Tips On How To Generate Free Leads Using Social Networking Sites

By Alan Stockdale in Web 2.0

Free lead generation is a very cost effective way to promote any online business. Social networking sites are some of the best ways to generate free leads. Some of the ways I personally use them to promote my online business is by using Social networking sites and making multiple profiles on them. Then when you have your profile accounts set up you need to pimp them to make them look professional and do not try to sell your products directly on your profiles. Instead make yourself interesting and someone who arouses curiosity so when you start sending friend request people will come to your profile and take a look. This is where you can start to get them to your website because these social networking sites allow you to have links on your profiles.

The art is to make people click to your website to find out more about you and what you are all about. Also someone who has taken the trouble to read your profile is more likely to read your website and take notice what you have to say. This is how to generate free leads using social networking sites. It’s all about personal branding and attraction marketing. You can also put videos on your profile which is a great way to get your personality across .I also join forums where I will observe the conversations for some time then when the time is right and I know enough about the given subject I will join in. Because you have taken your time and got to know what is happening then your comments will be taken notice off more. The result of this is when you leave your signature at the bottom of the page with your all important link on it, people in the forum will click on it and have a look at your chosen website.

The advantage of this is that because you took your time and got to know the people in the forum they will put more credence to your website. The result of these efforts is more leads to your chosen internet business. Another great free lead generator is using the instant messages service on these social networking sites. When you have sent enough friend requests out and started some conversations with these people then you start to build a relationship up with these new found friends.

The great advantage of this is that you can send a broadcast out to all your friends telling them all about your product or business or whatever it is you are trying to be successful with. The people who receive the messages will automatically take more notice off you than they would a stranger. It is just human nature to respond more to a friend than some random email they may receive.

The final method that I use to generate more free leads is using the groups section. If you start your own group on a subject you know about then people will naturally come to your group and join you. This is very powerful because you are setting yourself up as a leader and expert so people will take a lot of notice of what you have to say. This is where you will get lots and lots of free leads for your business. So just like with the forums, people will go to your website and check out what you have got to say. All these methods will generate a abundance of free leads to your online business.

---

Alan Stockdale - uses social networking sites like my space and face book for his successful internet business, all these methods plus others to create vast amounts of free traffic to his global resorts network website.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Find out how to Automate your social network site here

Facebook Message Evicts Couple

An Australian lawyer has become the first person to use a social networking website to serve legal documents.

Lawyer Mark McCormack used Facebook to serve an eviction notice on a couple - and an Australian supreme court then approved the move.

He had tried several times to contact the couple by other means, but without success.

The lawyer's client had been given permission to repossess their house in Canberra, but Australian law requires anyone losing their home to be notified.

And after more conventional means failed, the lawyer opted for Facebook.

He said: "It's somewhat novel, however we do see it as a valid method of bringing the matter to the attention of the defendant."

Australian courts have given permission in the past for people to be served via e-mail and text message when it was not possible to get to them in person.

But this is the first time Facebook, a popular online community with more than 140 million users, has been considered adequate notice.

Facebook friends can communicate in variety of ways, including sending private messages.

They can also "poke" each other - a term for giving someone a playful nudge.

In April, a lower Australian court ruled against documents being served by Facebook because the option of contacting a person via post was not exhausted.

In the latest ruling, the judge insisted that the documents must be attached to a private message sent via Facebook that could not be seen by other members

The Facebook Virus Spreads: No Social Network is Safe

Written by Sarah Perez

"Koobface" is the name of the Trojan worm that's been making its way through the social networking site Facebook lately, but to the site's users, it's been simply known as "the Facebook virus." That name will soon become a misnomer, though, because the worm is now spreading outside of Facebook's walls to attack other social networks like Bebo, MySpace, Friendster, MyYearbook, and Blackplanet.

About Koobface

Once a computer has become infected with the Kooface worm, it spams the friends belonging to the owner of the computer by leaving comments on their profiles. Those comments appear to come from the infected user, saying things like "Are you sure this is your first acting experience?", "is it u there?", "impressive. i'm sure it's you on this video", "How can anyone get so busted by a spy camera?" and "You're the whole show! i'm admired with you." Save for that last one, whose bad English will likely raise a flag that all is not what it seems, the other comments appeal to people's vanity. They wonder: is that really a video of me? and then click through on the link provided.

The link actually takes them to an off-site page which pretends to offer a video download from "YuoTube," but then stalls saying that you'll need a new version of Adobe's Flash Player installed in order to continue. Of course, if you click the button to proceed with the install, you're infected. Infected users are then directed to even more contaminated web sites when they try to use search engines, which puts them at risk of identity theft, among other things. "Search terms are directed to find-www.net," said McAfee's Craig Schmugar, and that "enables ad hijacking and click fraud."

Social Networks Will Be the New Breeding Ground for Viruses

Koobface may not be the first bit of malware to hit the social networks, but it has become so widespread that it now accounts for one percent of ScanSafe's blocked malware, said ScanSafe senior security researcher Mary Landesman. (Facebook will not disclose how many members are infected.)

What's frightening about the spread of this Trojan is not the worm itself - it's really nothing new in terms of malware - but the way its being spread. Over the years people have learned to be suspicious of unknown links and attachments in their emails, so the virus writers turned to hit us where we're more vulnerable: on our social networks. Here, many people still have a feeling of comfort and security. They don't always have their guard up.

According to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, "a key factor which helps social-networking spam and malware succeed is that people are more prepared to click on a link or message if they believe it is from someone they know. The average person is used to receiving unsolicited e-mails in their regular inbox, but believe messages have more credence when they arrive via Facebook. The message is clear -- people need to beware."

Cluley also warns that the situation is going to get worse next year. There will be more attacks and they will become more sophisticated. "It will probably take a long time before the general public begins to learn that hackers and scammers are using the system for their own ends."

How To Protect Yourself From Koobface

Besides doing the obvious - running an up-to-date antivirus, security patches, and firewalls - you should be on the look out for the following:

A sample spam message:

The malicious site:

The warning message:

You should also keep an eye on Facebook's security page (http://www.facebook.com/security) which warns of the latest threats.

Image credits: virus, courtesy of akajos; Facebook screenshots, courtesy of McAfee Avert Labs

GMail Adds SMS for Some

by Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins

Do you have GMail or GChat? Do you have a mobile phone on a major US wireless carrier?

You may be in luck, then. The chat-to-SMS functionality that was rolled out a couple weeks ago, then hastily retracted, has been debuted on GMail and is available to most users.

It’s yet another Labs feature, the experimental feature area of GMail that has been getting regular updates over the last several months. This feature introduces yet another way you can be tethered to those you correspond with electronically.

Quick testing here at Mashable shows that most major carriers are supported, but oddballs like me on regional networks like MetroPCS are not serviced by the new capability, and users who message those on unsupported networks will be greeted with the message indicating as such.

To activate the service, simply scroll down under the Settings >> Labs link until you see "Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat" and select Enable and Save Changes. To actually send a message, when you click on the “search, add or invite” blank in GMail, on the pop-up menu will be an option to “Send SMS.” You’ll be prompted to enter their mobile number, which will then send all chats to their phone.

Other than the minor network incompatibilities, it seems like one of the most convenient ways to annoy the crap out of your friends from Google yet!

Twitter

Tweet Virus

Revealed: A Powerful System That Turns Twitter.com Into Your Own FREE

24 Hour A Day Automated Branding, Traffic and Profit Machine

Dear friend,

Like many folks, maybe even you, I joined the Twitter bandwagon a few months ago after hearing all the buzz about it. I went ahead and made a simple profile and occasionally would make a post - known as a "tweet" about what I was up to during the day.

Up until recently, I only had about 100 "followers" in my network - people who had chosen to see the tweets I posted on their own Twitter pages.

Basically I was just using it to keep tabs on a few interesting people and bounce jokes back and forth with a couple of my friends.

At the time, I didn't see any real "marketing" potential in it.

That's when one of my friends mentioned that Twitter was actually a pretty good source for targeted traffic.

Now, a dozen visitors may not seem like much – but neither does just one hundred followers.

Right then though, I knew if I could quickly scale things up and grow the number of people “following” my Twitter profile - especially if they were targeted followers interested in the same things I was – I would have an excellent place to brand myself, generate targeted traffic, and increase my profits.

There were a few problems though...

• I didn't want to blast my lists and annoy them to “follow me” on Twitter.
• I didn't want to have to manually search for other targeted profiles

• I didn't want to have to spend too much time managing and growing my list of Twitter followers.

• I wanted to find a system that would not be spammy or blackhat in any way.
• Most importantly, my system had to use only FREE resources.

With these points in mind, I started researching successful profiles on Twitter – the ones with at least one thousand followers. Then, I started looking at all the free 3rd-party tools that work with Twitter. My hope was that I could uncover a free system already available that would do what I wanted

– but none was to be found.

So I set out to create my own.

To make a long story short, after much research, testing and tweaking, I came up with a system that combined the power of free 3rd party Twitter tools along with a unique and simple to create one-line "code" based on a social engineering technique I had learned.

I now have over 1200 followers on my profile, and this number is now growing at a steady pace with 5-10 more new targeted followers every day - with no effort on my part.

And these followers are responsive too. In fact, my Twitter profile has been responsible for literally hundreds of extra dollars in new business in just the past week. I now rank it as one of my most valuable assets – right up there with my customer lists.

CLICK HERE

To your success,
Phil

Want A Sticky Site? Forget Content!

By Michel Fortin (c) 2008

An interesting debate is raging among copy writers, web designers and content developers about the differences, if any, between writing copy for the web versus writing content.

According to prolific copywriter Nick Usborne of Excess Voice, a recent survey conducted among the readers of his newsletter of the same name offers some interesting results. They seem to be split almost three ways: one-third consists of copywriters, another content writers and the final third both.

But it's wrong.

This is an important debate, I believe, since all online copy is content but not all content is copy. And that's a real problem.

Most web designers, webmasters and content writers develop text for websites in a way to educate visitors. They also write it with the notion that "content is king," "content increases search engine rankings," "content makes a website sticky" and so on. That's all fine and good.

But I believe content fails when it strives only at informing the reader, and thus lacks important elements that take her "by the hand" and compels her to do something - anything, including the simple act of reading.

In other words, while some websites may compel our attention, others fail to propel our actions, too. And their owners often end up screaming, "Why is my website not producing any sales," "why am I getting a lot of traffic but such a poor response" or "why are people leaving so quickly?" Well, if content is king, copy is the castle.

The Internet is not a traditional medium — at least not in the broadcast sense. It is intimate, dynamic and interactive. People are more involved when reading the content of a website than reading a conventional print publication, watching a show on TV or listening to a program on the radio.

And with the Internet, people have a powerful weapon that they don't have with other types of media, and they usually don't think twice about using it when the need confronts them: their mouse.

So, the idea is this: forget about writing content, at least in the traditional sense. Think copy. Think words and expressions that compel the reader to do something, even if it's just to continue reading.

According to online dictionary Answers.com, "copy" is defined as "the words to be printed or spoken in an advertisement." (And "advertisement" is defined as "a notice or announcement designed to attract public patronage." It's calling for some kind of action. It's selling something, in other words.)



But the word "content," on the other hand, is defined as "the subject matter of a written work, such as a book or magazine." And keep in mind that there's no mention of the Internet, here.

Nevertheless, this is why I submit that, with its multitude of links, scripts and hypertexts, the Internet transforms the passive reader into an active, responsive participant. (Or make that "response-able.") And she must therefore be treated as such - as a participant, not a reader.

Look at it this way: a book is limited by its front and back covers. When the book is done, it's done. The web, however, is not.

If your content does not strive at getting the reader to do something, whether it's to buy, subscribe, join, download, call, email, fíll out a form, clíck or whatever, then you need to seriously rethink your content and the words you use.

Here's my explanation of the difference between content and copy. Content informs. Copy invites. Even if content invites a reader to keep reading, it's still selling an idea. It's still calling for action. And it's still copy.

If your web page is only meant to inform people like some kind of book, then it's content. (And like closing a book once it's read, the only action left is to exit the website or close the browser.) But if it contains links or more content, then it's copy. And you need to write content with that mindset.

Ultimately, incorporate within your content a direct response formula that compels your readers to do something. Don't leave them hanging. Take them by the hand. Integrate a call for some kind of action, in other words. Ask your reader to "buy now," "join today," "get this," "download that, or ...

... Better yet, simply "clíck here."

About The Author
Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, marketing strategy consultant, and instrumental in some of the most lucrative online businesses and wildly successful marketing campaigns to ever hit the web. For more articles like this one, please visit his blog at michelfortin.com and subscribe to his RSS feed.

Profitable Opportunities for CPG Marketers

Although search is more “mainstream” than it has ever been, consumer-packaged-goods marketers aren’t fully taking advantage of their excessive opportunities. Clicks used to be about branded search and paid search, but recent ComScore research shows a tremendous growth in organic search thus emphasizing organic as the best strategy for CPG marketers.

As search engines become more sophisticated, so do the searchers. In the above video from SES Chicago, Eli Goodman, Search Evangelist for ComScore, says 73 percent of searchers are now becoming more specific with their search queries and are looking for information and help. Although these observations strengthen a paid strategy, ComScore is seeing a shift in traffic to social media enhancers such as Yahoo! Answers, Google Blogger, and About.com.

To make the search experience more sophisticated for the user, the CPG sites need to cater to those early on in the purchase process instead of only focusing on product details and where to buy. Users want and need the opportunity to ask questions and have those questions answered.

If searchers have a positive user experience, then they will become repeat customers. Another perk with a producing a positive user experience is getting effective word-of-mouth promotion in return.

More WebProNews Videos

Web Traffic

How to Actually Rank For Any Keyword With a Legitimate Search Engine "Loophole"...

Everyone wants to have their site rank well in Google.

And why not? Not only can Google send you a boatload of free traffic - it's also highly targeted, and it's one of the best ways to drive business.

The problem is, that exact same ideal is shared with thousands of your direct competitors. This creates an environment where you'll always be fighting, kicking and scratching to maintain your traffic - along with the ever present fear that your livelihood is only one "algorithm update" away from vanishing.

And that's if you can even get ranked for any decent keyword, to begin with...

In fact, only the largest, most-established authority sites can reliably see consistent traffic from Google. And even then, their rankings fluctuate constantly - several times a day, in some cases.

The fact is - it's getting harder and harder for the "little guy" to get any kind of meaningful web presence on the web these days.

Getting ranked in Google is almost impossible unless you've got a major promotional budget and some time on your hands to "wait" for your domain to become trusted (Google favors older domains). And advertising with pay-per-click ads isn't affordable like it once was.

Search marketing has finally become what everyone feared it would - a game reserved for big business.

But what if there was still a way to legtiimately rank for keywords with tons of traffic?

And what if you could do this without having to spend months and even years building up an authority site to do so?

In fact - what if you could systematically create one-page minisites that could rapidly rank in the top 3 spots (consistently) for basically any keyword you target within a matter of a week or so?

Is this for real?

YES.

But not with Google.

It's happening right now, as we speak, on MSN.com

Now - before you think it - yes, I know, MSN doesn't have nearly the reach that Google does. But, it still does receive millions and millions of search users daily. After all - MSN is the default home-page for anyone who first uses Internet Explorer.

And, to put it in perspective, which would drive more traffic?

Occupying the #1 ranking for your most desirable keyword target on MSN?

Or occupying the #47 spot on page 5 of Google's results?

Sadly, it's actually more effort to make it to the 47th spot in Google than it is to literally dominate in MSN.

How does this work?

Watch this video to find out:

http://searchengineloophole.check-free.info/

Like I said - forget about Google.

Focus on something that you can actually WIN with, and win big!

Testimonials

"#1 Today For the Term..."

"Hey Dave

"Just some feedback you can pass along to the doubters.

"In 3 days one of my money pages is already at #9 on page one for it's search term.on MSN and getting traffic.

"So, your method works...."

------ and a few days later ------

"Dave,

"An update - #1 today for the term.

"Amazing stuff man!"

Ernie J.

"So Much Has Been Explained..."

"Easy to Follow..."

"I have purchased everything going over the last 2 years yet NOTHING has educated me as much as MSN Loophole.

I am finding product and keyword research a breeze - now - and finding domain names are no longer a ' dreaded thing ' for me.

So much has been explained, and in such a way as to be easy to follow, that I know this is going to succeed because I can now see HOW it will!

Thanks Dave. Thanks Chris

Dave H.

Getting Your Viral Campaign Going

Viral campaigns are a current trend that everyone wants to take part in, but launching a campaign is not something that people should take lightly. Not to give off the impression that viral campaigns are difficult, but they do require skillful planning and should not be conducted halfheartedly.

Chris Winfield, the President of 10e20, gives a few recommendations when getting started with a viral campaign:

1. Have clear goals and objectives

2. Promote great content

3. Contribute to the communities

4. Make sites work together

5. Have good hosting

In the above video from SES Chicago, Chris also adds that a viral campaign is not simply about a great idea. It also takes great execution and promotion which can be done through blogs, social media sites, forums and groups.

There is not a specific time table to know if your viral campaign is working, but all experts advise never giving up.

More WebProNews Videos

10 Free and Easy Ways to Improve Your Alexa Ranking

By Darrell Howell (c) 2008

Alexa, which is owned by Amazon.com, gives away a free toolbar that you can download and install in your browser. Alexa is then able to keep track of the sites you visit and compute the traffic ranking of those websites, with a rank of "1" being the assigned to the most visited site.



If you want a more technical definition, Alexa explains it like this:

"The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources, and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis. The main Alexa traffic rank is based on a value derived from these two quantities averaged over time (so that the rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages on the site viewed by those users)."

http://www.alexa.com/site/help/traffic_learn_more

In April 2008 Alexa revised its methodology so as to "aggregate data from multiple sources to give you a better indication of website popularity among the entire population of Internet users".

http://awis.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

How accurately this method reflects the actual surfing patterns of all Internet users is open to question. However, if you bear in mind that by the end of 2005 the toolbar had been downloaded well over 10 million times you will realize why many people still think that Alexa offers one of the best approximations that we have of website ranking, especially for the top 100,000 or so websites.

That is why Alexa remains an important measure of a website's status and is used as a quick way to assess the popularity of a website by advertisers looking for the maximum exposure for the their money. Websites with a higher Alexa ranking also tend to be trusted more than those with a low ranking, so it is in the interest of website owners to get their sites ranked as highly as possible with Alexa.


Here are some quick and easy tips to help you do that without spending a single dollar!

1. Install the Alexa toolbar and set your website as your homepage.

2. Copy and paste an Alexa rank widget onto your website. You can get the widget code at http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup. As well as informing your visitors about your Alexa rank, it will also keep Alexa updated about the number of unique visitors surfing your site.

3. Create a customized version of the Alexa tool bar, Then place a link on your site to the download page and invite your visitors to download it. You will also earn Amazon commissions every time a user shops on Amazon via the toolbar link.

4. If you have a Wordpress blog there is a plug-in for Alexa Ranking (wp-Alexa-redirect-0.3plug-in) that you can use. Editor's Note: This plugin may no longer work.

5. Submit your site to web directories. Although a lot of directories charge a registration fee, you can still find many that are willing to líst your site free of charge or in exchange for a reciprocal link. A lot of the webmasters who browse web directories have the Alexa bar installed, so if they clíck your link it will help your Alexa traffic rank.

6. Become an active participant on Internet marketing and SEO forums. Again, a lot of those forum participants are already webmasters and a high percentage will use the Alexa toolbar when they surf. Place a link to your site in your signature and your rank will improve when any of those people clíck through.

7. A lot of Asian and Australian websites feature in the Alexa top 100,000 and you can bet that a lot of website owners will have the Alexa toolbar installed, so it makes sense to join social networking sites that are popular in those regions, such as:

• http://www.orkut.com - Orkut is owned by Google and is the second most visited site in India.

• http://hi5.com - Hi5 has an Alexa ranking of 17 at the time of writing this article.

8. Become an Alexa expert and post articles that discuss Alexa ranking and SEO tips. This will attract people to your site who may be interested in downloading your toolbar, or people who have already done so. Either way, it will be good for your Alexa ranking. You could even build a whole category of articles on your website devoted to this theme.

9. Set up a freebie page on your website and post a líst of useful tools to attract other website owners to your site. Include another link to your Alexa toolbar download page.

10. Get into the habit of using Stumbleupon and other bookmarking sites to spread the word whenever you post a new article on your website or blog. Set up a group of fellow website owners so that you can have run reciprocal stumbling campaigns for better results.

If you apply these ten quick and easy methods you will definitely see an improvement in your Alexa rank and you should also start to attract more traffíc to your site!

About The Author
Darrell Howell is an Internet Marketer and Blogger. Visit his Blog at BlueRidgeMoney .

WebProNews Heads to Chicago for SES!

It’s that time of year again folks and yes, WebProNews is covering the Search Engine Strategies show in Chicago, December 8 - 12. We at least hope to cover the show this year. As of the time of this writing, it is 14 degrees in Chicago and calling for snow showers on Monday, December 8 right at the time of our departing flight.

We are determined to get there though since we have lots of exciting coverage to bring you! This year we’ll have interviews from Kevin Ryan, Bruce Clay, and Eli Goodman of ComScore for just a few name drops. We’re looking forward to following up with Bruce Clay after his powerful announcement that “ranking is dead” in a WPN interview with Mike McDonald and getting his feedback on the huge response it has received.

We’ll have articles over on WPN as well as video reports right here on viral campaigns, semantic search, SEO tools, blogging for business, universal and blended search, and many other topics you might be interested in.

If you are going to the show, please stop the two girls with a big camera to say “Hi!” and give a wave to the camera. If you can’t make the show this year, check out all our coverage right here since we’ll be trying to make you feel like you’re at the show with us.

More WebProNews Videos

The Basic Steps for Drawing Attention to Your Website

The Basic Steps for Drawing Attention to Your Website

Posted using ShareThis

Using Forums to Increase Your Traffic

Using Forums to Increase Your Traffic

Posted using ShareThis