Web Learners Blog

Hello everyone and thank you for supporting  our blog. 

We have a few changes that are taking place. All of the internet marketing peices are moving from this blog to http://brettburnsworth.com

Web Learners will be coming out with a self paced version of all of our classes so that you can take them at your leisure.  Each course will be broken up into short lessons so that you can start and stop them at any point in time. 

 The self paced format will be subscription based. You will sign up for a subscription on our site and have access to the classes that you want for up to 12 months.

I constantly get the question of which social media outlet is best for business, Facebook or LinkedIn. This is a difficult question to answer because they are both really great tools depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

Right now experts are seeing that most people that subscribe to LinkedIn can also be found on Facebook.  Thus, there is a lot of crossover. However, the use of these two platforms is generally different. LinkedIn is more of a professional environment where Facebook is an "anything goes" atmosphere <-- Of course in a classy way. 

How Internet Marketing and Social Media can help in a down economy

In this down economy many CEO's look for ways to cut spending and budgets.  One of the first budgets they cut is the Marketing budget.  When in reality that is the last place that budgets should be cut because you are losing contact with your customers and what their needs and wants are.  Here is a few ways that Internet marketing and "social media" is helping companies in a down economy:

I will often open up the blog to see if anyone has any internet marketing questions that I can answer. This gives the you as the readers an opportunity to get questions answered and hopefully help others that are having the same issues.  Please feel free to ask questions in the comments area.

 Thanks

There are many different methods to advertise on the web.  However, Google Adwords is one of the most efficient, cost effective advertising tools available.  Below are a list of benefits which may result from implementing Google Adwords into your marketing campaign:

1)      No minimum purchase - Before Google Adwords and other various forms of internet advertising it was very expensive to purchase a targeted ad with effective keywords.  Because Google Adwords is so cost effective you can test different ideas and see what is successful and what is not successful for $10.00 a day or less.

OK. So you finally made the effort to create a blog, but now what? Will anyone read it or will you simply be writing to yourself? Those are two of the most common questions that I get in my internet marketing seminars.

The answer is simple. No one will read your blog if you are not writing interesting content or promoting it the right way. So of course after I give that answer, people want to know how to promote their blog. I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the different ways that you can promote your blog. Happy blogging.

1. Write well, write consistently, don't give up. Never forget that a great blog starts with great content. All of the marketing in the world won't help you if you have a lame blog. Writing consistently may be tough at first if you are strapped for time. Try setting aside a few hours a week to dedicate towards writing good content. Just remember to stick with it and stay consistent. Your efforts will pay off with big dividends in the end.
2. Become an expert - If you are an expert in any field and begin to write intelligently about it, you will find that people will start to seek you out.
3. Learn about SEO - Host your blog on your site, create keyword rich headlines, create unique title tags, enable trackback and ping functionality.
4. Publish feeds - Enable your readers to subscribe to your blog. Services like feedburner can allow you to except subscribers and track your blog traffic.
5. Get to know other bloggers - Friends are good when blogging. Start getting to know other bloggers. Once they know who you are, you can then share ideas and link to each other. The more people that know about you the better. If you are just starting out, you might want to try to connect with B-listers. A-listers are getting requests everyday from all over. At least b-listers will give you a chance.
6. Break important stories - Stay on top of the latest trends and be one of the first to blog about it in your industry.
7. Answer your comments as humanly as possible - Of course you have comments enabled, right? Respond to the questions on your blog as humanly as possible. This creates a nice dialog with your readers. It keeps them coming back.
8. Spend time to create links and trackbacks - In every post spend as much time as you can to create outbound links to relevant and high linking blogs; many blogs automatically have trackbacks enabled, so in their comments section they will have a link back to your blog.
9. Participate in Online Forums - Just like in real life, networking is key. It is even more important when blogging. Many forums are very responsive to informative blogs that answer questions.
10. Social Messaging - Sites like Twitter and Facebook can be a great place to promote your blog. I find it works best when you have a mixture of personal and business postings. For instance, on Twitter add some regular Twits (questions, links to other sites, etc.) then add your blog link with a catchy title. I use TwitterFeed to tweet items from my blog's RSS feed.
11. Social Bookmarking - Submit your best blog posts to social bookmarking sites like Digg, and Mixx. Make sure you have a good network of friends on these sites to make it the most effective use of your time.
12. Promote your blog within itself - While writing a blog post, I always think about where I can put a link to one of my archived articles. You may even want to go back to old posts and link to new ones. Every link that you add creates another opportunity for the reader to read another one of your posts. This also helps with SEO as search engines crawl your blogs though links.
13. Give your blog momentum - Treat every post as a precursor to your next post. Keep the topic alive, especially if it is a good one.
14. Have a guest poster - Have a guest poster on your blog. They will hopefully send it to their friends and you can gain some decent exposure. Even better...find someone with a bit of a reputation in your industry as a guest.
15. Attend local networking groups - Groups such as BNI, BRE etc. Tell them about what you do and reference your blog.
16. Use Linkbait - Write on controversial subjects or opinions. People love controversy. Be careful with this one though!
17. Make sure you have a Sitemap - Get a Google Sitemap on your blog. This will help your blog become fully indexed.
18. Use LinkedIn & Facebook - Post a link with a catchy title in your status update. I usually mix it up a bit between personal postings and blog postings because I don't want to annoy people with my blogging status updates.
19. Go back to number 1!

If you are reading this you have probably heard about Blogging and the Blogospehere.  You are most likely asking yourself why you should participate in  Blogging or  learn how to Blog.

Well... the internet is changing. Back in the day, 1995 ish to be exact, the internet was really a one way street. Companies and webmasters posted their websites and you read them. Today however, the web has become a two way street that allows people like you and I to contribute using social media, Blogs and online forums. Otherwise known as web 2.0. 

In any industry or profession, knowing the tools of the trade has always been an advantage to staying ahead of your competition. Whether you are a professional athlete, building contractor or a marketing genius, knowing what information is required to make you a success is crucial to achieving your goals. In training and education our “tools of the trade” cover a wide range of products. These tools include such items as an electronic survey, a Learning Management System, a behavioral test, courseware development tools, Web based training options and much more. While each of these tools serves a specific purpose, the knowledge required to be adept at each is very broad. However, there is one tool that can be utilized in all of these areas and is consistent throughout. That tool is a Mind Map.

Mind Mapping has been in existence much longer than online training tools and sophisticated testing programs ever existed. It was originally created back in the 3^rd century and has been resurrected in the last 40 years by Tony Buzan. A Mind Map incorporates thinking using both sides of the brain and has the capability to exist in any learning environment using crayons or colored pencils. The secret to unleashing a powerful Mind Map is interesting and fun, and just like any other master craftsmen’s tool it does require knowledge and practice.

Often referred to as “a visual roadmap” or “the ultimate visual organizational tool”, a Mind Map incorporates the use of color and a free flowing thought process that starts in the center of a page and moves outward in a radial fashion. Mind Maps are not restricted to creative thinkers, however they can create thinking that you never thought existed. The way to incorporate the use of a Mind Map is different for everyone, however once you see the benefits it can bring, you will understand the endless potential it offers. Let me briefly explain some ways to incorporate a mind Map into your learning organization.

 Have you ever wondered what our world will be like in the year 2020 and how it will effect the way that we do business? Will we be flying around in space crafts or beaming ourselves to meetings? Probably not considering this is only 11 years away, but by now you have probably guessed that the internet is going to play an even bigger role in our lives in 11 years than it does today. Lets take a look at where some futurist see the way we will do business in the future.

Hardware and Internet Devices