Ahhh… social media. That really is the heart of the matter. Yes, the internet opened the world up to us, but social media is what brought it home. It is no lie that I have met many of my friends online. People that I hang out with regularly. When I started my site, I lived in Alaska. Back then, MySpace was cool, and several people from the area that I am originally from, and currently live in, found me and friended me. When I got back to Michigan, they attended some of the same events that I did, we met in person, hit if off, and now we’re pals.

I would be lying if said I didn’t love social media. I am on Facebook and Twitter quite a bit. But that’s pretty much it. Facebook and Twitter. In fact, I have made jokes about Facebook being my husband and Twitter being my boyfriend…

But things are always evolving and changing. Social media is no exception. There are always new sites and ways to connect. I’m talking FourSquare, PlanCast, Tumblr, etc.

Most people have a hard time figuring out what to do with ONE social media site. Do we really need a handful? I mean, how much togetherness do we really need?

If you’re uploading your pictures to Facebook and giving me a minute-by-minute breakdown of our day on Twitter, do I really need to know where you’re checking in on Foursquare? No. If I already read your blog and follow you on Twitter, do I need to Tumble you, too? No.

Maybe, instead of all of this friending and following and tweeting and planning and checking in and checking out and whatever in the hell else we’re doing, maybe… we just all need to take a small break from each other.

It’s okay to just pick one or two social media sites that you like and stick with them. For me, I use a WordPress blog, Twitter, and Facebook. I have apps for all of them on my phone and I can post, tweet, or update at the click of a button.

And on the other hand, it’s okay to just un-plug from the internets every once in a while. In fact, you might want to try it for an hour or so every day. (do not gasp… do not stop breathing… you will be okay)

So, if you’re feeling freaked out and overwhelmed by social media.. just stop. STOP. Take a breath. Turn off your gadgets. Grab some paper and a pen or a book or just sit and do nothing. When you feel ready, come back to your gadget and feel free to tweet, or update or post. But just pick one … and forget about the urge to login to 1o sites and tell everyone the same thing, over and over and over again…..

Suffice it to say, the lady rocks! And she’s got all kinds of business tips to share. So listen in!

The Web is brimming with all sorts of social applications, and new ones are being developed constantly.  But who can keep up with everything their friends are doing on these sites?  Thanks to FriendFeed, anybody can.

FriendFeed is a social aggregator.  It brings together updates from dozens of social media and social networking applications to create a customized feed for each member.  This makes it possible for friends to add one another on one site and track each other’s activities on many.

FriendFeed and Promotions

Online business owners have long been using the social aspects of the Web for business purposes.  They post promotional videos on YouTube, offer coupon codes via Twitter, create business blogs and more.  These methods have proven to be highly effective, but it can be difficult to convince prospects to keep up with one’s updates on each and every site.

But with FriendFeed, marketers can direct customers and site visitors to a single service that will keep them abreast of all of their online activities.  So instead of subscribing to the marketer’s blog in a feed reader, watching for his Twitter updates via Twhirl, and checking in at YouTube for his new videos, anyone who’s interested can simply add him as a friend on FriendFeed and keep up with everything in one place.

Another reason FriendFeed is good for marketers is because it adds a human touch to their efforts.  It integrates your marketing methods with more personal things such as favorite videos, songs and news stories.  This tends to make prospects more comfortable with buying from someone, because it shows that they are a real person.

FriendFeed also allows users to create “rooms” that are based on a certain topic.  Other users can join the room and post messages, links and photos related to the room’s topic.  Creating and joining rooms is a great way for marketers to communicate with people in their target markets.

Web 2.0 has brought forth all sorts of applications that can be used for marketing.  FriendFeed has taken these diverse applications and integrated them on one website, making it much easier for marketers to keep their audiences up to date.  It’s easy to set up and easy to use, so you can recommend it to your target market with confidence.

Google’s homepage is deceptively simple.  It consists of little more than a logo and a search box.  But Google offers more search options than most people realize.  Here are some tricks and ways to use Google that you might not have been aware of.

* If you want to exclude a certain term from your search results, type it into the search box after the keywords you are looking for with a minus sign preceding it.  For example, if you’re looking for information about the band Bush but a search brings up mostly information about George Bush, you could search for “bush -george.”

* By default, Google looks for each keyword entered in the search box separately.  If you want to find an entire phrase, simply put it in quotation marks.

* While Google doesn’t allow the use of wildcards (asterisks) in the place of letters, you can use them in place of words in a phrase.

* Google allows the use of several syntax operators.  These are commands that tell Google to only search for the keywords you enter in a specific place.  If you’re searching for information on a specific website, add the “site:” operator followed by the website’s URL, no spaces, before or after the keywords (for example, “site:http://en.wikipedia.org widget”).  Other operators include “link:” (find pages that link to a certain page), “inurl:” (find pages with the keywords in their URLs), “intitle:” (find pages with titles that include your keywords) and “inanchor:” (find pages with links containing your keywords).

* Google can perform calculations.  Just type an expression such as “1+1″ into the search bar and press enter.  You can also do conversions by using phrases such as “7 quarts in liters”.

* If you’re doing research for writing or just want an official source, Google Scholar is designed for such purposes.  It includes results from theses, scientific papers, and other sources that are based on scholarly research.

* Google can act as a dictionary.  Simply add the word “define” before the word you want to know the meaning of.

Google can do lots of things that most Internet users would never think of.  These are some of the most commonly used tricks, but there are many more.  Google can translate text or entire web pages, provide maps and directions, and much more.  If there’s anything you need to know, chances are Google can help.

Step One. Document your traffic.  How much traffic do you get on a daily basis? How many page views? How long do they stay on your site?  What is your search engine ranking?  All of this information is vital to a potential buyer. The more traffic you have and the higher your search engine ranking the higher you can price your website.

Step Two. What is your revenue?  From advertising?  From sales?  How much money does your website make?  It’s important to look not only at your most recent sales and advertising profits but to also look at past numbers.  What percentage of growth has your website seen in the past six months?  Year?  Lifetime? This is important because it not only demonstrates trends; it also demonstrates growth potential and profit potential – both very important to a potential buyer.

Step Three. What are your revenue options?  How is the website currently making money and what profit options have not been explored or implemented?  For example, if you’re currently participating in AdSense and making money there, perhaps another revenue option is to sell advertising space.  List possible revenue options.  The more opportunity to make money, the higher the value of your website.

Step Four. How much competition does the site have?  Who is the competition and what are their sites worth?  Ideally the perfect website would have zero competition and tons of demand however that is never the case.  Who is your competition?  How long have they been in business?  What are their revenue streams?  Where do they rank on the search engines in comparison to you?  This information not only helps to value your website, it helps potential buyers see the possibilities.

Step Five. Consider using a website valuation tools found online.  They typically ask for monthly traffic, ad revenue, sales revenue and expenses.  They’re a great tool to use as a starting point to price your website. Valuation tools do not know your audience, revenue options, nor do they know your competition.

Finally, if after all of your steps you find that your site is worth a bit less than you want to sell it for, there are a few steps you can take to increase its value.  These include SEO strategies to improve ranking.  Add advertising revenue to your site.  Tweak the navigation and/or layout so it’s easier to use and more appealing to visitors.

Often simple adjustments can have dramatic effects on the value of your website.  If you’re ready to sell your site, it pays to take the time to follow these steps and take the time to optimize your site for maximum profits.

Here’s how to build your subscriber list:

Coupons and discounts
Often times a person will go into business, develop a clientele or customer base and not really have a list.  Later they may begin to build a list however the early customers are left off of it.  Bath and Body Works built their list by offering in-store customers a coupon for a free lip gloss.  The coupon had to be emailed to the customer which of course required them to provide an email address and subscribe to receive information from Bath and Body Works.

An internet based business can use this concept of giving away a coupon or a discount in much the same manner.  Current clients, those not on your list, can receive a separate offer via mail and a form can be posted on your website to attract new customers.

Free Content
Reports, newsletters, e-courses, downloads, and seminars are often offered as an incentive to build a subscriber list.  The key to this strategy is to promote the free content in your marketing and advertising strategies rather than promoting your business.  It’s a much different strategy however a compelling headline and the promise of free information is a much stronger draw than a pitch for your services.

When offering free content, consider taking these three steps:

Create the content.
Create the signup form on your website.
Create a marketing strategy to draw subscribers in.

A marketing strategy can include a direct mail campaign where you rent a list and contact those targeted prospects. It can include a very specific AdWords campaign, banner advertising and joint venture list exchanges.

Consider using the same report to get current customers to subscribe.  Send them a letter via email or mail offering the report.  A month later, send a similar letter with some variations to those who didn’t subscribe, and then a month later send another letter still different from the first two to the remaining folks who haven’t subscribed.  This strategy is subtle enough to get the majority of your customers to subscribe without seeming too aggressive, which could turn off some current customers.

Subscriber lists are a valuable way of connecting with prospects. The email address gives you the ability to communicate beneficial information, valuable products and services, special promotions and any interesting news.  It’s a great way to build a relationship with your customers and prospects and yes, it is worth its weight in gold.