Ahrefs, a new marketing research tool, is necessary for webmasters. Ahrefs currently supports 9 countries and over 45 million keywords. These numbers are growing and their index is refreshed every thirty minutes to keep data fresh and up to date.

There are four main tools offered by Ahrefs; 1) Site Explorer, 2) SERPs Analysis, 3) Reports, and 4) Tools. Within each there is a multitude of options available which will be discussed in further detail below. The tools are comprehensive with all the necessary information needed to help run successful SEO campaigns, manage keyword rankings, and see when websites are lacking.

Site Explorer

Ahrefs Site Explorer is similar to Yahoo’s old Site Explorer, but on steroids. There is so much more than just the standard YSE links. You do not need to input special coding in your results to find .gov or .edu links as they are displayed as well as .net and .org. Manage your backlinks to ensure that you do not lose backlinks with their graphs. Look at your anchor text and so much more. You have to try the free trial today!

Ahrefs gives an excellent competitor analysis so you can know exactly what your competitor’s off-site search engine optimization strategy is and how to compete with them. You can enter an exact URL, a domain without subdomains, or a domain with all the subdomains.

You are able to check the referring pages, total backlinks, referring IP addresses, subnets, domains, .edu, .gov, .com, .net, .org, backlink types, nofollow, redirects, images, frames, and much more. These are all shown in an easy to read chart as well and can be exported multiple ways. In addition to the external links tool there are many other tools available such as new links, lost links, anchors, crawled pages, referring domain, and search engine positions.

New Links

By using the new links tab you are able to view your current links at any point in time. Select a day and view the type of link, source URL, anchor text, crawl date, and more.

It is nice to be able to go back in time and review inbound links and keyword rankings to see what may have caused an increase or decrease in your SERPs. Ahrefs has a rating scale next to each link based on traffic estimations.

Lost Links

The lost links looks exactly the same as new links, but rather shows exactly when a website lost inbound links. Use this tool to track links to the exact date and see when they were lost. Then contact the webmaster and see why the links were dropped off.

Anchors

Here you can see what anchor text is used and how often it is used. Even has a drop down off example linking domains to see who is linking to you and whit what anchor text. View 50 anchors per page, but you are able to export all results to CSV.

Crawled Pages

View page URL’s with the exact crawl date. All URL’s are shown with the page title. Look at the page size, internal and external link count. Explore your linking structure and spy on competitors linking structure and popular pages within their website.

Referring Domains

When viewing the referring domains you can see the number of links from that website and its Alexa tanking. They links have a dropdown that shows the exact domain location and what page it is linking to.

SERP Positions

View keyword positions in Google and Yahoo/ Bing which are merged together. View the results in other country search engines. View keyword current positions, daily changes, rating, cost per click value, estimated cost, URL, US and global traffic volume, competition level, and the date last updated. Very thorough and easy to read and explore. Export all your results to CSV for deeper analysis.

SERPs Analysis

The SERP (search engine results page) analysis from Ahrefs is a comprehensive tool that displays PayPer Click Ads, keyword position with analysis, along with a way to monitor daily stats and changes in keyword rankings. Enter a URL to get data from Google, Bing, and Yahoo search results. All the data is exportable to CSV.

Position Analysis

Simply enter your URL and you will get a full depth analysis of your domains position, keyword, rating, CPC, cost, URL, site explorer, SERPs analysis, US volume, global volume, competition level, and date last updated.

Daily Stats

An excellent report that breaks down multiple data points such as; new and lost keywords, total keywords that moved up and down, total positions up and down, rating change, and the cost of change. Rating change is the number of visitors per month and the cost of change is rating multiplied by cost per click. Within the daily stats are multiple charts to make analyzing data easy comprehend.

History Of Changes

View the changes keywords go through in daily, weekly, monthly, and custom date ranges.

Ads Analysis

With the ad analysis from Ahrefs you can view paid advertising data from Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Look at ad text, volume, CPC, competition level, and date last updated.

Reporting

The reports offered by Ahrefs are very thorough and complete. I have used their domain reports and have received more than I could have expected. The Analytical standpoint was beyond my expectations with more information that I thought I could have used. This has led me to new ideas and marketing techniques to use on my own sites.

You can run reports on your website or any other website. Each domain is counted as a separate report, so look at your monthly subscription. You are allowed as many reports as your monthly subscription allows. This is extremely powerful and allows multiple ways to find good links and ignore bad links.

The report has multiple tabs and filtering options available to analyze websites and export the data. Filters are able to be layered as well for more flexibility.

Filtering options include: URL’s, backlinks type, pages, subdomains, counties, anchor text, referring domains, IP addresses, subnets, top level domains, and dates when the pages were crawled and indexed in the SERPs.

Here is a screen shoot of how to register your domain for the reports.

Tools / Labs

Ahrefs is constantly pushing out new products and services for their subscribers. As of how there is a backlink checker, domain comparison / analysis, batch analysis results, and even top rated SEO toolbars to streamline your daily workload.

Ahrefs Top Backlinks

This shows the top million domains by the number of backlinks. You can also search the list for a specific domains exact position.

Domain Comparison

Compare and analyze up to 5 domains at once for an in-depth competitor analysis. This is excellent when starting a new site or trying to outrank a tough website.

Batch Analysis Results

You can easily analyze batches of domain with a report stating total backlinks, referring domains, and IP addresses for each link. You can export all the results to CSV.

SEO Toolbar Integration

Ahrefs is compatible with SEO Doctor and SEO Quake, excellent SEO plug-ins for Firefox and Chrome. This integration allows for in depth analysis that the add-ons do not offer. This is just an added bonus to all of their tools.

Plans & Packages

Their packages are competitively priced and well worth it. The basic plan starting at $49 monthly allows for daily limits set at 2,500 results per query, 500 queries, and 20 standard reports that are exportable to Excel or CSV. This package includes an additional bonus of 5,000 API’s. Larger packages are available depending on the amount of data you want to use. For an individual managing a few websites the basic package is more than enough.

Overall, I am very impressed with this tool and its capabilities. I really like the fact that the data is updated every 30 minutes to give you real time numbers. The functionality and ease of use is very nice. There is not a steep learning curve like other tools. Try it out and let us know what you think of Ahrefs below.

When social media took flight in the days of Myspace, nobody expected it to be the way it is now. MySpace introduced the world to a new way of communication that seemed to change the life of every person. Then Facebook came along using the basics of MySpace while adding new features to enhance the social media experience.

As Facebook rose to the top, many new companies came along searching for a piece of the pie. Those who were loyal to MySpace kept their profile but Facebook gave them so much to get familiar with. As they seemed to forget about MySpace the increased competition sent MySpace to the grave and led to the rise of Twitter and LinkedIn. As Twitter stepped on the scene with its 140 characters and unique look, people who frequently communicate on Facebook, created a Twitter account to see what it was all about. The birth of these new websites still couldn’t slow down Facebook but Google + was in the background with a secret of their own.

Facebook continued to shows its hand and unveil new products not knowing that Google was working on Google+. While Facebook spent most of its time trying to keep it users happy, platforms like Google+ continuously look for ways to generate new users. People love options but the generic friendships on Google+ do not seem to have the same appeal and sustainability when compared to Facebook. With over 800 million users it is safe to say the 40 million Google+ users are more than likely already on Facebook. Many celebrities like Britney Spears and Pit Bull are fan favorites on Google+ but there is not any real communication. It is actually more of a promotional page that seems to be ran by publicist.

Google entered the social media scene and tried to control the amount of users who could sign up by making it invite only. That actually had a negative effect because it took away the interest for those who wanted to sign up right away. While Google built its social media brand to overthrow Facebook it looks like it will be many years before the search engine giant will reach the number one spot. The buzz surrounding Google+ and its hangout feature was supposed to be big selling point but it has not worked as a way to excite social media users.

Social media has exploded in recent years due to sites such as YouTube, Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, and thousands of other social marketing websites. What really stared the trend was in 2004 at a web conference the term “Web 2.0” was coined by Tim O’ Rilley. Web 2.0 is a way for internet users to directly interact with other internet users on the web via social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, social media sites, blogs, etc. When internet marketers realized the potential of these social media sites is as a way to gather customer information they began to join social and actively participate in these networks. There is a goldmine of information that customers share on social media websites.

All these new means on communication created new jobs in the internet marketing field. There are now companies desperately seeking out designers, programmers, internet marketers, and social media gurus to maintain and grow the company’s presence on the web. Businesses even have entire departments devoted to social media marketing specialists that spend all day interacting with others on the web. This has become a full time job and if your business is not participating in social media marketing strategies then they are falling behind and losing customers to their competitors.

What does all this mean for you? It means there are many job opportunities available in the field of social media marketing due to the influence of the internet and the trillions of websites that have emerged. All these websites are potential employers and many of these businesses are very lucrative; while the majority is unfortunately failing. This is where internet marketing, specifically search engine optimization and social media marketing techniques come into play. If you are looking to get a job involving social media there are endless opportunities out there; from start ups looking to make a name for themselves to established businesses that are looking to boost their presence on the web.

Most social media jobs do not require formal schooling or college degrees, but rather prefer to see that you have had hands on training and experience in the field of social media. You have to love internet marketing and always stay up on the latest trends and topics because what works today may no longer work tomorrow. The internet evolves at a rapid pace so formal education does not play a role in the hiring process; although it is always a good idea to get a college degree in Business Marketing. If you are looking for upper level positions you may want to inquire a MBA program in your local area.

MySpace was once the largest haven for marketers, musicians, and people to visit. That lasted for a few years and then Facebook emerged. Facebook changed the game completely with the live stream, chat features, image and video tagging, and many other innovative features. A few years later Twitter emerged as a micro-blogging platform and has become a favorite site for most internet users. And do not forget about YouTube, which is the second most popular site on the web. All these changes happened so quickly and unexpectedly that to be a successful internet marketer you need to always be reading social media news.

Many job boards have emerged in recent years such as Monster, Indeed, Career Builder, Craig’s List, and many others. These are like social networking websites that allow employers to post jobs and employees to seek out jobs related to their expertise. Another useful way to find a job I to go to the website and search for employment opportunities or a contact us page. This will lead you on your way to finding out who is hiring and how the selection process works.

Google has long favored unique content, even going so far as to punish sites that publish duplicate content. But with its recent “freshness” update, Google is beginning to focus on content it considers fresh, or of interest to users on the internet. Luckily, this recent change to its algorithm provides a few advantages to dedicated bloggers and social media junkies. Because Google is putting more weight on the popularity of Tweets, blog posts and other online content, the search engine giant has created more incentive for SEOs to focus on delivering content their users want to see.

Find Out What Your Users Want, Then Update Your Blog

Taking advantage of Google’s freshness update requires two things: a knowledge of your audience, and creating content your audience will care about. Because Google is treating user interest in content as a signal for search results, your goal is to create compelling content that your users will reshare. This can be a bit of a nebulous idea, but take a look at what’s been popular with your audience in the past. Look through your Analytics data for spikes in traffic. What is it about these posts or sources that made them so compelling? By producing more content people find interesting, you’ll build your user base and improve your search rankings.

Build Your Social Media Presence

Social media sites have been popular for a long time, but Google has just started looking at social signals when determining search rankings in the last couple of years. Google’s freshness update is only going to add more weight to this importance. What more incentive do you need to take the time to develop a thoughtful, fun and engaging social media strategy? Unfortunately, there’s no magic bullet for an effective social media strategy. Every market is different, and while a Facebook contest may work well for one company, a similar contest may prove dismal for your brand. Developing an effective social media campaign takes considerable time and effort, but the freshness update makes social media more important than ever.

Social media provides a couple of benefits to websites: a popular platform for delivering content, and a means for interacting with users. Social media shouldn’t be simply treated as a method for holding contests and delivering advertisements. Use your social media accounts to interact with your audience and share interesting links, too. I’m not saying don’t use Twitter to advertise giveaways and specials, but be aware that you’re speaking to actual human users, and take what your audience wants to see into account.

Don’t Forget to Update Your Website

Regularly updating your website is another way for your content to appear fresher to Google. Large changes to body copy is seen as fresher than changing a single sentence or making a handful of small edits, but completely overhauling a website’s body copy every week simply isn’t viable. However, every website can rely on regular news updates, a company blog or social media activity to improve its freshness rating. Making regular updates has another benefit, as well. Google will crawl your site more often, which means your content will get indexed more quickly and become easier for users to find when searching.

This update won’t affect all types of searches, but will have an impact on search terms that are related to recent events, or regularly occurring, or otherwise frequently updated. The key to using Google’s freshness update to boost your own SEO is finding a way to relate this kind of content to your site. Blogging and social media updates are two great ways of doing this, but shouldn’t be seen as the only way of capitalizing on Google’s freshness update. The idea is to create quality content that your audience, clients or users will care about enough to retweet, reblog and share with others.

Author Bio: Tyler Moore lives in Indianapolis and works as a freelance SEO consultant with a focus on guest blogging and copy writing. Tyler currently works for DocRaptor, a web application used to convert HTML to XLS format. DocRaptor can also be used to convert HTML to PDF, and operates with a simple HTTP POST request.

Social media started out with the MySpace monopoly. Then the world witnessed the rise of Facebook and Twitter. Just when you thought the tide was calm, a series of new social media platforms emerged looking for a piece of the pie. Some may think there is too many websites to keep up with but the people at Yammer have a different outlook on the future of social media.

The name Yammer may seem like a joke but this group of people is all business. The basic idea behind Yammer is an enterprise social networking site for corporate employees to hold discussions. Yammer is in good hands because its founder is none other than David Sacks who earned notoriety when he held the COO position with PayPal. When Sacks started Yammer in 2008 nobody knew if his vision would be well received. That all changed when some of the most influential people in social media took notice. When it came time to generate funding for the startup it was clear that Yammer was on the right track.

One man who was around for the rise of Facebook took his talents and hefty bank account elsewhere. Facebooks former Vice President Chamath Palihapitiya returned to his roots as a venture capitalist Instead of sticking around to be apart of the next stages in Facebook . His new business venture Social+Capital Partnership has been making a name for it self recently because of its relationship with Yammer. Most of the conversations having to do with Chamath Palihapitiya being the man behind the money. His time at AOL, Mayfield Fund and Facebook, gives him and his company Social+Capital Partnership strong credibility in the business world. Not to mention the large amount of wealth that can be used to back his ideas and resume.

The first round of funding for Yammer brought in close to 41 million dollars. This latest round of funding led by Chamath Palihapitiya and Social+Capital Partnership helped to add another $17 million. Chamath Palihapitiya is one reason Yammer generated such a large amount of money. His company Social+Capital Partenership put in $15 million that boosted the funding up to the $17 million dollar mark. This large $15 million investment is one way to see that Chamath Palihapitiya truly believes in what Yammer has to offer. The fact that this deal also gave Social+Capital Partnership a board observers seat at Yammer also had a lot to do with the large investment.

There are so may article directories currently on the web that it can become a daunting task trying to sort through all of them to see which ones deserve your attention and which do not.  Below is a list of the top ranking articlke directoies.  This means they hold the most value in terms of search engine optimization (SEO) link juice and can influence your rankings in the search engines.  We have chosen Page Rank 5 and higher sites only so you can subit to valuable sites without wasting your time elsewhere.

Article marketing has many uses online.  Articles can establish credibility in your field, build SEO back links to your website, create traffic to your site, go viral, and much more.  All this comes to show that article marketing is not dead and still very useful in ranking websites in the major search engines.

http://findarticles.com 9
http://technorati.com 8
http://ibiblio.org 8
http://sports.yahoo.com 8
http://startribune.com 8
http://in.reuters.com 8
http://apsanet.org 8
http://arabnews.com 8
http://gizmodo.com 8
http://googledocs.blogspot.com 8
http://wsu.edu 8
http://scienceblogs.com 8
http://xoops.org 8
http://en.blog.wordpress.com 8
http://en.forums.wordpress.com 8
http://gigaom.com 8
http://boston.com 8
http://informaworld.com 8
http://Accessify.com 8
http://lifehacker.com 8
http://news.cnet.com 8
http://kb.siteground.com 8
http://ma.tt 8
http://forum.joomla.org 8
http://mailchimp.com 8
http://blog.meebo.com 8
http://mixx.com 8
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com 8
http://cancer.gov 8
http://economist.com 8
http://sharewareconnection.com 8
http://msn.foxsports.com 8
http://money.cnn.com 8
http://simplemachines.org 8
http://picasa.google.com 8
http://internetworldstats.com 7
http://Ryze.com 7
http://ideas.repec.org 7
http://business.highbeam.com 7
http://hyper.ahajournals.org 7
http://washingtonindependent.com 7
http://xml.coverpages.org 7
http://s9y.org 7
http://canada.com 7
http://softpedia.com 7
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com 7
http://software.informer.com 7
http://ca.answers.yahoo.com 7
http://sketchup.google.com 7
http://smithsonianmag.com 7
http://au.news.yahoo.com 7
http://rss-specifications.com 7
http://themes.rock-kitty.net 7
http://blogcritics.org 7
http://directory.webnauts.net 7
http://jech.bmj.com 7
http://themeshaper.com 7
http://kpbs.org 7
http://timescolonist.com 7
http://lists.debian.org 7
http://supershareware.com 7
http://inhabitat.com 7
http://rss-scout.de 7
http://scambusters.org 7
http://xmms.org 7
http://goodreads.com 7
http://support.apple.com 7
http://standard.net 7
http://ibnlive.in.com 7
http://about.digg.com 7
http://www2.gsu.edu 7
http://ard.bmj.com 7
http://richarddawkins.net 7
http://iteslj.org 7
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com 7
http://archfaci.ama-assn.org 7
http://geology.com 7
http://textpattern.org 7
http://redstate.com 7
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com 7
http://americanwhitewater.org 7
http://en.allexperts.com 7
http://gulfnews.com 7
http://techxtra.ac.uk 7
http://wyomingnews.com 7
http://geography.about.com 7
http://yro.slashdot.org 7
http://gothamist.com 7
http://getsatisfaction.com 7
http://ceramics.org 7
http://support.hostgator.com 7
http://green.autoblog.com 7
http://bx.businessweek.com 7
http://career-advice.monster.com 7
http://au.answers.yahoo.com 7
http://prweb.com 7
http://hotair.com 7
http://dev.mysql.com 7
http://entrepreneur.com 7
http://archderm.ama-assn.org 7
http://digitaljournal.com 7
http://authorservices.wiley.com 7
http://magportal.com 7
http://dailycal.org 7
http://pcmag.com 7
http://jedit.org 7
http://ajr.org 7
http://liveleak.com 7
http://extremetracking.com 7
http://pbase.com 7
http://jobsearch.about.com 7
http://pajamasmedia.com 7
http://hollywoodreporter.com 7
http://wpdesigner.com 7
http://bjsm.bmj.com 7
http://pcworld.com 7
http://jobbankusa.com 7
http://curbed.com 7
http://blogs.msdn.com 7
http://Addme.com 7
http://paidcontent.org 7
http://familyfun.go.com 7
http://circ.ahajournals.org 7
http://outlookindia.com 7
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com 7
http://journalauthors.tandf.co.uk 7
http://oscommerce.com 7
http://oem.bmj.com 7
http://fastcompany.com 7
http://frontpagemag.com 7
http://oreilly.com 7
http://us.playstation.com 7
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com 7
http://nnlm.gov 7
http://blogs.computerworld.com 7
http://wpmu.org 7
http://thejc.com 7
http://blogmaverick.com 7
http://visualthesaurus.com 7
http://forums.devshed.com 7
http://therumpus.net 7
http://balloon-juice.com 7
http://articles.sfgate.com 7
http://articlesalley.com 7
http://hesaa.org 7
http://feedforall.com 7
http://thepiratebay.org 7
http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org 7
http://newswire.ca 7
http://newslink.org 7
http://worldmusiccentral.org 7
http://journals.lww.com 7
http://lib.colostate.edu 7
http://vancouversun.com 7
http://vanderbilt.edu 7
http://forums.cnet.com 7
http://freedownloadscenter.com 7
http://jme.bmj.com 7
http://patents.com 7
http://connect.microsoft.com 7
http://forum.textpattern.com 7
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com 7
http://blog.facebook.com 7
http://linux-mag.com 7
http://alice.org 7
http://mediamatters.org 7
http://mypagerank.net 7
http://thestarphoenix.com 7
http://forums.atlassian.com 7
http://davidlebovitz.com 6
http://gebbieinc.com 6
http://gnomejournal.org 6
http://db.tidbits.com 6
http://xbox360.ign.com 6
http://feministing.com 6
http://blogs.ajc.com 6
http://democraticunderground.com 6
http://biznik.com 6
http://freelancewrite.about.com 6
http://bible.cc 6
http://blog.buzzflash.com 6
http://emailreplies.com 6
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com 6
http://degree.net 6
http://davidbordwell.net 6
http://en.wordpress.com 6
http://blogs.crikey.com.au 6
http://econsultancy.com 6
http://blog.mises.org 6
http://dotnetslackers.com 6
http://domainbrokers.com 6
http://forums.allaboutjazz.com 6
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com 6
http://blog.pangea.org 6
http://cakedc.com 6
http://xxx.com 6
http://bizinformation.org 6
http://birds.about.com 6
http://demandstudios.com 6
http://youtubeukblog.blogspot.com 6
http://foundmagazine.com 6
http://blog.nathanbransford.com 6
http://econbot.org 6
http://fourhourworkweek.com 6
http://flixster.com 6
http://ossguy.com 6
http://ostc.thaiembdc.org 6
http://parrotparrot.com 6
http://onjava.com 6
http://pharmamkting.blogspot.com 6
http://personalweb.about.com 6
http://unionleader.com 6
http://photo.tutsplus.com 6
http://admin5.com 6
http://rahulhackingarticles.wetpaint.com 6
http://freelancewriting.com 6
http://digitalmarketer.quickanddirtytips.com 6
http://blog.citeulike.org 6
http://changemag.org 6
http://blog.4shared.com 6
http://pb.rcpsych.org 6
http://ultimate-guitar.com 6
http://field-negro.blogspot.com 6
http://gadgets.softpedia.com 6
http://wiki.answers.com 6
http://feusa.org 6
http://departures.com 6
http://conservativetimes.org 6
http://environmental-expert.com 6
http://halosheaven.com 6
http://baseballthinkfactory.org 6
http://ezilon.com 6
http://ezinearticles.com 6
http://grumpyoldbookman.blogspot.com 6
http://bluegrasscountry.org 6
http://hamptonroads.com 6
http://esapubs.org 6
http://creation.com 6
http://green.tmcnet.com 6
http://cybernetnews.com 6
http://haematologica.org 6
http://cliburn.org 6
http://wpgpl.com 6
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com 6
http://guru3d.com 6
http://chitorch.org 6
http://wfdf.org 6
http://chipsquips.com 6
http://bakery.cakephp.org 6
http://westseattleblog.com 6
http://europeforvisitors.com 6
http://blogs.technet.com 6
http://faqs.ign.com 6
http://christianity.about.com 6
http://concreteloop.com 6
http://gramtrans.com 6
http://br.php.net 6
http://grammar.about.com 6
http://connect.in.com 6
http://3dlinks.com 6
http://googletoilet.com 6
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com 6
http://bendbulletin.com 6
http://electronicdesign.com 6
http://dioscouri.com 6
http://e-ijd.org 6
http://4shared.com 6
http://btjunkie.org 6
http://blog.iso50.com 6
http://edgarandellen.com 6
http://wintertree-software.com 6
http://wiserearth.org 6
http://yanasa.co.jp 6
http://word.mvps.org 6
http://businessmajors.about.com 6
http://campusprogress.org 6
http://forum.statcounter.com 6
http://blog.everydayscientist.com 6
http://directory.ac 6
http://fink.sourceforge.net 6
http://greenlivingtips.com 6
http://hangartheatre.org 6
http://cinemassacre.com 6
http://cn-software.com 6
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com 6
http://writingwa.org 6
http://bpubs.com 6
http://writing-program.uchicago.edu 6
http://blogsforvictory.com 6
http://blog.franchisesolutions.com 6
http://blog.foolsmountain.com 6
http://docogonet.com 6
http://blog.hubspot.com 6
http://casereports.bmj.com 6
http://family-marriage-counseling.com 6
http://familytreemagazine.com 6
http://firstshowing.net 6
http://wwda.org.au 6
http://howtojoomla.net 6
http://sandmonkey.org 6
http://tucsoncitizen.com 6
http://sandiapeak.com 6
http://articlecity.com 6
http://rssmix.com 6
http://ryze.com/postadd.php 6
http://shafr.org 6
http://stanleybing.blogs.fortune.cnn.com 6
http://selfgrowth.com 6
http://selfhelpmagazine.com 6
http://starpulse.com 6
http://soldiersangels.org 6
http://sparkpeople.com 6
http://tranexp.com 6
http://spunout.ie 6
http://vla.org 6
http://help.forumotion.com 6
http://vline.com.au 6
http://hubpages.com 6
http://webdesign.about.com 6
http://weblog.blogads.com 6
http://it.toolbox.com 6
http://help.godaddy.com 6
http://inventors.about.com 6
http://linuxquestions.org 6
http://heart.bmj.com 6
http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com 6
http://idpproject.org 6
http://atvb.ahajournals.org 6
http://linuxforums.org 6
http://ibj.com 6
http://listverse.com 6
http://lwn.net 6
http://jiplp.blogspot.com 6
http://jgid.org 6
http://jama.ama-assn.org 6
http://wareseeker.com 6
http://homebusiness.about.com 6
http://wattsupwiththat.com 6
http://inform.com 6
http://indesignsecrets.com 6
http://inciid.org 6
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What article directories do you use? Do you see any article directories that we may have left off the list? let us know as we want to hear your feedback and create the ultimate article marketing list on the internet.

The day after Thanksgiving is well known by all shoppers as Black Friday. Once the turkey and dressing settle you might find the urge to sit in line at your favorite big name department store. Those who were not able to complete their shopping list are still in luck because Small Business Saturday is the day after Black Friday. You may not have heard of Small Business Saturday but all it takes is one look at your social media homepage to find out just how big of a deal it is.

Black Friday has been around forever, while Small Business Saturday is only in its second year. Retailers involved in Black Friday spend a lot of money generating support through television and radio ads. Small business owners do not typically have the resources to spend on costly ads but that has not slowed down the pace of Small Business Saturday. The second annual Small Business Saturday has generated a lot of promotion by reaching out to consumers through well known social media platforms. Websites like Google+, Facebook and Twitter are the most active partners in generating support for Small Business Saturday.

This year Facebook had 2.7 million people hit the like button for Small Business Saturday. That number may not seem like a lot when you think of Facebook’s 800 million users but when you compare it to the 1.2 million people who did the same last year, you can definitely see the increase in exposure. Twitter saw over 30,000 tweets that had something to do with Small Business Saturday. Google even changed its search engine homepage on Saturday to make sure the second annual Small Business Saturday would not go unnoticed. This level of exposure was a good boost in the numbers from last year. One might even say that the level of violence at this years Black Friday will only lead to more people skipping it and waiting for Small Business Saturday next year.

This time of year many people are overwhelmed by department store sales and the urge to spend. It is safe to say that many of these department store shoppers do not realize that small businesses makeup almost 99% of all American businesses. By shopping on Small Business Saturday consumers are supporting the most important bracket of business owners and paving the way for even more Small Business Saturday sales next year.

When a conversation about business comes up there always seems to be one way of thinking. You could be in a room full of successful people and they will all say the same thing. “Be patient, no business made it big overnight” or they will say “Expect to make no money in your first year“. Then came a team of college students who used knowledge and technology to defy all the basic principles of business and create Facebook.

The internet giant is one of many businesses that can be considered an overnight success. If Facebook’s control as the social media market doesn’t speak for itself, than Co Creator Mark Zuckerberg’s title of the Youngest Billionaire In History should about sum it up. The movie Social Media gave the world an in depth look at the start up and all the drama behind it but it did not show all of the hardwork and dedication Mark Zuckerberg and Co Creator Dustin Moskovitz put in to achieve this level of success. It also does not show ho w many of the people who helped create Facebook decided to take their talents elsewhere and start new companies.

With any business there is bound to be a list of hidden secrets that are never to be spoken about. Good thing Facebook Co Creator Dustin Moskovitz was willing to speak with TechCrunch Editor in Chief Erick Schonfeld. He did not speak of the programming secrets but he spoke of the mentality adopted by his team that insured the success of Facebook. Dustin explained how Facebook’s problem never had anything to do with generating users. He said “Facebook was founded on February 4, 2004. On February 5, we were feeling pretty confident, even from observing the first few hours of usage.”  The early stages of Facebook led to a rapid boost in users from colleges around the country. It was all about finding a way to create space for the large amount of interested students to sign up and join. He also spoke about the methods and programs used to track the amount of monthly users and how much time the average user would spend on Facebook.

The interview with Dustin also shed light on his thoughts of Facebook’s newest competitor Google+. Although he spoke of the Google+ design being good, Dustin did not speak of it being any kind of serious competition for his friends at Facebook. Even though Dustin and many of those who started Facebook have moved on they are still frequent users. They have even gone as far as giving themselves the name Facebook Mafia.

Google is always changing and this is why those in SEO (search engine optimisation) need to keep ahead of changes, or we can see our sites plummet in rankings overnight. Google Instant has been in operation for some time, and it is a feature of Google Search that allows Google to predict what you are searching for. We need to have a fast Internet connection for it to start, and in most cases, it will start by itself. Google Instant can affect search results, and can greatly influence what a user is looking for. There are many who still do not understand Google Instant, and naturally, how that influences the way we come up in search. This article looks at some of the pros and cons of Google Instant, particularly in relevance to search optimisation and a user experience.

• What is Google Instant? Google Instant tries to predict what you are searching for before you type. You enter in a word or two, and Google starts throwing up options automatically. This can greatly influence what you thought you were going to enter in the first place. Actually, the results come from what others have searched for using your same word combinations. At the same time Google tries to predict the words you are going to enter into the search window, it also throws up those search results. This can mean we see results before we having finished actually typing what we intended.

• User Influence. There is a lot we work on when building links and pushing our online presence that involves a step-by-step process of building content and relationships to get particular results. With Google Instant, a user can be heavily influenced at the time of search, and not afterwards as we are hoping with our optimisation and other marketing activities. It is easy to dismiss the ability of Google Instant, but as a user, it is quite impressive, especially in how it aids one when trying to search for particular information. We might not have known how we should approach a particular search, and Google Instant turns into Google Assistant.

• Benefits for Google. As a user I am very happy to use Google Instant. I see this is the case with many other users of Google Instant. Many users already expect it to be available when they are searching. More than predictive, it helps a user to use Google. This leads to further loyalty as those who get used to it, do not have similar options on other search engines.

• Managing Keywords and Understanding Influence of Instant. If we consider that certain terms will be greatly influenced, and others not so much, we can see that some websites might actually be greatly influenced because of the keywords related to them. If it just so happens your keywords, for example, become a part of that predictive text, then it is more likely you will come up more regularly during those pre-emptive searches. Calculating this in advance will become a little complex, as the predictive text will also be changing based on what is being searched for more at a particular time.

While Google Instant is still relatively new, it is worth understanding as a user. This will help us understand what influence it will play on our own website design, keyword management and online marketing strategies. For the time being, we should not stray from our step-by-step strategy of building appropriate and good content to bring relevance to our website. Trying to bend changes for something that is constantly changing is like a dog chasing its tail. Google Instant has now grown to include images, and other important search tool for many users. Those in social media marketing and online marketing know we cannot radically depart from our current strategies without careful consideration.