Do You Stumble?

Social Media has taken the Web (and the world) by storm. Most small businesses are already taking advantage of a number of free Social Media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace and others.

However, there's more to Social Media than Social Networking sites. There's also something known as "Social Bookmarking" sites. If you're not taking advantage of this fad, you probably should be.

While there are literally dozens (perhaps hundreds) of Social Bookmarking sites, today's post will feature my personal favorite: www.stumbleupon.com.

Here are the Top 5 Reasons You Should Stumble...

1. It's free to set up your account. You can add a photo, a bio, links to your blogs or website(s), etc. While you're creating your account, make sure to choose a MINIMUM of ten subjects. I recommend that you choose half of the subjects based on interest, 25% based on necessity of information and the remaining 25% to learn something about an area you have little knowledge and/or interest in. It's great for broadening your horizons.
2. You can build a pretty nice following! Be sure to invite your friends. They'll search your email account contact lists, Facebook friends, etc. so that you can build a bigger presence on the site. This will come in handy when you want to bookmark your own sites, articles or other areas you want to drive traffic to.
3. It's a great way to creatively kill time when you're in between projects, assignments, waiting for a phone call or email, etc.
4. You can increase your own traffic and followers by writing reviews and in-depth comments on the things you thumb up or discover on the site.
5. It's a great source of inspiration! If you've got a pretty targeted list of topics, you can easily find the ammunition you need to create a great blog post, an article, newsletter materials, etc. Never encounter writer's or creativity block again!

We'll deal with Social Bookmarking more in-depth later. With so many different sites to choose from and account to open, I understand that it can get a bit overwhelming. It really helps to start small. Once you see the benefits that just ONE social bookmarking site can offer your small business on a shoestring budget, you'll want to join them all.

But just to get your feet wet, I highly recommend you set up your profile and start stumbling now! Add me to your friends and we can keep each other motivated, inspired and practically procrastinating for months and years to come!

Come follow FemerPie (that's me!): http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/FemerPie/

The Weekend "BONUS POST"

If you're looking for a creative way to spend your "free time" this weekend without letting it go totally to waste, there's a great new Beta site you might want to bookmark...

It's known as www.bulbstorm.com and you can create a free profile and get busy brainstorming bright (and not-so-bright) ideas for your small business. Depending on your privacy settings, you get feedback, ideas, votes and other forms of constructive criticism that can help turn a harebrained idea into a solid money-maker.

Take some time this weekend to get familiar with the site. Be sure to add me to your friends' list. My site Profile ID is: JennGibbs.

Let's collaborate!

List Your Information Products Through Lulu.com - eBooks, white papers, softcovers and hardbacks

While a number of successful online companies both large and small are able to earn some pretty serious money by promoting affiliate products and services, there's still something to be said for creating your OWN information products and earning money through affiliates of your own...

Of course, those dreams have to start somewhere, and for more clients than I can count on two hands, www.lulu.com has been the place they've turned to launch their print and digital manuscripts and other media creations. Mind you, many of them went on to offer those same products exclusively through their own site and built a network of affiliates. Others went a more traditional route and purchased bulk orders of their books and went on the tour circuit. One of those fella's wound up getting his series of books firmly nestled in the libraries of a number of school districts up and down the USA's East Coast...

All in all, it's a great way to launch an Information Business or to distinguish yourself as a thought-leader in your field!

Here are the Top 5 things I like about Lulu...

1. Their fees are incredibly low, and they provide a great deal of free tools and other supportive items. I'll admit, I'd recommend having someone else design your book cover (because their templates are kind of out there...) but the actual production costs aren't too hard to handle and there's very little you'll have to come up with as far as out-of-pocket costs are concerned.
2. The "MyLulu" authors section is very comprehensive and their project dashboard is easy to navigate.
3. If you go for a print publication, your print fees include your ISBN and getting your book listed on Amazon.com.
4. Pay-out minimums are low. You only need to have $5.00 in your account to receive payment once each month.
5. You're allowed to link directly to your books' sales page in the resource boxes of your EzineArticles.com free reprint articles without any hassles, which you can't do when promoting affiliate links for other peoples' products.

For our next resource, we'll address the best low-cost, shoestring solution for those of you who already have your own information products and sales outlet and are now looking to add an affiliate program recruiting campaign to your "To Do" list...

Until then, have a wonderful Easter Weekend.

Remember this: Greater love has no man than to lay His life down for His friends.

Make Sure that You're LinkedIn

Without a doubt, www.linkedin.com is yet another priceless free tool that can be taken advantage of by your small business, whether you're a start-up or merely faced with a shoestring budget.

Look at it this way: LinkedIn.com is a Myspace.com for suits and professionals. It allows you to connect with other professionals, promoted your own websites, products and services, plus you can really interact with other members in areas like the Q&A section and more.

Here are 5 reasons that you need to create your own free LinkedIn.com profile today:

1. First of all, it's free. While LinkedIn does offer a premium membership option, but I haven't seen any reason to take advantage of it just yet.
2. You can gain credibility in the professional workspace by having your connections and business contacts provide you with third-party recommendations and referrals. If you've yet to launch your own website, or simply don't have the time to do so, this can be a great way to track testimonials, etc.
3. You can really start showing your stuff (and increasing your connection list) by getting active in the Q&A portion of the site. Professionals across a host of industries post questions and you get to answer them, with a grading system similar to what you see on Yahoo! Answers. Try to achieve as many "Best Answers" as you can to really see your search stats soar!
4. A  quick glance at your log-in home page will allow you to track how many times your profile has been viewed and
   how many times that you've shown up in search results.
5. You can easily integrate presentations, your blog, a reading list and a number of other cool Apps and Add-Ons that help gain your profile greater depth and exposure.

Quit stalling and saying that Social Networking isn't for you. Head on over to LinkedIn.com and create your profile today. Don't forget to add me to your contacts at www.linkedin.com/in/jlgibbs. 

EzineArticles.com: Link Building, Credibility-Building and Exposure

When I'm in contact with small businesses who are strapped for cash and operating on a shoestring budget, one of the first questions I ask them is:

"Have you ever heard of EzineArticles.com?"

If the answer is "Yes!", I probe them to find out if they're taking advantage of it. If the answer is "No!", I launch into a number of the same points I'm about to share with you...

1. EzineArticles.com is absolutely free to use. You can write and distribute your own articles on the site, gaining traffic, credibility and link-backs through your resource box. Or, you can search out relevant free content that you can include on your website, in newsletters, in information products, etc. as long as you agree to include the entire resource box, with active links.
2. Because EzineArticles.com titles place so high on the search engines, it's a great way to gain increased search engine attention for your wisdom without having to spend a fortune on pay-per-click campaigns.
3. It's a great way to gain subscribers to your newsletter. You can include a sign up link in your resource box and begin serious list building on a shoestring budget.
4. The Author's Section provides access to priceless tools, reports, graphs and promotional widgets and items that will make driving your article conversion rates, click rates and many other metrics completely within monitoring and measurement - an important aspect of any true marketing campaign.
5. Your articles could be picked up and broadcast by hundreds or even thousands of other ezine publishers in search of top-notch content. They in turn share your resource box with their entire lists, and (if you do the math) the results can be absolutely astronomical!

Visit www.ezinearticles.com today and sign up for a free account and get started taking advantage of this priceless tool!

Stay tuned for our next shoestring solution!