marketer, these are exciting times. Every company should have a social media strategy and engage the opportunity for everything that it is worth. Some organizations have done particularly well here, while others have been less fortunate. It's important to do the appropriate amount of research before crafting a social media marketing strategy and to understand that not all social media outlets are the same.

What are the advantages? Simplicity, primarily. It is relatively easy to get your message to your customers and also fairly easy to actually target your customers in the first place. You can use social media to gather a lot of information about your clients and prospects and you can also use it to look after customer relations. If you know what you are doing and have a little bit of luck on your side, your messages can go viral and be picked up by thousands or millions of people, who may have been outside of your marketing arena. Before you know it, you could have more interest and more hits to your website than you know what to do with.

What are the disadvantages? Well, so long as you are thoughtful, careful, above board and respect the priorities of the various social media sites, there really shouldn't be too many disadvantages. However, if you break any of these golden rules, you could find that your social media engagement backfires in a big way.

Remember that social media sites are essentially "social," and few of these communities take kindly to overt or "in-your-face" advertising. It's possible to interact without being commercial and to pitch your brand as being interesting. Don't release a publicity campaign without thinking twice about this, as if you're not careful you could end up garnering a considerable amount of negative publicity. Above all else, always be honest and never try and milk the system. If you are dishonest or shady in the hope of trying to make a greater impression, the social media world has a way of finding out.

Those who are the most successful with their social media marketing strategies are those who take time to create something unusual, with a great angle. You have to be able to get the right amount of attention in a short space of time, so something out-of-the-box, audacious or even a little controversial is likely to win out. Look at your customers and understand them and then give them something juicy to talk about, in as subtle a fashion as possible.

Ideal Keyword Density For SEO Purposes

Anyone with an Internet presence really wants to achieve maximum visibility within the search engine result pages, or SERPS. As the Internet has rapidly expanded over the past few years, so the major search engines have attracted the brightest brainpower to their labs, in order to come up with algorithms that work. Today, these complex pieces of computer code are indeed sophisticated. Anyone who searches for the most obscure phrase can see a mountain of results appear before them in the blink of an eye. We would all like to know exactly what goes into the programming of those algorithms and indeed, much of it is a closely guarded secret.

An industry has grown up to support the concept of search engine optimization. We have a pretty shrewd idea now what we need to do to elevate our pages within those SERPS. Optimization falls into two separate categories: online and off-line. It appears that the off-line element is of more importance, specifically the building of appropriate backlinks, votes of confidence if you will, from other sites to yours. However, you must pay attention to on-site optimization as well.

Years ago, on page optimization for SEO purposes meant "stuffing" your appropriate keywords into the body of the content on your webpage. At that time, it may have been possible to influence your position within search results by overwhelming use of your chosen keyword. At that time, quantity may have been better than quality, but not anymore.

Today, as the search engine robots are so sophisticated, we need to compose our webpages thoughtfully and carefully. Above all else, we must do keyword research to ensure that we are targeting the right words for our chosen niche. It's important to come up with supporting keywords, sometimes known as secondary keywords, to back up our credibility. The engines look for the presence of these other keywords, as a means of validating your principal contents.

There is a wide body of opinion, much of which is very conflicting, about the ideal keyword density for SEO purposes. Some experts reckon that you can get away with a density of as much as 8%, meaning that your keyword or keyword phrase appears eight times out of every hundred words on your page. You have to remember that your content needs to be readable and if it is obvious to you, when reading it, that the keyword is overly present, then you're likely to have scoring points deducted. 1 to 2% seems a far more reasonable and likely goal.

There are many different tools that you can use to come up with search engine keywords to help your cause. Perhaps the most well known is Google’s own, free tool. When you are starting a process of discovery and optimization, one of the main keyword research tips to bear in mind is that you should almost always aim for a "long tail" word, or a more descriptive version, specifically highlighting your niche. You might find it very difficult to rank for the word "dog," for example and might be much better off optimizing for something like "golden retriever training," instead!

Are You Living A Lifestyle Of Passion?

Although I have not taken a poll, I think it would safe to say that the majority of people do not live a lifestyle of passion. In my experience as a coach, friend, daughter, mother, and human being in general most people simply tolerate life.

Most people get up, go to a job that at best they tolerate, working with people they don't like, get home too tired to engage in exercise or physical activity, cook/eat dinner, clean up, watch TV, until bedtime. Repeat. This way of life leads to boredom, fatigue, lack of enthusiasm, apathy, burnout and ultimately illness. It's no wonder that so many people oversleep, over eat, use alcohol and/or drugs and watch hours of mindless TV to escape their reality.

Most people feel stuck in this reality and not knowing how to get out they resign to live a lifeless, passionless life. Is this the life that you deserve?

I think not! No one deserves to live like this. No one! We can have our cake AND eat it too! We can have it all! We deserve to  have it all! Not only that, but I believe it is our birthright. We are all born with gifts and it is our duty to give these gifts back by developing them and sharing them with those that are willing and want to receive them.

Take a good look at your life. Be honest, this is for you and you only. Are you living with passion? Are you excited every morning to start a new day? Or are you living counting the days until Friday? Be ok with it. It is temporary. Feeling bad about it for long period of time doesn't serve you.

Decide what you want. Start over, just do it right this time. Learn from your mistakes, don't repeat them. What is it that when you spend your time doing it you feel happy? Commit to living your life loving it, doing things that you love.

I can hear you saying, "Yeah right. Easier said than done. I don't have the time/money to live like this". If this is your belief system, this is what you're creating. It is your beliefs that create your reality. Once you change your belief system, your reality changes as well. 

You owe it to yourself, your family, your friends and humanity to step up and make these changes happen. Don't let lame excuses get in the way of letting your greatness out.

My passion is help people like you live the life that you deserve. I would love to hear your comments. If you have any questions that you'd like me to address in person, you can email me thebestmillionairecreator@gmail.com.

Can We Be Successful If We Come From A Dysfunctional Family?

Last night I listened to a call by co-founder of CarbonCopyPro Aaron Parkinson and Justin Woolf and he talked about his fear of becoming like his father who was an alcoholic and I immediately related because I went through the same thing with my Dad. My Dad was also an alcoholic and  my family, particularly my mother went through a lot of despair as a result of his alcoholism. 

The interesting thing is that most families are dysfunctional in one way or another. There is no "normal". What is "normal" anyway? In many families it might be alcohol, in others drugs, physical, verbal and/or emotional abuse, mental disorders and many others that maybe even I can imagine. 

We all have our stories and many people use these stories as excuses to under achieve.  My father or mother abandoned me, or hit me or didn't show affection, whatever. As children, of course we need lots of love, attention, good discipline. As adults, we need to grow up and let go, forgive those that hurt us. Because if we don't, we are perpetuating that pain in our lives and that person or situation isn't present anymore except n your mind. That person still holds power in your life. Let it go! These things are in the past, they no longer exist, only in your memories. Let go of the stories full of self pity.

One of my favorite quotes is by Wilson Mitchell "It's not what happens to you it's what you do about it that makes the difference." It is your choice. What do you choose? Do you choose to continue living in the pain from the past? Or do you choose to let it go and be happy? In my case, I grew up with an unloving father that barely spoke to me. Instead of looking for a father figure or feel unloved by men or by anyone for that matter, I chose to believe that men are capable of love and demonstrate affection. Instead of perpetuating his lack of affection and chose to be affectionate with my daughters and to tell them often that I love them. 

I learned from my experience and I choose to believe that I am a better mother because of him. When I was a little girl I resented him, even hated him for not being the father that I wanted him to be. I was jealous of my friends that had fathers that were fun and loving. I forgave him a long time ago. I realized that he didn't know any better, he did the best that he could with what he knew. I live at peace with him and with my self. 

So, stop making excuses. If you have any fears, don't blame it on your parents. Don't let the ghosts from the past control your present. Own your fears, acknowledge that it is your choice and no one else. Take a chance, take the first step and then another one. If you make a mistake, so what. Learn from it and move on. Failure is not fatal. Live the life you were meant to live! Use these experiences to your advantage and you will succeed.

How did you grow up? Was your family "normal" or dysfunctional? What did you learn from your upbringing? I'd love to hear your comments. 

How Effective Are Articles To Market My Business

Article marketing has been around since the Internet first sprang to prominence in the 70s. It is the tried and tested means of marketing your business online and has stood the test of time. It has the advantage of being very cost effective, targeted and authoritative, but it is not a quick fix and cannot deliver overnight success. While you can certainly drive traffic to your websites within a matter of hours by using pay per click advertising, article marketing is a strategy for the long haul.

People who visit the Internet are looking for information and this information is found in the form of content. Most of the time, this content is found in articles or the written word and increasingly in the form of video articles, as well. Articles, therefore, represent the lifeblood of the Internet and an article writing or marketing campaign should be a principal element of your small business online marketing efforts.

There is more to article marketing than meets the untrained eye. While you can certainly drive traffic to a landing page, well-written article content can also help to elevate the status of the author or site within the eyes of the reader. If the content is good, as it must be if you're going to expect any success, then the reader might extend trust based on this quality content and this may be enough to persuade them to buy your products or services.

Articles can also help you to build up authority links to your site. If your article is published on another respected site, with a link back to your own site, this is very good for search engine optimization purposes. A dedicated and focused article marketing campaign, based around first-class content, can, over time, build a large number of authoritative back links.

Spam continues to be a dirty word but due to the sophistication of filters and algorithms, is far less likely to be successful. This is good news for those who want to use articles for their online marketing business. So long as you come up with something that is original, you begin to build your credibility slowly but surely over the long term.

Articles can be used alongside a daily blog building regime. By engaging with readers and encouraging comments, even more value can be gained from those articles. Once again, it's important to emphasize that the content really must be well-written and have something unique to say.

Anyone who expects to make a success out of their online marketing endeavors must approach article marketing on a consistent basis. Remember that once an article is published, it will likely be visible for a considerable period of time. The more articles you write and publish the more of those links you will get and the more that you enhance your reputation as the expert in your niche. It doesn't happen overnight, or over the space of a few weeks, but a consistent approach to the writing and distribution of articles is an essential part of marketing your business online.

What has your experience been with using articles to market your business? I'd love to hear from you!

Steps To Personal Success

Many of us spend our days traveling from one high-pressure environment to another, "putting out fires" and dealing with issues, before we arrive at the end of the day and wonder where all the time went. We live a life that is determined by custom and conformity. In truth, we don't really know how to measure whether we are being successful or not in real terms, even though we may often measure ourselves against the performance of our peers, close friends or family.

You may say that you do not have enough time to focus on the bigger picture, but simply need to make sure that you have enough money to put bread on the table, to look after your family and to take care of those often mundane chores that are part of your daily existence. You may wonder what is the secret of success, or even wonder what is the meaning of life. This is a phase that we all go through from time to time, yet sadly a majority of us do not take the necessary steps to achieve real success in life, in holistic terms.

If you want to take the first steps on this journey toward a brighter future, you need to assess certain critical success factors and make sure that you pursue them, doggedly. Unfortunately, there are many distractions and even more naysayers who will, subconsciously or not, try to pull you back.

The first thing that you need to do is to sit down and remind yourself what you are truly passionate about, whatever that may be and remind yourself why that passion exists in the first place. Commit to pursuing one or more of these passions with vigor. Make a list of reasons why you could be successful here and make a list of the potential distractions, as well. Set goals accompanied by specific conditions. Make these goals realistic, but infinitely achievable.

Dream of how successful you can be. Think of what you could do when you are successful in this way and how you could enrich not only your life, but the lives of everybody all around you. Remember that everything that we do, individually, affects a number of other people and this goes for negative actions as well as positive actions. Understand that by being successful, you will create a knock-on effect.

Always make sure that you have values attached to your goals and that the interim goals are measured and themselves rewarded. Be happy with the fact that it may take some time to get to your ultimate position of success and that you will find "speed bumps" on the way. This is why it's important to celebrate interim goals, to help you refocus on the bigger picture.

You have to believe. Your spiritual faith should certainly help you to understand that there is more to life than the mundane. It is well within our abilities as human beings to achieve whatever level of greatness we want to in our lives, but the longest journey begins with a single step.

Do you consider to have personal success? What is making your life successful? Or not? What is your idea of personal success?