If you have customized, or want to customize your Twitter background, then you need to know what the best dimensions are to use.

The new Twitter layout is pretty good as far as functionality, layout, and organization goes, but it leaves a lot less real estate for those that love to spruce up their backgrounds. With a lot more people accessing Twitter via mobile devices and desktop apps, the background has faded a bit in relevancy, but it’s still an important part  of your brand.

A well done Twitter background allows you to match your brand across multiple multi-media efforts. Whether it’s print, online, or everything in between. Unfortunately, there’s just a lot less area to be creative. Don’t let it stop you though. Listed below are the new dimensions. Get out there and be creative! Let’s see what you can come up with!

Post your Twitter background creation here as a comment, with a link to your Twitter account, and whomever I think has the cleverest, most useful implementation of Twitter’s new dimensions will win a year’s FREE hosting for 2 WordPress Blogs.*

Twitter’s New Interface Dimensions

Width 1040px
* 100% of users will always see at least 41 pixels on each side.
* 72% of users viewing in 1280 x 800 or higher resolution will see 108 pixels on each side.
* 28% of users viewing in 1440 x 900 or higher resolution will see 200 pixels on each side.
* 4% of users viewing in 1920 x 1080 will see 312 pixels on each side.

Keep these dimensions and numbers in mind when developing your new wallpaper.

To enter the contest follow the steps below:

1. Leave a comment on this post with your name, Twitter username and please be sure to fill out the email field as that is how I will contact you if you win. I do not enjoy SPAM, so please be assured I won’t share your email with anyone else. Any posts that spam with website links will be disqualified.

2. You will need to follow me @WebErika.

3. After you follow me, send a RT: “RT @WebErika The New Twitter Background Contest: Win FREE Hosting! http://ow.ly/2ZgG0″.

4. That’s it! Be sure to have your AWESOME background in place before you leave a comment.

I’ll pick the Twitter background which I think is clever and utilizes the much narrower dimensions allotted to us by Twitter. As a bonus, the top winner and top 2 runner ups will be spotlighted on my sidebar with a link to their website or Twitter profile. Clean, rated PG websites only please.

This is my contest. My final decision prevails.

Contest entries MUST BE POSTED no later than 11:59PM EST on November 30, 2010 to be qualified and entered.

Websites will be hosted on my company’s fully dedicated servers. The 2 free hosting accounts will each be for one domain, per account. Actual domain name not provided. (you can register a domain name here) Each account will be a Linux hosted account with cPanel access, Fantastico, 250MB disk-space, 5GB bandwidth, 10 email accounts. (although, I highly encourage the winner to consider Google.com/hosted as an email provider and I will even walk the winner through how to set up a Google.com/hosted account. Google.com/hosted accounts provide up to 100 email users as well as their fantastic SPAM and virus protection.)

Contest Terms and Conditions:

Quite obviously, no purchase is necessary, but this is a SKILLS contest. So I would like to see some awesome entries. I don’t care if they are made by the entrant or outsourced and then presented. It must however be the entrant’s Twitter account.

Now for some more boring but necessary stuff:

…. well it might if it’s all you did all day. LOL! Is there anything more mind-numbing than clicking through to site after site after site and pasting in links?  I can’t stand it.  Makes my brain go mush.  It’s so bad it makes me want to give up and not do it, even though I know it will help my sites.

That’s why I’m glad Pogul (my marketing pal) told me about SocialAdr.  Suddenly that terrible task is crossed right off my list and I don’t have to feel guilty about not doing it.  SocialAdr is a new service that completely automates the process of getting my pages on the social bookmarking sites.

It’s totally revolutionary in the way it works: they have hundreds of users, an army really, that are all waiting to bookmark MY pages on their own social bookmarking accounts.  All I have to do is put in the pages that I want bookmarked and the rest is taken care of automatically. THAT is priceless. Especially if you manage hundreds of sites and run campaigns ad nauseum.

Plus, I can let my “bookmarks” run through again and again, with more and more different users linking to them.  How great is that?  Like I said, there’s no work for me at all. Well, hardly any. There is a little. But very little. Once I put my pages into the system, I can go grab a drink while SocialAdr does the heavy lifting.

There is no way any system could make this easier for me. At least I have been unable to find one. Even outsourcing it isn’t as easy as this. When I look for services for my business, I want ‘done for me’.  I don’t want to have to mess around or learn some complicated thing all the time.  I want it to just work, and that’s what SocialAdr does.  It just works.

Check it out SocialAdr, you’ll be glad you did. And if you use my link to sign up, I’ll be able to have a coffee or a beer on you because they’ll credit me a few bucks for sending you their way. I’ll be sure to toast in your honor as well!

So far it looks great! I haven’t read anyone elses reviews on it, but I like it. I’ve always loved Digg though.

What I do not like, is having to verify my own feed the way they want me to, which is to post this verification key: 291a67d7aa5e4a4b825fafbc73c80c55 in a post that goes to the feed I’m trying to add. But ok. <shrugs>

Yeah they say you can delete it – but as many of you know, once submitted and pinged, then spidered, it’s up forever, somewhere. So I might as well wrap a Digg.com post around it.

Problem is, it’s a bit late, I don’t want to spend all my precious minutes of time tonight writing up a decent blog post, so this one is getting cut short. My apologies. I promise to be back sooner than later with some good tidbits!

Be well!

If you’re unfamiliar with the word “blog” it is a combination of the word “web” and “log”.  It’s a way to share your thoughts and ideas as well as spread information.  In this case, you’re sharing with your customers and posting content that attracts people who will want to do business with you as they read what you have to say.  You don’t have to write down your family secrets, just share information that is interesting to the type of person your business attracts.

For instance, let’s say your business sells tshirts.  Your blog can inform people of the latest styles and trends.  You can publish articles about the ancient art of silk screening, give people ideas on how to personalize their tshirts and keep them up to date on the latest developments in manufacture and production.  You could even stage an entertaining stunt such as following a tshirt’s journey around the country or the world as people sign it and send it on its way.

These are just a few of the ways that you can inform and entertain with a blog.

Another advantage of blogging for your business is that it lets you establish a relationship with your readers.  Let’s face it, this is an impersonal world and people crave a sense of belonging.  Your readers can make a connection to you by reading your blog and feel they know a bit about you.  That personal connection will make them think of you before any other business when they need a product that you sell.

You don’t even have to write all the articles on your blog (but you should write most of them)!  Not all of us have the time to spend several hours or so a week writing new content for a blog post.  I don’t mind writing, in fact, I do enjoy it. But most weeks I do not have the time to churn out a post. Sometimes inspiration hits hard and the words just flow from my keyboard non-stop. Other times I am so wrapped up in a client deadline that my little inner muse takes a nap.

The solution? Hire a ghost writer for that content and work with them to research the exact topic you want to post about.  Voila!  With just a few minutes communication and the time it takes to edit and upload the finished piece to your blog, you’ve added fresh, quality content for your business.

Blogging is a very effective tool when you use it to publicize your business and with Google releasing its newest algorithm, Caffeine, the demand for fresh, current, relevant content is more important than ever.

Anyone looking up a subject you cover will see your content in the search results and visit your site.  This is one of the best types of advertising out there and costs you a minimum of time, effort and money.  So get out there and start blogging!

I thought there has to be an easier way to keep up with all this!  And yes, there is – NutshellMail, recently acquired by Constant Contact (a service that has matured over the years).  Whether you’re using social networking for personal reasons, business or both, this program allows you to simplify your monitoring of those networks and save a lot of time and trouble.

NutshellMail monitors and manages how you interact with your customers, your friends, your family or your business contacts.  It will collect the messages from the social networks you specify and organize them into an interactive email delivered to your inbox at intervals that you specify.

Let’s say that you have a friend who is going through a bad time and you want to keep up with any progress they make or be there when they have a bad moment and need encouragement.  You can set NutshellMail to flag these communications and send them to your inbox immediately.  Other friends that don’t need your support can have their content emailed to you once a day, more frequently or less often.

You can choose the content you want to follow and keep track of and add search terms for specific things you are looking for.  If you’d like to keep up with a certain subject – let’s say you’re anxious to know the news from Quebec – just set that as a priority and choose to be notified immediately when content is posted on that subject.

If you want to entertain your fans on Facebook, you can use NutshellMail to put the content of your wall into an e-newsletter that can be delivered whenever your users choose to get them.  This is a great way for your friends and associates to keep up you without wasting time checking walls for new content.  Plus, you don’t have to do a thing to get this going besides checking a box in the NutshellMail menu!

NutshellMail is a great new tool that can save a lot of time and aggravation and it’s free of charge!  Having this tool is like putting your social interaction on TiVo – it’s there when you want it and caters to your needs instead of enslaving your time.

Foursquare, Brightkite, and Gowalla, definitely better watch out. With business and services already having great Facebook pages, and a buy in from their users to stay updated on those page posts, adding location check-ins and possibly tying this to each page is a BRILLIANT move by Facebook. I believe the gauntlet has been thrown.

All we can do is hope that Facebook keeps privacy issues in mind with its location features. We really only want to share locations with our friends or a select group of friends.

Apparently McDonald’s will be the first to test Facebook locations, spitting out specials to users that check-in via Facebook.

Kevin Colleran, director-national sales at Facebook, underscored that Facebook wouldn’t attempt to monetize geolocation capabilities in the near term. “We never launch a functionality with the intent of monetizing it,” he said. “The best case in point would be [advertisers] are frustrated. We will not allow them to buy an ad on mobile.”

Only time will tell. I know this is one Social Media Marketing Coach that just loves a good old fashioned application throw down.

It includes:

• Hootsuite Training/Certification
• Graduates added to a directory of “Hootsuite Certified Professionals” on Hootsuite.com
• Hootsuite Training Modules focused on social media strategy using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, WordPress, etc.
• Video-based module with PDF transcript, audio, and action guides
• Monthly webinar with a recognized Hootsuite user/brand sharing their case study using social media
• Interactive members only forum to connect, share ideas, receive feedback on social media and Hootsuite questions

All participants of the webinar series can sign up and get an introductory price of $27 a month. After the series is over, the price changes to $47 a month.

I think this is a pretty awesome way for Hootsuite to not only monetize their existence, but to really offer some decent social media training to users at a fair price. Hootsuite says they won’t be releasing content until May 1st, and it will be interesting to see what they have to offer and if becoming “Hootsuite Certified” helps people out in the job market.

I was pleasantly surprised when I logged out of Twitter earlier today and saw their newly revamped, dynamic homepage. Very pretty, very easy on the eyes. I loved it. What do you think?

I'm not so sure the web needs yet "another" all services in one application unless it quickly becomes the end-all, be-all application. To be honest, I don't see postling anywhere near that yet, although they are ahead of the game as far as this is the first service I've seen that actually let's you write a fully formatted and linked blog post that can be sent directly to whatever primary blog(s) you have.

I think Postling is just a little unpolished and needs to integrate with bookmarking services and several other top Social Media services to really start sprinting to the front of the line.

I still love HootSuite.com for it's complete integration package and statistics. Ease of use ranks pretty high there too. If HootSuite added blog post capability and brand tracking, I'd be tickled pink.

Until then, the search for that perfect Social Media Marketing management tool continues. Anyone out there have any suggestions or have one they use that is just the "dogs bollocks" ? Let me know, I'd sure love to hear about it. I'd even let you guest post and write about it on my blog.

What is Digg?

Digg is a social media news website that gives users the ability to share content from anywhere on the web. Users can submit links to stories and news items they find interesting, and vote and comment on links submitted by others.The popularity of an item is determined by users who have voted it up (called digging) or voted it down (called burying) using the toolbar that appears at the top of every user-submitted page or just browsing the links throught the website itself.

The homepage of Digg.com contains the most “Dugg” stories and there are manuy options to filter and browse through everything the site has collected in the 5 years since they began.

Why do I love Digg?

Partially, I have to admit, I just love the little Digg guy with his shovel. I think it connects with the gardener in me.  I love to dig. Give me a shovel, some soft fertile garden dirt in the warmth of the summer, a few plants and flowers, and I’ll be a happy little digger. Yeah, ok, I’m a dork.

The other reason I love Digg.com is the ease of submission. That hard working little Digg guy gets to work and looks to make sure someone else hasn’t already dug my submission. If they did, all I have to do is click DIGG! to add my vote to the rest and add that link to my Digg.com account. If they didn’t, the process for me to be the first to Digg is easy and painless. A nice 2 step process is presented to you.

Step One:
a. Enter the link.
b. Pick the type of link.

Digg Step One

Step Two:
a. Enter a decent eye catching, clear and concise title.
b. Add your “review” or description of the story to further enhance the title.
c. Pick a topic (category) for it. This is the only area I have a hard time with. I think Digg.com needs a few more Topic areas, or the ability to “tag” our submissions. Maybe someday.
d. Check the preview of your submission.
e. Fill out the “are you human” test.
f. Submit!

Digg Step Two

Digg Step 2 Continued

You’re done! You’ve dug! You have made the little Digg man happy and you can be off to find more stuff to Digg.

A Dugg Submission

Digg Plugins

There are some great Digg plugins available for WordPress and other blogs or some great copy and paste code to implement on just about any website out there. This makes it easy to integrate Digg into your online life and enable your user to promote your site easily.

Digg Traffic!

Last, but by no means the least, I like Digg.com for the quality traffic is can drive to your website. It does take a bit of work and maintenance to ensure that happens. You will need to participate in the Digg Community and continue to submit good quality links. Don’t just submit your own website links, make sure you submit other website stories you surf or read.

Personalize your Digg profile. Add a picture. Add some information about yourself. Make friends on Digg.com. Add them as favorites. Encourage your coworkers or circle of friends to Digg your content, and always reciprocate by digging theirs if they have any. Commenting on Dugg stories and having some good conversation about what’s been submitted is highly encouraged.

Good traffic takes time and with Digg it really is all about the participation.

So grab your shovel and start Digg’ing!

P.S. Don’t you think that little Digg guy needs a name? Dugg?

P.S.S. Don’t forget to Digg this post!

P.S.S.S. A special thanks to Larry Brauner for inspiration for this post.

Danny Brown:

“Sometimes, as marketers and/or business owners, we over-complicate matters and offer so many facts on ideas and products that none of them stick. Sometimes, the simplest of ideas work.

This ebook is a collection of simple ideas that may work for you. Enjoy.”

Why Simple Works by Danny Brown

Google Buzz has been making a very fast splash this past week creating a huge buzz around the interwebs. I jumped right in there on launch day and tried it out. Was easy enough to use but I didn’t like having to sign into my gmail account to use it. It was not, and still isn’t as of this writing, available on my Google Hosted account. I do not believe it ever will be. Strike one.

After a few days I signed back into my gmail to check things out (whereas had I had a client or separate app for it [at the time of launch], I might have just been there every day) and lo and behold: LOOK at all the followers!!! But WHOA there nellie … How did they find me? I didn’t know 99% of them. ACK! Stalkers! EEK! Strike two.

And where oh where is the stand alone client?? Why can’t I integrate it into my IM clients? Where is the FF plugin? WHY do I have to sign into gmail to use it?! Strike three.

So I turned my back on it until today. I figured I would let the buzz die down a little. (see how I do that wink, wink, nudge, nudge…) and soon Google would make changes (they did) and user’s would start to make requests (they did) and that there would be apps and plugins, and API playgrounds galore (there are).

On Saturday, four days after Buzz launch, Google posted a bunch of great changes and product manager Todd Jackson had this to say:

“It’s been an exciting and challenging week for the Buzz team. We’ve been getting feedback via the Gmail help forums and emails from friends and family, and we’ve also been able to do something new: read the buzz about Buzz itself,” Jackson wrote in a blog post. “We quickly realized that we didn’t get everything quite right. We’re very sorry for the concern we’ve caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback. We’ll continue to do so.”

Most importantly that adjusted that buzz-killer: auto-follow. That’s where my biggest concern about Google Buzz was.

Jackson:

“For the tens of millions of you who have already started using Buzz, over the next couple weeks we’ll be showing you a similar version of this new start-up experience to give you a second chance to review and confirm the people you’re following.”

Then there was the dreaded “Let’s display ALL your content to everyone!” fear. They squashed that too:

“Second, Buzz will no longer connect your public Picasa Web Albums and Google Reader shared items automatically. Just to be clear: Buzz only automatically connected content that was already public, so if you had previously shared photos in an “Unlisted” album or set your Google Reader shared items as “Protected,” no one except the people you’d explicitly allowed to see your stuff has been able to see it. But due to your feedback Buzz will no longer connect these sites automatically.”

Last but not least, they added a “Buzz” tab to the settings in your gmail account, so you could disable it all together if you didn’t want it.

Those are some great, QUICK strides by Google addressing the angry buzzing over Google Buzz. With the addition of the API and the developers Google Group for Buzz, I’m expecting some pretty cool things from this latest product of Google after all.

In addition to all of the above, I had the pleasure of listening to Gary Vaynerchuk on an Audible broadcast at Facebook, and asked him what he thought about Buzz. To paraphrase his response, he really “thinks they have something there. That the people behind it are sharp and we can expect to see some great things down the line.” I can believe that now.

Overall, I am very interested to see what Google Buzz has up it’s sleeves. Google Wave never really showed it’s silver lining to me – but I think Google Buzz has definite potential in the Social Media and Marketing realm.

If you want to connect with me on Google Buzz, hit me up at weberika at gmail.com.

The following is my current favorite list, and there’s still tons of other great plugins I don’t have listed here, but if I had to install a new blog, these are the first to go in.

Don’t forget to leave a comment and let me know what your favorites are!

Please note: The versions listed are as of the date of this post. There’s a few that could be redundant, but if you run several blogs, then you can pick and choose different ones to play with.

Add To Facebook
Adds a footer link to add the current post or page to a Facebook Mini-Feed.
Version 1.4.3 | By David Goldstein

Advanced Excerpt
Several improvements over WP’s default excerpt. The size of the excerpt can be limited using character or word count, and HTML markup is not removed.
Version 0.2.2 | By Bas van Doren

Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put in your template. See also: WP Stats plugin.
Version 2.2.7 | By Matt Mullenweg

All in One SEO Pack
Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog. Options configuration panel | Upgrade to Pro Version | Donate | Support | Amazon Wishlist
Version 1.6.10 | By Michael Torbert

CommentLuv
Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog by parsing the feed at their given URL when they leave a comment. Rewards your readers and encourage more comments.
Version 2.7.64 | By Andy Bailey

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
Generates a fully customizable sitemap
Version 3.15 | By Dagon Design

Exec-PHP
Executes code in your posts, pages and text widgets.
Version 4.9 | By Sören Weber

Facebook Comments TNG
A new and re written Facebook notes comments grabber.
Version 0.18 | By Phil Spencer

Facebook Posted Items
Goes all the way to Facebook and fetches the posted items to show them to you.
Version 0.3 | By Fepe

FeedBurner FeedSmith
Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
Version 2.3.1 | By FeedBurner

FeedBurner Widget
Adds a sidebar widget to easy customize and display your FeedBurner subscribers stats RSS button.
Version 1.2 | By Alexander Dichev

Feed Statistics
Compiles statistics about who is reading your blog via an RSS feed and what they’re reading.
Version 1.3.2 | By Christopher Finke

Feed Subscriber Stats
This plugin will show the number of subscribers according to FeedBurner.
Version 3.0.6 | By Allan Collins

Flickr Widget
A widget which will display your latest Flickr photos.
Version 0.1 | By Donncha O Caoimh

Gaboinked! Facebook Badge Plugin for WordPress
The Gaboinked! Facebook Badge Plugin for WordPress is a Sidebar Widget that displays a facebook Badge in the Sidebar of your self-hosted WordPress Blog.
Version 1.0.142 | By the Gaboink! network: George Jones

Google Analytics for WordPress
This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics with extra search engines and automatic clickout and download tracking to your WordPress blog.
Version 3.2.5 | By Joost de Valk

Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.
Version 3.2.2 | By Arne Brachhold

Maintenance Mode
Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end. Navigate to Settings ? Maintenance Mode to get started.
Version 4.4 | By Michael Wöhrer

The WordPress Bar
Seen the DiggBar on Digg.com? Add a similar feature to your WordPress blog by creating a navigation bar for all external links outside of blog. Also feature social network links such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and FriendFeed.
Version 0.6.2 | By Anthony Montalbano

Twitter for WordPress
Displays your public Twitter messages for all to read. Based on Pownce for WordPress by Cavemonkey50.
Version 1.9.7 | By Ricardo González

Twitter Friends
Displays a list of our twitter followers. Help and tutorials, go to Realhomeincomes.com
Version 1.2 | By Matt

Twitter Widget Pro
A widget that properly handles twitter feeds, including @username, #hashtag, and link parsing. It can even display profile images for the users. Requires PHP5.
Version 2.1.4 | By Aaron D. Campbell

UBD Block Ad Plugin
Let the blog owner add 125×125 block ads to their sidebar. Set your Block Ads here.. Questions on configuration, etc.? Make sure to read the README.
Version 1.1 | By Unique Blog Designs

What Would Seth Godin Do
Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and another to return visitors.
Version 1.7 | By Richard K Miller

WordPress.com Stats
Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.
Version 1.6.1 | By Andy Skelton

WordPress Admin Bar
Creates an admin bar inspired by the one at WordPress.com. Credits for the look of this plugin go to them.
Version 3.1.7 | By Viper007Bond

WordPress Online Automated Backup
Plugin that allows you to backup and restore your wordpress blog very easily. Read how it works before installing. Requires an account on WordPressBackup.com (free acounts available).
Version 0.8.2 | By LiquidStudios

WP Chameleon
Used for generating random copies of pages or articles for opt-in page optimization or article rewriting.
Version 1.13 | By Gustav Stieger

WordPress Related Posts
Generate a related posts list via tags of WordPress
Version 1.1.1 | By Denis

WP Security Scan
Perform security scan of WordPress installation.
Version 2.7.1.2 | By Michael Torbert

WPtouch iPhone Theme
A plugin which formats your site with a mobile theme for the Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android and other touch-based smartphones.
Version 1.9.7.6 | By Dale Mugford & Duane Storey (BraveNewCode)

Youtube Brackets
Insert YouTube videos in post using bracket method. Enables YouTube blogging to standalone wordpress setups.
Version 1.1 beta | By Robert Buzink

(WARNING: This is the R-rated version. If you are afraid of having to get your eyeballs washed out with soap, try this G-rated link: F-word Free Version)

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

A new study projects that internet advertising and access spending in the United States will total $78.4 billion in 2011, up from $47.2 billion in 2006, an average annual growth rate of 10.7 percent.

Click to read the Internet Spending article here.

Followed  by a bit more recent article published in February of 2008:

eMarketer predicts that online retailers in the US will ring up over $100 billion more in sales in 2012 than they did in 2007. Sales growth will come mainly from consumers who are shifting their spending from traditional retail stores to the Internet.

US Retail E-Commerce Set for Growth

The bottom line is that more and more consumers are moving online each and every day. That means that now more than ever, is the time to make sure your business has a presence online, whether you cater to a small local market or a larger global one.

Well I have to confess, I really don’t have a clue. I’m usually pretty snappy off the line on questions like this, especially since I’ve been in marketing for so long… but I never thought about what was the number one reason.

Of course I was embarrassed when I found out the answer:

The Number 1 Rule of marketing is to…

…give people what they want.

Well duh!

How could I have been so clueless? It was easy to see that.
Give them what they want, and you get what you want.

So what DO they want???

I’m sure you’ve been reading the newspapers, and following the headlines on TV. I’ve been listening to the Senate hearings, and the financial advisers for the US commenting on the state of the economy. It’s no secret these days, more and more people are being laid off. Heck, AT&T alone is cutting 12,000 jobs and here I thought they were doing great!

Yes, with the state of the union and the international markets, it’s pretty easy to figure out what people want these days.

People want Financial Security.

They want to be a part of a business that they KNOW will make them money in ANY economy. Heck, who doesn’t want that?

BINGO! as the light bulb went off in my head… BigTicketDepot.com! The perfect program! I haven’t really marketed any products on my blog yet, preferring to keep some of my internet marketing projects under wraps, but this one is pretty cool.

Here I am, at the forefront of a fantastic business opportunity. A business that can ride the financial roller coaster, because someone always wants or needs to sell something.

BigTicketDepot.com is going to be the hottest new online classified service to arrive on the net in a LONG time. Ebay is great, don’t get me wrong, but the marketing reach we will have with BigTicketDepot will be phenominal. The teams already in BigTicketDepot.com are gearing up for an all out assault on the internet.

Yes, bottom line, people need financial stability. A way to work for themselves without having to worry about being laid off. That’s why more and more people are turning to the Internet to make money. They want to learn to be their own bosses.

You don’t hear about any Internet marketers going broke do you? There’s an endless supply of products available to market, and more being added every day.

Despite the doom and gloom we keep hearing, 2009 is going to see a massive surge of online commerce. The trends have been going up and up and up over time. Billions of dollars are spent on the internet every year, in every category. Millions of new consumers get online every year with disposable income, even in this economy.

The only question that remains is thus:

Are you ready?

Are you ready to take full advantage of what will be one of the biggest growth booms in online marketing history? You can be in it from the VERY BEGINNING!

This is going to be huge. BigTicketDepot.com is slanted to fill a great niche in the marketplace, and all we can do is hang on for the ride. Contact me or click here to find out some more information.

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tips/2008/10/31/gmail_labs_adds_text_messaging_to_gchat-2.html

Excerpt:

Gmail’s latest Labs experiment adds an option to send SMS textmessages to contacts from the Google Chat sidebar, at no cost and with replies arriving as new chat lines. Like other Labs, you’ll have to enable it by heading to the Labs icon in your Gmail settings and enabling “Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat,” although the feature is apparently being rolled out gradually to users. Once enabled, you can type and choose a contact from the Chat sidebar and select “Send SMS” from the options that pop up to the right of their name, or select “Video & more” from the options dialog on a chat window. Enter a phone number, type your chat, and Google tells the recipient that they can reply like any other text. Gmail’s definitely making a play to become your all-in-one contact and messaging center, and free text messaging is a powerful tool to getting there.

Tools to make your Gmail better

What I thought was really great, was that the artists were not paid, however, Google donated an undisclosed amount of money to each of their favorite charities. The inaugural artist is Jeff Koons and Google had him fancy up the Google homepage for the occasion.

They say a few artists turned down the opportunity. Huh? Oh well. Read more here at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Now some would argue that even a negative post is good publicity, but still …

Check out the “Ford: Drive One” post at Mark’s blog.