1. Serve Your Static Media from a Cookie-Less Domain

About 80 to 90% of the time, your users are spending their time loading static content from your WordPress blog. This means that far more than the majority of the time a user is viewing your site, they’re waiting for items like images, stylesheets, scripts, Flash, etc. to load and present themselves on the screen. As such, you can optimize this content to arrive more quickly by telling WordPress to load it all from a cookie free domain. This eliminates a few precious micro-seconds of load time, which may not seem like much, but can really amount to a whopping time loss when added to other delaying issues.

Thankfully, it’s not hard to set up this kind of arrangement within WordPress. To do so, simply set these two constants within your wp-config.php file as so:

define(“WP_CONTENT_URL”, “http://static.yourdomain.com”);

define(“COOKIE_DOMAIN”, “www.yourdomain.com”);

After you’ve done that, just check to be sure you’ve marked “bloginfo( ‘template_directory’ )” to load your static content within your theme files. That’s it, allowing us to move onto point two!

2. Set-Up Cached Headers to Expire for Your Static Content

Serving up cached media is another great way to reduce load times. Thankfully, creating expiring headers for your static content is also fairly easy to do within WordPress, and can save you a lot of lag-based headaches. The best way to do so is to use the following code form the HTML 5 Boiler Plate. You can append it to your .htaccess file for immediate results. This, essentially, tells your server to expire headers at a future date, saving them in a cached format until that expiration date. So without further ado, here’s the code to get the job done!
—————————————————————————————————————-
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive on
# Perhaps better to whitelist expires rules? Perhaps.
ExpiresDefault      "access plus 1 month"
# cache.appcache needs re-requests
# in FF 3.6 (thx Remy ~Introducing HTML5)
ExpiresByType text/cache-manifest "access plus 0 seconds"
# Your document html
ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 0 seconds"
# Data
ExpiresByType text/xml "access plus 0 seconds"
ExpiresByType application/xml "access plus 0 seconds"
ExpiresByType application/json "access plus 0 seconds"
# RSS feed
ExpiresByType application/rss+xml "access plus 1 hour"
# Favicon (cannot be renamed)
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 week"
# Media: images, video, audio
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType video/ogg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType audio/ogg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType video/mp4 "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType video/webm "access plus 1 month"
# HTC files  (css3pie)
ExpiresByType text/x-component "access plus 1 month"
# Webfonts
ExpiresByType font/truetype "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType font/opentype "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-font-woff   "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/svg+xml "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-fontobject "access plus 1 month"
# CSS and JavaScript
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/javascript "access plus 1 year"
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header append Cache-Control "public"
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
—————————————————————————————————————-

3. Optimize that Database!

Another great way to fix your server up to deliver your WordPress site with the most efficiency is to optimize your database. How does one do this? With mountains and mountains of code that take hours to append—We’re kidding! WordPress makes this unbelievably easy, thanks to a number of free plug-ins. You can search the plug-in database for server optimization, but some of our favorites are Yoast Optimize DB and WP DB Manager. Keep in mind too that most caching plug-ins also help with a lot of this, so you may find most of the workload being taken care of by your already extant caching softwares.

4. Use Cached Media As Much As Possible

On that note, creating cached .html files saves your server a mountain of database queries, and can easily be accomplished through any number of quality plug-ins. Essentially, these additions turn all those queries into static pages that load easy, saving your viewer from horrendous lag on the front-end. So what plug-ins do we recommend? Thanks for asking! Here are our favorites, though as with the database optimizers, there’s plenty more to be found in the plug-in database!

Our favorite caching utilities include: WP Super Cache, Hyper Cache, and W3 Total Cache. These generate .html files, but we also use DB Cache to cache the database queries themselves, saving even more time on the front-end.

5. Use a Content Delivery Network

We’re quite tremendous fans of the content delivery network. Everything about the technology gets us excited, and though we tend to evangelize the service to everyone we know, adding a CDN solution to your WordPress site is extremely easy, and can really save you a lot of load time. There are several freely available plug-ins that offer a fair amount of content distribution, but if you’re looking for a quality option, you really aren going to need to spend a little. However, we should mention the benefits of signing up for a CDN tend to far outweigh the cons, making the following services every bit as useful as they are expensive. If you’re hung-up on the price, though, we’ve also included a free option!

Our favorite content delivery providers are: Amazon S3, Max CDN, Media Temple CDN, and Free CDN.

6. Compress and Adjoin All Those JS and CSS Files Where Possible

Generally speaking, it’s a fantastic idea to compress both your JS and CSS files, as this reduces the overall size of your website, and allows for speedier load times at the end-user level. However, if you’re looking to take your optimization to a whole new level, we also strongly suggest you combine the two where possible. Combining multiple files into a single offering can greatly reduce the number of HTTP requests from your web server, saving your viewers precious seconds in load time. And—you guessed it—we do happen to have a number of plug-ins ready to help you out!

Our favorite JS compressors include Closure Compiler and Minify JavaScript. Our favorite CSS alternatives are Minify CSS and CSS Compressor. Alternatively, you can also use the wp minify plug-in to combine your JS and CSS files directly from WordPress.

7. Compress Your Image Files

On the subject of compression, it’s also a pretty fantastic idea to compress your images, too. This reduces the overall size of your website, and can knock off quite a few moments during your site’s load time. The plug-in we favor uses the API of the smush.it site to compress your images for optimized use. It’s a brilliant bit of coding, and we can’t speak highly enough of it. So without further ado, go ahead and snag WP Smush IT to increase the speed of your site. You can also use CSS Sprite to reduce the number of HTTP requests, if you’re feeling particularly gung-ho.

8. Compress Your Static Content into a gZip

One more compression tip, and then we promise we’ll stop. You see, just as it’s generally a good idea to compress your CSS, JS, and image files, so is it also a great idea to shrink down all of that extraneous static content we mentioned earlier. Just as most of your load time comes from grabbing this junk, so too can it be relieved by downsizing the overall cost of the HTTP request. Thankfully, there’s an incredibly simple way to do this within WordPress: And taking the time to add the following code snippet can dramatically reduce your wait times. So without any more babbling, here’s the code you’ll want to add to your .htaccess file. In case you were wondering, this is yet another bit of genius straight from the HTML5 Boiler Plate:
—————————————————————————————————————-
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
# force deflate for mangled headers
# developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/12/pushing-beyond-gzipping/
<IfModule mod_setenvif.c>
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
SetEnvIfNoCase ^(Accept-EncodXng|X-cept-Encoding|X{15}|~{15}|-{15})$ ^((gzip|deflate)\s*,?\s*)+|[X~-]{4,13}$ HAVE_Accept-Encoding
RequestHeader append Accept-Encoding "gzip,deflate" env=HAVE_Accept-Encoding
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
# HTML, TXT, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, XML, HTC:
<IfModule filter_module>
FilterDeclare   COMPRESS
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/html
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/css
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/plain
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/x-component
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/javascript
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/json
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/xhtml+xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/rss+xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/atom+xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/vnd.ms-fontobject
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $image/svg+xml
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/x-font-ttf
FilterProvider  COMPRESS  DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $font/opentype
FilterChain     COMPRESS
FilterProtocol  COMPRESS  DEFLATE change=yes;byteranges=no
</IfModule>
<IfModule !mod_filter.c>
# Legacy versions of Apache
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/css application/json
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml application/xml text/x-component
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml application/rss+xml application/atom+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-font-ttf font/opentype
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
—————————————————————————————————————-

9. Disable eTags

eTags are generally a great way to aide the development of cached content within WordPress. However, if you’ve shrunk down all of your media and are using expiration headers for the majority of your static content, having them enabled isn’t nearly as good of an idea. As such, you should turn all of them off by adding the following line of code to your aforementioned .htaccess file. It’s a single line:

File ETag none

and with all the other improvements we’ve made during the course of this article, it will tie the bow on your load time savings.

Related posts:

• March 31, 2010 – Wordpress and Search Engine Optimization – Facts to Consider
• January 16, 2012 – Top 4 Ways to Optimize WordPress for Search Engines
• January 11, 2012 – WordPress Website and WordPress Hosting
• January 1, 2012 – Fastest WordPress Hosting in Town
• December 9, 2011 – WordPress vs. Blogger
• October 7, 2011 – The 13 Best Free WordPress Plugins
• October 3, 2011 – WordPress Plugins – Making the Most of the Your Site
• September 19, 2011 – Get Out of the PHP Memory Error Rut with WordPress
• September 15, 2011 – Add-Ons That Will Save Your Web Hosting Business
• September 15, 2011 – Alternative’s to WordPress – Other Content Management Systems do Exist

1. Tell WordPress to Rearrange Itself

As much as we like WordPress, we have noticed it has one or two nasty habits. The most notable we’ve come across is its tendency to put the name of the website itself in front of the title of the blog post. This is problematic for a number of reasons, but we would simply like to mention right off the bat that there is a quick fix: So, in other words, don’t panic and bring your towel. But why is this such a big deal? Well, for starters – search engines use your titles to determine what the blog post is actually about. Typically, a search engine will only crawl (that means search and record) the first 50 to 64 characters of your title, too. With that in mind, having your blog name in front of your blog post title can cause some problems. You’ll want to reverse this, that way sites like Google get an accurate picture of your newly minted content, rather than a repeat of the blog’s name. A quick way to do this is to swap the title and name sequence within the All In One SEO pack. On another note, if you don’t have this plug-in yet, you should go ahead and snag it, as we’ll be referencing it often.

2. Create Unique and Accurate Meta Tags

A case in point, we will again be using All In One SEO with this point, as well. The idea here is that the automatically created meta tags published by WordPress are typically not specific enough to warrant any interest from the larger search engines. Usually, these self-created tags are somewhat generic, and lack any kind of specificity sites like Google desire. With that in mind, the easiest way to correct the problem is to add meta tags yourself. How does one go about this? Well, the easiest method is through that handy plug-in we mentioned earlier. Using the keywords slot, you’re free to add as many meta tags as your heart desires. Just try to be specific, avoiding generic terms like “iPhone,” “Android,” or “Mac.”

3. Stick Around with Permalinks

When WordPress creates a new post, it typically does so with a URL that’s less-than desirable for search engine optimization. This is because, more often than not, WordPress attaches an incomprehensible string of numbers to each and every new piece of content, allowing URL crawlers no added access to what in the heck your post is about. However, this isn’t hard to change, and typically only requires a quick jaunt over to the WordPress admin panel.

Within this panel, look for the settings tab, and then “Permalinks.”

You’ll see a list of various URL methods, but the only one you want is called “Custom Structure.” Yes, you’re going to have to enter something here, but lucky for you, we’ve already written the appropriate string. Click this box, and then type: /%category%/%postname%

Now, every time you create a new post, it will be listed in the URL as http://sample.com/your-category/the-proper-post-name. This makes your post infinitely more readable to search engines, and can go a long way toward fully search engine optimizing your content.

4. Make Meaningful Connections

Another fantastic way to optimize your site for search engine use is to link related sites and content pieces within your article.

This means that words like “phone” should be linked to other articles about similar models, operating systems, etc. Your goal is to create a map within the blog post that directs the user—and search engines—to other content that’s closely related to your own. With that in mind, blindly adding links with no regard for what they mean will not help you at all. If you’ve written an article about how to cook a turkey, and you link it to an animal rights page, Google won’t get much out of it, and may even scrap your site in its ratings. There’s also a limit on how many links Google is willing to stand. If you attach a URL to every word in the post, most search engines will treat it like spam.

A great way to avoid this is to use a “Related Posts” plug-in. There are about a thousand in the WordPress plug-in library, so we won’t offer any specific suggestions. Just know that these create a separate box for these helpful links, alleviating the need to bugger up your viewers’ reading experience with bothersome links. Likewise, there are plenty of plug-ins out there that will automatically generate in-text links, should you decide you’d rather have plenty of those. Typically, they work quite well, but the only way to guarantee your optimization is to add these links yourself.

Related posts:

• September 15, 2011 – Add-Ons That Will Save Your Web Hosting Business
• January 26, 2010 – Search Engine Optimization: Keywords vs. Content
• January 18, 2010 – Search Engine Optimization – The Basics Explained
• July 24, 2009 – Avoid These Five SEO Mistakes
• July 23, 2009 – Seven SEO Myths Debunked
• January 1, 2012 – Fastest WordPress Hosting in Town
• December 1, 2011 – The Importance of SEO
• September 25, 2011 – Search Engine Optimization tips for Bing
• September 21, 2011 – Are Search Engine Optimization Companies – Worthy of the Cost?
• September 14, 2011 – The Dummies’ Guide To SEO

To begin with, we’re going to assume you’re using a WordPress based site. Why? Because if you aren’t, and your top priority is search engine optimization, you really should be. WordPress makes it quick, painless, and relatively cheap to SEO streamline your site. This is accomplished thorugh a variety of essential plug-ins which do such various tasks as change your URL codes, add meta-tags, create keyword line-ups for search engines to crawl, etc. It’s a brilliant way to go about maximizing your site’s potential, but if you’re looking to get the most out of your WordPress site, you should know it’s not all sunshine and chuckles. In fact, WordPress has one noticeable drawback, which we’ll be attending to with the rest of this article, so stay tuned!

Speed Demons in our Closets

You see, WordPress is what we in the business call a content management software. It takes all of the various articles, images, posts, etc. that you create, and displays it in a pre-set fashion that jives will with themes. This makes it blazingly fast and efficient to create new content, and all without having to write a single line of code. Obviously, this is a tremendous boon for the runoff the mill blogger, who would rather not learn a real skill like HTML coding.

However, there’s one downside to all this ease-of-creation stuff: WordPress is a real bandwidth hog. Sure, it makes it a breeze to add new media, but all of that coded forefront comes with a price tag. Typically, users will experience slightly more load time with a WordPress powered site than with a non-WordPress branded one. Why is this a problem? you might be asking. Usually, it’s not at all: We’re really talking a difference of perhaps half a second to maybe a full second. However, when it comes to search engine optimization, those bare few seconds could be all it takes to put your site in the tank. Don’t believe us? Consider this.

Search engines collect data using software “spiders.” These little critters are designed to do one thing, and do it well: Poll web pages and collect data about them. Typically, they accomplish this through peeping at site text, meta-tags, etc. to gather up a gist that can be used to create a ranking. However, speed is also very heavily considered in a site’s automatic rank. Spiders are busy little buggers, and if your site takes until Christmas to return the data they need, they’ll hike it up out of town and disappear. You heard us right: If your site is too slow, search engines are likely to skip it entirely, or at the very least, file it much further down the line than you’d like. You shouldn’t let this get you down, though. There are steps you can take to prevent this, especially if you’re using a WordPress-powered site—and they all begin with the hosting itself!

Top Hosting Providers for WordPress

To secure the best possible search engine ranking for your data, you’re going to need a good host. The hosting provider, after all, is the source of your bandwidth, disc space, and net presence. Without it, you’re sunk. If you’re looking for a speedy and efficient way to host your WordPress site, we’ve even got a few suggestions lined-up and ready to roll. Firstly, consider—

Web Hosting Hub

Customer Ratings & Reviews

We like these guys for a number of reasons. First and foremost, they’re a tremendous bang for your dollar, as all of their plans come with unlimited support for disk space, bandwidth, and websites. They also offer one of the best technical support services in the business, guaranteeing they’ll be able to solve any WordPress problems that may arise. On the subject of WordPress, they also offer such amenities as one-click transfer of existing WordPress data, a free domain name with a new WordPress plan, and a wealth of themes to choose from. All in all, they’re a solid option for the speed concerned WordPress blogger.

Visit www.webhostinghub.com or read our WebHostingHub review.

InMotion Hosting

Customer Ratings & Reviews

These guys offer a similar bevy of features that we greatly appreciate, including a comparable amount of unlimited support for both bandwidth and disc space. They also offer a wealth of WordPress friendly features, including a similar one-click transfer and a solid mountain of support files to help get you up to speed on how to operate the CMS.

Visit www.inmotionhosting.com or read our Inmotion Hosting review.

HostGator

Customer Ratings & Reviews

If you haven’t heard of HostGator yet, we’re guessing you haven’t been in the business long. They’re legends in the field, and as such, the offer a near perfect storm of WordPress performance and features. With plans beginning under four dollars with an heap of benefits, they’re a tremendous value for anyone looking to quickly set-up and even more quickly manage a WordPress site.

Visit www.hostgator.com or read our HostGator review.

However, when it comes to WordPress, we really can’t recommend anyone higher than WebHostingHub WordPress Hosting. They’ve consistently ranked the highest in our user polls, and offer the most advanced level of WordPress support. This includes servers that run suPHP, which allows for speedier and more secure connections, PHP5, MySQL5, and PHP caching. All in all, they’re an unbelievably fast offering that’s guaranteed to up your website rankings!

Related posts:

• January 11, 2012 – WordPress Website and WordPress Hosting
• January 16, 2012 – Top 4 Ways to Optimize WordPress for Search Engines
• December 9, 2011 – WordPress vs. Blogger
• October 3, 2011 – WordPress Plugins – Making the Most of the Your Site
• September 15, 2011 – Add-Ons That Will Save Your Web Hosting Business
• September 15, 2011 – Alternative’s to WordPress – Other Content Management Systems do Exist
• September 7, 2011 – An Overview of PHP-Based Content Management Systems Beyond WordPress
• September 2, 2011 – When to Transition to a Content Management System
• June 15, 2011 – Drupal 7 to Further Simplify Website Management
• May 20, 2011 – Important Features of Content Management Systems

What does SEO do for a website?

SEO makes a website so much easier to read for the viewers. The pages of your website will look better and be much easier to read when you use SEO content. This also allows the viewers of your website to find the exact information they are looking for instead of having to search through piles and piles of content and information posted on your website.

The truth is, every website has to start off at some point and, in the beginning, traffic may be very low and practically non-existent. With no traffic, your website will not be successful and it will be practically a waste of your time. If you want your amazing website to be viewed by millions of users, SEO is the key to all of your problems.

Ways that SEO can help YOUR website!

1. Drives more traffic to your website. Traffic is needed for all websites to receive the amount of attention they are looking for. SEO is the primary tool for receiving the high amount of traffic you are looking for.

2. Receive new viewers. You may already have people who frequent your website but SEO will allow you to get hundreds of new viewers when they search for certain keywords using a search engine.

3. Helps you earn more money if you depend on revenue share websites for your money. For example, if you have a blog and you use Google Adsense as a means of making money from that website, SEO drives more traffic to your website which equals more clicks on ads which in return equals a higher profit for you.

Set your website up for success

If you want your website to be successful, before you get started with the SEO of your content, you need to first make sure that your website looks professional. Once you begin using SEO content, you will receive so many new visitors to your website from the search engine and because you will receive new visitors and viewers, it is important that your website looks its very best to keep the visitors coming back and prevent them from leaving your website out of frustration or anger.

How do I make my website look its best?

1. Organize all of your content

2. Highlight important information in bold or italic text

3. Use a navigation system so that viewers can navigate on your website very quick and easily

4. Use a layout or template that represents your website and looks professional. Making your own layout is not too hard and can be done using a software program. You can also buy pre-made layouts and templates or pay someone online to create the layout for you. Either way, the layout should look professional and neat because it reflects on you and your business.

5. Insert images when necessary. Never use clip art images because they look unprofessional and immature. Use stock photos or images that you have taken yourself with a high quality camera.

6. Keep your content detailed but straight to the point. Don’t post up too much useless information which is commonly referred to as being fluff.

7. Use a font that is professional. A lot of new websites make the mistake of using ridiculous or silly fonts that they think look good but is actually very unprofessional looking and can drive visitors away from the website.

Once you have followed these few tips to ensure that your website looks amazing and professional, you can begin your SEO content. When you write the content that belongs on your website, you will need to use a set of keywords that are often searched for in search engines. When you use these keywords with your content, you will receive much more traffic, thus the purpose of SEO in the first place. You can use an SEO tool to get you started with figuring out the right keywords for your content on the website.

Once you use the SEO for your content, the goal is to have your website show on the search engine website on one of the first pages. It is a major accomplishment to have the link to your website on the first page of the search engine results but it is just as good to be on some of the first few pages of the search engine results.

Conclusion

After you begin using SEO on a regular basis for all of your content needs, you will notice major changes. You will notice that the number of people visiting your page has drastically increased. In fact, you should set up a hidden hit counter which will allow you to see how many visitors you are receiving to your website each and every day. This is a great way for you to watch your traffic grow and grow after using SEO on your website. In many instances, you will increase the amount of traffic dramatically which can help your website grow, expand, and become even more successful than it was before you started using SEO.

SEO is very important to a successful website and many newbies to the world of websites do not seem to realize this. If you are new to the world of websites, it is important that you realize how essential SEO content is for the success of your website. If you do not know how to use SEO in your content, there are many freelance writers available on the Internet, on websites such as Elance and oDesk, who specialize in SEO writing and would gladly help you with all of your SEO content needs.

Related posts:

• January 16, 2012 – Top 4 Ways to Optimize WordPress for Search Engines
• September 25, 2011 – Search Engine Optimization tips for Bing
• September 21, 2011 – Are Search Engine Optimization Companies – Worthy of the Cost?
• September 15, 2011 – Add-Ons That Will Save Your Web Hosting Business
• September 14, 2011 – The Dummies’ Guide To SEO
• September 10, 2011 – Common Advice in Search Engine Optimization
• September 8, 2011 – SEO Web Hosting: A Powerful Tool to Dominate Search Engine Rankings
• September 2, 2011 – Thinking Offpage SEO – Think White-Hat SEO
• September 1, 2011 – Search Engine Marketing Effect
• March 14, 2011 – How Dedicated Host Can Enhance Search Engine Optimization Results

Building relationships is at the heart of link building, because people are the ones giving links, not websites. The newest and hottest way to build relationships in your niche is to engage with them on social media, but we all know how time consuming this can be. Take, for example, twitter. Although an awesome tool to use to talk to influential people in your niche, the hours you spend each day pile up over time.

I recently just started doing SEO for a client who didn’t have a company twitter account, so I had to start from scratch. I didn’t want to spend much time on twitter, but at the same time I wanted to yield it for all it’s worth. Here’s a simple 4-step guide to automating your twitter account to tweet about the things you want, and the best part about it is that it won’t take you more than 15 minutes! Over time, the people/companies in your niche will take notice of your tweets, and this can be the first step to connecting personally with each of them.

1. Identify influential bloggers

They don’t necessarily have to be the cream of the crop in your niche, but rather just the ones you want to start building relationships with. Once you identify them, make a list of all of their RSS feeds in a simple text document.

2. Use Google Alerts

If you’ve never used Google Alerts before, it’s a tool to help you monitor the Web for any keyword or phrase of your choosing. For example, if I wanted to know whenever the phrase “link building contest” was mentioned, I could sign up for a daily Google Alert & get it sent to my email or by RSS feed. In this case, set up a couple alerts and have them be created as RSS feeds. Make sure you add these RSS feeds to your text document list.

3. Combine the feeds

By using RSS Mix, you’re able to combine any number of RSS feeds into just one. This will bypass some of the fees you would have had to pay in the next step.

4. Use Hootsuite to tweet the RSS

Hootsuite is an awesome tool to stay on top of twitter, and luckily for us it’s free to use. Sign up for an account, sync your twitter account, and then add an RSS feed to your account. The RSS feed you’re adding is the combined one we created in step 3. Set it up so each new item is tweeted via your twitter account.

The reason we combined the feeds in step 3 is because Hootsuite’s free plan allows only 2 RSS feeds, so if you wanted to use all of the ones individually through it, you would have to pay $6/month.

I don’t recommend this as a full time option for your twitter account, but rather as a great way to get started. By tweeting about the most relevant content in your niche, you have a great chance as being one of the twitter authorities. Also, make sure you’re tweeting about your own content too, whether it’s adding your feed to the mega feed we created in Step 3 or if you’re doing it manually.

If you’d like to keep up to date with the latest news & content on link building and relationship building, add Point Blank SEO to your circles, or follow Jon Cooper on Twitter.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to leave any feedback below; I’m dying to hear what you have to say!

Related posts:

• October 7, 2009 – Introducing the IntelBuilder CMS
• January 16, 2012 – Top 4 Ways to Optimize WordPress for Search Engines
• December 1, 2011 – The Importance of SEO
• November 23, 2011 – Top 5 Social Networking Platforms
• November 4, 2011 – Life Blogging and the Web 2.0
• September 25, 2011 – Search Engine Optimization tips for Bing
• September 21, 2011 – Are Search Engine Optimization Companies – Worthy of the Cost?
• September 15, 2011 – Add-Ons That Will Save Your Web Hosting Business
• September 14, 2011 – The Dummies’ Guide To SEO
• September 10, 2011 – Common Advice in Search Engine Optimization

There are many platforms that allow individuals to communicate. Of course, the social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace are the most popular; however, forums and web discussions are becoming increasingly popular as well. These platforms allow users to discuss various topics and it is very possible that, depending on the subject you are interested in, there is some type of forum that exists that specifically targets that subject. The process of creating a forum or web discussion is dependent on the skills the person has within web hosting and code. Forums and web discussions are still not quite as popular as other social networking sites, but they have the versatility to become anything the creator wants it to be, which is making it popular among individuals.

Who are social networking sites for?

Almost everyone has some type of social networking site and businesses are now creating their very own which would allow them to connect more deeply with their customers. By creating such sites, businesses are now able to see what their customers truly think in a relaxed, comfortable state. Individuals and businesses alike want a social networking platform that is easy to use and popular.

Here are the top five social networking platforms:

These five social networking websites are in the lead over all other social networking sites online. One may wonder how the rankings for the top five social networking platforms are decided. The decision is based on a number of factors. These factors include:

• Profiles
• Security
• Features for Networking
• Support
• Friend Focus

These few factors are what determine whether or not the social networking platform is a success. Profiles are the most essential factor because this is how a user expresses themselves and who they are to the public and to the people who they know. On a profile, users can talk about their likes and dislikes, hobbies and interests, and literally be themselves. Users value being able to have a profile that is easy to use and allows them to talk about themselves and what they are into. A user profile should be easy to set up and understand, but also decent enough to allow the user to show who they are and their personality through their profile.

The Importance of Security

Security is definitely another major factor on what makes a social networking platform successful. Users value their privacy and security. Who would want to be a user of a social networking website that didn’t value the security of its users? Surely, no one would. Each and every successful social networking platform should have security options for its users. These options include giving the users a block button so that they are able to block anyone they want, especially people who may be bothering them online. Users should also be able to block off certain parts of their profile from other people if they wish.

Available Features

The features for networking are definitely an additional bonus. If a social networking platform wants to have success, it will need to offer tons of features to its users. It is important that social networking platforms remember they are in constant competition with others. Features that should be offered to the users include picture updates, video update, groups, status updates, and tons of other features that the users want.

Support is a necessity especially for those who are new to using social networking platforms. The last thing that a platform should want to do is to leave a user feeling unsure and left out. The platform should offer support and advice to new users and there should always be a section available to users that answers some of the most frequently asked questions.

Connecting with Friends

Last but certainly not least, friend focus is essential and it is the main way that a social networking platform will grow. Users want to be able to connect with their friends and family members. If a social networking platform wants to be successful, they have to make the friend focus easy for users to keep in contact with one another.

In Conclusion

Overall, it seems as though Facebook has mastered most of these features because it is number one on the list of top five social networking platforms. Facebook has received a 4 star rating for security, support and friend focus. Facebook also received a 3 star rating for profiles and 3.5 stars for networking features. Facebook currently takes the lead as the number one social networking platform, but the website does have some fairly stiff competition.

MySpace comes in as a close second. The website received a 4 star rating for all features except for the friend focus feature. When it came to friend focus, MySpace received a 3 star rating, which is what put the social networking platform at number two in the list. MySpace is in constant competition with Facebook for the number one spot. If Facebook wants to keep its number one spot or if MySpace wants to reach that number one spot, changes will need to be made on both ends. The same goes for the other three social networking platforms and all of the other platforms that have not been able to make it within the top five.

Related posts:

• August 22, 2011 – How to Use Twitter for Business
• December 8, 2009 – Understanding Your Community Hosting Options
• December 6, 2011 – Facebook vs. MySpace – The Battle for Supremacy
• November 30, 2011 – Facebook vs. Google Plus
• November 4, 2011 – Life Blogging and the Web 2.0
• April 27, 2010 – Best Methods for Generating YouTube Traffic
• June 22, 2009 – The Insecurity of Web Upload Forms
• December 13, 2011 – Top 10 Features of Facebook
• December 4, 2009 – Introduction to Video Hosting
• October 7, 2009 – Introducing the IntelBuilder CMS

So this isn’t unexpected.  The bigger question is, is it fair?  For those of you not aware of the nitty gritty, we take a look here at some of the biggest complaints lodged against the king of search engines, maps, and about 50 other services, to see whether or not they deserve all of the bad rep they’ve gotten.

Site rankings – what’s fair?

The problem: Google is still thought of first as not only the world’s most used search engine, but in some cases the world’s only search engine.  “Google” is a verb; you never hear someone saying that they are going to “Bing” their name.  This has placed immense importance on the search engine’s results, which in turn, has caused some to object that the rankings the search engines give to certain results are not fair.

Our take: The problem with this objection is that we have now collectively come to any real determination about what a “fair” search engine would look like.  An example of this is the complaint that newer sites often get nudged out in favor of those of established sites.  But is that not arguably a good thing?  If I made a website tomorrow called the “Toyota Checkers Club”, should the term “Toyota” really give equal weighting to both my site and the car manufacturer?

A more reasonable complaint is in the assertion that Google may favor their own sites and products disproportionately to that of other web sites that are just as popular and established, offering the same services.  Google has responded in turn that they do not “cook the books” to favor their own sites.  Are they telling the truth?  On this one, we suggest stepping back and seeing what the hard data says before drawing any conclusions.

The China Syndrome

The problem: As big as Google is, they are still subject to the law.  Being a global company, this means that they are subject to many competing laws.  While some of them have drawn little criticism, such as their compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and removal of child pornography web sites, it was their alliance with the Chinese government that drew the greatest condemnation.

China has had what is known as the “Great Firewall” in place for roughly a decade now, and if Google was to take part in Chinese electronic society, it would have to submit to its requirements.  For a while, they chose to do exactly that, and a firestorm of complaints followed.

Our take: It is perhaps a minority position, but we consider this the most unfair of all the complaints made against Google.  China’s policies are not Google’s fault. To the end, it appears that Google stretched China’s electronic rules to their limits.  One example of this is the fact that users who had their search results censored, as happened with people who attempted to find information on, for example, the Tianamen Square Massacre, were told that they had their results censored.  This is a rather amazing concession, as it practically begs the user to hack around the firewall to find out more.

Moreover, what Google probably realized and Chinese authorities didn’t, is that users who want to get around their restrictions can.  Hackers live by getting around restriction.  So while governmental buffoons are running around trying to find what the hot term of the day is to censor, the billion users are finding hundreds of new terms to say the same thing.  Playing along with the Chinese government probably did wonders in letting those who knew how to play with Google’s systems to get out of it what they wanted.

And when even that wasn’t enough and China started hacking Google for user information, they finally pulled the plug.  No, on this one, we can’t convict.

Privacy concerns

The problem: We probably don’t even need to define the problem.  Any company whose currency is information is naturally going to get involved in situations in which they are accused of using that information inappropriately.  There are too many examples of this to easily list here.

Our take: The problem with this complaint is that while it is in an area which one would be rightly concerned about, so far few of the complaints have been that specific.  They have mostly taken the form of noticing cooperation between Google and various governmental authorities, but not making much of the way of exact charges.  This leaves us in a grey area of worry without hard evidence.

We are not going to go so far in this case as to de facto clear Google of all wrongdoing.  What we can say is that we are not seeing the tendency we see in, say, Facebook, to see just how fast they are capable of selling themselves out.  We’re not saying it’s not there, only that as of right now, we need to see more solid data.

Other concerns

Summarizing some of the other complaints about Google we have the following:

• Copyright: Projects like Google Books have been criticized on their failure to observe copyright agreements.  Whether or not this is a bad thing is probably a function of what your personal views on intellectual property is.
• Energy consumption: Some have criticized Google on environmental grounds, claiming that their servers use up as much energy as a large American city.  Google has responded with investments in green energy.  This complaint is hard to really put much stock into, as it’s more a function of how popular their servers are than in any action on their part.
• Street view: Google’s Street View has been the subject of a number of complaints.  One was, again, an invasion of privacy on a pictorial level.  It seems hard logically to avoid that, and the number of complaints has been far outweighed by the number of people who use the service. Another was its surveillance of Wi-Fi networks.  This raised more hairs, and this time Google agreed, stating that they were “acutely aware that they failed badly here”.

Off the hook?

For most of these issues, we’ve given Google a partial or total pass, or at least the benefit of the doubt.  This may make it sound like we’re acquitting them across the board.  We’re not.  As Google sticks its hand into just about every area of the World Wide Web experience, it’s right to keep a close eye on their activities.  So far though, for being one of the biggest companies in human history, they don’t seem to be doing all that bad a job of following their own motto “Don’t be evil.”

Related posts:

• October 5, 2011 – Social Networking Wars – A Great Show, and an Educational One
• September 10, 2011 – Common Advice in Search Engine Optimization
• August 31, 2011 – Top 5 Cloud Storage Service Providers
• March 22, 2011 – Google Docs Improving Social Commenting
• January 21, 2011 – Where is Google Headed?
• August 3, 2010 – What is the Google Sandbox?
• July 2, 2010 – What is the Google Caffeine Update?
• April 23, 2010 – SERPs and Backlinks – The Keys to SEO
• December 30, 2009 – Five Simple Website Safety Tips
• November 2, 2009 – Do You Need Cloud Hosting?

If you’re tired of FaceBook, Twitter, and all of the other sites that you can name as well as we can, you always have the option to just go it at yourself, and create your own place to share LOLcats pics and YouTube videos.  Like all such endeavors, it comes with its own caveats and warnings ahead of time that should be heeded.

Know why you’re doing it

Perhaps more than most other types of internet endeavors, you need to think clearly about exactly why you are doing this.  With so much of the world already taken by existing networks, you’re not going to get people running to your new one just because it exists.

If you want to have any reasonable hope that your network will go anywhere, it needs to be a place that services a type of community that isn’t well-served anywhere else.  Here are a few examples:

Business and artistic guilds and communities that need to maintain strong ties to one another.

• Social groups that are, if not marginalized, perhaps at least specialized enough that they could benefit from the special attention that someone who understands them can give.
• Religious groups that would benefit from the safety of an environment in which they know they wouldn’t be judged.

Know where you’re doing it

If you’ve gotten that far, then your next question is where you are going to setup shop.  Included in the question of “where” is “how”.  There are two main routes you can go here.

One way you can do this is to find some social networking software, load it onto your web hosting account, fire it up and handle the administrative back-end yourself.  There are a number of key advantages to this approach.  You will have every customization option at your fingertips, especially since many of the packages that you’ll find are open-source.  You’ll have full access to the network’s back-end at all times in case of a problem.  All of this means, though, that it could be a lot more work.  You may get some help from your web host if you run into technical difficulty, but don’t count on it.

The other method is to setup a network that is a part of larger social networking super-site.  There exist web sites where you can create your own social networking home from within their larger community.  The advantages of this approach are that their setup tends to be far easier, and you have the support of people who know how to run these specific networks backing you up.  The disadvantage is that you are also that their mercy.  If they decide they don’t like your topic for whatever reason you could be shut down on a moment’s notice.  You are also beholden to their tech support, which in some cases didn’t promise any impressive response times.

If you want it easy

All that said, here are a few places in which you can pursue the latter option and let someone else do the heavy lifting:

• Ning – Ning is by far the largest of these services that you will find.  Operating since 2005, its servers host more than 90,000 networks.  That size though comes with a price … literally.  Last year Ning removed all free social networks from their site.  Granted, their lowest level account is a mere $2.95 a month.  Still, they’re done a lot of other things to send the strong message that they are heavily focused on their bottom line, such as removing all adult sites and removing the search feature until user pressure forced them to reinstate it.
• SocialGO – A smaller network, but one with a rich list of features.
• WiserEarth – A good home for networks designed around a social issue.  Be sure to look at their terms of service: they are very specific about what kinds of groups do and don’t qualify.

If you want to do it yourself

If you are ready to be bold and dive into the nuts and bolts of setting this up yourself, here are some of the software packages most commonly suggested:

• Buddypress – This open-source WordPress plug in has a lot of fans.  It is free, easily customizable with addons and templates, and some hosts actually support one-click install for it.
• Kit Social Platform – Formerly known as “KickApps”, this is one of the more respected of the professional (meaning, not free) solutions.  It works off of your own domain, comes with an API and developers kit, and is available for a 14-day-trial from distributing company KIT digital.
• Elgg – Elgg has been around for a long time, and has been a popular choice for most of its existence.  It is described as being both full of features and simple to use.

I’ve set it up: now what do I do?

First, obviously, you need users.  Don’t measure yourself by FaceBook.  If you have 100 or so users, that’s a success.  Remember, unless you’re trying to run this as a business (not something we would advise given the competition), your goal is to support a community.  Every single person that you do this for is one more victory.

Once they are there, you simply need to help keep the community’s blood flowing.  One web site suggested that it was akin to a dinner party: you need to provide the space, the atmosphere, and then a few seeds of conversation.  From there, you step back and let it happen, nudging it from time to time when necessary.

It’s your baby: nurture it

That last part is mandatory: you have to keep an eye on it at all times.  The number of ways that it can devolve into something not worth most of its members’ time because of a few bad apples is countless.  Also keep a close ear out for what features you may want to add on to help boost the community’s discussion effectiveness.  Finally, make sure that you encourage users to write you about any technical problem they see, no matter how small.

Don’t be too intimidated.  This is work, but it’s work others have done, and you can too.  Even if all you make is a small home for a few people that need it, the reward

Related posts:

• December 13, 2011 – Top 10 Features of Facebook
• December 6, 2011 – Facebook vs. MySpace – The Battle for Supremacy
• November 30, 2011 – Facebook vs. Google Plus
• November 23, 2011 – Top 5 Social Networking Platforms
• November 4, 2011 – Life Blogging and the Web 2.0
• October 15, 2011 – Exploring The Social Networking World
• September 10, 2011 – Common Advice in Search Engine Optimization
• September 6, 2011 – E-commerce and Social Media: No Longer Oil and Water
• August 22, 2011 – How to Use Twitter for Business
• December 8, 2009 – Understanding Your Community Hosting Options

Thankfully, those days are now over. When Google announced its newest social networking initiative, Google+, most people were, of course, skeptical. After all, Buzz shared all of their contacts information and their own publicly and angered their users to no end. It also brought the company under an oversight committee with the FCC for the next 20 years. So on June 28^th 2011 when a limited field trial of Google+ was announced on the official Google blog, there were those who were generally not that interested or impressed. However, as time went by and invitations were beginning to circulate, an amazing thing occurred: IT was proclaimed that Google finally got their user-friendly privacy laden social networking engine!

Spam Infested Walls and Poorly Managed Groups

The timing of this release could not have been better, truly. During this time period, FaceBook had begun making improvements to how the social networking giant handled everything from personal details and security to how friends lists were displayed, and there were very few users who were satisfied, let alone happy with the changes. Their news feeds were being dominated by those applications that now had free reign to post on friends’ walls crowding out the actual status updates with games like “Fish-ville” and “Sims.” Users were also finding that their groups were being attacked and changed, a move that made it impossible for the group leader to interact with their group members no matter how long the group had been in existence without beginning again from moment one and re-inviting them to join the group.

Many users had been asking for the option of further defining their friends groups so that updates could be further managed. While FaceBook made a move to have options for showing a particular post only to XYX friends list or to exclude XYZ person or group of friends, it was clunky and the rules must be set for each post. Google+ learned much it seems from the problems that FaceBook has been facing. With a neatly streamlined interface, users are given “circles” of friends that are user defined. When posting, you are given a prompt to choose which circles you wish to share this with, or if you want to share it publicly, with all users.

Profiles, Interests, and User Choice

Another feature of Google+ that users find to be a better executed version of a FaceBook feature is how interests appear. On FaceBook, in the sidebars of your page, there are listings for interests such as: actresses, movies and establishments. There is the option to “like” them, adding a listing in your profile of goodness only knows how many listings. From the most inane like “sleep” and “food” to the names of bands and movies, your profile becomes cluttered with this mess! Taking a lesson from these oft voiced issues, Google+ Created what they call “sparks”. These are user interests and, when searched for and chosen, only the ones that you mark specifically are added to your sparks file and you receive updates on your news feed for only those that you chose.

Chat and Archiving

When it comes to chat, Google+ uses their ever stable G chat which rarely, if ever, freezes or otherwise disrupts the browser of the user, and saves conversations within your G mail in a special folder meant for them. Unfortunately, FaceBook seems to not yet understand the need for a stable chat engine or for easy archiving of said conversations. Regularly FaceBook chat will freeze a user’s browser and messages get stashed away in your in-box, making it impossible unless you have an excellent memory to tell a conversation from an in-box message.

Also, a much clamored-over feature that FaceBook users have been rallying for is Video conferencing and group chat. While these features are now available on FaceBook, Google+ was launched with them available and working without any freezing or slowing of your system or even distortion of sound.

Privacy

FaceBook has been charged with many privacy issues, especially lately, including:

• Data mining: Where information is gathered about a person through their website usage and used to advertise other services to them. The information gathered is often sold to a third party.

• Customization Issues: FaceBook only allows for plain text to customize your site, unlike some of its more popular contenders. Due to this however, innovative minds have begun creating and using hacks to customize their sites, causing others to become infected with their hacks (usually Java Scripted) and slowing down their system.

• Lack of live support: In our 24/7 lives, customer service that is live and reachable at any time around the clock is crucial. Especially since FaceBook sells credits for its widely-used games, questions about billing are sure to arise.

Google+, while in its infancy, is working out the kinks as they go along.

• Privacy: Google+ is fueled by your Google profile which in its default settings is 100% search-able.

• Service Linking: Google is fond of linking all of its services to create a suite of programs that can be used together or separately. Be certain of what Google products are being drawn upon when you sign up and begin posting.

• Copyright: A not well known clause in their terms of use make anything that you post using Google+ the property of Google and can be used in any way that they see fit. This, as I am sure you can imagine, makes some waves.

In conclusion

While FaceBook and Google+ both have their flaws and their upsides, it is being shown now that what was once the product or service on every person’s lips, there will always be new innovations in social networking. It has become such a large part of how to communicate with our loved ones, coworkers and friends that seeing more streamlined and more secure services will be the path that any and all social networking sites must take if they wish to survive. Google+ is here to stay. However, so is FaceBook, as they will eventually serve two different demographics. Our prediction is that Google+ will become the social network of the 20-30 something business people while those younger and older will gravitate towards busier FaceBook.

Related posts:

• December 7, 2011 – Facebook and Privacy: A Strain too Great?
• December 14, 2011 – Arm Yourself with the Top 5 Android Apps
• December 13, 2011 – Top 10 Features of Facebook
• December 6, 2011 – Facebook vs. MySpace – The Battle for Supremacy
• November 30, 2011 – Facebook vs. Google Plus
• November 23, 2011 – Top 5 Social Networking Platforms
• November 4, 2011 – Life Blogging and the Web 2.0
• October 26, 2011 – What is Tor? A Closer Look at The Onion Router
• October 15, 2011 – Exploring The Social Networking World
• October 13, 2011 – Facebook is the New King – How to Advertise in Their Kingdom

These local hangouts, though, can often be a little less friendly to marketing sharks.  Let’s face it, too: you’re not interested in being one.  You just want to advertise your services to people who might honestly be interested.  Even the local dives have ads posted in them.  To do so simply requires that you understand the scene, and treat it with respect.

So let’s drop the metaphor and look at some of the smaller but still popular social networking sites.  For our purposes we are going to focus on native English sites that mostly have at least 1 million users.  If you can speak other languages then there are many very large ones that represent good alternate markets.

CafeMom

CafeMom has been growing tremendously, and is on the verge of breaking through “niche” status to become one of the web’s bigger players.  An outgrowth of ClubMom, this social networking site panders to the moms who need an outlet that they can share with other moms (men are specifically barred from registering).  General socializing happens here, but also advice and support for just about every mothering need out there.

What the advertiser should know: CafeMom is very advertiser friendly.  If you are offering a physical product of some kind, you should consider sending free samples: this is one of the draws the site uses to get people to register.  Remember that the goal of this site is to make the lives of the mothers there easier.  Make sure that whatever you are advertising is geared towards that, even if indirectly.

Care2

It’s a sign of how huge the World Wide Web has become that a site with 14 million users is considered 2nd-tier.  Care2 hasn’t rushed to growth, but has been slowly building their user base since 1998.  The reason is that this is not a site that puts profits first.  Care2 is a social networking site for activists.  It allows individuals to work with each other, discuss issues, and most importantly find concrete ways to channel their energies into effective social change.

What the advertiser should know: Care2 takes their commitment to social values seriously.  This includes their approach to advertisements.  They have on their site a long explanation of what their advertising principles are.  Read it.  Make sure you can convince them that you will enhance their site, not just draw from it. One minor marketing addendum: according to the site’s founder, Care2′s user base is also mostly female.

Link Expats

If you measure the success of a web site by how well it fulfills the Web’s potential of bringing disparate people together, this is about as successful as it gets.  Link Expats is a place for people who are removed from their home country for any reason to find each other, talk, and assist each other.

What the advertiser should know: While some of the reasons that someone would be a member of this site are benign, some are (literally) deadly serious.  This site as a result has strong privacy protections.  Users can’t even friend each other, but they can ban one another easily for spamming.  Get the idea?  Follow the site’s rules to a T, and don’t push.

deviantART

deviantART is one of the longest running and best supported amateur artist social networking sites in existence.  Just about every type of 2D art is represented, and with 14 million members, just about every demographic is represented.  There isn’t that much in the way of large communal spaces: chat rooms are the only thing this site has that fulfills that function.  Most of the interaction occurs on the pages of artists and their works.

What the advertiser should know: Ads are only visible to users who don’t upgrade to premium memberships.  That doesn’t look to be a small demographic on this site any time soon, though (reference the term “starving artist”).  In fact, it’s large enough that you can almost treat this like a “normal” demographic distribution of users, albeit one with a bit of geeky edge to it.  Anything either tech-oriented or counterculture-leaning should find an audience here.

Stickam

You might have used this site before and not realized it.  Stickam is one of the premier media sharing sites on the web, with a particular focus on streaming video.  Because the demand for this kind of service is quickly growing, and because they make embedding easy, Stickam winds up often quietly embedded in other web sites.  If a site you use has recently addedy a video chat room, check the credits: it’s possibly a Stickam room.

What the advertiser should know: Stickam has worked heavily with major media kings like MTV and CBS Radio.  This gives it a bit of a MySpace feel: if you know the kind of demographic that comparison brings to mind, then you know about what to expect.  If you don’t, we’ll sum it up: a culturally diverse group of mostly beginner to intermediate web users (this is a broad stroke: please don’t take offense Stickam wizards) who probably are used to seeing web advertising.  This is with one catch: many chat rooms are adult-oriented.  Be sure you’re OK with this.

VampireFreaks

It may seem like we’re just fulfilling some editorial requirement of including one “strange” site by closing with these guys.  This isn’t so much that case.  It’s more to hammer home the point that sometimes you are dealing with a very specific subculture, and you need to know how to approach them with respect.

VF servers the “Gothic Industrial Culture”.  If you don’t know what this is then it’s hard to describe it without resorting to obnoxious stereotypes.  Consider it those who like to “play in the dark”, in just about every meaning that this phrase might bring to mind.  The name itself is likely a “scaring the normal” point of pride jab.  If this description in any way weird you out, you should probably look elsewhere.

What the advertiser should know: This is a very self-aware demographic.  Thus it’s best to neither approach them with a typical suit-and-tie motif nor try to pretend you’re a part of this crowd, assuming you’re not.  Despite the very showy appearance of this crowd, believe it when we say that they’ll respect you the more real you are.

Related posts:

• December 13, 2011 – Top 10 Features of Facebook
• December 6, 2011 – Facebook vs. MySpace – The Battle for Supremacy
• November 30, 2011 – Facebook vs. Google Plus
• November 23, 2011 – Top 5 Social Networking Platforms
• November 4, 2011 – Life Blogging and the Web 2.0
• October 27, 2011 – How to Start Your Own Social Networking Site – And Keep it Up
• October 25, 2011 – Competition in Social Networking: The Rise of Google+ and the Status of FaceBook
• September 10, 2011 – Common Advice in Search Engine Optimization
• September 6, 2011 – E-commerce and Social Media: No Longer Oil and Water
• August 22, 2011 – How to Use Twitter for Business