Social Media Marketing Tactics To Get Your Promotions Flying The Face Of The Internet

There are a variety of ways to market your promotions online but nothing comes close to the effects of implementing serious social media marketing tactics. Every marketer online believes they have something that is of benefit to their target audience or we wouldn't be trying to promote it in the first place. For the promotions to be effective though, our audience needs to feel the buzz and excitement about the product.

Take apple for example. They have a variety of products available. The market is educated to the extreme. Huge excitement to have the best the market has to offer. Promoting the products is easy to sell if you can capture the audience somewhere along the searches online.

The reason for this is that the media has done all the work to get the buzz and excitement going. People are educated and love to brag about their latest "i" product because it is seen to be cool to own such desirable products. The media has done the work.

The smart marketers will jump all over this kind of brand awareness that the media brings to the market place. Once the media goes to work and creates that initial burst of excitement about a new upcoming release you can then implement your own social media marketing tactics to get ahead of the competition. There are also a variety of social media marketing tools available. None other than Google themselves can be a great resource. You can choose the keywords you are interested in getting the latest news and upcoming events using Google Alerts. With that you get email notifications of any and all press releases related to your query. With that you can then deploy your social media marketing tactics and ride the wave the media creates.

It is easier and more effective to ride the wave of social media marketing than just getting promotions out that are like little ripples to the internet and the marketing effects. These sort of social media marketing tactics get results faster since as a marketer you don't have to go out and educate your audiences. You can see what the media outlets are doing to create the buzz and all you have to do to get your promotions noticed, is to take the buzz of what is already happening and add some more value to it, to get prospects to take you up on your offers and promotions.

Visit http://beatingadwords.org/social-media-marketing-tactics-ride-the-wave to find out more on how you can deploy social media marketing tactics that will have your promotions flying the face of the internet. See you there...

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Internet and the Evolution of Digital Media

Just think of the time when we were living with primitive technology where the idea of a television could have been termed a dream of daydreaming individuals. Likewise, take example of any gift of the modern science and technology; most of them were not even thinkable in the past. Online media is not different from such advanced gifts of science and technology.

Digital media is simply referred to any type of electronic media such as cellular phones, digital video, compact discs, internet, e-book, television, minidisc, computer, e-Commerce, video games, and other interactive media. The media that can be stored in electronic way is the digital media. There is no doubt that internet is the most important mean of digital media, which offers great flexibility to store digital content, such as pictures, rich text, audio and video material, as well as graphics. We can see how the digital media on the internet is developing day by day.

The simple form of digital media is text. In its primitive stage, internet was accepting text as digital information storage point with many limitations. As internet technology advanced, we got good word processing and text editing options. Data storage started to shift from papers and files to computer's paperless storage media which made information available just a mouse-click away. When the information is stored on computers, sharing and further storing on the internet became very easy and accessible to the interested ones. At this stage, the digital media started to take a considerable shape.

As the next step towards advancement, more options were introduced on the internet that made it possible to add photos and images to the text message, or pictures replaced text in some cases. This made the online media and also the development of online news more impressive on the internet and started helping people in many directions - personal, official, and commercial.

Audio options started to play their active part in the middle of 1990 with the easily usable mp3 files. Soon after this facility, music and vocal messages started to play a very important role as effective online news options.

Online news on the internet got a big boost when video was introduced. This made the things more impressive and presentable. Like pictures, video sharing also became very popular.

With rich text, graphics with high quality pictures and images, online media on the internet has reached to a considerable height. It is not all, as the future will see more development in this sector.

It is worth noting how the great evolution of online news on internet is helping the people around the globe; how easier marketing has become; how it is helping businesses to grow globally; and so on, the benefits are many. There is no doubt that now many businesses solely depend on the proper usage of news media on the internet. We just need to harness the hidden powers of internet and avail this highly beneficial digital media.

Seek4media.com, a growing community that attempts to deconstruct digital news media in all its pervasive forms across the web with up to date articles revolving around all types of interesting issues and offer constructive opinions on online news trends today from a prosumer perspectives. Our articles are created, reviewed and submitted by experienced and knowledgeable staff of professional writers

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How the Internet Affects Traditional Media

Traditional Publishing, REST IN PEACE

This is the headline that greets you when you land on a web page erected as a memorial to commemorate the decline of Traditional Media. A photograph of a man who seems to be in distress and who's possibly just lost his job accompanies this headline. If this does not paint a bleak picture, go on to read the 548 headlines that all sing to the same tune as the following:

Bad Times: NYT Says Revenue Fell 13.9% Last Month

- Forbes.com


Men's monthly magazine Arena to cease printing after 22 years

- Guardian.co.uk


Cosmopolitan UK publisher to cut 100 jobs

- Guardian.co.uk

There's even a website entitled Newspaper Death Watch that chronicles all the publishing and newspaper houses that close down. All rather morbid wouldn't you say?

The Deadly Spell

Let's take a quick look at Traditional Media and how the Internet cast it's deadly spell.

Back in the old days, we're talking 500 years ago; Gutenberg revolutionized the printing industry by inventing the printing press. This meant bibles could be produced at a fraction the time it used to. This also meant more copies in a shorter time and the Word of God got further reach in a shorter time. Newspaper houses and Magazine publishers still use a printing press today (well thank you captain obvious).

Much later, shortly after the advent of electricity, the world was blessed with another few media breakthroughs, namely radio then a few years later, television. Marketers and Advertising agencies had it all figured out as they devised Integrated Marketing Campaigns with astronomical budgets. Ah, the good old days. Well, much to the dismay of many of these agencies, this media landscape started to change.

Behold! Enter The WWW

At first a website was seen as a cute way to put your company brochure online and on top of that the disastrous dot bomb era created skepticism that labeled the Internet as a bad media and business channel.

Fortunately, since then the Internet has matured. Now, in countries where broadband has achieved high levels of household penetration, the web has become the consumer medium of choice.

Why? Because people can do research, shop online, watch videos and connect with friends all in the comfort of their own homes. People can choose what media they want to consume, where and when they choose too, especially with mobile connectivity. Marketers can no longer dictate what advertising messages people get subjected too.

Social Media, The New Black

Then there is the phenomenon of Social Media. It changed the media landscape forever. Social Media websites have allowed consumers to connect with friends, family, colleagues and peers in ways that were never imaginable a few decades ago.

Technology has empowered the consumer to become the Prosumer. Prosumers are consumers who produce content such as videos, photos and blogs that can be instantly distributed and shared amongst millions of people via social media platforms. This is also known as user-generated content or UCG.

Here is an interesting bit of trivia about the reach of Traditional Media vs. the Internet and Social Media.

Years it took to reach a market audience of 50 Million:

Radio - 38 Years
TV - 13 Years
The Internet - 4 Years
The iPod - 3 Years
Facebook - 2 Years

So How Does The Internet Affect Traditional Media?

The Internet has decreased the need for Traditional Media because it enabled consumers to join social societies within their neighborhoods, across their countries and internationally. It has empowered them to converse at their leisure, 24/7, with friends.

Considering all that's been said, the demise of Traditional Media can largely be attributed to the following factors:

Decline in readership: The distribution of free news and information on the web has led to the decline in readership for traditional publications.

Decline in revenues: The decline in readership means advertisers will spend their money elsewhere and this leads to a decline in ad revenue.

Real-time updates: Traditional Media can't compete with instantly updated user-generated content that's immediately available for the world to see.

The rise of UGC websites: People have the freedom of unlimited real time commentary on content while Traditional Media is static and is a one-way communication tool.

Online Audio/Video channels: People can choose what they want to watch and listen, when they want to and where without any advertising interrupting their experience.

Simply put. The Internet has revolutionized the way things get done today. It has revolutionized the way we do business, the way we communicate and has broken down the walls of Traditional Media.

A recent example is the decision by Unilever UK to fire Lowe, their Ad agency of 15 years, in favor of crowdsourcing - which means it has thrown the brand creative pitch open to agencies and basically any person who can think of an idea, worldwide. This is done on the Internet of course.

Traditional Media will still be around for a while, but the Internet is getting more and more integrated into our daily lives.

Think about this. You could do without the Mail & Guardian or the MensHealth Mag for quite some time, perhaps live quite happily without it? But you just dare cut that ADSL connection...

Piet Alberts is an online marketer and creative director in Cape Town, South Africa. He started an Online Marketing & Web Design Agency, Clay Ant Creative, in 2006. Clay Ant Creative offers complete creative, design and online marketing support, including search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, and web design and development.

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How to Build a Hub For Your Inbound Internet Marketing Campaign - Blogging and Social Media

The transition occurring today in the marketplace from an outbound, old media marketing strategy to an inbound, new media approach presents an interesting, challenging, and even profitable environment for business owners willing to incorporate and even embrace current transition. The shift from old to new, outbound, even intrusive marketing to an inbound, customer/client driven methodology appears to be profound and lasting. The current economic trend is challenging, and that's putting it mildly. Yet even the most experienced entrepreneurs and Internet marketing specialists are grappling with the right strategy, the right combination of tools, necessary to survive this downturn. In order to survive, businesses must adapt, rethink, and redesign their current approach to advertising and marketing. As a result of our current economic challenges, businesses are finding it increasingly important, imperative, to develop and strengthen relationships, not only with prospective customers, but with their established customer base as well. Engaging in a relationship building strategy with customers they have already done business with at some point in the past is one of the most effective methods for improving a business's overall profitability, while decreasing advertising costs. It is the established customer/client base, combined with a successful relationship building campaign that includes a number of tools and marketing platforms, that will ultimately lead to not only survival in the current economy but prosperity...in spite of it!

The emergence of the weblog (web log) or blog, blogging in today's parlance, revolutionized the way individuals communicate on the Internet. Significantly, what was once considered to be solely a social communication vehicle, almost a means to "gossip" on the web, quickly became the darling of the Internet for individuals and businesses alike. Today, everyone from the neighborhood grandmother talking about her most recent trip back east to see the grandchildren, to The Ford Motor Company and Skittles are blogging and the reasons are myriad. Blogging allows a connection between participants unlike anything I have witnessed in marketing to date.

In my 54 years I have weathered several recessions, a number of presidents, including a resignation and an assassination, and a couple of attempted ones, the Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean King marketing masterpiece, the "New Coke" marketing debacle, the ultimate political spin of the Clinton Presidency, and the annual marketing bonanza also known as the Super Bowl. However, I have never witnessed anything like the emergence of the "blogosphere."

The blogosphere? Well, if we use Technorati's definition "The blogosphere is the collective community of all blogs." How many? As of Technorati's August 2008 report on the state of the blogosphere there were 133 million blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002, with 1.5 million per week being added per week since then. Surely Technorati's numbers have changed vastly in the last year but the fact is no one really knows how many blogs exist. There is however one undeniable fact, the blog is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.

The face of the average blogger is a difficult one to perceive. The numbers grow and the demographics shift but the average blogger is male, over 25 years old, 50% of all bloggers are over 35 years of age, married, college educated, with an average yearly income of over $50,000, and 48% live in North America. Four out of every five people blogging, known as bloggers, identify themselves as personal bloggers. Interestingly, there is a great amount of overlap between bloggers, professional, corporate, and personal, with many designating themselves as two out of the three or all three. Almost half of all bloggers noted that they have had or continue to have multiple blogs, 60% of all bloggers having two or more years of blogging experience, with the average tenure being three years. Female bloggers make up 34% of active bloggers, males make up 73% of all bloggers in Asia, and the youngest blogging population seems to be in Europe, with half of all respondents being between the age of 18 and 34 years of age.

With the emergence of social media, and the realization of the power social media marketing offers, including the mini-blog phenomena Twitter and facebook, the blog has maintained its pivotal role as the "hub spot" from which an increasing numbers of companies, from the mom and pop corner store to Fortune 100 corporations, are building inbound, Internet marketing campaigns. The blog offers the ideal platform for relationship building. Connecting with prospective clients, as well the current customer/client base in a way no other medium offers, the combination of the blog and various Web 2.0 platforms is both organic and dynamic. Blogging is a crucial component in any "new media," inbound marketing strategy. Added to the blogging hub, the social media or Web 2.0 campaign offers an innovative and forward thinking approach to prospective customer and established customer relationship building never before offered in this way by a marketing strategy.

So, what happened to the website? Internet marketing has experienced a transition, a revolution of sorts, from the traditional website to the fresh and organic approach of the blog. The blog should be an integral part of any online marketing strategy. Blogging not only provides useful content for a business's target audience, it also builds relationships and strengthens the connection between current customers and businesses engaged in this useful marketing strategy. The business blog has virtually, and literally, replaced the conventional website as many company's primary customer/client communication vehicle, and rightly so. The combination of other media, along with the blog, as in the case of social media marketing mentioned above, offers an inbound marketing strategy, cost-effective and profitable, short and long-term.

The question every business owner today must ask: "How do I develop a marketing strategy that will allow me weather the current economic storm?" The fact is many of the traditional marketing strategies, also referred to as outbound or old media advertising strategies have been replaced by inbound, new media marketing methods, with impressive and lasting results. The cost of new media marketing is substantially less than most traditional, outbound methods engaged in by traditional brick and mortar businesses today (e.g., television, radio, newspaper, etc.). Given the current economic climate, this certainly seems counter-intuitive. During a time when businesses large and small are struggling to stay afloat, it would seem prudent to engage in any strategy that promises to increase traffic while decreasing the cost of doing business. Additionally, the reduction in the cost of doing business associated with an inbound, new media marketing strategy is generally accompanied by an increase in revenue and an improved and strengthened customer/business connection. The benefits of the new media, inbound strategy are derived solely due to the blog as the central component, the linchpin or hub, driving the entire program and making the entire business more profitable and even prosperous, regardless of the current economy...or perhaps because of it.

The transition from traditional, outbound, old media marketing to an innovative, inbound, new media strategy is the focus of The Ultimate Internet Image, a new venture created to serve traditional brick and mortar businesses and Internet marketers alike. The Ultimate Internet Image focuses on an inbound marketing strategy while realizing that there is still power and usefulness in some outbound marketing media platforms. The UII marketing strategy creates a synergy, a synthesis of the old media with the new media in order to create a marketing plan designed specifically for the individual client, not a cookie-cutter, one size fits all approach so commonly seen online.

The Ultimate Internet Image has offices in Maine, Florida, New York, Minnesota, Ohio, and Illinois, with more opening every week. We welcome you to explore the ultimate opportunity, as a client or as a director and owner. Contact information is available at The Ultimate Internet Image's blog, listed below.

We invite you to discover what it means to offer The Ultimate Internet Image!

http://www.UltimateInternetImage.com Join us!

John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.

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How The Internet Business Can Make Money With The Social Media Sites

Understanding the big picture, the business concept, of the social media sites is crucial, because it gives you the idea how to utilize them for your internet business. What is their driving force?

1.What Is A Social Media Site?

As we see, the term is built of two words: media, which means advertising distribution channel and social, which means a group of same thinkers inside some bigger group of people. It also means the interaction between the group members. Both parts are very useful for the internet business marketing and actually belong to its basic vocabulary.

So social media means communication place, which is established for people, who has the same interest or hobby, where they can change ideas and share benefits. If you think your own internet business this sounds just great!

Wikipedia puts it in this way:

"Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers."

It is important that social media uses the crowds and their own will to connect information in a manner they want. So the social media sites are voluntary and extremely interactice, which gives lots of benefits for their members in the form of internet business forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and videos. Funny thing is that social media sites are driven by users, they make the content.

2.How To Grab Attention In The Social Media Sites?

When people participate in the social media, they act in interest groups, which is natural. In the internet business marketing this is called segmentation. If an internet business marketer wants to grab attention on the site, he has to stand out from the crowd. The requirement to be different is the same than in other mediums.

Social media sites are like open markets, where you as one participant build your own brand, your own expertise, which attracts some of the group of the same thinkers and a part of these interested people want to visit your website. In a way the question is about pre selling job, but never about advertising.

If the social media site has exactly the same content or idea than your internet business site has, then it can be a lead producer for your website directly or your website can even be able to sell the products to the visitors. In case of the leads, it gives your internet business site a great opportunity to approach them later with several emails or newsletters.

The competition in the social media sites requires that you need the AIDA process: attention, interest, desire and action. It is a process which needs planning, because the sites are full of personal messages. The most important thing is your promise: what is so useful in your offer?

The social media sites offer a great place to build your own brand, which is a multistep process. It is all about information, about influences and about feelings towards different actors. Social media marketing also involves the process of promoting and spreading ideas among targeted internet business audiences. Social media marketing can also be used as a calculated tactic to nurture feelings or goodwill towards a specific website or internet business.

Social media marketing is a strategic and methodical process to establish your influence, reputation and brand within communities of potential customers, readers or supporters.

Juhani Tontti, B.Sc., Marketing. Social Media Marketing Rocks! Make A Visit To My Home Page To Find More About Social Media Marketing For Your Own Internet Business Start HERE:

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Authors & Expert Media Bio Tips For National TV, Radio, Print & Internet Outlets

Secrets Revealed On How To Create An Outstanding BIO The Media Will Love

Create A BIO That Tells The Media What They Need To Know In A Nutshell

Plus Learn What Does Not Belong In Your Media Bio

Follow these simple steps to creating a powerful media bio designed to get you booked on the media of your dreams.

1. Your author or expert media bio should always begin with your credentials, academic achievements, professional and academic affiliations.

2. If you are the author of books, papers, and/or studies note those next along with the names of the papers and studies and where they appear etc so the media can document them.

3. List your areas of expertise.

4. List the years you have been active in these areas and your fields.

5. List any involvement in any association, achievements or awards you have received in your field.

6. List media appearances TV or radio and quotes in magazines in newspapers.

7. What does not belong in a bio: your personal family history, personal triumphs or tragedies unless they are tied into your area of expertise, your birth place. You can include the location where you currently reside or practice as this can be important if the media would like to book you for a radio or TV segment.

8. Information has to be absolutely accurate, up to date, and easily verifiable as the media has resources to check out your information.

9. Be sure the bio on your website is exactly the same and consistent with the bio that you are presenting to the media. You can always offer an expanded version on your website. However, you should not be inconsistent with your bio. You can certainly have other info on your website but the bio must remain consistent with the one you present to the media.

10. The purpose of a professional bio for use in the media is to give them a snapshot of your expertise and your platform so they can determine if you qualify as the expert for the segment or article they have in mind.

11. In addition to the bio, have a professional .jpeg of yourself in your professional capacity and jpeg of your book cover ready to email to the media upon request.

12. Demo tapes are requested by the media. Have professional quality tapes ready to be sent to the media and of course, better yet, include a video link on your site so the media can check you out without waiting for your demo to be sent overnight. As you send your demo out to the media, be sure to restock. The media moves fast and needs the info immediately and cannot wait for copies to be made or complied etc.

Want to get your copy of the free publicity CD "The Making Of A Million Dollar Expert" that discusses how to apply your publicity to your marketing for optimal results and return on investment. Here's how! Fill out the CD form at http://www.anniejenningspr.com/experts.htm we will send your CD right out to you!

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Internet Providers to Help Thwart Online Piracy

In a deal with the major entertainment media companies that has been years in the making, the leading Internet service providers have agreed to a uniform procedure for notifying customers about repeated instances of digital copyright infringement.

The Internet providers, including AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast Verizon and Time Warner Cable, announced the deal on Thursday in Washington with the major trade associations for movies and music, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, as well as organizations representing independent filmmakers and record companies.

The new procedure, which is expected to go into effect early next year, is known as a graduated response, and establishes a series of six warnings that an Internet service provider, or I.S.P., can send a customer whose account shows signs of infringing activity.

These warnings escalate from simple e-mail notifications to a set of “mitigation measures,” like slowed connections or a block from Web surfing altogether. As the steps progress, a user must acknowledge to his I.S.P. that he understands the notice, and the user can also contest the complaint.

“This is a sensible approach to the problem of online-content theft and, importantly, one that respects the privacy and rights of our subscribers,” Randal S. Milch, executive vice president and general counsel of Verizon, said in a statement. “We hope that effort –- designed to notify and educate customers, not to penalize them –- will set a reasonable standard for both copyright owners and I.S.P.’s to follow, while informing customers about copyright laws and encouraging them to get content from the many legal sources that exist.”

The agreement also sets up a clearinghouse, the Center for Copyright Information, to monitor the alert system and deal with infringement issues. The center is expected to have a board made up of representatives of both the media companies and the I.S.P.’s.

The deal is a victory of sorts for entertainment media companies, which have long complained that Internet providers were not doing enough to combat piracy. Yet while the system establishes guidelines for the I.S.P.’s in how they contact their customers, it does not replace the existing legal framework for online copyright infringement. That process, established by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, allows I.S.P.’s to shut down an infringing Web site if directed by a copyright holder.

The music and film industries have had mixed success recently with their campaigns to step up enforcement and legislation for copyright infringement.

Last year, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the United States Department of Homeland Security began seizing Web domains suspected of piracy and counterfeiting. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, or Coica, a bill that would give the United States attorney general additional powers to pursue infringing Web sites, stalled in Congress last year, but a modified version of it, the Protect IP Act, has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and is awaiting a vote.

View the original article here

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SiteCube Review: Internet Pizazz in a Can

If websites had personalities, SiteCube would be the outgoing car salesman who’s always trying to get you to add extra features. Okay, GoDaddy would be too, but this isn’t a GoDaddy review. What else do we make of SiteCube’s flashing buttons, attractive woman flash videos and plethora of exclamation points?

Keep reading to find out!

Sorry, I got caught up in SiteCube style for a second. The truth is that underneath all of the instant pizazz, SiteCube just has more layers of…well, pizazz. They want you to sign up and create website flash intros. They want you to be overwhelmed by their thousands of “site possibilities.” They want you to add music to your site, just in case someone forgot that they typed in your domain in the address bar.

But there’s nothing wrong with all of that as long as that’s what you’re going for. And if you always wanted to create a site like SiteCube, which looks like this…

Flashing buttons? Check. Attractive woman hovering overhead? Check. Where do I sign up?

…then you’re probably excited enough about signing up for SiteCube that you could type a few exclamation points of your own! Let’s just back up and use this SiteCube review to see if all that pizzazz is worth the price.

What Does SiteCube Actually Deliver?

Smiling bald guy is pleased that you have visited SiteCube.

The very first thing I look at in an article like a SiteCube review is the price. Unsurprisingly, SiteCube is just as unique here as it is in its overall presentation. How so? Well, there are no free options on SiteCube except for a 10-day free trial. You can locate this free trial on the main page by looking for the…well, just follow the flashing exclamation points and you’ll figure it out.

Ten days? Really? That’s all I get? uCoz.com lets me have a free trial, um, forever. Homestead.com gives me thirty days. Ten days sounds something like a used car salesman would push on me because I’d forget to cancel the trial after a week and a half. Then again, I forgot which web site I was at.

If you’re satisfied with a ten-day free trial, go ahead and sign up. You’ll find exactly what you expect to find: flash intros, music integration, as well as all of the typical sitebuilding features you’ve grown accustomed to. In other words, SiteCube isn’t really reinventing the wheel at all; it’s just adding some sparkly rims.

Advancing further into the dark recesses of SiteCube, we find out what life is really like after your ten-day trial is up. It’s not all pretty. As you can see at their pricing page, there are four (count ‘em – four) pricing tiers ranging from “lite” to “premium store.” It sounds like they’re selling beer, but what they’re really doing is unnecessarily cutting up their pricing tiers into complicated groups. Why not just go for the premium option and pay the $12.95 a month? If you really want a web presence with pizazz in the first place, all of the big features should come with the package you order.

It goes without saying, then, that the “lite” option is like lite beer: watered down and less flavorful. If you can’t even create a simple contact form using the “lite” package, then you might as well just spring for all of the options off the bat. Why does this still sound like you’re buying from a used car dealership?

Is the Quality Worth the Cost?

If I didn't know any better, I'd say this guy was trying to escape.

Since we can instantly disqualify SiteCube.com from the realm of the free sitebuilders, we’ll have to ask ourselves a simple question: are the features worth the cost? Since I recommended you go with the “premium store” option off the bat, let’s take a look at those features and see what we get.

Even if you go for the most – the most, mind you – you can buy at SiteCube.com, you can only sell 240 products at your online store. That’s not a big deal if you don’t have an online store to create, but if you’re serious at all about creating a legitimate presence for your online business, having a limit at all is something you’ll want to avoid. If you’re paying them decent money, why not sell as many items as you want? It’s not as if it means extra labor for the people over at SiteCube.

As for the other features, you’ll find some decent ones: heck, if you want a flash intro, SiteCube might be the exact website builder for you. You can also transfer or register a new domain with SiteCube, though it doesn’t mention anything about throwing in a free pine tree air freshener to sweeten the deal.

Is SiteCube the Right Sitebuilder for You?

If it’s just me and my credit card, I spring for something more suitable to an online business like Intuit. Of course, I wouldn’t really be “springing” for anything, since Intuit is cheaper than all of SiteCube’s options and has a longer free trial to begin with.

But I can recognize that there are probably a few people out there who are looking to create a flashy site like SiteCube and simply want to go straight to the source in order to accomplish that. More power to you. It’s just not my cup of tea – heck, if anything, SiteCube is more like a glass of beer. There’s never any accounting for taste.

At the very least, SiteCube is kind enough to offer a free trial so you can find out whether this site is really the one for you. If you’re all about experimenting, you should at least give SiteCube the courtesy of exploring their free trial and seeing if you really do have the kind of fun their website seems to promise. If not, you can always cancel the trial, start your car, and drive off the lot. Sometimes all the pine tree air fresheners in the world aren’t enough to make things smell right.

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The GoToMeeting Review: Why the Internet Just Works

I’ll admit: if I’m going to cite GoToMeeting as a reason why the Internet works in the title of a GoToMeeting Review, then I’m probably revealing my cards a little too early. But who cares? GoToMeeting is not only a fine service, but it’s one of those mainstream revolutionary platforms that has altered the landscape for how we do business across the world. If it weren’t for companies like Citrix Online, the Internet wouldn’t be quite so easy to use as it already is. And I’m going to give it its proper recognition; if that means a glowing review, so be it.

So, yes, this is going to be a flattering review. I may sound like I’m channeling my inner poet as I list the litany of reasons you should consider acquiring GoToMeeting for yourself. But as always, I’ll make an honest appraisal of the software and let you know if there are any reasons GoToMeeting might not be right for you, the individual consumer. Hey, not everything that works well is the right fit for anyone. And sometimes, the price isn’t right. But there’s plenty right about GoToMeeting: let’s find out what it is.

Look how interested she is in my meeting!

First Things First: The Definition

GoToMeeting, for all of its quality functions, strikes me as the type of platform that still vexes some people’s computer-scared sensibilities. “How do you go to an Internet meeting, anyhow? Someone teach me how to use this Meetingkabob!”

If you find yourself falling into that category, it’s probably best to take some time and explain what GoToMeeting is all about. First, you download the GoToMeeting software – and make the people you’re meeting with do the same. (Hey, it helps if you’re the boss, but being the boss makes a lot of things easier.) You can host meetings online with people who don’t have GoToMeeting, so don’t let that concern you. People can receive your invitations electronically or can enter in a meeting ID you give them in person.

When you’ve invited people to a meeting, you are then connected in a couple of ways: via computer and via audio. People will be able to see what you’re doing on your computer and then chime in with their own thoughts via said audio. You’ll also be able to switch control of the meeting to other people and let them “sit at the keyboard,” in a sense. If that doesn’t feel like a legitimate meeting, I don’t know what does.

Of course, there are about a zillion features you can use while you’re in the meeting. You’ll be able to see who’s attending, first of all. You’ll be able to record the meeting and post it so that people who missed it can catch up on the latest information and people who attended can go back and take notes.

In other words, it can be the kind of software that makes you wonder why you rent all that conference room space in the first place.

Using GoToMeeting

Once you have the basics down, you’ll start to realize that there are a number of ways you can use GoToMeeting. You can use it amongst employees, give demonstrations to clients, keep in touch when you’re on the road, and host webinars on your blog or web site. If that isn’t considered essential business software, I don’t know what is.

The features and interface are simple and easy-to-use. Simply opening the GoToMeeting options and selecting “Meet Now…” is enough to get the ball rolling. As you learn to use the software, you’ll find out the other ways you can employ a GoToMeeting meeting, like creating a seminar and training a number of employees remotely. Just don’t get too tempted to disappear off the face of the Earth entirely and run your business via GoToMeeting alone. Unless, of course, that’s exactly what you intend to do.

You can schedule one-time or recurring meetings using this software, and given the amount of tools you’ll be able to use during an actual GoToMeeting, you shouldn’t have any problems not being there in person. Since you can still chat with people in real-time and even draw things out for them, there’s listen you’re able to do in person but won’t be able to do via GoToMeeting.

All of these features should have no problem interchanging between Apples and PCs – you can also run a meeting from your iPad, which will at least give you a way of passing the time if you’re stuck in a blizzard at the airport.

Are There Any Downsides?

Hey, I warned you that I wouldn’t have many bad things to say about this service. GoToMeeting delivers the goods and keeps things as simple as possible. Even if the meeting screen is a little intimidating for you the first try, it won’t take long before you pick every bit of it up. You might have to keep poking around and trying out all the features, but eventually you’ll get the hang of it.

Good software like this does have a few potential downsides, but nothing ever that serious. After all, if one downside is that you become too reliant on GoToMeeting for running your business, is that really such a bad thing? That’s like saying you used to rely on conference rooms to hold meetings. Well, of course you rely on these things! You are a business, after all.

The truth is that GoToMeeting is the exact kind of tool you’ll want to have in your arsenal. One real downside is that the price can be pretty steep – the first tier of pricing will run you $49 per month or $468 per year, and this only allows you to host meetings including up to 15 people. But if you’re the kind of person who’s able to organize big-time seminars for hundreds of people, then you should have no problem affording the steeper prices of the more expensive plans.

If you run a business and you find yourself needing to reach employees in a variety of ways, GoToMeeting can be one way of solidifying all of your meeting time into one efficient strategy. It’s great software – just hope you can build a business that is strong enough to need it!

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