Go Beyond MLS – Page 15 – Internet Marketing Tips

Twitter Tools: Synchronize Your Twitter With Your WordPress

Twitter users may find Twitter Tools very useful. It eliminates the need of services like TwitterFeed, and offers array of other feature that will help you to synchronize your Twitter activity with your blog(s).

Once installed you can configure the plugin to do following:

Create a tweet when you publish a new post. For me this eliminated the need for TwitterFeed, and is probably the only option I will use for now.
Create a blog post from each of your tweets.
Create a daily digest blog post from your tweets
Create a weekly digest blog post from your tweets

In addition it has a widget you can use on the sidebar of your blog which you can use to create new tweets.

If everything goes well and I have configured this plugin properly, it should notify Twitter about this post. If you are using Twitter Tools already, let me know what is your impression about this plugin in the comments below.

Google May Harm Your Computer

Google If you knew me better, you will probably realize that such a headline was quiet impossible. As far as harming my computer I consider Google to be the safest websites out there. However this morning (way ahead of April 1st) Google is showing that all website mays harm your computer, including www.google.com. If you notice a decline in today’s traffic you now know why. I think it’s funny, and they should repeat it on April 1st.

WP Super Cache Can Save You Some Cash!

About over a week ago Go Beyond MLS was down for several days. In fact my entire hosting account was suspended. Evidently my websites were overloading the server and exhausting the server resources.

As attractive as shared hosting is, keeping low prices and all, every serious web master and/or blogger needs to look ahead and plan for a dedicated server solutions… eventually.

As much as I love WordPress as blogging platform, it uses good amount of server resources to evidently cause serious enough trouble for my web host to have my account suspended. So I had to do something. Optimize my sites so that they would not over load the server or move to dedicated web hosting solution (which would cost me about $1200 a year even with the least expensive solutions out there). So I opted for optimizing my websites (at least those powered by WordPress) with WP Super Cache plugin.

WP Super Cache along with it’s parental plugin WP Cache, where aimed primarily at allowing WordPress blogs to survive heavy loads of traffic resulting from websites like Digg or Slashdot. However, as it was in my case, you don’t have to hit the front page of Digg or Slashdot to cause some server issues.

So how does WP Super Cache do it? After you install and configure the plugin, it saves individual pages from your WordPress site and serves them to your visitors as plain old html as long as they do not leave comments. Statistically over 90% of your visitors are passing by without ever leaving a comment. Therefor it is save to presume that over 90% of your visitors will be shown the cached hml versions of your pages instead of heavy PHP scripts.

I know that down the road I will have to revisit the possibility of purchasing dedicated server. But if WP Super Cache can buy me a year, it will end up saving me about $1,200.00.

Side note: If you do not have your custom (“pretty”) permalinks configured on your blog, you will have to configure them- WP Super Cache requires that configuration. It is also good idea to backup your current .htaccess file before configuring WP Super Cache Plugin should things go wrong.

Have You Listed Your Business With Google Local Business Center? You Should! It is FREE!

It is quiet surprising how very few business owners who operate both a website as well as provide services from a physical location do not take advantage of Google Local Business Center. This service can give your business (and your website) extra exposure for free.

Background story… I have been helping a dear friend of mine, who owns a candy supply store in Brick, NJ, with her website. Most of her revenue comes from clients who visit her store to purchase candy making supplies, order cakes for special occasions or attend her decorating classes. Keeping that in mind, after setting her up with a WordPress powered website (which I barely touched since! Excellent Job Ann!), I have immediately registered her business with Google Local Business Center. I hope that after reading this post, you will do the same for your business because…

You Can Get More “Spotlight” In Search Results.

Often, as it is with Ann’s business, Internet users will search by adding a “geo-qualifier” (yes I made that word up) to their search term. For example, often times Google users will search for “candy supply store Brick NJ“. And here is the snapshot of the search results they get from Google:

Not only Inter user is presented with a relevant result, as well as with a quick access to driving directions to your business, operating hours and reviews.

If you list your business in correct categories you have a very good chance to drive “laser targeted” traffic (both foot and Internet) to your business.

You can also enhance your local ad with pictures and/or YouTube videos and offer discount coupons for the services you provide.

When you think about array of meta search engines, none of them are capable to produce such results. At least none that I am aware off.

If you have used Google Local Business ads in the past for your business I would love to hear your experience and/or success story.

Links – 01.07.09

I have not been that generous with linking to other blogs and sources lately. Something I will work hard to change in 2009. The reason I am publishing these “link posts” is to recognize the outstanding work by other bloggers and writers. I need to know about your blog in order to ever link to you in the future.

Home Mortgage Rates Expected To Drop Below 5% Soon– Very good news in the form of lower home loan rates is beginning to unfold across the nation. After peaking just above 6% in Spring 2008, rates are currently just above 5% and expected to continue to fall over the weeks ahead. According to The Wall Street Journal (Home-Mortgage Rates’ Next Stop: Below 5%; January 2, 2009, page C2) house moneyrates may fall even further, perhaps as low as 4.5% for a fixed rate thirty year loan.
Answers Answers Answers -I’m a big fan of engaging consumers online and answering their questions as a marketing strategy (see Impart your Wisdom with Answers). It’s not a new strategy, not particularly inventive, but it is effective. Really, it’s win-win all around. For consumers they get what they want (i.e. the answers to their questions). Realtors and brokers get to build relationships with potential clients in an neutral forum with people that may never seek them out on their own web sites. And for publishers it’s a great way to build up engagement/stickiness through cheap (read, free) user-generated content.
Sellsius Blog Predictions for 2009– Communal blogger rental spaces will pop up in New York and other cities to provide “work” spaces for bloggers whose mates complain they’re blogging too much and not rustling up some real business.
Top 10 Largest Landowners in United States – You will never guess!
Real Estate / Financial Crisis Turns Deadly; Crisis-Related Suicides Expected To Rise – The subprime mortgage turned banking turned credit crisis has morphed, as expected, into a killer.