2010

January 18, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment

In this Issue:

Popular Stories at ESB Journal
Cleaning up Twitter Clutter
Save Face with Wall Backups
31 Days to a Better Blog
See Your Site as Visitors Do
Google Sidewiki
Engage & Connect with Sprout Buzz
Weebiz Business Community
2010 Top Small Company Workplaces Competition – Deadline is approaching!

I don’t have a problem with caffeine — I have a problem without it!

Cleaning up Twitter Clutter

If you are tired of spammers among your Twitter followers, or are just plain feeling overwhelmed, help is on the way. I recently c ame across a free tool that analyzes your Twitter followers, and creates a report of those who you may wish to consider unfollowing. You can then either remove those folks yourself, or have Twit Cleaner handle it for you for a nominal fee (starts at just $5.00).

Analyzes all the people you follow
Finds time wasters, spammers, the boring, bots etc
Creates a detailed report of everyone you’re following
Increases the integrity & authenticity of your brand or personal image
Clears up the ‘background noise’ of Twitter
Enables you to focus your time & energy

Save Face with Wall Backups

Facebook has over 300 million users currently — there is a very real possibility that information could be lost if their server were ever to crash. Items like user photo albums, friend lists and profile data could potentially be lost. If you are using Facebook for business, you may even have more to lose.

A new tool called SocialSafe allows you to back up your Facebook friends, photos, profile data and wall status updates to your own computer. The process takes literally seconds to do, and the application is currently being offered for just $2.99. Check out the video below to see how it works.

31 Days to a Better Blog

If you have big dreams for your blog but have been putting improving it in the “one day” basket – you’re not alone.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a downloadable e-book designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will all help to turn it into the page view powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of.
Each day in the project contains:

1. A Task – something to DO that day.
2. Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.

This two-pronged approach is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a dynamic a blog but you’ll have actually DONE something with the knowledge.

Who is this Workbook for?
31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for bloggers at different stages of their blogging including:

those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration

This workbook is NOT designed for bloggers yet to start a blog (PreBloggers). It doesn’t cover setting up a blog.

By the end of the 31 Days you’ll have:

written a variety of different types and styles of posts
learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
promoted your blog in a variety of ways
built relationships with readers
reached out to and developed working relationships with other bloggers
developed an editorial calendar for your blog going forward
discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
designed a plan for the next month of your blogging

All in all the daily tasks are 31 steps to transform you blog into a valuable online asset. Download Your Copy of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog for an Investment of $19.95 This 94-page resource (actually it’s 188 pages as there are two pages on each page really) is ready for your download right now.

“In Seattle, you haven’t had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it’s running.” – Jeff Bezos

See Your Site as Visitors Do

Are you struggling with your home page layout? Ever wonder where the prime real estate is for items such as multimedia or advertisements?

A new study released by The Poynter Institute observed 46 people for one hour as their eyes followed mock news websites and real multimedia content. While the study was limited in scope by typical standards, it does offer insights that webmasters can implement now to begin enjoying higher conversions on special promotions, CPA offers and affiliate links.

Combined with other site metrics already used by news website managers — usability testing, focus groups, log analysis — the Eyetrack III findings could provide some direction for improving news websites. To read more about homepage layout, visit this link.

Google Sidewiki

Google Sidewiki is a new add-on for Firefox and Internet Explorer that enables users to leave comments and information about any webpage. Users can comment about service that they receive on websites via the Sidewiki, and then share their comments via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

With the advent of Sidewiki, you may no longer be able to control the conversations about your brand; in fact, the possibility exists for competitors to utilize Sidewiki to bad mouth you. The tool is very new, and there are likely to be similar tools introduced in the future. In the meantime, downloading Sidewiki and building a strong presence can help to eliminate potential problems, as well as allow you to monitor conversations about your brand.

Engage & Connect with Sprout Buzz

Sarah Prout is the director of Sprout Publishing, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, publisher, business coach, online socialite and mother of 2 little darlings.

Sarah knows more than a thing about creating buzz. At age 14 she was labeled ‘Hallmark’s Youngest Designer Worldwide’ when her vibrant gift wrap designs were available in all major department stores around Australia and New Zealand. At 19, she founded her own greeting card company which is when the SPROUT brand first emerged. At 22, Sarah won a major prize from the SHELL corporation for writing an award-winning business plan that funded the first print run of SPROUT products. Today, Sarah is an author, online socialite, and entrepreneur that has helped many other business owners follow in her very-successful footsteps.

Her Sprout Buzz eCourse has been specifically designed to give you 30 days of publishing tasks that will rapidly improve your level of exposure online. Each day give you an exercise to complete or contemplate that will form the backbone of intense content proliferation for your business and your brand.

Other Topics Covered in Sprout Buzz:

How to create a press kit
Affiliate marketing secrets
Social media tools, tricks and tips
Writing killer sales page copy
Blogging ideas and monetization
eProduct concepts
Plus much, much more in 75 jam-packed pages of information.

Save $5 at checkout when you enter coupon code “SUCCESS.”

Weebiz Business Community

Think of a business fair and picture it with all the capabilities of an online social network, that’s Weebiz. Register your company and you will instantly have access to an easy and free tool to find business partners or clients, share valuable industry information or promote your products and services.

Instead of simply waiting to intercept a good opportunity by chance, Weebiz places companies at the center of a hub where opportunities converge. Best of all, it’s free to join!

Create your own community of business relations
Interact in a free and permanent business expo
Promote your business
Sell your products and services and find new ones
Find business partners and opportunities
Promote and evaluate your products
Manage business contacts
Stay up-to-date on news about your market

2010 Top Small Company Workplaces Competition

The research is clear and compelling. Organizations that build great work environments deliver better business results. Organizations that invest in the success of their people have employees that are invested in and committed to the success of the business.

Winning Workplaces and Inc. Magazine are seeking compelling examples of organizations with outstanding cultures for our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces competition. The winners will be featured in the June 2010 issue of Inc. Magazine.

The application deadline is January 22, 2010.

Share the Love

As I close out this issue, I’d like to ask you to do me a solid — click on the little green button below, and tweet about the Marketing Espresso to your friends and associates. I sure would appreciate it.

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Filed under MARKETING ESPRESSO · Tagged with business links roundup, marketing newsletter, social media news