Kikabink News

Last Thursday I closed my Facebook account. No, it wasn’t out of protest against the new Facebook design… or because I don’t like my Facebook “friends”… or because I have anything against Facebook.

It was simply because… I just don’t use Facebook!

And rather than continue enduring that nagging thought, “I’ve gotta do something on Facebook to promote my business”… I realized I had fallen into the same trap so many Internet marketers fall into: thinking we need to do EVERYTHING to promote our businesses.

Having worked with both small Internet businesses and large corporate Internet marketing departments, I am yet to meet an individual OR an entire team that is able to pursue every single avenue for promoting their business, product or service. Everyone has limited time and resources. And with the Internet evolving all the time, it’s hard enough to stay on top of one aspect of Internet marketing, let alone several.

I’m not saying anything you probably haven’t heard before, but let this article serve as a gentle reminder: it’s better to do a few things really well, than do a lot of things half-baked. And just because you hear some guru preaching about how you MUST get involved in social networking… or blogging… or article marketing… or podcasting (see above!) or anything else… it doesn’t mean you have to at all.

Jay Abraham - a true marketing genius and guru in my opinion - wrote a book called “Getting The Most Out Of All You’ve Got” and that’s really what we should focus on as entrepreneurs. We should do what we can to get the best possible results based on what we have in terms of time, money, skills and other resources. This principle should guide us in deciding what we do in our businesses, and if that means stopping or cutting back on certain things - or closing a Facebook account we never use - so be it.

Of course, let me say that closing my Facebook account doesn’t mean I don’t see value in social networking. Or that you should do the same. It’s just not where I can get the most out of what I’ve got right now. You may find that it DOES work for you, while other things don’t.

P.S. One social network I AM loving at the moment is Imeem. Not sure about a business angle yet (if ever), but I just LOVE creating playlists and listening to music while I work. Check out my Imeem profile here: http://www.imeem.com/annaj/ I also use Twitter. You can follow my “occasionally regular” ramblings at http://www.twitter.com/annajohnson

Good article by P.J. Fusco on getting backlinks from web directories. Ms Fusco explains that obtaining backlinks from the RIGHT directories is still a legitimate link building practice for the purposes of search engine optimization (SEO).

For one thing, directory submissions typically give you control over the anchor text used to link to your site. For another thing, directories are not only fairly easy to find, but also allow and WANT you to submit your site to them.

Just be sure to focus only on directories that are RELEVANT to your business - whether they are general, topical, niche or local/regional directories. Indeed, Ms Fusco suggests you take your time when evaluating a directory and to look for these signs:

• .edu and .gov backlinks;
• An aged domain;
• Lots of pages indexed by the search engines;
• Good PageRank flow-through to the listing pages; and
• Fewer than 100 links per listing page.

Similarly, she gives some solid tips for what to AVOID in a directory. You want to steer away from directories that:

• Are NOT relevant to your website;
• Are really just thinly veiled link farms;
• Contain links to “bad neighborhoods”;
• Have excessive broken links; and
• Feature numerous pop-up or pop-under ads.

Check out Ms Fusco’s article for more tips, including a list of other things to avoid when evaluating a directory.

Source: P.J. Fusco, “Tactical Link Building: Reliable Directories”, The ClickZ Network, August 27, 2008

Google is obviously in launch mode. Actually, when wasn’t it in launch mode? Take a leaf out of Google’s book - it’s ALWAYS launching something. Anyway, apart from announcing Google Chrome on Monday, the company also launched Google Video for business.

Google Video for business is a customized video platform businesses can use for internal videos such as training videos, induction videos and other such videos. The platform is available free as part of Google Apps Premier Edition, and comes with 3 GB of storage per user account.

Source: Michael Arrington “Google Launches Video For Businesses”, TechCrunch, September 1, 2008

Remember a couple of years ago when “podcasting” was the NEXT BIG THING? How you just HAD to start your own podcast if you were serious about Internet marketing?

Well, if a report by Pew Internet & American Life Project is to be believed… all that was HYPE. The Pew report has found that just 19 percent of Internet users have ever downloaded a podcast, and of those, just 17 percent do so on a typical day. Moreover, just 3 percent of Internet users listen to podcasts on a daily basis.

These figures have barely budged from what they were two years ago in August 2006. Back then, 1 percent of Internet users listened to podcasts daily, and an estimated 12 percent had ever downloaded a podcast.

So if you never got around to regularly podcasting… that was probably time well spent!

Source: Enid Burns, “Report: Podcasting Continues Slow Growth”, The ClickZ Network, Aug 29, 2008

On Monday, David Morin, Facebook’s Senior Platform Manager, announced that Facebook had reached 100 million users.

This was subsequently confirmed by Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg in The Facebook Blog.

Actually, that’s 99,999,999 users. I closed my Facebook account last Thursday. See today’s feature article for why…

Source: Marshall Kirkpatrick, “Facebook Hits 100 Million Users”, Read write Web, August 25, 2008, Mark Zuckerberg, “Our First 100 Million”, The Facebook Blog, August 26, 2008