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Exploring Kutch by Road “Why Kutch?” friends asked when I shared my mini-vacation plans with them and I said, “Why Not?”. Even Amitabh Bachchan say’s as a brand ambassador to Gujarat Tourism – “Kutch Nahi Dekha...

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Canon vs Nikon: Which DSLR to Buy?  When it comes to serious photography, photographers from around the world either prefer a Canon or a Nikon. But the question is: which one is the better of the two? To answer in one word: "Depends". In...

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How to completely erase a Hard Disk Have you ever sold or given away your old laptop or desktop to replace it with a new one? Certainly you might have at some point of time in life and you must also have backed up your data and then formatted...

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Mailbox Report Script for Exchange Server One of the tasks that every Exchange Server administrator faces as part of their daily or weekly maintenance is getting the mailbox size report of the Exchange Server. The PowerShell commands do help in...

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SEO Tips for Web Site Designing We all have come across this word “Search Engine Optimization”. Some must have read it somewhere; some must have heard their web designing company talk about it, while some must be providing the services...

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Comments : 0

Blogging – Opening Doors to Social Media Marketing

Posted by Vishal Vasu | Posted on 08-01-2011

Category : Websites & Web Marketing

Tags: , ,

For most of the small business that are looking at options for Social Media Marketing, blogging seems to be the first logical and cheapest option. A blog is the best way to take advantage of a set of powerful tools – most of them available free or at a nominal cost – while also gaining some immediate return on investments.
 
So What is a Blog?
In simple terms, a blog is a software that allows anyone who can post content to a website and displays the same much like a journal i.e. in chronological fashion. This content can be anything that the owner of the blog or author of the post chooses to write. Readers of the blog pages can make comments or subscribe to a blog so that they are automatically notified whenever a new post is made. If the blog is multi-authored, more than one author can post content to the blog. Whenever such content is posted, search engines automatically receive a notice or a PING (as it is called in technical terms) so that they can further index it. Search engines basically love blogs!
 
Where to Start?
As outlined earlier, blogs are run by a piece of software and so the first task is to determine what software to use. A quick search in Google would give you hundreds of options, but we are going to focus on few popular choices:
 
  • Windows Live Space: a free tool from Microsoft that allows you to setup a blog with all the right tools. Moreover, you can also add it to you Office Live Small Business Web Site.
  • WordPress: Comes in two flavors – plain vanilla hosted version running on www.wordpress.com and a sundae version from www.wordpress.org. The plain vanilla version provides a hosted platform with all wordpress installations and configurations taken care of while the sundae version allows you to download the entire platform and setup it up on your own web hosting space.
  • Blogger: another free tool from Google for setting up a blog.
  • TypePad: another hosted service with many features and a simple start-up process.
What Next?
The following tips do help in getting the most of your new blogging practice:
  • Read other blogs and see what and how others are writing. Subscribe to blogs that interest you so that you are notified whenever new posts are made. Moreover, reading what others are writing is a great source for inspiration and new ideas.
  • Post as often as possible. Make it a habit or setup reminders so that you do not miss posting. Remember, this builds up reader loyalty and readers who know about your blog would be awaiting some fresh content from you.
  • Network with other bloggers and make comments in their blog postings. This is important in building up your own readership. Do not spam or write irrelevent comments for the sake of it. Make relevant and useful comments and you shall begin to see some traffic and links coming back to your blog.
  • Encourage your readers and visitors to make comments. Write in a way that asks for readers opinions, ask questions. Engage them.
  • Spread your wings and link out to other relevant content and blog sites. Adding feeds to sites like Technorati, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook, etc. really helps spread your post to thousands.
There are so many good reasons for a small businesses to use blogging as an essential web marketing and communications tool. For those who have still not seen the value or had thought about it but never found the time to start – think seriously.

Comments : 3

301 Redirects – Best for SEO!

Posted by Vishal Vasu | Posted on 01-01-2011

Category : Websites & Web Marketing

Tags:

Recently, we made some changes to our website www.bytetechnosys.com where we updated lot of directory structure which in turn caused changes to the pages and their links.

Result – back links and pages in search results started throwing up a nasty 404 Error Page.

Solution – apply a 301 Permanent Page Redirect with immediate effect!

There are multiple reasons when you would have to redirect URLs:

  • Your web pages may have moved but their old URLs may still be live in users’ bookmarks or in search engine indexes. Without implementing some sort or redirection, that traffic would be lost to a 404 Error Page.
  • You may have changed the primary domain names as part of a company name change or a switch in the domain name to accommodate a more keyword-friendly domain.
  • If you read the Google Webmaster guidelines, it clearly mentions that a site with www and a non-www site are both indexed as separate websites. Since each version is technically a different URL, to have both versions available for indexing affects PageRank, as it is being split between multiple sites. In that case, setting a preferred domain or performing a redirect helps.
  • There could be some additional domains with catchy keywords registered by you. In order to capture traffic from these ancillary domain sources without presenting duplicate content to the engines and running the risk of being penalized a redirect is the best choice.

There may be many more reasons to opt in for a 301 redirect, but these are all that come to my mind as of now. If you have any reasons to share, I’m sure that would be a great resource.

Comments : 3

Tips on using Facebook for Business

Posted by Vishal Vasu | Posted on 22-10-2010

Category : Websites & Web Marketing

Tags:

Facebook has surpassed a 500 million users mark and is proving to be a powerful tool for Social Networking. As part of a series of articles on how Facebook can prove to be of help to businesses, here are some tips on how to use your Facebook profile for marketing your business:

  • Read the Facebook rules and regulations first before starting. This would help to understand how a business profile can be used to market your business.
  • Install appropriate applications to integrate feeds from your blog and other social media accounts into your Facebook profile. For example, you can integrate your Twitter account with Facebook to display the Tweets as part of the feed.
  • Ensure your profile privacy. To ensure a nice grained control, start by creating groups and sorting your friends in these groups list. For example, create a group list called “Business” and put all your business related contacts under this list. Create a list called “Friends” and put all your personal friends in this list. Further, you can now apply privacy settings to these lists to ensure who see’s what.
  • Post a professional or business photo to reinforce your brand. Limit business contacts’ access to personal photos in your profile.
  • Post your newsletter subscription information and archives somewhere in your profile. This could be an external link to your blog our website too.
  • Connect and share with others. Obtain a Facebook vanity URL so that people can find you easily. This also makes them remember you profile page easily.
  • Add your Facebook URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.
  • Post regular business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working on web site redesign for ACME Company.”
  • Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.
  • Market your products by posting discounts, package deals or exhibition events. Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences and other programs where you or someone from your company will be present. Facebook provides the facility of setting up a Events tab with the facility of RSVP. 
  • Use Network, Group and Fan Pages Start a group or fan page for product, brand or business.
  • Unless you or your business is already a household name, a group is usually the better choice. Add basic information to the group or fan page such as links to company site, newsletter subscription information and newsletter archives.
  • Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions. Join network, industry and alumni groups related to your business. Use search to find groups and fan pages related to your business by industry, location and career.

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