What are HTML Heading Tags?

Heading tags label your primary headline, which is an indicator to a search engine that it’s an important part of your page, making H1 tags for SEO useful. On top of that, it also provides a bolder look to your headline so that it can stand out among the rest of the text. The following is a block of text that shows the raw HTML coding for H1 tags and H2 tags:

<h1>How to Improve Your Business</h1>
<h2>1. Analyze the Competition</h2>
<h2>2. Test Your Content</h2>
<h3>Search Your Keywords</h3>
<h3>Test Other Keywords</h3>
<h2>3. Use an Email List</h2>
<h3>Sending Bulk Emails Without Spamming</h3>
<h3>Writing Electronic Newsletters</h3>

Different Types of Heading Tags

As is easily seen above, there are varying kinds of heading tags, though the above example only shows half of the six available (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6). These different headings dictate both the size of the text but also how important they are to the content. For example, the main headline — generally the title — requires an h1 tag to give it dominant importance. The primary sub-headings use the h2 tags, and secondary sub-headings within each section will get h3 tags, and so on.

Heading Tags for SEO

When you use HTML heading tags to dictate the importance of a heading, you simplify the process of the search engine crawlers determining the content on your web page; in other words, it takes the guesswork out for the search engine. Though it is not a requirement to use heading tags for the search engine to determine what your website is about, it definitely helps the process of guiding your customers to your content through a simple keyword search.

When you write your headings, make sure they feature your main keywords. Try to be as specific as you can be in order to increase your chances of gaining a good ranking on a search engine results page. Using general keywords or search terms often net poor indexing due to the simple fact that a whole host of other websites with greater traffic already use these terms. To help you with the process, you can use a research tool designed to figure out what are the most popular keywords in the industry of your web page content.

The following are a few examples of improving your headlines:

• General keyword: web design
  Specific keyword: web design training
  Headline: Web Design Training for Beginners — Learn How to Design Easily
• General keyword:  home decor
  Specific keyword: bedroom home decor
  Headline: Bedroom Home Decor Tips Improve Your Home Value

SEO Heading Checklist

Use this checklist to ensure you are properly using heading tags for SEO:

• Every page features at least one heading.
• Each page only has one h1 tag.
• The h1 tag is the first heading.
• The h1 tag features the main keyword of the page.
• Headings are used to structure the content as well as for visual effect.
• The headings do not suddenly skip, such as from h1 to h3 without an h2 tag.
• All other headings, except for the h1 tag, are merely used as sub-headings; they are preferably thematically connected to the heading tag preceding it.
• Headings are consistently used all around the website.

Of course, your headings are not the only parts of your web page the need optimization; after all, they make just a small portion of search engine optimization. There are a host of other key areas where you can help your rankings by incorporating your primary keywords and your text links, such as through the alt text of your photos and graphics on the website, through the links in the side bar, within the meta tags of your HTML code, as well as within the text of the actual article itself.

EMD means guaranteed front page results

This is most prevalent but absolutely wrong myth that exists with EMD domain holders. Perhaps you may see some results on front page but it only when you serve with uncompetitive niche. But from medium to high competitive niche    where other websites are actively targeting EMD keywords with good on-page SEO and back links then it is really hard to get ranking on the front page. You may have power of couple of words that your domain has but that alone would not be enough to reach front page.

No biased domain extensions 

Google says that there are not bias domain extensions but the results search results on most of the search engines depicts bias with .com, .net and .org. The maximum benefits are given to these sites. These does not mean that .co, .us, .tv, .biz do not attain good ranking. Typically, each domain carries some bonus ranking which has exact keywords in it. But lots of SEO have experienced the fact that .com, .org and .net rank better than other extensions.

Exact Match Domain with .com always rank better than other .TLD

You may feel this little witty but is true in most cases. Often SEO claims that there is no bias given to any particular TLD except if it has localized domains like .co, .ca, .aus, .uk which get better ranking in region specific version of Google. .com tends to rank higher than .org and .net. This is not clearly identified perhaps due to things like On-Page SEO and back links play significant role here. But the point reasoning why .com is given high preference in search results is because of the the brand favoring approach. These days, it is easily accepted that BRAND will have exact match with domain extension .Com. In favor of .com with EMD, Google give guarantee of being brand. If you type keywords in search box will tend to show high ranking with .com sites.

Reverse order of EMD gives you same benefit of EMD

This is again absolutely wrong belief. Reversing EMD does not give same advantage of Exact match domain. For example “TreatmentAcne” will not give you as much benefit as “AcneTreatment”. Even you will agree with this. Reversing EMD may give benefit of using keywords but do not seem to get EMD benefit. Again reversing EMD is not silent when you read it. It also let the world know that you were unable to secure right EMD and hence opted to reverse the EMD. In such cases, it is better to go for manmade brand name.

The only reasoning of this article is the fact that to get good keyword in .com, .net and .org is hard these days. If you still require it then you have to pay (possibly lot more) to acquire this asset. Such domain will turn out to be mark of quality in no time.

An article from Pritam Nagrale who blogs about SEO techniques, simple business ideas and blogging tips. If you are looking for more ways of making money, you can visit the blog Jobs8Home where you can find hundreds of best ways and tips to make money online.

With so much content, how do you make your brand stand out? How can you offer a unique article, video or blog post when so much has already been said?

This is probably the only time you will hear me say this, but put down your mouse and take a breather. It’s easy to get caught up in the scientific, “left-brained” way of doing things. We all want the exact formulas, proven tactics, and time-tested strategies to gain more traction on the internet and grow our business.

As a left-brained thinker myself, I often spend too much time over-analyzing my content. Are my headlines correct? Did I insert my keywords? Are the paragraphs too long?

Silence your left brain, even if for just a minute…

Are all of these effective content marketing strategies needed? Absolutely! But when they overtake your brain and “squish” everything else out of it, it’s time to regroup and start again.

Turn on Your Right Brain

Your right brain is your creative side. It doesn’t analyze, but acts more from the heart. It is where you dream and hope for the future and it is synonymous with a more emotional approach to life.

It is scary to turn on your right brain. Why? Because you are more vulnerable when you put yourself out there creatively.

Creativity is opposite to logic. Do you think an artist sits down and plans every one of the thousands of brush strokes before he starts painting? He will have a general idea of the vision before he begins, but his right brain does most of the work.

If you have been marketing for a while, you are most likely aware of the tips and tricks to writing great content. And these tips should always be at the forefront of your mind.

But there is a tipping point that takes your content and makes it leadership quality.

What is that tipping point?

Over the years I discovered from observing industry leaders and influencers that along with offering valuable content, these leaders have a specific personality when they write. They instill their unique traits into every piece. They know who they are, whom they are servicing and they aren’t afraid to show it.

It takes a bit of confidence to build your content in this manner.

Here is what you need:

• See yourself as an asset people will value.
• Know your best qualities and instill them into your brand.
• Be confident in your ability to know your audience and be transparent enough to speak directly to them.

Be Yourself!

Everyone wants to fit in. This is a basic tenet of human nature. But if you create content that is “normal”, your article will never leave the Ezine archives. You must stand out with uniqueness!

And the only thing unique about your content is YOU!

We are all different, with varying personalities, talents, gifting, abilities and life stories. We all have stories to tell, from crises to triumphs and everything in between.

Now, I’m not suggesting you write an article about when your daughter was just born to your audience of SEO professionals, but I am suggesting being more transparent and letting your unique personality become more evident.

People don’t want to read another boring article; they want real substance. And real substance can only come from a real person. And you can only show readers you are a real person by showing them your real personality. Get it?

If you are having a little trouble accessing your unique traits, do this small exercise.

• Ask your friends and family to list three traits they love about you
• Pay attention to your daily routine and what you are good at or the activities in which you excel.
• Notice your attitude and personality with the people in your relationships. Are you comical? Sensitive? Tender? Edgy? Opinionated?
• What are words that describe you? Take an online personality test and discover what makes you tick.

When you complete this exercise, you will have a series of words that, in essence, describe YOU. This is an essential aspect of your brand.

When you craft content on the web, don’t leave these traits at the door because you think you won’t be accepted by your audience. Don’t make this mistake…most marketers do and they never achieve the results for which they are looking.

The next time you craft a piece of content, consider writing it as YOU and no one else. It might take some practice, but the more comfortable you are with yourself and what you offer to the world, the more comfortable your audience will be with your content and your business will grow with less effort.

Good Luck!

I’d like to attempt to convince you to rethink your methods for creating a landing page from a human perspective. I have seen astounding results with a/b split tests when a site starts to look at things from the eyes of their customers. The funny part is; usually that also helps optimize for search engines!

How to Build the Landing Page:

There are thousands of guides available around the Internet that have gone through painstaking amounts of work to create a formulaic answer to this question. For example, you’ll hear commonly that you need a call to action above the fold, or to avoid confusing the eye by a certain factor. I like to focus on major principles of effective design, and then let the creativity take over so I can build. Again, I’d like to stress that people should be the aim, and let the search engine fall as it may.

First, I like to decide on an exact function for a landing page before sitting down to create it. Every website has some sort of purpose, some way to convert visitors, and you want to first plan out how you want people to get a user from a visitor to a customer.

Then, you need to quickly and succinctly grab the attention of your visitors to drive them toward that goal. The easiest way that I have found to do this effectively is to highlight the benefits you are offering. Create a good opening paragraph to peak interest and have a small call to action directly in the text. After this first opening, you are going to have users split into two major categories; visual users and mental users. There are going to be people that process visual information better than text, and vise-versa.

The problem with this is because you can’t possibly pack all of the text and visual information that you want on a single page without losing your visitor. Instead, I recommend sending the user to an intermediary page that suits their learning style. Essentially, you need to send the visual people to a page with lots of informational graphics, and the mental users to a page with a ton of hard data that is easy for them to absorb. The general rule to stick to is to send either user to a page that loads quickly and has valuable and unique information.

So for the landing page, give a taste, and do not mislead your customer at all. This is the first part of a three-step process to make someone convert, so take the time to try and enter the mind of your visitor. Answer their questions using his or her words, and make them come back to the site over and over.

The Intermediary:

In between the landing page and your converting page are two different types of intermediary pages, one for your visual users, and another for the more analytical users. The way the two pages are structured will differ greatly, but the essential message has to remain the same. You have successfully taken people from your landing page, and they are looking for more information, so on this page you want to give them what they are looking for, and give them a reason to convert.

For the analytical mind, you want a text-heavy page with a lot of great data. These types of people are like myself; they read often, they like to absorb things cerebrally, and want to make informed decisions. For a page like this, case studies, real-world analysis, and testimonials are perfect.

For the visual mind, you want a picture-filled page that gets across the benefits of your product or service. This type of person wants to feel that they are making the right decision to convert, and that by doing so they are improving the quality of their lives. Info graphics are the way to go here, as you are aiming to create a feeling of fulfillment, more than trying to justify your decisions with hard data.

Far too often do I see the idea that you are looking for the page that will appeal to all users, and I do agree that it is possible through massive amounts of research and testing, but if you are looking to create a goal funnel from scratch, try your best to speak in the language that will engage your customers, even if you have to do it through different methods.

The Conversion Page:

The final step to any landing page is the final goal to any website, which is to drive conversions. Whether you are looking for users to sign up for a newsletter or purchase something, this page is generally similar regardless of goal.

By this point, your users have read a couple of different pages on your site, and have made the decision to finish the process, so thank them! I was a marketing major, and so customer service is a paramount concern of mine; if someone didn’t bounce from my site, and has made it to the converting page, they are a valued visitor to me. Even if they don’t end up converting, they have supplied valuable data for Google Analytics through in-page and the set goal funnel.

After they are thanked, this page is basically a large sale flyer to encourage buying. Have a small graphic for the visually oriented, and a last testimonial or data point for the analytical minds, and make your call to action. We could go on for days as to what makes your page convert, but essentially it comes down to trial and error. Every single website is different, and constant testing and research with improve your conversion rate over time.

There are a ton of different ways to use software to help you in your task, but I would like to steer you away from total solutions. I have found that the more complete a piece of software seems to be, it loses some of the really specific management that you really want to automate. Instead of looking for a solution to take care of all of your needs, I would recommend a Bid Management System alone.

A bid management tool allows you to manage PPC campaigns across multiple search engines and modifies your bids according to pre determined filters. For example, having a bid automation program will allow you to set the times of the day that your site does not get a lot of traffic and automatically bid lower during those times. As long as your spending remains constant over a certain amount of time, you shouldn’t lose positioning, but you will be spending your money where it is more likely to convert.

Are any Automation Tools Worth It?

I have seen arguments from both sides of this issue having serious merit; some feel that a base of automation with human oversight is the most effective use of time, while others feel that total human engagement is the only way to succeed. Personally, I disagree that total human interaction is the best way to manage PPC campaigns, because of the statistical element to advertising.

If our job is to best predict the Google Algorithm AND create compelling ads to bid up, then doesn’t it stand to reason that there are statistically correlated “better” and “worse” ways to go about it? If that is true, then by removing the human element in some respect, some of your processes are going to be more accurate. This said, I feel that in
certain situations, using the cold logic of a piece of software can better optimize than any human.

For example, one of my clients wants to optimize for expert car mechanic, which is an incredibly competitive term. Furthermore, there is an understanding that this keyword is really low converting overall, so my client decided to pursue the keyword for the traffic that it will get them. In this situation, the automation tool is absolutely perfect; after you set all of the filters and the settings in the program itself, and since you aren’t optimizing for conversions, letting the bid automation take over will predict any statistical advantage better than any human could.

The Downside to Automation

Bid management can be a useful tool, but there are some downsides to automation of any kind. The biggest problem I find is not with the functions that the program covers, but more with what it fails to see.

Here you can see that although the bids are being strategically placed, the program doesn’t recognize a poor investment. When I take over a PPC campaign, I can immediately spot if it was automated because there are going to be a ton of these types of keywords.

Whats happening here is that although the bid is being automated, most programs cannot distinguish between a good keyword and one that just converts well. The problem with these keywords is that although there is a low search volume, there is a moderate click through rate, which is one of the filters in the program. These keywords are for transmission repair, and even if there is a 1.18% CTR, with less than 100 searches per day for this geographic region, these clicks are entirely too expensive, and will be deleted.

On the other hand, using a tool to manage long-tail keywords can pay off HUGE. For many keywords, there is a fair amount of money that can be made if you aim after the long-tail keywords. Since long-tail keywords are lower competition, you can leave them more automated than other keywords that require constant changes on a more regular basis.

The Results:

Of course, there is no absolute answer as to whether automating a part or all of your process will net you greater results. Simply put, there are far too many variables to make a definitive answer one way or another. However, I do feel that leveraging the strengths of an automated system to instantly react to predetermined filters and to recognize statistical patterns is unbeatable.

I’d recommend that you let the machine be a machine, and leave the deductive reasoning to the human element. You’ll be a stronger manager overall!

Joomla is an excellent Content Management System (CMS). This means that Joomla is a great tool to deploy for non-technical individuals to manage, add content, add users and basically take over the management of the site, once built. However, developers that simply deploy the default version of the Joomla package find that, without some alterations, Joomla is not at all search engine friendly.

Making Joomla search engine friendly is not a difficult task. Many free, open source tools are available to optimize Joomla sites. Start by installing a few Joomla SEO plugins just after you deploy the Joomla site.

Optimizing Joomla During Installation

The first step to take is to install a few additional installations when you initially deploy the Joomla site. First, make sure to install the most recent version of Joomla. Next, install three open source SEO tools.

1. SEF Patch
2. openSEF
3. Joomap

These three Joomla SEO modules will enable you to configure the site to be search engine friendly.

Installing the SEF Patch

The SEF Patch installs to the core of the Joomla deployment and allows you to configure keywords and descriptions in every menu and every content page. In addition, the SEF Patch will format the title correctly for listing in Google and other search engines. The page titles are not correctly formed with just the default deployment of Joomla, which is one reason the default installation is not search engine friendly. The SEF Patch provides Joomla SEO templates and displays these templates in menus throughout the site.

Simply install the SEF Patch according to the instructions. No further configuration is required. Find the SEF Patch and instructions for installation at JoomlaAtWork.com.

Installing openSEF

The openSEF extension rewrites the internal Joomla URLs as external, SEO friendly URLs. To install and the openSEF extension, log onto the Joomla site with administrator credentials so you see the “Site” option in the menu. Click “Site,” and then click “Global Configuration.” You will see several tabs, with each tab displaying a section of the Global Configuration page. Click the “SEO” tab. The “Search Engine Optimization” tab opens. Click the “Yes” radio button next to “Search Engine Friendly URLs” option. Click the “Yes” radio button next to the “Dynamic Page Titles” option.

Next, change the content in the “.htaccess” file from “Integrated SEO” to “3rd Party SEO.”

Next, install the openSEO extension by clicking the “Installers” option on the top navigation bar while logged in as administrator. Click “Components” from the dropdown list. A page enabling you to browse for the openSEO extension package opens. Click the button and browse to the extension. Click “Upload and Install.” The extension is now installed.

Configuring openSEF

Configure openSEF using the video tutorial provided by EasySiteGuide.com. Once configured, to not rename any content items or categories. If you are listed in Google, changing the names of your content items or categories will cause your page to be ranked lower.

In addition, if you install any additional components, check to see if openSEF extension are available for the components. Doing so will ensure that your extension pages are search engine friendly, too.

Installing Joomap

Joomap automatically creates a site map for the Joomla deployment. First, download the Joomap tool from EasySiteGuide.com. Next, log onto the Joomla site with administrator credentials. Install the extension according the instructions provided with the download. Create an entry in the “Components” menu that points to Joomap. Click “Components,” and then click “Joomap.” Joomap Configuration interface opens. Click the “Menus” tab to show the “Menus” configuration page. Select which menus will be included in the site map. Use the “Reording” tool to order the menus as you see fit.

Next, click the “Display” tab. Type “sitemap” in the “CSS Classname” input box. Make sure all other options have the corresponding checkboxes checked. Make sure to preface your site’a live path URL in the configuration.php file with “WWW.”

Finally, add the sitemap URL to Google and any other search engine for which you want to the site spidered. The sitemap URL is found in the “Back-End Administrator” section in the Joomap “Settings” menu.

Clean Up the Joomla Deployment and Configure for SEO

Now that you have installed all of the search engine optimization extension, go through the site and remove any unused content pages, content items and menus. Configure the “Metatags” for each page. With SEF Patch installed, you will now see the options to do so in the page menus.

Go through the site and click on every single hyperlink to initiate openSEF’s list of search engine friendly URLs. For further explanations of how to deal with URLs and duplicate names/IDs, view the EasySiteGuide.com video here.

After installing and configuring these three extensions, the Joomla deployment SEO settings will be search engine friendly, crawled by search engine spiders and effectively ranked in the search engines of your choice.

The clickthrough rate (CTR) equates to the number of clicks on a link divided by the number of followers. The higher the clicks, the higher your CTR.

As a former chemist, I like to see the results of scientific data instead of relying on word of mouth predictions that are shaky at best. Since entering the world of internet marketing and content writing, while I appreciate the myriad of opinions, I value some scientific data to back them up. You can take the scientist out of the lab, but you can’t take the lab out of the scientist.

Dan Zarrella, cleverly named “The Social Media Scientist”, has taken the guesswork out of social media and applied the scientific method to his testing. He tests metrics and releases the results via colorful infographics.

His recent test measured tweet CTRs which revealed some interesting trends. He analyzed more than 200,000 tweets and presented the information graphically. Here is a summary of what he found:

Length of Tweets

While Twitter allows140 characters per tweet, the ideal tweet will contain fewer characters. Dan found that the highest CTRs occurred with tweets containing between 120 – 130 characters.

It can be hard to compose sound bytes of valuable information in 140 characters, never mind 120. Thankfully, the short tweets (<100 characters) were less successful so you can hold off on chopping your tweets for now.

Don’t use this as a hard-fast rule. If you have something groundbreaking to say in less than 120 tweets, then by all means do it. Use these points as guidelines.

Links

Dan analyzed whether link placement affected CTRs. His data shows the highest impact when links are placed 25% of the way through the tweet.

This data seems to coincide with normal internet user habits. Attention spans are nonexistent for internet users and links placed at the end may not make the grade.

Does this mean that a link should accompany every tweet? Definitely not. In fact, Dan tested this (see next image). Play around with the links in your tweets and notice your CTRs when you change their position.

Dan also found that the number of links can affect CTRs.

Word Use

Tweets containing the words or symbols “via”, “@”, “RT”, “please”, and “check” enjoyed higher CTRs than tweets void of the same words. Tweets containing the words “@AddThis”, “@GetGlue”, and “Marketing” performed worse than tweets void of the same words.

Amazingly, some words increased CTRs by more than double and triple.

The new automatic “re-tweet” button makes it easier to re-tweet, but it excludes the letters “RT”. Re-tweet the traditional way or share the content with @via and the originator’s name and see if you notice any increase in engagement.

Paper.li

Paper.li is an online content aggregation system. Daily posts include the words, “daily is out.” Dan found these words to have the greatest positive effect on CTR—more than all of the other words he tested.

I have not used Paper.li but would be interested to hear if anyone has noticed an increase in CTR as a result. Please post in the comments below if you are using it.

Verbs and Adverbs

Time to dust off the cobwebs and go back to 3^rd grade English. Tweets with adverbs and verbs garnered higher CTRs.

What is an adverb? Remember when your teacher told you that any word ending in”ly” is an adverb? Use colorful adverbs before your verbs to give them emphasis. Consider these two statements:

#1 – Businesses are becoming more aware of the benefits of internet marketing

#2 – Businesses are progressively becoming more aware of the benefits of internet marketing

Statement #2 adds a little more personality and intrigue. Try it and see how it works for you.

Tip: Tell your audience what to do with your verbs…”Take a look” at this article, or “Check out” this article.

Tweet Times

When is the ideal time to tweet? Dan found Friday, Saturday and Sunday to be the ideal times to tweet. Also, tweets posted later in the day enjoyed higher CTRs than tweets posted earlier.

This data is a general guideline. Test your tweets to determine the best time for your specific target audience. This data may work for the masses, but if your audience is stay-at-home mothers or night shift workers, you can see where this may need to be altered.

The Bottom Line

This data is certainly helpful, but each business will need to discover its own unique formula. CTRs are not the only measurable data points. Some stats cannot be measured, like what tweet caused someone to search for your name in Google or what post struck a chord with a potential lead who did not click a link. Not every tweet will contain a link and some may move a lead one step closer to working with you regardless of whether he/she took a measurable action.

Can you think of any more data points that would be helpful to measure?

When Facebook offered a glimpse at its new Timeline user interface back in September of 2011 during its fourth annual F8 Convention, many attendees were struck with awe. Developers and entrepreneurs at the conference welcomed the radical makeover, and tech journalists raved about it in the days to come. The official launch of Timeline for all Facebook users began in earnest just before the end of 2011, and about a month later the prominent online social network warn its members that Timeline would be the new de facto layout and user interface.

The initial enthusiasm surrounding Timeline last year began to fade in opinion polls as soon as Facebook announced that the change was non-negotiable. Early adopters weren’t fazed by the seemingly stern notice on January 24th advising members that once the mandatory Timeline is activated as part of their profile, they will have seven days to preview it. It is within this window that members will be able to add, hide or modify information and media before anyone else visits their profile and sees it.

Once the mandatory announcement was made, the original love given to Timeline quickly began to fade among the 800 million Facebook members. Tech media sites that conducted online polls and surveys to gauge the sentiment just a week after the announcement found that only about half of those surveyed had adopted Timeline, most weren’t thrilled with it and in fact wished that it remained optional. Some members cited privacy concerns, while others simply did not enjoy the way old information is organized and displayed by Timeline.

As Facebook gets ready for its debut on Wall Street, the company is moving forward with Timeline as its new user interface. For those of you who feel uncomfortable with this paradigm change, there is solace to be found in the following ten tips that help users manage how their profile and information will appear to the rest of the world:

1 – Privacy:

If you are concerned about strangers and other people outside your social network looking into our Timeline, you should click on the “Limit Audience for Old Posts” option located in the privacy settings page and follow the steps to manage and limit the visibility of past posts.

2 – Subscribers Instead of Friends:

You don’t have to be Facebook friends with everyone, and you don’t need to be buried underneath a deluge of friend requests. You can now allow people to subscribe to your activity feed and you can determine just how much they can see on the subscriber tab of Timeline settings.

3 – Hide Information:

Timeline organizes your information in a way that’s intuitive and efficient, meaning that it’s now easier than ever for someone to dig into your past and find embarrassing or incriminating information to share across different social media platforms. You can prevent this from happening by simply clicking on the pencil icon that appears next to each Timeline item and hide it.

4 – Highlight Your Photos:

In an era when even cheap cell phones have high resolution cameras and free photo editing applications are easy to obtain, it is almost inexcusable to have a poor picture as the main Timeline photo. If you can’t spend too much time with your photos, check out the different Facebook apps available for Timeline customization.

5 – Geotagging:

The Timeline world map does not only show where you are at any given time, it also lets you tag photos geographically in retrospect. If you have pictures of different places you have visited over the years, Timeline allows you to organize them chronologically on the map.

6 – Isolate Your Timeline:

This is by far the most stringent privacy feature of Timeline. It is found within the privacy settings and it allows members to selectively block their profiles by simply entering the names specific members.

7 – Control Your Activity Log:

Since Timeline makes it easy for the world to know what you are up to at any given time, it is important to control the items that can be displayed and shared across the Timelines of your friends. The new activity log options allows you to label items that are spam, remove them entirely, or even disassociating yourself from any discussions, photos, posts, or videos in which you have been tagged.

8 – New Full Size Video Option:

Videos can be highlighted in the new Timeline whether they have been uploaded or shared by others; all it takes is a simple click of the star that appears next to video to bring up the resizing options. Once the size of the video has been adjusted, it will remain that way until changed again. This is a great option for brick-and-mortar businesses that wish to play up their goods, services or their storefront.

9 – Change Cover Photos Anytime:

If you are a person on the go for reasons of travel or leisure, it is always a great idea to visually update your status with a photo. The new Timeline allows you to easily change your photo from a mobile device by loading the Facebook app and clicking on the cover photo icon. This will in turn activate your device’s camera and allow you to take the desired cover photo for immediate upload.

10 – Eliminate Clutter:

The new Timeline is very keen on sharing and displaying real-time feeds anywhere you may be within the site. The ticker on the upper right and the chat window on the lower right form a sidebar that can be distracting, but it can be easily hidden by clicking the button located near the bottom right corner of the web page.

Julia is a blogger for InMotion Hosting, a virtual private servers provider in North America.

Business social networks can help companies reach out to new customers and to keep in contact with existing ones. Many companies use social media for customer support and for gauging reaction to newly introduced products.

Here is our list of the 10 best social business networks.

1. Facebook

Although not specifically focused on business users, Facebook is the world’s largest social website. Almost all large corporations have a presence on Facebook and many companies have multiple pages on this platform. The idea on Facebook is to interact regularly with your community of friends to include existing customers and people interested in your company.

2. Twitter

Twitter is also not specific for business use, but it is too big for companies to ignore. Twitter differs from Facebook in that the format only allows short status updates similar to those used for texting. For this reason, Twitter is popular with young people that grew up with texting. Many celebrities use Twitter to reach out to fans and companies are increasingly turning to the site for customer and technical support.

3. LinkedIn

This site is specifically for business people and professionals. LinkedIn is a perfect platform for companies looking to hire new employees and contractors or to find partners and investors. The platform is less appropriate for outreach to customers or potential customers unless you have a business-to-business organization.

4. YouTube

The video hosting website offers companies a great vehicle for offering multimedia productions in video format. For example, you could produce videos that highlight products or that demonstrate how to use products. YouTube provides businesses with a free platform for publishing TV-like advertisements. However, for your videos to get watched, you will need to expand your social network so people can find your links.

5. Flickr

Flickr is a photo hosting website that allows you to upload pictures of your products, business property, employees, events, etc. You can best employ this website together with other platforms on your business social network list like Twitter.

6. StartupNation

Startups can use this website to connect with other entrepreneurs that are launching new businesses. The site offers many services including seminars, podcasts, blogs, forums and articles focused on the subject of starting up a business. The site also offers competitions that act as incubators for new business ideas.

7. PartnerUp

As the name implies, this platform is for the business social network list of those looking for new partners. Whether you are seeking new investors or contractors to help with specific jobs, this network allows you to specifically ask others for the services or resources that you need. Users can also offer advice on how to find new partners and investors. PartnerUp is more for small and medium-sized businesses and they have a Resource Directory for placing ads and RFPs.

8. Klout

The Klout website is more about measuring your social influence online, but it also has direct social networking functions. As a Klout member, you can discover the reach of your social marketing campaigns along with the influence of your social community. This is a great way to see whether your efforts are working although it does not offer any method for measuring ROI in dollar terms. You can increase your social clout by interacting with other Klout users including providing recommendations for others based on their fields of expertise. The idea is to get friends in your network to reciprocate and recommend you as well.

9. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

Mechanical Turk is a crowd-sourcing social platform. Many business social networks cater specifically to other businesses and professionals looking for services. At Mechanical Turk, you can find people offering to perform a wide range of tasks for a fee. Amazon takes a 10 percent commission on all transactions.

10. Google+

In the future, Google+ may rank higher on the list of the best social business networks, but for now, people are still watching the new platform. Google has tried many times before to break into social media in a big way, but with limited success. The new site is very much like Facebook, but it offers ways to group friends into different “Circles” for easier management and interaction.

With this list of social networks for business, you will be well on your way to establishing a strong social presence on the Internet. Remember that effective social networking requires that you interact with your online community on a regular basis. Stale social media pages become practically useless. By providing your friends, fans and other community members with regular updates and content they will come to look for news from you consistently.

Learn how to post information on your products or services, or just any news that pertains to your business. For example, a sporting goods store could post interesting news articles from the sports world so that friends come to expect such stories.

A Joomla shopping cart package provides a Joomla shopping cart template that is styled with the existing Joomla theme. To perform a Joomla shopping cart review, the five popular shopping carts are examined to determine their best features, as well as those factors that may be lacking in the Joomla shopping cart package. The best Joomla shopping cart is really determined by the needs of the site. With enough information, however, the site administrator may be able to select the best Joomla shopping cart for their particular site and customer base.

Joomla Shopping Cart Review

Simple Caddy (link)

Simple Caddy is perhaps the most popular open source Joomla shopping cart. This very powerful extension allows the administrator to easily deploy the extension and create an online store within minutes. Simple to use and understand, Simple Caddy utilizes the theme and format of the existing Joomla platform. No need to re-apply the theme to the shopping cart pages. This extension is very straightforward to use and easy to administer, and the administrator is able to set up the extension to automatically deposit funds generated from the store directly into a Paypal account. The main advantage of Simple Caddy is that this is the extension that is optimal for Joomla site administrators that want to sell only a few products on their site. Simple Caddy provides ecommerce functionality for selling a few items, without the need to deploy a full featured ecommerce extension and setting up an entire store.

Tienda (link)

Tienda is another popular open source Joomla shopping cart template. Tienda is also easy to deploy and use. However, Tienda must be themed to match the current Joomla site design. Theming is simple, though. Built on the MVC framework, the administrator themes the Tienda shopping cart extension in the same simple way that the Joomla site is themed. One of the major advantages to the Tienda extension is that it provides full online store functionality. Tienda is a complete shopping cart solution with all the features of a complete shopping cart system, such as Zen Cart or OpenCart.

iJoomla DigiStore (link)

The iJoomla DigiStore is not open source software. However, for the $79.95 price, this extension is well worth the money. If selling digital or downloadable goods on the Joomla site, this Joomla shopping cart extension is the optimal choice. This extension is a fully functional ecommerce platform that supports all popular methods of payment and provides easy access once a customer has purchased a digital product. Deliver digital music, documents and other downloadable content easily through this extension. This extension deploys in minutes and does not require a merchant account for processing payments.

AyelShop (link)

AyelShop is yet another popular open source Joomla shopping cart extension that is easy to deploy and use. AyelShop integrates OpenCart with Joomla features to create a complete ecommerce platform. If the Joomla administrator is experienced with OpenCart, this package is the best choice. AyelShop is a full featured, complete online store. The developers of the software literally rewrote the OpenCart package as a Joomla extension to create this shopping cart.

VirtueMart (link)

VirtueMart is another popular and widely used open source Joomla shopping cart template. This extension provides several plug-ins for shipping, payment, custom product fields, payment and rules for calculation. Perhaps the most developed and widely used shopping cart extension for Joomla, VirtueMart is great for site administrators that seek all of the functionality of an ecommerce system, such as Zen Cart, with the integration capabilities of a Joomla extension. Deploying VirtueMart may take some time. As with configuring a fully featured shopping cart package, such as Zen Cart, each category, item, price, shipping rule and custom field must be set up prior to use. Though the administrator will spend a significant amount of time with the initial setup of VirtueMart, this extension provides the widest range of options for those who seek to deploy a complete ecommerce solution that integrates with the Joomla platform.

Joomla Shopping Cart Comparison

Each of the Joomla shopping carts reviewed has its own features that will make each package optimal for just about every given need of the site administrator. For selling digital products, iJoomla DigiStore is the best choice. If the Joomla site administrator seeks to sell one or two ebooks on the site, Simple Caddy would be the best choice. If the site administrator is experienced in working with the OpenCart package, AyelShop would most likely be the best choice. Tienda and VirtueMart provide full featured ecommerce store functionality, but both require significant setup and configuration time.

To select the best Joomla shopping cart for your needs, think about how many items, as well as the type of items that will be sold on the site. Consider the learning curve of the site administrator, should they be required to learn an unfamiliar package. Finally, think about the time required to set up the shopping cart extension, add inventory, configure payment and shipping methods, and creating specials and coupons to offer customers. Once you have examined your specific needs, the Joomla shopping cart best suited for your needs should become apparent.