Understanding Pinterest

If you’ve never used Pinterest, the concept is easy to grasp. Once you’ve created an account, you can ‘pin’ images to individual boards that you create. You can set each of these boards to a specific category, i.e. cooking, fashion, photography etc. and add as many images that you want. You can even share boards with other users and contribute content together. Anything you pin can be liked or ‘repined’ by any other user, more commonly your followers. Basically it’s just a way to build a collection of anything that sparks your interest.

How Pinterest have taken action against spammers

When Pinterest was fairly new on the scene, some people found it fairly easy to manipulate the system. For instance, following mass users in the hope that some would follow back. With no max follow limit and the use of automatic bots, these users could follow thousands of people per day. The use of automatic bots has become much more popular with social media sites this past year, especially Pinterest.  It was also very easy to submit content with an affiliate link (most notably amazon affiliates). So coupled with the use of automatic posting bots, these spammers were making a killing from Pinterest up to a certain point.

Since a popular spammer revealed his massive earnings, Pinterest has improved its system and upgraded its anti-spamming features. For instance, any user may only follow a maximum of 200 users pay day before being greeted with a ‘warning message’. It also blocks the use of affiliate URLs from major networks when submitting content. If you’re a legitimate user promoting a brand, it’s still possible to link to the sales page of your content.  Pinterest have also been cracking down on users with multiple accounts, although this is obviously very difficult when the users are using proxy servers.

Can you make easy money on Pinterest?

If you’re looking to make easy money on Pinterest then you’d better start building your time machine because the current outlook doesn’t look promising. Although if you do manage to build a time machine I’d suggest you visit a more historical period in time instead of 2010. Now if you’re looking for a way to compliment your brand’s website, Pinterest can be extremely useful. An official Pinterest account with a recognisable brand is obviously going to attract more users from the off. Affiliate URLs may be out the window, but if you’re linking to your website or perhaps even your sales page I can’t see why Pinterest would have a problem with that. Just be sure your target audience actually uses the thing.

Pinterest user demographics

As soon as you start using Pinterest regularly you’ll probably notice that pretty much all the users are female. I can’t guarantee that all these users are legitimately women because let’s face it, we’re on the internet. According to a recent study, over two thirds of the users are female, with the most popular age group being the 25 – 35 year olds. Plus a whopping 97% of fans of Pinterest on Facebook are apparently women. If your website specialises in mustache combs or home brew beer, it’s probably time to throw in the towel. With such a massive female user base, it’s no wonder clothes dealers, jewellery makers and interior designers are so popular on Pinterest.

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How Tumblr can promote your brand/website.

What is Tumblr?

Tumblr is a micro blogging platform. You can quickly share content with all of its users in seconds. Although most of you will associate Tumblr with bored teenagers, pretentious hipsters, spammers and SWAG enthusiasts, there is still a warm sense of community here. The most popular type of content shared on Tumblr is pictures. Although you can just as easily share articles, videos or audio, you’re more likely to be successful using Tumblr if your content usually involves images. For example humor websites, comic artists, painters, graphic designers etc. all thrive on Tumblr. I’ve been experimenting with Tumblr a lot recently and so far I’ve seen great results. The best thing about Tumblr is that it’s completely free to host a blog on!

Understanding Tumblr

Tumblr is pretty straight forward and easy to get the hang of. You create a blog on a subdomain, post content and gain followers, reblogs and likes. There is no limit to the number of users who can follow you, but you can only follow a maximum of 5,000. When you post content, it appears on your follower’s dashboard. If they reblog your post it will then appear on their blog so their followers can view it and so on. Another way for users to find your content is by searching tags. You can tag your posts with popular labels such as humor, fashion, art etc. if your tag is featured by the Tumblr staff your content will appear above everyone else’s content, albeit for a very small time.

What about SEO?

So when someone reblogs your content, it will appear on their own Tumblr blog with a link back to yours. This is great for content sharing but is it helping to rank your site? All the backlinks are under the same domain (Tumblr.com). This means it’s very easy to build up a ton of links in a short amount of time, which is why Google are pretty strict on Tumblr blogs. If you’re using Tumblr as the main platform for your blog, don’t expect any quick results on the search pages. You can use a custom domain name though, which is recommended if you want Google to take your blog more seriously. I suggest setting it up on a subdomain. This way it will still help to strengthen your domain whilst also being a fantastic tool to share your content.

If you want any more information feel free to leave me a comment below!

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The iPhone’s Struggle to Maintain Dominance

Human beings are funny old creatures. One minute they love something as if it’s the dearest thing in the world to them, and the next, they grow weary and seek greener pastures. One can find examples of this extraordinary tendency through the actions of the general consumer; always looking for an upgrade on what they already have. In technology, the field in which upgrading is the very essence, this is most apparent. One needs to look no further than the iPhone for proof. Each new release prompts speculation of what is to be expected with its successor. There are however signs that rather than eagerly awaiting its successor, many consumers are switching to a different phone brand altogether. After half a decade in control, we could be witnessing the decline of the iPhone.

Apple’s Mistake

Yes, it is very reasonable to suggest that tech consumers are slowly but surely growing rather tired of the iPhone. This is down to a number of reasons. Firstly, Apple’s last smartphone release, the 4S was just too similar to its predecessor. This is commercial suicide as similarity breeds weariness and familiarity breeds contempt. Apple would have been much wiser to either delay the release of the iPhone 4, and makee sure that it was sufficient enough to not require the 4S to follow it; or by not bringing out the 4S altogether. If there were no 4S, consumers – particularly those with an inclination towards Apple – would have most certainly been restless and may have even opted for other smartphone brands in the short term. However, the euphoria upon the next iPhone’s release would have been utterly sensational and Apple’s dominance eventually restored.

Rivals

The iPhone also suffers from the exceptionality of its rivals. The Samsung Galaxy S3 is a work of art and a technological beast, while the upcoming HTC One XXL is expected to be just as powerful. Furthermore, Apple’s very own iPad currently provides consumers with a device that can do everything the iPhone can do and more. Why would a consumer with an iPad look towards any iPhone deals?

This could all be meaningless talk if the next iPhone delivers something truly special. It will have to be utterly unique in comparison to its predecessors however and a landmark in mobile phone technology to really succeed. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.

David Adams

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The Must Have Android Apps For Bloggers

Blogging has become so popular nowadays worldwide that many users use their mobile phones as well for posting the content instantly. In fact, you don’t need a desktop or laptop when you have the most advanced phones like Android phones in your hands. Following are some of the best Android apps for bloggers

WordPress

Wordpress is one of most used blogging space by numerous people globally. The WordPress Android application lets you carry your blogging activities conveniently through your Android phone wherever you are. This app allows you to create, edit and publish posts, also lets you manage comments and view blog statistics – the similar way that you do on your laptop or desktop. In addition, WordPress Android app supports WordPress blogs that have been self hosted. It includes an elegant dashboard which makes switching between different options on the blog menu easy.

Tumblr

Tumblr Android application helps those who are much into micro blogging who depend on Tumblr to share their views. This application allows its users to do everything that they do from a desktop, but with the comfort of a smartphone. It lets you post text, video links, photos and so on. Tumblr also enables you to follow other tumblelogs of your interest, also to re-blog existing posts that you want onto your own tumblelog. This application offers an advantage of finding and following someone from your address book that are also present in Tumblr.

Blogger

Blogger application designed for those people who blog at Google’s Blogger space. Despite not being the full-flash version and missing a few formatting features, Blogger still allows its users to write and publish new posts easily on the move. This app also lets you include pictures and your location to the posts.

 Travel Blog

As in the name, Travel Blog makes your life easy if you are a travel blogger. It lets you blog about your present location along with a little description on it. Hence if you are using a travel itinerary that you like to blog about, Travel Blog app is helpful for you. This way, your blog followers as well can use your travel itinerary to plan their upcoming travels.

LiveJournal    

LiveJournal app is perfect for the users and fans of LiveJournal. It lets you access your journal on your smartphone and make the entries easily. Similar to its desktop version, this app too lets you post new entries and manage published posts and comments too.

Moby

Moby Android application allows video blogging too, other than text, audio and image posting. The best thing about Moby is that it distributes the blogs to 25 different websites and services that may include your favourite social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook and so on, services like YouTube, and blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger and so on. However, Moby app has got mixed user reviews hence it is advised that you do proper research before deciding on it.

Thus, if you like blogging and if you do not have to sit in front of a desktop, now you no more need to worry about it as you can continue your blogging activity from your Android phone too using the above apps! This has been a guest post, courtesy of Anna, who loves to blog on latest mobile technologies. To find out about her updates please view Cell phone surveillance!

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Three Essential Apps for The Professional Blogger In 2012

There are plenty of people who love to blog in their spare time, which is all well and good, but if you're someone who takes blogging as a professional pastime then you'll need to make sure that you have the best tools at your disposal. So, for starters you'll want to get yourself kitted out with the latest gadgets and gizmos for blogging from just about any location.

Next up, you'll also need to ensure that you've got a decent trio of software apps that will allow you to stay on top of your blogging duties, no matter what the time, location or indeed, device that you're using. With more professional bloggers now migrating to something like the iPad or a similar style tablet gismo, having a hand-picked selection of the right apps can make blogging better than ever.

Go for it!

So, you've got yourself the shiny new mobile device to help push your professional blogging activities to the fore, but what sort of apps should feature in a typical top three selection? Well, one of the best for producing scratch built blogs that not only look great but also give you all the powerful usability you'll even need has to be WordPress.

This is an app that comes with an excellent pedigree from the days when people used it in traditional desktop computer surroundings, while the mobile version is even better. There are plenty of tools for building pages, adding posts and then managing your blogging content over a longer period of time. What's more, it's been suitably optimised to work on mobile gadgets so you can update content and place new posts no matter what your geographical location.

Evernote is another one of those apps that somehow just works and seems to get a little better each time you use it. This is an app that helps professional bloggers, and those who aren't so professional too, stay on top of all of their posting chores. This is also an app that might not seem too fancy on the face of it, but it is such a practical software tool that once you've discovered its simplistic charms, you'll probably wonder how you ever got by without it.

And, finally, what about Twitter as a mobile blogging ultimate solution? While many people love to write lengthy blog posts and that's all well and good, there is still a fantastic appeal about being able to create and post short pieces that sum up an idea, option or experience to much greater effect. Naturally, the Twitter app has been perfectly honed to work on the bulk of mobile devices and is also well suited to helping people Tweet in the most awkward of surrounding's.

Add it all together

These might just be three apps, but they have a cumulative processing power that could transform the way you carry out your blogging activities. If you're looking to go mobile now, or in the not too distant future, then they're certainly three programs that should appear on your desktop, no matter what device you happen to be using.

Rob Clymo is an expert on all things mobile Apps and writes on behalf of www.broadbandgenie.co.uk, comparing everything from broadband to the best iPhone 4S deals!

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Cloudcache: Why It Can Grow Your Website Too

This is a guest post courtesy of Jason Case, an online lead generation website developer.

I was offered a Cloudcache trial a few months ago as part of a special promotion, and so far I've had a great experience with this service. Unlike most cloud hosting services, Cloudcache is a cloud caching service secured by secure socket layers (SSL's), which means that data sent from the Cloudcache server to end-users is encrypted. That's one reason why I chose Cloudcache, and the other reasons may surprise you:

Cloudcache Secure Socket Layer

I sell many products on my website, both as an affiliate marketer and first-party products like eBooks and coaching videos. PayPal takes too big of a cut of what each person pays so I've quit using PayPal for my financial transactions. Furthermore, many of the things I sell are bought in shopping carts, which need a SSL to work properly.

SSL's keep your content safe too

Sometimes you want somebody to pay to see content, and the content is your product. Often, they will have to log in with a username and a password to get access to your content. This username and password combination needs to be encrypted, but that's not all. The content itself needs to be encrypted or else they could just tunnel in and pick up unencrypted content, as long as someone else is receiving that content. Even if not many people are consuming your content (so it's unlikely that a tunneler will be able to find someone else who wants your content at the same time as they do) they can still set up automated listeners (much like tapping a phone call) that will download content that's sent from your domain while they are away from their computer. However, Cloudcache let me encrypt my content so this is not a problem for me.

Cloudcache doesn't cut corners on lower tiers

When I was looking for cloud hosting services, I noticed that many lower tiered plans had missing features. The higher tiers weren't necessarily more costly for the service provider, but they included things that are critical to a working cloud hosting service. Worse, some of them would give you the premium tiers' features with the starter tiers for a few months, and then take the features away. This seems like a good thing at first, but then you realize that the features they took away are critical to your cloud caching service. Had I chosen a service like this, I would have been tied into an expensive service just to use a few easy-to-provide features.

Cloudcache doesn't throttle speeds at lower tiers

Even though I did not get a premium tier, I still got good features. There was no cap on my download speed or anything like that. The main difference between Cloudcache's tiers is that the higher tiers give you higher amounts of storage and more bandwidth, but the speed at which people get content is lightning-fast at the basic packages too. The only feature you get with the higher tiered ones is a custom SSL that runs through your domain instead of Cloudcache's domain.

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Blogger: How To Lock/Unlock A Widget

While I was customizing my layout yesterday I noticed my Attribution (i.e. the text that reads ‘Powered By Blogger’) had somehow found itself stuck at the top of my Blog and wouldn’t let me highlight it and drag it to the bottom. After researching how to move it I realised that the widget was locked and a simple HTML modification would solve the problem.

Notice how the locked widget is greyed-out and can't be moved

Finding the right code in your HTML

To unlock a widget, first open up your HTML and make sure you tick ‘Expand Widget Templates’. If you want to find a widget that is locked, simply search for:

locked='true'

For instance the code for my Attribution widget looked like:

<b:widget id='Attribution1' locked='true' title='' type='Attribution'> 

To search for other widgets, change the widget id, or just search for:

Locked=

This will show you all the widgets which can be locked or unlocked. To make it locked change the value to true, or to unlock the widget simply change the value to false. Also, locked widgets can’t be removed, so if you were to unlock the Attribution widget, you can remove it although that may be against Blogger’s terms and conditions.

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How can I avoid poisoned well syndrome? Find out in this week's Future of Publishing!

In addition to last week's article about Profiting from Google Plus, here’s another post courtesy of Murray Newlands!

Many online publishers still follow the same format: They post content and people read it, and then moderate comments they receive. However, these days a lot of the conversation is taking place on social media, but publishers have little to no control over what direction the conversation is going.

In this week's Future of Engagement, Murray Newlands interviews Chris Saad, the Co-Founder and Strategy VP of Echo. Saad talks about how following this format in the age of social networking can make publishers lose touch with their readership:

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How can I use Google Plus's authorship capabilities to make my blog more profitable?

This is a guest post, courtesy of Murray Newlands!

In 2011, we saw for-profit web browsers make a comeback when Chrome, aided by a massive and questionable advertising campaign, knocked off Firefox to became the world's most popular desktop web browser.

Since the end of 2011, Google has aimed their sites on Facebook, firing the first salvo by tying its own social network into Google Search results and ramping up its Google Plus advertising campaign. However, this has also allowed bloggers to associate their blog posts with their Google Plus profiles, which has some advantages for the author. In the Future of Publishing premiere, VigLink CEO Oliver Roup, Influence People CEO Murray Newlands, and HupPages CEO Paul Edmonson discuss how Google Plus/Google Search integration is changing the content creation industry:

Why does Google Plus matter, and how can you use it to make your blog more profitable?

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