I know that this post is a little off the beaten path, but I just had to say a few words about a recent article I got in my inbox from the New York Times. It states:

The unemployment rate rose in August for the first time in four months as weak hiring by private employers wasn’t enough to keep pace with a large increase in the number of people looking for work.

The Labor Department says companies added a net total 67,000 new jobs last month, down from July’s upwardly revised total of 107,000.

Overall, the economy lost 54,000 jobs as 114,000 temporary census positions came to an end. State and local governments shed 10,000 positions. The jobless rate rose to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in July.

And you can read the full story here.

Do You Have a Plan B?

Now, knowing all of this, what are you doing to keep your business afloat in this downtrodden economy? Are you increasing your marketing efforts, are you spending more on advertising, or are you just going with the flow?

Many website owners especially those in the service industry like mine, have to take an active approach to marketing in order to keep the money comming in. And I’m sure that you do too.

But I’d like to know what you are doing.

What keeps your business thriving?
Think about it for a bit and then let me know by posting a comment below. I’d love to hear from my subscribers and readers are up to these days.

Have a wonderful day.
Tim

Oops! Down Again, wait it's only something Tecnically wrong

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything main stream about Twitter, but over the past few weeks, since the rollout of the new app, “Twitter Places” Twitter has found, more times than naught, that trying to keep up with “The Jones” or trying to “Stay Ahead of The Curve” has put another twist in the mix.

And that twist is “Servability” ok, maybe that’s not quite the right word, but lately, at least from a users perspective, when they go to Twitter to post a tweet or reply to a friends tweet, they get the “Oops something is technically wrong message”.

Now I don’t know about you, but being a business owner, the “Oops!” just doesn’t cut it, when your up against a schedule and your time is very important.

You can have all the Twitter Tools, Tips and resources to help make your marketing efforts work together for the benefit of yourself and your followers, but if Twitter is down, then all the other apps are too.

So, what do you do when Twitter is down, and the “Fail Whale” swims into your harbor?

I know many of you have more than one marketing avenue in the mix, so what do you do when you have all these social media networks all tied together and one of those sites goes down?

What do you have in your arsenal that is tried, tested and approved to never let you down.

Until next time.
Have a wonderful day,
Tim

In a recent article by JENNA WORTHAM of the New York Times, she wrote about the new feature that Facebook has launched recently called “Places.”

In brief, this is what the new application is supposed to do.

“Places allows your friends to tag you when they check in somewhere, and Facebook makes it very easy to say ‘yes’ to allowing your friends to check in for you,” read the statement, released late Wednesday night. “But when it comes to opting out of that feature, you are only given a ‘not now’ option. ‘No’ isn’t one of the easy options.”

Well, looking into this a little further, I found that not everyone, wants everyone to know where they are, and this raises some privacy issues. If you read the article here, even the ACLU is getting their two cents worth on this one.

Now I don’t personally use Facebook (though I did at one time) I find that in some cases this may be a good feature, if your using the app as a form of communication from your cell phone or iPad.

Twitter has a similar feature, that allows you to post your general location. Though it’s not as accurate, it still allows you to say where your general location is, as in a town where you are from.

I personally don’t use either feature. But I know many who do, what is your take on the matter?
I’d love to hear your comments. And if you make an insightful comment, I let you in on a special I’ll be running if you want a website makeover.

That’s it for now. Have a wonderful day.
Tim

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about the opportunity to advertise on Facebook. Though I personally do not use Facebook, and I think mainly do to a time constraint on mt part, I’d like to know if you my followers from twitter and readers actually use Facebook for advertising and how you think it has either helped your business or not.

In a recent article on EzineArticles by Louise Steiner on the 12 Golden Rules, and How to Create Effective Facebook ads, I though Louise hit the nail on the head, even for advertising in general.

Here’s the full article..

Facebook ads allow you to set up a highly targeted ad campaign that will bring hundreds of new visitors to your site.

But you have to remember that Facebook is a social networking site and to be successful with your ad campaign, you need to be aware of a few do’s and don’ts. So, in this article I am going to run through some of the golden rules on how to create effective Facebook ads. But first off, here is a short reminder of the….

5 Reasons Why You Should Advertise On Facebook

1. High quality, targeted traffic: Ads can be targeted….

according to peoples likes and interests
* at specific age groups
* by location – country, state or city
* by language
* at people connected or not connected to specific fb pages, groups or applications
* at men or women, or both
* according to people’s relationship status or birthday
* according to people’s education, college or major subject, or their workplace or organization

2. Cost Per Click is less than on Google AdWords

3. There is Less competition and your ads will be shown

4. People are spending more and more time on Facebook and are therefore more likely to see your ads

5. Rules are far less rigid than on Google

Golden Rules For A Highly Effective Facebook Ad

1. Your Ad should be engaging and attention grabbing, but without being unduly sensationalist.
2. Your Ad should promise something of value. Think of your target audience and aim to fulfill a need they may have or deal with a frustration they may be experiencing
3. Ad cannot be shocking or offensive
4. Image is a must. Your image should tell a story, be relevant and attention grabbing. Tests have shown that pictures of smiling females get more clicks
5. Headlines in the form of a question have been shown to be highly effective
6. Only use capitals where grammatically correct. Capitalizing all words in a header as you would on Google AdWords is not acceptable. Nor is typing an entire word in capitals, such as “FREE”. But sometimes you can get away with it, so it’s worth playing around
7. No incomplete thoughts. Sentences need to be complete.
8. Do not use repeated punctuation marks. So “a sentence…..” or “a sentence!!!” is not acceptable
9. Do not use of incorrect spelling, slang, abbreviations or symbols
10. Your landing page should contain value driven information in text or video. Do not use company landing pages.
11. Consider advertising your Facebook page. You can even create a capture page on your Facebook page. Advertising your Facebook page offers the advantage of cheaper clicks and you get viral traffic. If someone “likes” your page, it will also gain exposure to all their friends and you will get some free visits and hopefully more “likes”
12. Set your daily budget according to what you wish to spend – Facebook will deliver, so there is no need to inflate your budget

Follow these simple rules on how to create an effective Facebook ad and you are sure to have no problems getting your ad approved by Facebook. Before you know it you will be reaping the benefits of targeted, quality traffic to your site.

Louise Steiner is a Network and Internet Marketer with a passion for learning and teaching. She loves helping others grow and reach their goals.

If you have enjoyed this article, you can find more of her work on www.LouiseSteiner.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Louise_Steiner

May sure you stop by Louise’s website and give her a holler, and let her know I sent you. Oh and one more thing, if you do use Facebook ads I think it would be nice if you would let everyone of my readers know your findings, “Does it Help your business or is it just a time waster?

Until next time
Have a wonderful day
Tim

If a recent article in the NY Times from the 10th, we found out that Google is again in hot water with it’s offices in Seol Korea.

We’ve put the article below, so you can see for your self what’s happening.

Here’s the article.

*****
Police in South Korea Raid Google’s Office
By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean police raided the offices of Google Korea on Tuesday as part of an investigation into whether the company had illegally collected and stored personal wireless data.

The search company is already facing lawsuits and investigations in several countries in connection with private wireless data collected for its Street View service. Street View, which was started in 2006, allows users to view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps and take virtual walks through cities.

From late last year until May, Google Korea dispatched cars topped with cameras to cruise around the country to photograph neighborhoods before the planned introduction of Street View.

The police suspect that those cars might have illegally captured and stored personal data from wireless networks while they were mapping streets, a statement by the Cyber Terror Response Center of the Korean National Police Agency said.

“We will investigate Google Korea officials and scrutinize the data we confiscated today” to see whether the company violated the country’s laws on communications and privacy, it said.

“We intend to find out what kinds of data they have collected and how much,” the response center said. “We will try to retrieve all the original data illegally collected and stored through domestic Wi-Fi networks from the Google headquarters.”

Google confirmed in an e-mailed statement to Reuters that the South Korean police visited the company’s office in conjunction with their investigation concerning data collection by Street View cars. The company said it would cooperate with the investigation.

Google said previously that the collection of personal data in other countries had been unintentional and that the company would cooperate with investigations. The company has faced tough competition in South Korea. One domestic search engine, Daum, already runs a popular service akin to Street View.

Google said Tuesday that it would introduce Street View in Germany before the end of the year, The Associated Press reported from Berlin.

The feature, Google said, would be available in the 20 largest German cities. According to the company, residents could ask to have photographs of their houses removed from the database starting next week — a move aimed at dispelling privacy fears.

What do you think should happen to Google?
Have a wonderful day.
Tim