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Saturday 29 November 2014
Friday 28 November 2014
7 Parenting Tips for Working from Home with Young Children
Gentle parenting is very much about being in-sync with your child’s needs. Being tied to an inflexible schedule will only cause stress and conflict as your child’s needs evolve from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year. Children do, however, enjoy the comfort and familiarity of a regular routine, and knowing what to expect helps them to make transitions throughout the day. So, instead of making a minute to minute schedule, try working with your child to establish a routine that’s flexible enough to adjust to meet their fluctuating needs, but builds into your day the time you need to devote to your work. For example, a routine could look something like this:
- Morning cuddles, breakfast, playtime with mommy
- Playtime while mommy works
- Snack and storytime with mommy
- Play while mommy works
- Lunch and outside playtime with mommy
- Naptime while mommy works
- Playtime with mommy
- Playtime while mommy works
- Help mommy with dinner
- Dinnertime
- Help mommy clean up after dinner
- Playtime while mommy works
- Evening snack
- Bathtime, bedtime story, cuddles, night-night time
Notice that there are no time limits, only a loose plan for the day that you can adjust if your little one is sick or teething or just needs some extra mommy time during the day. A younger baby will need more naps during the day and can be worn in a baby carrier for naps and/or in place of playtime, and some toddlers and preschoolers will outgrow their need for naps earlier than others, and some will need more outside time, etc. so you’ll want to come up with a routine that accommodates your child’s age, sleep needs, and temperament. Also, of course, if your spouse or a trusted family member or friend is available to help, be sure to include them in your routine.
2. Children love the novelty value of new toys.
So get a box for each of your working days of the week. Label each box with one day of the week and place a set of toys in them that you only bring out on that day. Remember to think outside the box (lol) and don’t only choose store-bought toys. One box could be full of paper towel and toilet paper tubes and various sizes of bouncy balls and hot wheels, etc. so your little one can make tunnels and chutes and all sorts of inventions. Another box could have kitchen utensils and bowls and pots and pans. Don’t be afraid of a little mess, either! Children are washable, and messy play can keep them happily engaged for long stretches of time, so in one box you could have a plastic tablecloth from the dollar store or even a little blow-up wading pool, some paintbrushes, and shaving cream. Just put down the tablecloth or blow up the pool and add a touch of different colors of food coloring to a few small bowls of shaving cream let your little Picasso go to town! The trick is to be creative and choose things that are out of the ordinary that will engage your child’s imagination, not just keep them busy.
3. For older preschoolers or early elementary ages.
An independent project is an excellent idea to help them stay happily engaged while you’re working. During your work periods, provide your child with an ongoing project that they’re interested in and can work on independently. It can be a paint-by-number project, a jigsaw puzzle, a simple model car, a jewelry making set, or any number of other things. Since time is a hard concept for young children, setting a timer for your work periods and having a little sticker chart on the fridge for you and your child to ‘clock in’ and ‘clock out’ of work might be a fun, helpful part of your routine, as well.
4. Meal planning is a huge, huge help in freeing up time and mental energy.
Take the time to write out a list of every meal you know how to make that your family likes, then break each of those meals down into their ingredients. Save the list on your laptop, and then twice a month simply cut and paste two weeks of meals into a Word doc. Then print it out, cross off any ingredients you already have on hand, and ‘voila’ you have a shopping list and menu for two weeks done in one shot!
5. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
Be realistic about your commitments and expectations for yourself. Have fruit and cheese for breakfast most mornings instead of eggs and pancakes and sausage. It’s healthier, faster, and there’s less to cleanup! Resign from any pre-working-at-home commitments you can such as directing your church’s Vacation Bible School or doing the book work for your local community center. No one expects you to be able to do everything, and someone else can take on those tasks while you’re doing double duty as a work-and-stay-at-home-mom. And, once you’ve cleared up your commitments, avoid the temptation to fill up your time with playgroups and playdates and mommy-and-me classes. Your little ones need you, not activities.
6. Don’t be afraid to go mobile.
Find a local park that is suitable for your child’s age and temperament (i.e. Don’t go to a park with a lake if your little one is a runner, and don’t choose a playground with only big kid slides and jungle gyms if you’ve got a toddler.). Once you’ve found a park that’s a good fit, take your laptop or iPhone and answer emails or return phone calls or do other simple tasks that you can manage while swinging your little one in a baby swing or watching your toddler dig in the sand. Make sure you take the time to play with them while you’re there, too, and don’t worry if you get a few judgmental looks from other parents. They don’t know your life, but you know you’re doing the best you can to meet your child’s needs while doing what you need to do for work, so take comfort in that knowledge.
7. Don’t forget to take care of yourself!
We can get so caught up in meeting our family’s needs at times that we forget to take care of our own needs. Make sure you include a bit of downtime in your routine each day to simply be still and have a cup of coffee or read the newspaper or simply stare out the window and daydream for a few minutes. Take the time on a regular basis to do your nails, go have your hair done, and make a lunch date with a friend. Even if you bring your little one with you, you’ll still be out and about in a non-working environment for a bit and actually get to feel like an adult. If you’ve got a teething baby or a sick child and aren’t getting much sleep at night, take a nap during the day when your little one’s asleep instead of working during their nap. You may get a bit less work done, but you’ll enjoy your life and your family more, and isn’t that really the point of it all anyway?
By: L.R.Knost
Source: http://www.littleheartsbooks.com/2013/03/29/7-parenting-tips-working-from-home-with-young-children/
Thursday 27 November 2014
55 Quick SEO Tips Even Your Mother Would Love
Everyone loves a good tip, right? Here are 55 quick tips for search engine optimization that even your mother could use to get cooking. Well, not my mother, but you get my point. Most folks with some web design and beginner SEO knowledge should be able to take these to the bank without any problem.
1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.
2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written, and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.
3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for a site to link to you, you don’t want the link.
4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.
5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.
6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.
7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.
8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.
9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.
10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
11. Check for canonicalization issues – www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.
12. Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html.
Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.
13. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem – you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.
14. Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.
15. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.
16. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.
17. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.
18. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.
19. Text around your links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.
20. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.
21. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.
22. When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.
23. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.
24. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.
25. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.
26. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.
27. If you absolutely MUST have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.
28. Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newletters and zines.
29. You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.
30. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors.
31. Give them something to talk about. Linkbaiting is simply good content.
32. Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.
33. SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.
34. SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.
35. Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.
36. Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless! CEO influence on a blog is incredible as this is the VOICE of the company. Response from the owner to reader comments will cause your credibility to skyrocket!
37. Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.
38. Use keyword rich captions with your images.
39. Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.
40. You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.
41. There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:
(1) Log out of Google
(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar
42. Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.
43. Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it.
44. See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.
45. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.
46. To get the best chance for your videos to be found by the crawlers, create a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.
47. Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo to name a few.
48. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.
49. Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.
50. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.
51. Add viral components to your web site or blog – reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.
52. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.
53. When considering a link purchase or exchange, check the cache date of the page where your link will be located in Google. Search for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page. The newer the cache date the better. If the page isn’t there or the cache date is more than an month old, the page isn’t worth much.
54. If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.
55. Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.
Maybe a little technical here and there, but most of them easy to understand and quick to use in your blog. Other tips? Please share.
Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/55-quick-seo-tips-even-your-mother-would-love/
1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.
2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written, and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.
3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for a site to link to you, you don’t want the link.
4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.
5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.
6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.
7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.
8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.
9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.
10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
11. Check for canonicalization issues – www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.
12. Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html.
Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.
13. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem – you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.
14. Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.
15. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.
16. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.
17. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.
18. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.
19. Text around your links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.
20. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.
21. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.
22. When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.
23. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.
24. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.
25. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.
26. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.
27. If you absolutely MUST have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.
28. Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newletters and zines.
29. You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.
30. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors.
31. Give them something to talk about. Linkbaiting is simply good content.
32. Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.
33. SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.
34. SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.
35. Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.
36. Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless! CEO influence on a blog is incredible as this is the VOICE of the company. Response from the owner to reader comments will cause your credibility to skyrocket!
37. Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.
38. Use keyword rich captions with your images.
39. Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.
40. You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.
41. There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:
(1) Log out of Google
(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar
42. Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.
43. Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it.
44. See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.
45. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.
46. To get the best chance for your videos to be found by the crawlers, create a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.
47. Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo to name a few.
48. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.
49. Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.
50. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.
51. Add viral components to your web site or blog – reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.
52. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.
53. When considering a link purchase or exchange, check the cache date of the page where your link will be located in Google. Search for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page. The newer the cache date the better. If the page isn’t there or the cache date is more than an month old, the page isn’t worth much.
54. If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.
55. Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.
Maybe a little technical here and there, but most of them easy to understand and quick to use in your blog. Other tips? Please share.
Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/55-quick-seo-tips-even-your-mother-would-love/
Wednesday 26 November 2014
Affiliate Marketing Tips That Everyone Should Know
If you have a knack for finding a niche, you might be a great affiliate marketer. With thousands of companies and millions of products to choose from, you can be an affiliate for any type of business you choose. However, you will first need to know more about affiliate promotion. We will cover some vital information in this article.
Disclosing your use of internet marketing will let you know if it influences your readers in a positive way. Transparency is always appreciated, particularly in the field of affiliate marketing. Your customers should understand why you market certain goods. If they do, they are more likely to buy them.
When you first start web marketing, seek out affiliates who sell products that will resonate with your customer base. Setting up agreements with multiple affiliate networks can give you a good source of income. Don’t work with just anybody; make sure that you do thorough research so you know that you are with the right people.
A lot of affiliate communication happens through emails, but the inbox makes an inefficient place to store important information. To make sure you are not missing a beat, copy and paste your tasks into a separate window. By using the document as your reference, you can work more quickly and efficiently.
Choosing the hottest products to promote as an affiliate may mean thinner profits. Market quality is important, but quality doesn’t mean oversaturation. The downside of promoting hot products is the intense competition. This might mean you get very little or even no profit.
Every single affiliate you choose should be in your site’s niche. This will increase traffic to your website and also assist you in truly understanding the needs and wants of your customer base.
Try using paid services like Google Ads for affiliate promotion. Purchasing keyword-driven advertising doesn’t just send traffic to your website, it sends prospective customers who have already shown they are interested in the keyword.
Use a deadline for affiliate products that you offer. When people notice there is a short time frame to buy the product, they may hurry up and place an order faster so they can make sure they get it. Incorporating this strategy is an effective way to increase your sales.
Understanding your target audience is important to growing your business. It is imperative that you target your readers’ needs. Decipher what is compelling them to visit your site. What is catching their attention?
Tell your readers up front that you’re part of an affiliate program. They will feel that you are more trustworthy. This is the beginning of a relationship that may lead to more sales.
Avoid using a tracking system from a vendor, unless you are sure it is not a scam. Just look for tracking systems that are legit and offer proof that it works.
When backlinking to your site content, be honest about where you are taking your potential customers. If your customer comes to your site looking for an HP tablet, they won’t be able to see iPads. Although you may think it is a clever strategy, a mismatched link will appear shady to visitors.
A good product is not the only thing necessary to your career in web marketing. As mentioned previously, there is a lot of information about internet marketing than you may have thought. Use the advice in this article to help you start a successful affiliate promotion campaign. Always take your business seriously. Learn all you can and apply what you know.
Source: http://www.mlspro-onlinemarketing.com/affiliate-marketing-tips-that-everyone-should-know/
Disclosing your use of internet marketing will let you know if it influences your readers in a positive way. Transparency is always appreciated, particularly in the field of affiliate marketing. Your customers should understand why you market certain goods. If they do, they are more likely to buy them.
When you first start web marketing, seek out affiliates who sell products that will resonate with your customer base. Setting up agreements with multiple affiliate networks can give you a good source of income. Don’t work with just anybody; make sure that you do thorough research so you know that you are with the right people.
A lot of affiliate communication happens through emails, but the inbox makes an inefficient place to store important information. To make sure you are not missing a beat, copy and paste your tasks into a separate window. By using the document as your reference, you can work more quickly and efficiently.
Choosing the hottest products to promote as an affiliate may mean thinner profits. Market quality is important, but quality doesn’t mean oversaturation. The downside of promoting hot products is the intense competition. This might mean you get very little or even no profit.
Every single affiliate you choose should be in your site’s niche. This will increase traffic to your website and also assist you in truly understanding the needs and wants of your customer base.
Try using paid services like Google Ads for affiliate promotion. Purchasing keyword-driven advertising doesn’t just send traffic to your website, it sends prospective customers who have already shown they are interested in the keyword.
Use a deadline for affiliate products that you offer. When people notice there is a short time frame to buy the product, they may hurry up and place an order faster so they can make sure they get it. Incorporating this strategy is an effective way to increase your sales.
Understanding your target audience is important to growing your business. It is imperative that you target your readers’ needs. Decipher what is compelling them to visit your site. What is catching their attention?
Tell your readers up front that you’re part of an affiliate program. They will feel that you are more trustworthy. This is the beginning of a relationship that may lead to more sales.
Avoid using a tracking system from a vendor, unless you are sure it is not a scam. Just look for tracking systems that are legit and offer proof that it works.
When backlinking to your site content, be honest about where you are taking your potential customers. If your customer comes to your site looking for an HP tablet, they won’t be able to see iPads. Although you may think it is a clever strategy, a mismatched link will appear shady to visitors.
A good product is not the only thing necessary to your career in web marketing. As mentioned previously, there is a lot of information about internet marketing than you may have thought. Use the advice in this article to help you start a successful affiliate promotion campaign. Always take your business seriously. Learn all you can and apply what you know.
Source: http://www.mlspro-onlinemarketing.com/affiliate-marketing-tips-that-everyone-should-know/
Tuesday 25 November 2014
Affiliate Marketing Explained
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity, resulting in the emergence of a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third party vendors.
Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid search engine marketing (PPC - Pay Per Click), e-mail marketing, content marketing and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.
So in simple terms affiliate marketing is:
“Selling Other People's Stuff”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing
Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid search engine marketing (PPC - Pay Per Click), e-mail marketing, content marketing and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.
So in simple terms affiliate marketing is:
“Selling Other People's Stuff”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing
Monday 24 November 2014
Helpful tips for working parents
Being a working parent is a challenging role. It involves a balancing act between meeting your child’s needs for care and attention, sharing a satisfying relationship with your partner and friends and being a reliable and competent employee while trying to enjoy life and parenthood.
Make life easier by:
Routine is important. Having an unpredictable lifestyle is time consuming and unsettling for everyone. Young children become frustrated, overwhelmed, and rushed when routines are frequently changing (understandably, sometimes it cannot be helped).
Talk to your partner about household responsibilities and expectations as a parent and adult household member.
Starting and finishing the day on a happy note:
Feeding the family does not need to be stressful:
Washing:
Shopping:
Children get sick when you least expect it:
Maintaining family harmony and thinking of yourself:
Make life easier by:
- Setting realistic and achievable goals for you and your family
- Asking for help
- Changing your expectations and priorities around the house
- Involving other supportive adults in the planning and sharing of parenting and household responsibilities
- Be realistic about what can be achieved each day
Routine is important. Having an unpredictable lifestyle is time consuming and unsettling for everyone. Young children become frustrated, overwhelmed, and rushed when routines are frequently changing (understandably, sometimes it cannot be helped).
Talk to your partner about household responsibilities and expectations as a parent and adult household member.
Starting and finishing the day on a happy note:
- Give yourself extra time in the morning
- Rethink what is essential to be completed before leaving the house each morning
- Pack your work and childcare bags the night before
- Use the time in the car as a valuable opportunity to connect with your child both on the way to childcare and on the way home. Sing songs, and listen to your child when they talk to you
- Most importantly, leave work stresses at work
- Organise the next day’s clothing the night before for you and your child
- Avoid conflicts and fights in the morning – it is always a no win solution for everyone
- Getting your child to bed early ensures they have adequate sleep for development and growth.
Feeding the family does not need to be stressful:
- Prepare double amounts of food and freeze for later
- Invest in a slow cooker and put dinner on before you leave for work
- Remember your evening meal does not have to be a hot meal
- Depending on the age of the child, try and enjoy dinner around the table with the television off and all family members present. This is a good habit to get into and provides a great opportunity to interact as a family
- Consider a no TV rule in the morning as this can distract everyone from getting ready.
Washing:
- Wash and hang the clothes the night before
- Fold washing properly and save ironing
Shopping:
- Add an extra hour to childcare for shopping later in the day
- Avoid taking tired and hungry children shopping
- Consider shopping on line or in the evening, ask your partner to do the shopping
- Another suggestion is to do a big weekly shop to avoid the need to shop everyday.
Children get sick when you least expect it:
- Ensure your employer knows you are also a parent, so if your child does become sick you can take leave
- Either arrange for your partner to care for your child or have a backup plan such as a grandparent or a good friend on standby
- Babysitting clubs are a great idea if you want to go out at night with no extra childcare costs. Remember you do need to ‘repay’ the hours and babysit other people’s children
Maintaining family harmony and thinking of yourself:
- Take time out for yourself and your partner to reconnect and maintain a healthy relationship
- Go for a walk, taking time to talk and listen to each other even if it is only for a short time
- Plan regular enjoyable family activities that are simple (i.e. once a month take the family into the city – kids are fascinated with tall buildings and sailing boats on the harbour!). It is these activities that provide your children with family memories later in life!
- Continue or start to do a regular exercise program. This is an essential part of caring for yourself
Working from home can make some of these points easier, but I still find these tips handy anyway. I hope you do too.
Friday 21 November 2014
7 Google Tools For Any Marketer
We all know that Google is a powerful marketing tool and a phenomenal search engine. Any marketer worth his salt will tell you that the goal for their online marketing division is to dominate Google. What does that really mean, though? Are we just trying to show up when someone types in a relative keyword phrase for our business? We all know that search engine optimization is hot, and that Google is the place where everyone wants to be. Unfortunately, though, a lot of marketers don't realize that there are many other programs that Google has, which have very different functions, to assist them with their online marketing efforts. Here is a list of all of the available Google tools, at the current moment in time, which you can use to jumpstart your online marketing campaigns.
Google AdWords - Anyone who knows anything about phrases like CPC (Cost Per Click), PPC (Pay Per Click), CPM (Cost Per Impression), Banner Ads, etc. should know a little bit about AdWords. There are two main networks within the AdWords program: Content/Display and Search. The Content/Display network allows you to post banner ads/graphics on partnering websites that are relative to your content. The Search network allows you to write/display a variety of ads and link them to relevant keywords. When someone types in these keywords, your ads display. It is an extremely powerful program that definitely has a bit of a learning curve, however, once you've mastered it, you can do amazing things!
Google Docs - Think of Google Docs as an internet-based Microsoft Office. You have all the same types of documents (i.e. Word Document, Spreadsheet Documents, etc.), but the beauty is that these documents can be shared with other people. It doesn't stop there... these documents are live creatures! You can literally watch live edits being made to the documents in real-time. This is extremely powerful for coordinating schedules or brainstorm sessions.
Google's Keyword Tool - There are two versions of this tool. One if for users with an AdWords account and one is a free version. Both versions are equally powerful, and allow you to search for keywords that are typed in by other users to get to sites like yours. You can easily compile a list of relevant keywords, their search volumes, how much advertisers are paying per click, and much more data. This can help with both your paid (i.e. PPC) or your free (i.e. SEO) efforts.
Google Alerts - This is another great tool to stay up-to-date with news in relation to keyword phrases. Many people set up alerts for their own company name, their competitors' names, and their industry terms to see when people are using these keywords in their content.
Google News - A great place to stay up to date with industry-related news. You can see what topics are being thrown around and it's a powerful tool to help you generate content for your own marketing efforts.
Google Reader - Google reader is an amazing time-saving tool. You can use it to filter through all the content you don't want to read about, and show only content that you've asked to be shown. Subscribe to blogs, websites, etc. and type in the keywords or phrases you'd like to stay up-to-date with. Whenever these sites release information regarding that keyword or phrase, you'll have that content presented to you in an orderly fashion.
Google Places - An extremely powerful marketing tool that enables people searching Google, to see all types of content related to your business. It will automatically show your location within Google Maps, and it appears towards the top of the page with search results automatically. Google Places uses location information from your computer to display local business results. Browsers can see your hours of operations, photos, your website, reviews, the types of credit cards you take, and much more! Many people use Google Places to appear at the top of the page for search results, especially small, local businesses. If you haven't claimed your Google Places page yet, you should do so immediately.
Any additions, please share!
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6409313
Google AdWords - Anyone who knows anything about phrases like CPC (Cost Per Click), PPC (Pay Per Click), CPM (Cost Per Impression), Banner Ads, etc. should know a little bit about AdWords. There are two main networks within the AdWords program: Content/Display and Search. The Content/Display network allows you to post banner ads/graphics on partnering websites that are relative to your content. The Search network allows you to write/display a variety of ads and link them to relevant keywords. When someone types in these keywords, your ads display. It is an extremely powerful program that definitely has a bit of a learning curve, however, once you've mastered it, you can do amazing things!
Google Docs - Think of Google Docs as an internet-based Microsoft Office. You have all the same types of documents (i.e. Word Document, Spreadsheet Documents, etc.), but the beauty is that these documents can be shared with other people. It doesn't stop there... these documents are live creatures! You can literally watch live edits being made to the documents in real-time. This is extremely powerful for coordinating schedules or brainstorm sessions.
Google's Keyword Tool - There are two versions of this tool. One if for users with an AdWords account and one is a free version. Both versions are equally powerful, and allow you to search for keywords that are typed in by other users to get to sites like yours. You can easily compile a list of relevant keywords, their search volumes, how much advertisers are paying per click, and much more data. This can help with both your paid (i.e. PPC) or your free (i.e. SEO) efforts.
Google Alerts - This is another great tool to stay up-to-date with news in relation to keyword phrases. Many people set up alerts for their own company name, their competitors' names, and their industry terms to see when people are using these keywords in their content.
Google News - A great place to stay up to date with industry-related news. You can see what topics are being thrown around and it's a powerful tool to help you generate content for your own marketing efforts.
Google Reader - Google reader is an amazing time-saving tool. You can use it to filter through all the content you don't want to read about, and show only content that you've asked to be shown. Subscribe to blogs, websites, etc. and type in the keywords or phrases you'd like to stay up-to-date with. Whenever these sites release information regarding that keyword or phrase, you'll have that content presented to you in an orderly fashion.
Google Places - An extremely powerful marketing tool that enables people searching Google, to see all types of content related to your business. It will automatically show your location within Google Maps, and it appears towards the top of the page with search results automatically. Google Places uses location information from your computer to display local business results. Browsers can see your hours of operations, photos, your website, reviews, the types of credit cards you take, and much more! Many people use Google Places to appear at the top of the page for search results, especially small, local businesses. If you haven't claimed your Google Places page yet, you should do so immediately.
Any additions, please share!
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6409313
Thursday 20 November 2014
Wednesday 19 November 2014
Top 10 Tips for Blogging
Blogging is a great tool for writing, sharing news and photos or art and just generally reaching out to the nameless ranks of people combing the internet every day in search of news and entertainment. TopTenREVIEWS have reviewed the best of the best blog software programs in the hope of showing you just how fun and easy creating a blog can be.
The hard part for bloggers seems to be:
10. Consistency
Your readers and search engines love consistency. If you post three times a week, every week, this is considered the bare minimum for attracting and maintaining a readership. There is such a thing as too much blogging, though. Posting once a day is considered normal, meaning you’re not living in a dark cave staring at the glowing rectangle all day every day. But every post you make is a new page to be indexed by the search engines, so after one year you will have more than 300 pages in the web with your name on it!
9. Originality
With the ever-growing legions of bloggers out there, internet devotees are always on the lookout for the next great, original blog concept. One blogger might be devoted to showcasing photos of the rooftops of St. Petersburg. Many blogs are devoted to fashion and celebrity gossip, but there aren’t that many documenting people dressed in the gothic style during the hot days of summer.
8. Personality
Whether you create a web persona for the purpose of blogging or you plan to put your real self out there, personality is essential to a good blog read. This gift comes naturally to some bloggers and not at all to others. Whichever you are, your writings will reveal this personality to the world. A lot of bloggers give up fast when they receive negative feedback that is taken personally, but keep in mind that all writing media is subjected to waves of rejection. Don’t give up – there are mean, anonymous people out there surfing the web leaving rude, baseless comments, but there are also plenty more people with constructive comments to offer.
7. Brevity
Be brief in your blog posts. Break up text with cuts, subheadings, bullet lists, photos – people reading on the web tend to scan for anything that slows down or catches their eye. If you want to keep your readers reading, be succinct!
6. Diversity
Multi-media is almost a must these days. Text, video, photo, audio – use all of it in your blog to create well-written posts that are augmented with images or other media. As long as you’re on the way to becoming a blog superstar, might as well go for those YouTube views as well. Uploading your video to YouTube is a great example of how to drive traffic back to your site, as well.
5. Social networking
Use Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, whatever your social network of choice is to drive traffic to your blog, alert your friends you have a new post.
4. Collaboration
Use online relationships to collaborate on blog posts and expand your readership – encourage comments, comment on other people’s blogs, link freely and share traffic.
3. Promotion
Commenting on other blogs and getting your blog noticed joins up with social networking here. If you are promoting a product on your blog pay attention to other bloggers promoting a similar product. Use your best judgment to decide what works and what doesn’t. But please, no spamming – it is discourteous, not cool, other users will not take kindly and search engines will penalize you (remove your pages from the index).
2. Other media
Why limit yourself to just a blog? Podcasts are a great example of new media working with blogs to make them even more up-to-date and interesting – your readers will enjoy hearing your actual voice and it will heighten their reading of your content in the future. Check out TypePad blog software for integrated podcasting capability.
1. Fun
The most important part of blogging is having fun and loving your blog. If you choose to blog about something you have a passion for that will come through across the vast and nebulous internet. Additionally, the blog will be sustainable for you because you care about it.
Source: http://blog-software-review.toptenreviews.com/top-10-tips-for-blogging.html
The hard part for bloggers seems to be:
10. Consistency
Your readers and search engines love consistency. If you post three times a week, every week, this is considered the bare minimum for attracting and maintaining a readership. There is such a thing as too much blogging, though. Posting once a day is considered normal, meaning you’re not living in a dark cave staring at the glowing rectangle all day every day. But every post you make is a new page to be indexed by the search engines, so after one year you will have more than 300 pages in the web with your name on it!
9. Originality
With the ever-growing legions of bloggers out there, internet devotees are always on the lookout for the next great, original blog concept. One blogger might be devoted to showcasing photos of the rooftops of St. Petersburg. Many blogs are devoted to fashion and celebrity gossip, but there aren’t that many documenting people dressed in the gothic style during the hot days of summer.
8. Personality
Whether you create a web persona for the purpose of blogging or you plan to put your real self out there, personality is essential to a good blog read. This gift comes naturally to some bloggers and not at all to others. Whichever you are, your writings will reveal this personality to the world. A lot of bloggers give up fast when they receive negative feedback that is taken personally, but keep in mind that all writing media is subjected to waves of rejection. Don’t give up – there are mean, anonymous people out there surfing the web leaving rude, baseless comments, but there are also plenty more people with constructive comments to offer.
7. Brevity
Be brief in your blog posts. Break up text with cuts, subheadings, bullet lists, photos – people reading on the web tend to scan for anything that slows down or catches their eye. If you want to keep your readers reading, be succinct!
6. Diversity
Multi-media is almost a must these days. Text, video, photo, audio – use all of it in your blog to create well-written posts that are augmented with images or other media. As long as you’re on the way to becoming a blog superstar, might as well go for those YouTube views as well. Uploading your video to YouTube is a great example of how to drive traffic back to your site, as well.
5. Social networking
Use Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, whatever your social network of choice is to drive traffic to your blog, alert your friends you have a new post.
4. Collaboration
Use online relationships to collaborate on blog posts and expand your readership – encourage comments, comment on other people’s blogs, link freely and share traffic.
3. Promotion
Commenting on other blogs and getting your blog noticed joins up with social networking here. If you are promoting a product on your blog pay attention to other bloggers promoting a similar product. Use your best judgment to decide what works and what doesn’t. But please, no spamming – it is discourteous, not cool, other users will not take kindly and search engines will penalize you (remove your pages from the index).
2. Other media
Why limit yourself to just a blog? Podcasts are a great example of new media working with blogs to make them even more up-to-date and interesting – your readers will enjoy hearing your actual voice and it will heighten their reading of your content in the future. Check out TypePad blog software for integrated podcasting capability.
1. Fun
The most important part of blogging is having fun and loving your blog. If you choose to blog about something you have a passion for that will come through across the vast and nebulous internet. Additionally, the blog will be sustainable for you because you care about it.
Source: http://blog-software-review.toptenreviews.com/top-10-tips-for-blogging.html
Tuesday 18 November 2014
Top 10 Countries with most Facebook users 2014
We live in times where, if somebody doesn’t have a Facebook account, we think he has been living under a rock.
With 1.19 billion active users, you have to be one of them!
Facebook is not only a social networking website, but businesses have taken great advantage of this strong platform with such a large number of users. Any brand, institution, or business of any kind has a Facebook page upon which they follow the trends of their fans and come up with future business strategies.
Don’t be surprised to know that your single like can mean a lot to any business!
So let’s see which top countries have the most Facebook users around the world.
10. Germany – Our countdown begins with Germany at number ten in the list of countries with most Facebook users. Around 22 Million of the total users present on Facebook are from Germany and 65%-70% users are in the age range of 18-44.
9. France – After Germany, we have France with 25 million users dedicated to Facebook. The top brands liked here are Coca-Cola, Nutella, M&M’s and Ferrero Rocher. It seems like the french people have a bit of a sweet tooth, but they do have good taste. Bravo!
8. Philippines – Just like people around the world cannot resist the breath-taking islands of Philippines, the natives cannot resist Facebook. With 29 million users, this country is at number 8. The Filipino ladies take the lead when it comes to Facebook usage.
7. Turkey – At number 7 in the list of top 10 countries with most Facebook users in 2014, we have Turkey with 32 million users sharing their lives with each other on Facebook. The ratio of gender based usage in this country is almost equal for both male and female. Young adults form the most of the users (18-35 years old).
6. United Kingdom -In the UK about 53% of the internet users are on the Facebook social platform! Wow! People here do know how to socialize well. When looking at the top liked brands in the country, we find out that, like their neighbours, the british also have a bit of a sweet tooth. From approximately 33 million users here, around 51% are the ladies.
5. Mexico – Mexico is found in the middle spot, with 38 million total users. Here, both genders are also balanced. Corona beer and Coca-Cola top at the brand pages here; which shows that the Mexicans are pretty serious about drinks, and in the following spots we find PlayStation and Doritos. So… extreme gaming with coke and Doritos? Perfect Combo!
4. Indonesia – The population of the beautiful archipelago of Indonesia seems to be a bit addicted to Facebook. Coming in at number for in our list, 20% of the 22% of people who use the internet here are on Facebook, which means that almost everyone that can access Facebook, does. The inclination of males is a little bit higher than the opposite gender. In this lovely country we find that Blackberry, Samsung and Yamaha Motors take the highest positions in the category of liked brands.
3. Brazil – It seems that the beautiful people of Brazil are also spell-bounded by Facebook, making them the 3rd in the “Top 10 countries with most Facebook users in 2014″. Here the ladies and the gentlemen both take an equal participation in the social networking website, and the total number of users comes up to 68 million.
2. India – At number 2 we have a country from South Asia. India takes up the position with a total Facebook user of approximately 62 million. Male users are more dominant at this side, and if we were judging by what pages they follow most, they are very into technology and geeky things. The bigger chunk of the users is above 18, so mostly young adults, and this is a pattern common to all countries so far.
1. United States of America – So who is at number one? Yes, I guess we did not leave much to the imagination here; it’s the United States of America. 67% of the total 78% users on internet are on Facebook too. The total end users of Facebook from the States are around 160 million, and the age ranges from 18-34 are the highest! One more interesting thing is Wal-Mart it at the top of the brands followed by Target and Amazon! American’s do shop a lot, right?
Source: http://addictivelists.com/top-10-countries-with-most-facebook-users-2014/
With 1.19 billion active users, you have to be one of them!
Facebook is not only a social networking website, but businesses have taken great advantage of this strong platform with such a large number of users. Any brand, institution, or business of any kind has a Facebook page upon which they follow the trends of their fans and come up with future business strategies.
Don’t be surprised to know that your single like can mean a lot to any business!
So let’s see which top countries have the most Facebook users around the world.
10. Germany – Our countdown begins with Germany at number ten in the list of countries with most Facebook users. Around 22 Million of the total users present on Facebook are from Germany and 65%-70% users are in the age range of 18-44.
9. France – After Germany, we have France with 25 million users dedicated to Facebook. The top brands liked here are Coca-Cola, Nutella, M&M’s and Ferrero Rocher. It seems like the french people have a bit of a sweet tooth, but they do have good taste. Bravo!
8. Philippines – Just like people around the world cannot resist the breath-taking islands of Philippines, the natives cannot resist Facebook. With 29 million users, this country is at number 8. The Filipino ladies take the lead when it comes to Facebook usage.
7. Turkey – At number 7 in the list of top 10 countries with most Facebook users in 2014, we have Turkey with 32 million users sharing their lives with each other on Facebook. The ratio of gender based usage in this country is almost equal for both male and female. Young adults form the most of the users (18-35 years old).
6. United Kingdom -In the UK about 53% of the internet users are on the Facebook social platform! Wow! People here do know how to socialize well. When looking at the top liked brands in the country, we find out that, like their neighbours, the british also have a bit of a sweet tooth. From approximately 33 million users here, around 51% are the ladies.
5. Mexico – Mexico is found in the middle spot, with 38 million total users. Here, both genders are also balanced. Corona beer and Coca-Cola top at the brand pages here; which shows that the Mexicans are pretty serious about drinks, and in the following spots we find PlayStation and Doritos. So… extreme gaming with coke and Doritos? Perfect Combo!
4. Indonesia – The population of the beautiful archipelago of Indonesia seems to be a bit addicted to Facebook. Coming in at number for in our list, 20% of the 22% of people who use the internet here are on Facebook, which means that almost everyone that can access Facebook, does. The inclination of males is a little bit higher than the opposite gender. In this lovely country we find that Blackberry, Samsung and Yamaha Motors take the highest positions in the category of liked brands.
3. Brazil – It seems that the beautiful people of Brazil are also spell-bounded by Facebook, making them the 3rd in the “Top 10 countries with most Facebook users in 2014″. Here the ladies and the gentlemen both take an equal participation in the social networking website, and the total number of users comes up to 68 million.
2. India – At number 2 we have a country from South Asia. India takes up the position with a total Facebook user of approximately 62 million. Male users are more dominant at this side, and if we were judging by what pages they follow most, they are very into technology and geeky things. The bigger chunk of the users is above 18, so mostly young adults, and this is a pattern common to all countries so far.
1. United States of America – So who is at number one? Yes, I guess we did not leave much to the imagination here; it’s the United States of America. 67% of the total 78% users on internet are on Facebook too. The total end users of Facebook from the States are around 160 million, and the age ranges from 18-34 are the highest! One more interesting thing is Wal-Mart it at the top of the brands followed by Target and Amazon! American’s do shop a lot, right?
Source: http://addictivelists.com/top-10-countries-with-most-facebook-users-2014/
Saturday 15 November 2014
5 PINTEREST MARKETING TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR VISIBILITY
How do you feel about your current social media marketing plan? Like many, you may focus most of your time on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. While these three services put you in position to drive a lot of traffic, there is another you may be overlooking: Pinterest.
Social Media Examiner shared their top tips for marketing your company on Pinterest. Here are a few of our favorites:
1. INCLUDE PRICE TAGS
Pinterest users aren’t just looking for creative inspiration on the network. They’re also ready to buy. Make sure you include a price tag in the pins you create or repin.
2. USE PIN IT FOR LATER LINKS
Publish a blog post, then pin an image from the article to a board. Copy the url of the pin. Use that same image for a post on your Google+ page.
3. SHOW PINS TO NEWSLETTER READERS
Turn Your Customer’s email inbox into a “Pinbox” by including a few of your best Pinterest pins in your weekly newsletter or your regular email. Include a screenshot of your Pinterest Pin(s) in your newsletter. Place a clickable link on the image that links to the Pinterest Pin. When newsletter readers click on the image they’re taken to that pin on Pinterest where they also browse your pinboards to see what else you have. It’s a win-win.
4. PROMOTE YOUR PRESENCE
Many marketers are surprised to learn that even if the brand Pinterest account they manage has a great profile, fans aren’t likely to seek it out or ‘stumble’ upon it on Pinterest, even if the brand is one of their favorites. Here are some ideas you can use to let fans or subscribers know your brand has Pinterest profile:
Tweet about Pinterest 2-3 times a week.
Post on Facebook once a week to once every two weeks.
Send an email mentioning Pinterest and feature a Pinterest profile widget at least once a month.
Add a (free) Pinterest app to your Facebook account.
In addition to social media promotion, optimize your website with a profile widget, ‘follow us’ buttons, and ‘pin it’ buttons on your images.
5. DRIVE TRAFFIC WITH BLOG BOARDS
By creating a blog board, you provide a place for your followers to find all your blog posts. Followers also automatically see any new blogs you pin on their homepage. After you publish a blog post on your site, pin it onto your board. Make sure to include a brief summary of the article, a relevant high-quality image and a link back to the blog post itself.
Source: http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2014/08/7-pinterest-marketing-tips-improve-visibility/
Social Media Examiner shared their top tips for marketing your company on Pinterest. Here are a few of our favorites:
1. INCLUDE PRICE TAGS
Pinterest users aren’t just looking for creative inspiration on the network. They’re also ready to buy. Make sure you include a price tag in the pins you create or repin.
2. USE PIN IT FOR LATER LINKS
Publish a blog post, then pin an image from the article to a board. Copy the url of the pin. Use that same image for a post on your Google+ page.
3. SHOW PINS TO NEWSLETTER READERS
Turn Your Customer’s email inbox into a “Pinbox” by including a few of your best Pinterest pins in your weekly newsletter or your regular email. Include a screenshot of your Pinterest Pin(s) in your newsletter. Place a clickable link on the image that links to the Pinterest Pin. When newsletter readers click on the image they’re taken to that pin on Pinterest where they also browse your pinboards to see what else you have. It’s a win-win.
4. PROMOTE YOUR PRESENCE
Many marketers are surprised to learn that even if the brand Pinterest account they manage has a great profile, fans aren’t likely to seek it out or ‘stumble’ upon it on Pinterest, even if the brand is one of their favorites. Here are some ideas you can use to let fans or subscribers know your brand has Pinterest profile:
Tweet about Pinterest 2-3 times a week.
Post on Facebook once a week to once every two weeks.
Send an email mentioning Pinterest and feature a Pinterest profile widget at least once a month.
Add a (free) Pinterest app to your Facebook account.
In addition to social media promotion, optimize your website with a profile widget, ‘follow us’ buttons, and ‘pin it’ buttons on your images.
5. DRIVE TRAFFIC WITH BLOG BOARDS
By creating a blog board, you provide a place for your followers to find all your blog posts. Followers also automatically see any new blogs you pin on their homepage. After you publish a blog post on your site, pin it onto your board. Make sure to include a brief summary of the article, a relevant high-quality image and a link back to the blog post itself.
Source: http://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2014/08/7-pinterest-marketing-tips-improve-visibility/
Friday 14 November 2014
A Sick Kid and Working Parents: WAHM
By Nicole Banens
Work At Home Mom and mother of 3 with a daddy who works over 40 hours a week.
I used to work a full time job at a marketing company 1 hour commuting from were I live, this meant I left the house at 6.15 in the morning and got back at 5.15 in the afternoon. With 3 kids in the age of 6 and 4 this wasn't an ideal situation, especially with a partner whose often abroad or at least not back home until after 6.30 in the evening. But we managed as long as none of the kids would get sick..... Yes, SICK.
With our parents not living in the Uk, we did not have any back-up as payed childminders don't accept sick kids!! Who to ask last-minute?
There had to be another way!
I had heard of mums working from home, online, using the internet, but how?
After some research to understand the possibilities I decided I wanted to become a WAHM: Work At Home Mom
Unfortunately my employer was clear about working from home: NO...
So, I quit my job!... was it the best idea ever??
Luckily my partner fully backed me up and we had some savings so I could go for it. (I know this isn't possible for everybody)
With a little help I started my home based online business as a Work At Home Mom.
So far I love it, but there's a lot of work and making big money instantly isn't true. I have to work hard, be persistent and use the best (online) tools, but I can be at there for my kids.
A phone call from School
This Friday morning, only an hour after dropping all 3 off at school the phone rang: "Can you pick up your daughter, she has a temperature and keeps coughing"
Me: "Of course i'll pick her up, be there in 10 min"
As we speak she is asleep and I decided to write this post. Why because I can, I work from home!
Do you work from home or would you like to? Please, share any tips, comments or questions.
Work At Home Mom and mother of 3 with a daddy who works over 40 hours a week.
I used to work a full time job at a marketing company 1 hour commuting from were I live, this meant I left the house at 6.15 in the morning and got back at 5.15 in the afternoon. With 3 kids in the age of 6 and 4 this wasn't an ideal situation, especially with a partner whose often abroad or at least not back home until after 6.30 in the evening. But we managed as long as none of the kids would get sick..... Yes, SICK.
With our parents not living in the Uk, we did not have any back-up as payed childminders don't accept sick kids!! Who to ask last-minute?
There had to be another way!
I had heard of mums working from home, online, using the internet, but how?
After some research to understand the possibilities I decided I wanted to become a WAHM: Work At Home Mom
Unfortunately my employer was clear about working from home: NO...
So, I quit my job!... was it the best idea ever??
Luckily my partner fully backed me up and we had some savings so I could go for it. (I know this isn't possible for everybody)
With a little help I started my home based online business as a Work At Home Mom.
So far I love it, but there's a lot of work and making big money instantly isn't true. I have to work hard, be persistent and use the best (online) tools, but I can be at there for my kids.
A phone call from School
This Friday morning, only an hour after dropping all 3 off at school the phone rang: "Can you pick up your daughter, she has a temperature and keeps coughing"
Me: "Of course i'll pick her up, be there in 10 min"
As we speak she is asleep and I decided to write this post. Why because I can, I work from home!
Do you work from home or would you like to? Please, share any tips, comments or questions.
Thursday 13 November 2014
5 holiday email marketing tips to kickstart your Christmas campaign right now
Let’s look at how you can plan a mobile strategy that brings an increasingly advanced holiday crowd to your business this fall. Mid-summer is the time to begin planning your marketing strategy, one that will reach customers right as thoughts of Labor Day drift toward the start of school.
The Holiday Stakes: E-mail Marketing and the Mobile Consumer
One key approach to the early holiday shopper is to find them where they live—and where they spend their money—and that’s increasingly online. And it’s increasingly online via mobile devices.
Recent reports tell us that there’s a $294 billion world, out there, when it comes to ecommerce, and 29.5% of that happens on smartphones and tablets. Furthermore, purchases via mobile devices jumped 22%, in 2013, according to a new report from Campaigner.
But that doesn’t mean that every enterprise simply gets to press “send”. Reaching the online and mobile shopper takes having the right message in the first place—and then getting it out in a way that prompts consumers to click-through and buy, or show up in person for your excellent offer.
E-mail marketing is one way to go about that — 64% of decision-making mobile consumers read their e-mail on a mobile device — so your campaign could reach them in just the right spot. But with that idea come some relevant cautions. To understand what those are, we turn to stats from the Campaigner study, showing what consumers said they want from brands that come to them with offers via their inbox.
- 45% of respondents said they open mobile marketing e-mails that feature both compelling text and graphics.
- Only 2% said they are motivated by graphics alone.
- 42% stick to what they know, reading promotional e-mails on their mobile devices primarily based on the familiarity of the sender’s name.
- 21% indicated that an awareness of an ongoing deal or price promotion is a primary driver to read promotional e-mails on their mobile device.
- 20% cited the e-mail subject line as the main reason they decide to read marketing e-mails on their mobile device.
This paints a picture of the mobile consumer, ones who are receptive to marketing e-mails, as being a fairly sophisticated — and particular — audience. In these cases, enterprise leaders looking to effectively reach customers have to become marketers of the same kind — savvy enough to build an e-mail campaign that hits the visual and storytelling marks, and also able to leverage the right audience in the right way to bring in conversions around their holiday push.
Getting Past ‘Open': How Enterprise Can Build a Better E-mail Campaign
“Retailers have a significant opportunity to embrace the growing market for mobile shoppers this holiday season,” said EJ McGowan, general manager at Campaigner. But it’s an opportunity that comes with a catch.
“While consumers are more interactive with mobile content and purchasing, [some] marketers are still providing a lackluster mobile experience,” McGowan said. “Some consumers feel content is not personalized, underscoring the importance of relevant content to increase sales and effectively engage with consumers.”
To get you thinking about the relevant and personalized touches that customers desire, check out the following key ideas for crafting outreach:
5 summertime tips for building a better e-mail campaign, this season and all year round:
- Build a campaign around environments. The 2014 survey found that 56% of participants read promotional e-mails while relaxing or watching TV, and 28% do so at work. The summer months are the perfect time to create and test various messages, subject lines, and mobile designs. Prepare to cultivate multiple environments and so increase your chances of reaching your customers in the perfect way, at the perfect moment.
- Implement responsive design. Marketers should take the summer to review their responsive-design strategy. Spend time with the analytics surrounding your previous mobile e-mail campaigns. Where you see flagging open rates, freshly encourage mobile interaction by emphasizing those measurably important subject lines. Lean into the image-text combination that mobile customers say they prefer.
- Streamline content. Nearly 22% of survey respondents said that too much text, or hard-to-read text, irritates them most about reading marketing e-mails on mobile devices. Shorten and simplify your message.
- Conduct A/B split testing. Once you’ve crafted compelling subject lines and responsive, streamlined content, test these elements of your campaign. Create an A/B split-test on multiple subject lines and then watch in real time as variations go head-to-head.
- Focus on established and key customers. Keep a version of the 80/20 rule in mind. That is, don’t waste your time on — and/or alienate — the 80% of consumers who won’t drive revenue for your enterprise. Focus instead on the 20% of consumers who do spend time and money with your brand. And then , encourage a continued relationship with that segment by providing rewards, loyalty programs, and great deals for the holidays.
And your holiday sales success story? It just might start this month.
Source: http://blog.bigcommerce.com/holiday-email-marketing-tips-kickstart-christmas-campaign-now/
Wednesday 12 November 2014
Factoids for Twitter Fanatics
Infographic Source: http://www.didit.com/infographic-16-facts-only-twitter-fanatics-know/
How much of these Twitter Facts did you know?
Tuesday 11 November 2014
5 Google+ Marketing Tips From the Pros
Are you struggling to figure out how to use Google+ to market your business?
Looking for some tips and ideas? You’ve come to the right place.
We asked 5 experienced social media professionals to share their best tips on Google+ for business with you.
Here are 5 ways you can use Google+ to promote and market your business.
#1: Close Off Google+ Comments to Increase Engagement
Here is one of my favorite tips for people who are more intermediate to advanced users on Google+.
Knowing the system:
When someone has comments on a post, they will receive a notification each time someone comments on that post after them. As such, comments are a powerful way of punctuating people’s attention.
Application:
Knowing this, you can use this to have ‘the last word’ on your comment threads, and get engagement from the right people. That is one of the great things about Google+, you really have a lot of control as to who and how people engage with you.
How to close off comments on your threads:
Simply click on the upper right of one of your posts and choose ‘disable comments’.
What to say once you close off comments:
Now you know how to close off comments, you need to decide how you would like to use them.
As you can see in the example below, I am letting people know the next steps for the campaign I am running at that point in time.
How to see who has plussed the comment, and why!
If you click on the plus ones for a comment you can see who has plussed.
But here is the great thing: you can then look to add them people into circles as you may well find they are some of your best engagers. From there you can build the relationship further.
An extra tip…
If you re-enable the comments, you can add an additional message and notify the people on that thread another time. A great way to market a new idea to people who related to the old one.
Martin Shervington is a Google+ marketing expert, consultant and executive coach. He manages two communities on Google+, Plus Your Life! and Plus Your Business! and has authored numerous books including Developmental Coaching.
#2: Leverage Google+ Hovercards to Grow Your Audience
Every marketer wants to grow their audience on Google+. A larger Google+ audience leads to more reach inside the network and ultimately more traffic and potential customers to your business.
Unfortunately, many marketers are getting overwhelmed trying to keep their Google+ stream filled with fresh content in the hopes this will attract +1′s, reshares and new connections.
These marketers are making one critical mistake. The most effective way to grow your audience on Google+ doesn’t involve creating your own posts. Instead focus on commenting.
Google+ users can scroll over any other users name, anywhere inside of Google+ and a hover card will appear.
The existence of hovercards removes the necessity to create original content (at least as often as on other social networks). This is why I highly recommend a Google+ commenting strategy (similar to the old-school blog commenting strategy) for building new relationships and driving traffic to your site.
Enter terms relevant to your business in the search bar at the top of every Google+ page. The results will return Google+ users, public posts, communities and Hangouts on Air which match your interests.
Next start engaging. Add valuable comments to the public posts. Join and engage in the community discussions. Attend and participate in the Hangouts on Air. From your comments in these locations over Google+ users can simply hover over you name and add you to their circles (which they’ll happily do if you’re adding value to the conversation).
Ryan Hanley, founder of Hanley Media Lab.
#3: Schedule Your Google+ Posts for Maximum Impact
When you find great content you want to share on your Google+ personal profile it doesn’t make sense to share it all at the same time. Instead it’s better to add it to a queue and share at an appropriate time.
The Chrome DoShare plugin is a free plugin which allows you to share content at a time that suits your audience.
When you come across a piece of content on the web you can click on the DoShare button in your browser and add it to a queue.
You can also add content you find in Google+ to your queue by clicking on the DoShare button.
Due to limitations on Google+ for posting on personal profiles, you need to have your Chrome browser open at the time you have scheduled the content to be delivered.
This is not a bad thing, as I’d advise you to only post content at a time you are available to respond to it. But you can queue up your scheduled content or just add content without a schedule and send it when it suits.
Ian Cleary, founder of Razorsocial.
#4: Use Your Google+ Profile to Claim Authorship of Your Content
If you write content for various online blogs and publications, be sure to use your Google+ profile to claim authorship of each piece of content you write. Also, regardless of whether you own a website or not, sign up for Google Webmaster Tools using the same Google account as your Google+ profile.
This will allow you to see analytics data for the posts linked to your Google+ profile, including impressions in search, click through rates, and more. Just look under the Labs menu for Author Stats!
Since you generally can’t get analytics data for the content you write on sites other than your own, this can give you a little insight on the popularity of your content in search.
Kristi Hines is a freelance writer and author of Kikolani.
#5: Make Sure Your Images Take Up Significant Real Estate
One of the secrets for success on Google Plus is not just sharing images that capture attention, it’s also making images that are tall and skinny so they take up significant real estate.
Don’t make the mistake that many newbies make, and allow Google Plus to grab an image from the link you’re sharing. Go the extra step and take a couple of extra minutes to create gorgeous, visually appealing, tall and skinny images for your content shares.
Looking at the images below, which would capture your attention?
Yes, the tall and skinny one, with images of people and attractive colors, would definitely win.
Experiment with different image sizes and colors to see what performs best. If you find images that aren’t the right size, use a tool like Canva or PicMonkey to resize your images and to make them more visually appealing.
And here’s a final tip: get great charting software, make great charts, and share regularly. Everyone shares memes, animated gifs, inspirational quotes, etc..but few people are turning statistics into images that are easy to digest. Be the first in your niche and watch your +1’s grow!
Marcela De Vivo is CEO of Gryffin.com, blogs at The Alchemy, and specializes in Google Penalty Recovery and Link Building.
What’s your experience with Google+? What other Google+ marketing tips do you have to share? Please share your questions and comments in the box below.
Source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-plus-marketing-tips-from-the-pros/
Looking for some tips and ideas? You’ve come to the right place.
We asked 5 experienced social media professionals to share their best tips on Google+ for business with you.
Here are 5 ways you can use Google+ to promote and market your business.
#1: Close Off Google+ Comments to Increase Engagement
Here is one of my favorite tips for people who are more intermediate to advanced users on Google+.
Knowing the system:
When someone has comments on a post, they will receive a notification each time someone comments on that post after them. As such, comments are a powerful way of punctuating people’s attention.
Application:
Knowing this, you can use this to have ‘the last word’ on your comment threads, and get engagement from the right people. That is one of the great things about Google+, you really have a lot of control as to who and how people engage with you.
How to close off comments on your threads:
Simply click on the upper right of one of your posts and choose ‘disable comments’.
What to say once you close off comments:
Now you know how to close off comments, you need to decide how you would like to use them.
As you can see in the example below, I am letting people know the next steps for the campaign I am running at that point in time.
How to see who has plussed the comment, and why!
If you click on the plus ones for a comment you can see who has plussed.
But here is the great thing: you can then look to add them people into circles as you may well find they are some of your best engagers. From there you can build the relationship further.
An extra tip…
If you re-enable the comments, you can add an additional message and notify the people on that thread another time. A great way to market a new idea to people who related to the old one.
Martin Shervington is a Google+ marketing expert, consultant and executive coach. He manages two communities on Google+, Plus Your Life! and Plus Your Business! and has authored numerous books including Developmental Coaching.
#2: Leverage Google+ Hovercards to Grow Your Audience
Every marketer wants to grow their audience on Google+. A larger Google+ audience leads to more reach inside the network and ultimately more traffic and potential customers to your business.
Unfortunately, many marketers are getting overwhelmed trying to keep their Google+ stream filled with fresh content in the hopes this will attract +1′s, reshares and new connections.
These marketers are making one critical mistake. The most effective way to grow your audience on Google+ doesn’t involve creating your own posts. Instead focus on commenting.
Google+ users can scroll over any other users name, anywhere inside of Google+ and a hover card will appear.
The existence of hovercards removes the necessity to create original content (at least as often as on other social networks). This is why I highly recommend a Google+ commenting strategy (similar to the old-school blog commenting strategy) for building new relationships and driving traffic to your site.
Enter terms relevant to your business in the search bar at the top of every Google+ page. The results will return Google+ users, public posts, communities and Hangouts on Air which match your interests.
Next start engaging. Add valuable comments to the public posts. Join and engage in the community discussions. Attend and participate in the Hangouts on Air. From your comments in these locations over Google+ users can simply hover over you name and add you to their circles (which they’ll happily do if you’re adding value to the conversation).
Ryan Hanley, founder of Hanley Media Lab.
#3: Schedule Your Google+ Posts for Maximum Impact
When you find great content you want to share on your Google+ personal profile it doesn’t make sense to share it all at the same time. Instead it’s better to add it to a queue and share at an appropriate time.
The Chrome DoShare plugin is a free plugin which allows you to share content at a time that suits your audience.
When you come across a piece of content on the web you can click on the DoShare button in your browser and add it to a queue.
You can also add content you find in Google+ to your queue by clicking on the DoShare button.
Due to limitations on Google+ for posting on personal profiles, you need to have your Chrome browser open at the time you have scheduled the content to be delivered.
This is not a bad thing, as I’d advise you to only post content at a time you are available to respond to it. But you can queue up your scheduled content or just add content without a schedule and send it when it suits.
Ian Cleary, founder of Razorsocial.
#4: Use Your Google+ Profile to Claim Authorship of Your Content
If you write content for various online blogs and publications, be sure to use your Google+ profile to claim authorship of each piece of content you write. Also, regardless of whether you own a website or not, sign up for Google Webmaster Tools using the same Google account as your Google+ profile.
This will allow you to see analytics data for the posts linked to your Google+ profile, including impressions in search, click through rates, and more. Just look under the Labs menu for Author Stats!
Since you generally can’t get analytics data for the content you write on sites other than your own, this can give you a little insight on the popularity of your content in search.
Kristi Hines is a freelance writer and author of Kikolani.
#5: Make Sure Your Images Take Up Significant Real Estate
One of the secrets for success on Google Plus is not just sharing images that capture attention, it’s also making images that are tall and skinny so they take up significant real estate.
Don’t make the mistake that many newbies make, and allow Google Plus to grab an image from the link you’re sharing. Go the extra step and take a couple of extra minutes to create gorgeous, visually appealing, tall and skinny images for your content shares.
Looking at the images below, which would capture your attention?
Yes, the tall and skinny one, with images of people and attractive colors, would definitely win.
Experiment with different image sizes and colors to see what performs best. If you find images that aren’t the right size, use a tool like Canva or PicMonkey to resize your images and to make them more visually appealing.
And here’s a final tip: get great charting software, make great charts, and share regularly. Everyone shares memes, animated gifs, inspirational quotes, etc..but few people are turning statistics into images that are easy to digest. Be the first in your niche and watch your +1’s grow!
Marcela De Vivo is CEO of Gryffin.com, blogs at The Alchemy, and specializes in Google Penalty Recovery and Link Building.
What’s your experience with Google+? What other Google+ marketing tips do you have to share? Please share your questions and comments in the box below.
Source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-plus-marketing-tips-from-the-pros/
Monday 10 November 2014
7 Exercises You can Do while Sitting Down (improve flexibility and muscle tone)
I stay home with our kids, most days, while working part time as a play therapist. I don’t really sit very much, but my husband is the opposite. He sits at his desk for many hours a day. He can’t really get up very much, because he could miss something important, so he tends to stay at his desk. Unfortunately, his body doesn’t appreciate this (back aches, etc… which come with being sedentary) so here are a few exercises that you can do while sitting down..
If working long hours at the office is eating away at your exercise time, don’t despair. Make the most of your time by exercising on the job. Here are seven exercises you can do while sitting down in the office that don’t even require that you get out of your seat.
Clenches
For buns of steel, clench your buttocks and hold for ten seconds. Do five sets of eight reps. The beauty of this exercise is that your supervisors and coworkers won’t see any movement and need not even know that you’re secretly exercising on the job.
Ankle rotations
Rotate your ankles in both directions for five seconds. Do five sets of eight reps in each direction. This exercise can strengthen the flexibility of your ankles and make you less likely to suffer from sprains.
Arm stretches
Just because you’re seated at your desk doesn’t mean your arms can’t do just about anything they want. Many arm exercises can be performed while seated at your desk. Stretch the muscles in your right arm by reaching as far to the left as you can with your right arm while supporting it in the crook of your left elbow and then hold it there. Feel the stretch for five seconds. Do eight reps before switching over to your left arm.
Calf muscle toning
Give your calf muscles a work out by raising your legs up on the very tips of your toes while remaining seated. Your calf muscles should start to burn after a few seconds. Hold for ten seconds and then repeat eight times.
Rotating at the waist
Strengthen your core by rotating at the waist while remaining seated. Rotate as far to the left as you can and hold for five seconds, then repeat on the right. Complete five sets. Grab the backrest of your chair with your hands for extra support.
Crunches
Move to the edge of your seat and lean back on the backrest. Then lift your straightened legs a few inches above the ground and raise your back a few inches off the backrest. Feel the burn in your abdominal muscles and hold for ten seconds. Eight reps of ten seconds each can strengthen your core considerably when done regularly.
Leg lifts
Starting with both feet flat on the floor, do leg lifts, starting first with the right leg and then the left. Lift each leg until it touches the underside of your desk. Do ten sets of eight reps to strengthen your thigh muscles and your core.
Being busy is never an excuse to not stay fit. While you should always try to make time for proper cardio and weight training, never forget that there are many other ways you can incorporate exercise into your daily routine. Doing a couple of simple exercises while sitting down in the office each day can, when done regularly, help to improve your flexibility, muscle tone and strength.
Source: http://www.yourmodernfamily.com/exercise-sitting-down/
7 Exercises You can Do while Sitting Down in the Office
If working long hours at the office is eating away at your exercise time, don’t despair. Make the most of your time by exercising on the job. Here are seven exercises you can do while sitting down in the office that don’t even require that you get out of your seat.
Clenches
For buns of steel, clench your buttocks and hold for ten seconds. Do five sets of eight reps. The beauty of this exercise is that your supervisors and coworkers won’t see any movement and need not even know that you’re secretly exercising on the job.
Ankle rotations
Rotate your ankles in both directions for five seconds. Do five sets of eight reps in each direction. This exercise can strengthen the flexibility of your ankles and make you less likely to suffer from sprains.
Arm stretches
Just because you’re seated at your desk doesn’t mean your arms can’t do just about anything they want. Many arm exercises can be performed while seated at your desk. Stretch the muscles in your right arm by reaching as far to the left as you can with your right arm while supporting it in the crook of your left elbow and then hold it there. Feel the stretch for five seconds. Do eight reps before switching over to your left arm.
Calf muscle toning
Give your calf muscles a work out by raising your legs up on the very tips of your toes while remaining seated. Your calf muscles should start to burn after a few seconds. Hold for ten seconds and then repeat eight times.
Rotating at the waist
Strengthen your core by rotating at the waist while remaining seated. Rotate as far to the left as you can and hold for five seconds, then repeat on the right. Complete five sets. Grab the backrest of your chair with your hands for extra support.
Crunches
Move to the edge of your seat and lean back on the backrest. Then lift your straightened legs a few inches above the ground and raise your back a few inches off the backrest. Feel the burn in your abdominal muscles and hold for ten seconds. Eight reps of ten seconds each can strengthen your core considerably when done regularly.
Leg lifts
Starting with both feet flat on the floor, do leg lifts, starting first with the right leg and then the left. Lift each leg until it touches the underside of your desk. Do ten sets of eight reps to strengthen your thigh muscles and your core.
Being busy is never an excuse to not stay fit. While you should always try to make time for proper cardio and weight training, never forget that there are many other ways you can incorporate exercise into your daily routine. Doing a couple of simple exercises while sitting down in the office each day can, when done regularly, help to improve your flexibility, muscle tone and strength.
Source: http://www.yourmodernfamily.com/exercise-sitting-down/
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