Ivygirl Media & Design

If you were one of those that thought Twitter was just another fad, you might now be thinking twice. Everyone it seems, is on Twitter and with the multitude of 3rd-party applications popping up everywhere, it has become one of the most prominent social media tools available today.

But regardless of how popular Twitter is, it doesn’t do you any good if you don’t know how to maximize its potential. And that’s where all those apps come in. Unfortunately, there are tons and tons of those apps – which ones should you choose?

Here’s my list of the top 8 must-have applications for your twitter profile:

With so much buzz about Twitter lately, marketers everywhere are asking the same question: how can we utilize this to market our service or product?

And that’s a good question.

What you shouldn’t do however, isn’t as difficult to decipher and after finding this on JackHumphrey.com, I thought I’d share – here’s a good look at how NOT to use Twitter:

I found this at Jack Humphrey’s Friday Traffic Report who got it from Alex at HowtoSpoter.com and as I’m sure the creators intended, I wanted to pass it along.

The idea is simple but genius and gives “viral marketing” a whole new twist.

Dubbed the Reciprocal Review Carousel, the idea has the potential to really increase those all-important incoming links and thus, boost your traffic and search engine ratings. Follow the directions carefully and let me know how it worked for you.

— copy and paste the Reciprocal Review Carousel and instructions below this line —

Reciprocal Review Carousel idea is based on a few simple yet effective link-building and blogging techniques I have learned:

• Build value of the blog by creating a helpful link from within content.
• Provide value to community by doing a review on a blog you personally like.
• Link to YOUR blog has exact anchor text you want and helps you boost Google Rankings.
• No more than 30 outbound links from any page to prevent penalties for link farming.
• Viral effect of the link – as more bloggers participate, link to your blog with YOUR anchor text, coming from quality content post will spread.

Here is How to participate:

• Copy the entire text between the specified lines.
• Create a post on your site and put at least one paragraph explaining how you joined the Reciprocal Review Carousel.
• Paste the text you copied into your post.
• Remove the Bottom Review and At the Top add your own review with a link to a site reviewed, at least 2 sentences about the site and a note – Reviewed by: Your Anchor Text. Link your anchor text to your site. Here is an example:

WordPress Web 2.0 Guide is a blog providing very useful information on building your very own Web 2.0 portal based on WordPress. Detailed instructions and howto guides make it possible for anyone to create a sparkling and engaging blog and join the community of like-minded individuals. Reviewed by: WordPress Web 2.0 Spot-er

Sites Reviewed:

• Get the most from life at HappyGoKate.com. From blogging to saving, spirituality to mastering the law of attraction, you’ll find it here. As the tag line says – “life is what you make of it… why not make it something amazing?”

• Peter Lenkefi writes about Web 2.0 marketing strategies at Web2Center.com. He has some killer videos over there you should check out along with a ton of good information on blog marketing and various “new media” promotion tactics. Reviewed by: Link Building Maniac, Jack Humphrey, for the Friday Traffic Report

• Andy-Coates.com is an original creator of Viralink concept and a blog publishing information on Magic, Personal development and blog development. I have found a wealth of information on getting your blog noticed and generating the traffic for free. Reviewed by: WordPress Web 2.0 Guide

• FitForFreedom is well-established blog where you can find multitude of information on achieving financial freedom. Blog is run by Marco Righter and his writing style greatly adds to the value of information he provides. Reviewed by: Alex

• Secure Your PC For Internet blog run by Colin and provides essential information everyone accessing internet should know. Identity theft is becoming more and more of an issue and by visiting his blog you can minimize the risk of being compromised. Reviewed by: Alex

• VI-SU blog is all about WordPress, AdSense, SEO and Internet Marketing. Although mostly written in German I have found that using Google translate is worth the effort for his posts. Reviewed by: Alex

• Home With Heather is a great informative blog targeting WAHM (Work At Home Moms) and run by … you guessed it – Heather Masson. Information on what works for her in Internet Business written is very easy to read and comes from her personal experience. Reviewed by: Alex

• A Copywriter’s Blues blog published by Alex Badalic, a veteran of advertising turned musician gives you great food for soul. I have found some nice old videos of Johnny Cash performance and he has a lot more of vintage videos to satisfy fans. Reviewed by: Alex

• Did You Smell That blog authored by one of the veterans on network marketing filled with business ideas you can use. David Ledoux is well known and respected in online community and now he makes his experience available via blog posts. Reviewed by: Alex

• Best Damn Blog run by Richard Wing is all about Internet Marketing. Your visit will be rewarded by honest reviews, freebies and information you need to succeed in this cut-throat business without sacrificing your integrity. Reviewed by: Alex

— copy and paste the Reciprocal Review Carousel and instructions above this line —

And that’s all there is to it!

Just as everyone seems to be grasping the full impact of the Web 2.0 evolution, I’m noticing that “Web 3.0″ is starting to pop up all over the web.

Wait a minute… 3.0??? When did that happen?

The truth is, it was inevitable as the Internet continues to grow into a comprehensive (albeit complex) money-making tool instead of just another form of entertainment. With Web 2.0, we saw the birth of social networks like MySpace, the endless slew of social bookmarking sites such as Digg, del.icio.us and Furl and a new Internet “voice” in the form of a blog. Where sites used to be static and limited, users now enjoy a full-range of interactive services that keep them connected even when they’re on the go.

So, what could Web 3.0 possibly have to offer that Web 2.0 doesn’t?

One of the things I try to do every day is check my stats and see where my traffic is coming from. This helps me in a number of ways: first, I can see where my visitors start, where they leave and what they look at in between. The more popular pages give me an idea of what my users might be looking for and thus, I can target those topics more prominently in my blog. In addition, it shows me what search terms were used to find me, providing another insight into the needs of my readers.

But perhaps the coolest thing about StatCounter is that it shows me where my visitors are coming from, i.e., who’s linking to me. And that my lovelies, is priceless.

Which brings me to the point of this post: I’ve recently noticed a considerable amount of traffic from a new source – StumbleUpon.com. And you know me… I’m always up for a new source of traffic.

Stumble Upon is just what it sounds like – a social bookmarking site where you can show others what you’ve “stumbled upon”. Post links to anything, from interesting pics to interesting links and share your favorites with the Metaverse. You can categorize your blog into topics to make it more usable and most importantly, you can do all this for free.

So, how did I make it to Stumble Upon? It seems lyndon101 enjoyed my post on linkbaiting so he added my site to his blog. Want to see if your site is listed? Look it up using their website review tool. That’s free too and if you’re looking for a way to connect with the multitudes of users out there, Stumble Upon is definitely a good place to start.

According to Nielsen BuzzMetrics, the top 100 blog posts for 2006 came from a relatively short list of blogs. Mother.LiveJournal.Com, Crooks and Liars, Sifry’s Alerts and Michelle Malkin dominated the list with the top spot going to Mother.LiveJournal.com for the “petition against changes in the livejournal interface“. This one post was linked to 801 times in 786 other blogs (make that 802

What does this mean for hopeful bloggers?

While the Internet continues to be an equal opportunity employer, there is some evidence to suggest that the blogosphere is just as “clique-y” as anything else. Simply throwing your blog out there doesn’t necessarily mean it will get noticed and if you really expect it to generate some traffic, it wouldn’t hurt to get a few mentions from an already-popular blogger.

Will public blogging directories even the playing field? Its really too soon to tell but sites like Digg, Technorati and Digital Journal definitely offer some hopeful possibilities for new bloggers just starting out.