According to FaceReviews.com, users now have access to over 10,000 applications on Facebook, and the number continues to grow.

FaceReviews says, “This means more options for users of Facebook. The range of types of applications is mind boggling. This means that the competition to gain new users of an application is much more intense. [Facebook] Applications need to become much more creative and useful to keep users attention and keep their attrition rates down.”

Although Facebook apps are hotter than ever and growing exponentially, most are forgotten about or removed because they’re just plain useless (FunWall?). ReadWriteWeb.com says, “…less than 20 Facebook [applications] that are used on a daily basis by more than 25% of the users who have installed that app. The vast majority of these 10,000 apps are installed and forgotten about.”

So, which Facebook applications are the most popular? You can check this link out: http://www.facebook.com/applications/

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The importance of social media (SMO) and search engine optimization (SEO) is no secret. Simply put, if you don’t pay attention to implementing SEO and SMO into your website, you’ll never meet your web traffic potential. These two forms of optimization are very broad topics and can be the most tedious and time consuming components to study…but it’s an element of the internet marketing process that’s definitely worth learning.

So, is it possible to learn every SEO and SMO technique under 5 minutes? Not really. But you can get the big picture by watching Chuck, the online marketing rapper rap about search engine and social media optimization…fo’ shizzle!

SEO: Link Building 101

Lyrics: You create a new site and its content heavy / With the right amount of pictures you believe it’s ready
So you launch it trying to put money in da bank / But when you search and try to find yourself, you can’t
So you thank until your mind goes blank / Got titles and headers but no page rank
Sooner or later it will show if I wait / In the meantime make sure my code validate
And it do, Hmm, now what I’m supposed to do / Add meta information and alt tags too
Still don’t get listing / Something must be missing / Brad and Chuck recommended doing link building
So you start hunting down sites like a predator / Doing back links on all your competitors
Whoever linking to them need to link to me / Is it free, do we swap, or do I pay a fee,
Well take it from us, before you take that step / Some things about the site that you might want to check
Did they use a link farm or some dirty tactics / Could have a bad effect on your site that’s drastic
Could’ve link baited, look at what they created / Compare it to yours, is it even related
Take the time, go inspect and see / Take advantage of paid directories
If you follow all the steps with a little bit of patience / Get links from relevant sites that are favourites
Update your content on the regular basis / I’m confident you’ll make it to first page placement

SMO: Social Media Addiction Rap

Lyrics: I surf the web, I used to watch TV / now I’m logged into Joost, it’s commercial free
lets see where I want to go / and who I want to know / connecting people with people with web 2.0
I don’t use email unless I’m at my job / want the next post, I subscribe to the blog
I’m easy to find / I’m always online / social networking sites, I think I have nine
I use myspace to promote my music / I get friends and album sales that’s how I do it
but tell me have you heard / about the new word / something like myspace but they call it virb
always something new, I’m a start creating / I’ll make a brand new facebook application
uploading pictures and mp3’s / update my profile and hit ctrl D
can’t stop what I started, it’s getting ridiculous / social book mark it, add it del.icio.us
some can’t take it but I just can’t quit / go to Imeem and listen to my playlist
watching videos on my You Tube channel / clickin so much, my mouse smoking like a candle
I’m online for hours, addicted to the power / 10 tabs open on a firefox browser
I must be going crazy cause I can’t get enough/ I guess I’m addicted to social media

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Video is certainly a great tool for promoting any website. However, submitting video one by one to the most popular video sites can be a pain. Introducing Hey!Spread. Hey!Spread is a tool which that provides marketers with the ability to send videos to multiple video platforms in one shot. Hey!Spread allows you to send your video over the best video networks in one shot! Why use Hey!Spread? Simply put with Hey!Spread you can get the best exposure for your content, increase your audience size, save time and energy and save bandwidth as you upload once for all the services.

In their words: For now, spreading videos is something extremely boring and time consuming. Actually, It is not convenient to upload to more than two networks. All must be hand-made, so that limits the distribution potential and the exposure. In one word, the BUZZ. And this lack of visibility considerably reduces the impact of any web campaigns. Hopefully, Hey!Spread makes the BUZZ dead simple for everybody: Individuals, Companies, Marketers, Web Agencies, Artists. They all want to promote and highlight their content. They all need to mass communicate and make their viral & social campaign successful. We make their wish come true.

What are the supported video networks?

* Sumo.tv
* sevenload
* YouTube
* Facebook
* MySpace
* Google Videos
* Yahoo Videos
* Dailymotion
* Blip.tv
* Photobucket
* Metacafe
* Revver
* Veoh
* Vsocial
* Vimeo
* Putfile

This service adds great value to any business and every marketer should check it out.

You can visit Hey!Spread at http://heyspread.com/

Errol Potok

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“So You Want to Be Slightly Famous?”

:: What do Patrick McLaurin, Jay Conrad Levinson and Bob Blumer all have in common? Answer: They’re all not famous, yet.

These three individuals are a few of many case studies at GetSlightlyFamous.com – A website that “provides hands-on, step-by-step insights for developing a comprehensive thought leadership marketing program, making company executives irresistible to the media, [yadda, yadda, yadda…]” In other words, a website that informs and educates you on how to get your business noticed and reach a somewhat “celebrity status”.

Now, we don’t usually endorse any website or products for free on our website, but we figured they’ll only remain slightly famous, anyway.

“Virtual Reality Book Release Party”

:: In other news, online marketing expert Pat O’Bryan hosted a virtual release party for his new book “Your Portable Empire – How to Make Money Anywhere While Doing What You Love” on SecondLife.com. According to sources, many of his friends and clients banded together to create special bonuses valued over $10,000 for customers who purchase his book in Amazon.com.

“I intend to hit #1 on Amazon.com on Tuesday,” said O’Bryan, “to do that you’ve got to sell a LOT of books. Giving away over ten grand in bonuses to each buyer of a $16 book seemed like it might do the trick.” Heck, we’d buy 100 copies of Harry Potter books if it came with $10,000 worth of bonuses!

“Keyword Beckham”

:: Searches done in September for the keyword “David Beckham”, 196,951…Searches done for “Business Shakers” in the same month, none.

Ever since the infamous soccer player from England arrived to the US, volumes of traffic has spiked drastically at MLSNet.com, the official website for soccer league in North America. According to charts, as soon as LA Galaxy announced the signing of David Beckham, traffic immediately jumped to over one million unique visitors. “The player [Beckham] has single handedly doubled the number of visitors to mlsnet.com versus last year, which let’s not forget, was a World Cup year.”

Pretty impressive.

As internet marketers, we’d also like to bask in David Beckham’s keyword search popularity by saying, “David Beckham is the man! David Beckham Kicks Ass! Go David Beckham Go!”

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Web 2.0 is nothing new. Yet, I’m surprised of how many people I talk to still have never heard of this new “Semantic Web”, or commonly known as Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is currently known for its user-friendly applications, features and services. These apps and features are utilized by users to form online relationships, user interaction and socialization (ala Social Media). You may have seen or even used these apps and services on websites such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Myspace, Blogs, etc…

So, how exactly can a website like Myspace or Wikipedia help promote your online business? These websites can be a form of cheap media or advertising for your products or services. Although these social networking or web 2.0 websites are focused on developing online relationships/friendships, you can also leverage them to allow you to share your online business with others.

However, because Web 2.0 involves much more interaction and sharing, be cautious of “over-soliciting” your business through this new media. People may be repelled by your objectives - your goal is to form relationships, not hard-sell.

I’m a big believer that the web 2.0 interface will be the requirement for every online entrepreneur to implement into their website within the next few years. The power of this new technology will help your online business engage and connect better with your online customers and clients.

-IC
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Imagine a social networking site that actually allows you to make money by showcasing your expertise in any area. That’s what Seth Godin had in mind when he created Squidoo last year. Squidoo basically allows you to create a mini website on whatever topic you want. These mini websites are called Squidoo “lenses” and not pages.

Squidoo is a great resource for all affiliate marketers. When you create your own lens you gain credibility as a lensmaster. You are recognized as an expert on a specific subject. You have the ability to share your expertise with the entire world.

Squidoo is sure to bring traffic to your website or blog because Squidoo lenses are filled with “google juice”.

The next time you create an affiliate marketing project try experimenting with Squido. Use Squidoo to create a landing page for a product you wish to promote (example landing page: http://www.squidoo.com/sit-n-go-proreview/). You should get picked up by Google pretty fast.

Errol Potok
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Social media is changing the way we live our day to day lives. People are signing on to their Facebook or Myspace accounts before they begin to check their email. Never before has it been easier to creep into someone’s personal life.

Companies have begun to venture into the social network terrain. In fact interactive agencies all around the world are using the latest technology that exists today to milk the social media phenomenon for every penny. Companies now realize the many social media outlets they have to showcase their talents to potential clients.

Take a look at this video I found.

Social media allows content to be distributed around the world faster than ever.
How you utilize it is up to you!

Errol Potok
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Traffic, Yum I want some! So you have a new product or service and have just finished paying a web designer hundreds if not thousands of dollars so that you can wow your visitors. What’s next you may ask? That’s easy. Now you have to figure out how to get those hordes of people to your site.

Most people starting out usually wonder how much money they will have to spend in order to get people to see their web site. I am here to tell you that you can generate top quality targeted traffic for free!

Free Traffic Method #1 – Utilizing social media. This is the most powerful way to generate free traffic because it groups together the many practices people use to share all kinds of content amongst themselves. Social media is quite simply massive and there are tons of resources you can use to drive traffic to your website. Think about all the social networking sites there are out there (ie. myspace and facebook). What about all the video sharing websites around the net. I have seen some really bad videos of people advertising their products that have gotten thousands of plays. Oh and let’s not forget about all of those social bookmarking sites. In fact I remember posting a poker article that got dugg over a thousand times. Photo sites, podcasting sites and even virtual reality sites are used by thousands as methods of free advertising. Trust you can generate hundreds if not thousands of unique visitors to your site by mean of using social media.

Free Traffic Method #2 – Create a blog. Simply put if you have a product or service online and you don’t have a blog you are missing out. If you are an expert in a field people generally want to read about what you have to say. And if these people like what you have to say and want to hear more they might even purchase a product you have created of endorsed. You can generate traffic to your blog by maximizing your build in RSS feeds, creating a blogroll, creating articles (ie content), and by leaving comments on other blogs.

Free Traffic Method #3 – Search Engine Optimization. If you know what you are doing SEO can be the most powerful free traffic source for your website. If you doubt me then ask yourself this. What is the first thing you do when you go looking for information on a subject? I thought so. You go to your favourite search engine. While staying on top of the search engines can be tough you won’t be complaining if your website is up on the first 2 or 3 pages of google for a major searched keyword.

There are many other free traffic methods that I suggest you consider when promoting your product, however I didn’t consider them as fitting into my top 3 methods. Some of these methods include: creating and submitting articles, press release distribution, and posting in forums.

So what about the paid methods? Sure you spend money on press release distributions and by posting your banner on targeted websites (blogs and content sites). But can’t you use free press release distribution services? And if you have a great product shouldn`t your affiliate program persuade someone to advertise your product on their site for free. To be honest I believe you should set aside some money for marketing, however I would spend wisely. Unless you have a niche product that runs you a very low PPC (pay per click) cost you could be spending a lot of money without even knowing it!

Can you sugest any other free traffic methods?

Errol Potok
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