AG Communications Group

Coca Cola goes social media with Expedition206

The Coca-Cola Company is sending a team made up of three young explorers on a quest to find out what makes people happy. The team will visit 206 countries in the world where Coca-Cola is sold within 365 days. The journey begins in January 2010.

The big mission is to discover an answer to the proverbial question of what makes people happy around the world. From meeting new people, seeing amazing places, experiencing different cultures and attending local events, the team will be taking part in all kinds of experiences–some planned, some unplanned. They’ll be blogging, uploading videos and photos along the way.

www.Expedition206.com

Use Twollo to follow Tweeple like you

Never miss out on a conversation. No longer hear only one side of the story. Tell us what you like, and we do the hard work of finding the conversations that you should be involved in.

Cool Things you can do with Twollo:

Discover Tweeple talking about your favorite topics or interests;
Engage with Tweeple talking about another Twitterer;
Follow Tweeple talking about a hashtag.

http://www.twollow.com

Feedtwister is a great source for mashing multiple RSS Feeds

In a nutshell, this is what you can do:

Mix your favorite feeds and show their latest posts on your website.
Create as many lists of feeds as you want.
Add up to 50 feeds per list.
Assign an image to each feed.
Choose the output charset encoding.
Order posts by date or title.
Limit the posts shown and establish a posts per source maximum.
Fully customize how the posts are displayed with our template system.
Data is cached so it loads fast and updated so you get the latest info.

Here are my Feedtwisters:

Why use this tool? It’s a great srouce for syndicating your blogs on your website, in your social networks, and you get listed in a directory. You never know who is interested in your posts.

If you use more than one micro-blog solution, Hello Txt is the only solution

I was having a hard time keeping up with all of my micro-blogging. When I pondered my dilemma on Plurk someone told me about HelloTxt.

HelloTxt lets you send status messages to 29 micro-blogginp sites.

You’ll still have to visit those sites to check your replies. Where’s the solution for that?

I don’t know if ping.fm is ping.fm, but gave up setting it up when their Facebook application link didn’t work.

The Death of BlogRush

After careful consideration, we have decided to shutdown the BlogRush service.  If you have the widget code on your blog you will need to remove it.

When BlogRush launched in late-2007 it spread like wildfire all over the Web.  Thousands of bloggers were talking about it and the service exploded to become one of the fastest growing free services in the history of the Web.  During the first year of the service it successfully served 3.4 Billion blog post headlines and the BlogRush widget could be found on blogs all over the world; even up until the moment we closed down the service.

BlogRush didn’t grow without its fair share of problems — from security issues to abusive users trying to ‘game’ the system to much lower click-rates than expected.  We also had some problems with trying to fairly control the quality of the network, and in the process made many mistakes in deciding what blogs should stay or go.  All of these issues, ultimately, limited the service’s full potential.

Our team worked very hard to try and build a service that would truly help bloggers of all sizes get free traffic to their blogs.  This was our primary focus.  Not once did we ever try to monetize the service with ads or anything else.  BlogRush never made a single penny in revenue.  We wanted to be able to help our users FIRST and then worry about monetizing the service later.  Unfortunately, the service didn’t work out like we had hoped.  (It happens.)

I want to say “Thank You” to all of the great bloggers that at least gave BlogRush a test to see if it would work for them.  We sincerely appreciate you giving the service a try.

We have received several offers & inquiries about acquiring BlogRush, but we are choosing not to go that route.  While many might think this is crazy, we truly feel it’s the ‘right’ thing to do for our users.  Believe it or not, it’s not always about the money.  In fact, BlogRush will have lost a small fortune when it’s all said and done, and it was by choice.  There were many things we could have done to monetize the service but we wanted to make sure it was going to benefit our users first.

Last but not least I want to say that I hope the failure of this service doesn’t in any way discourage other entrepreneurs from coming up with crazy ideas at 4AM (like I did with this one) and from “going for it” to just try and see if something will work.  Without trying there can be no success.  And as we all know, ideas are worthless without action.  The Web wouldn’t be what it is today without entrepreneurs trying all sorts of crazy ideas.

On behalf of the entire BlogRush team, we wish the best of luck to everyone with their own blogs, ideas, and crazy ventures.

Sincerely,

John Reese

http://twitter.com/johnreese

We won!

One of the AG Communications Group’s brand, Black Women in Europe Blog, has won another award.  See all of the awards given to the Black Women in Europe Blog.

Using A Free Blogging Web Site

For first time bloggers, a free blogging web site is a great way to get started in the blogosphere. Popular blogging web sites like blogger and eponym allow users to set up and host a blog without paying any fees at all.

This encourages people to start blogging, because the fact that one of these sites can provide you with all of the tools that you need to get your blog up and running without spending any money means that you have nothing to lose by starting a blog. The fact that it is so easy to find a way to blog for free is one of the reasons why so many people who have never had any other kind of web presence before find themselves drawn to blogging.

By signing up with a free blogging web site, you may find it easier to get listed in search engines that you would if you were starting your own blog from scratch. For example, google runs the free blog hosting site blogspot and crawls its pages very often looking for updates, so if you have your site hosted by blogspot you are almost guaranteed to be listed on google’s blog search engine. This easy access to search engines can take some of the work out of promoting your blog, and can help you gain a following with a minimum of marketing effort.

If your blog attracts a large readership, you may want to consider moving your site. Many people feel that being hosted by a free blogging web site gives a blog a kind of amateur flavor that is fine for a new member of the blogosphere, but is not appropriate for a high-profile blog.

Having your own domain can help you make your blog feel professional, and finding a company that will host your domain is not difficult or expensive. Once your blog takes off, you will probably be able to sell enough advertising space to be able to afford to buy a domain and pay for a hosting package, and still have money left over. However, it does not make sense in most cases to invest in these glossy luxuries before you have a sizable readership.

Starting your blog on a free blogging web site is a great way to build a following before you spend any money on your blog. If and when your blog becomes popular and you are ready to take the next step and purchase your own domain, your readers will follow you to your new home.

The fact that it is possible to use a free blog host like blogspost, blogger, or eponym as a kind of incubator for your blog is great news for bloggers everywhere.

Getting started with videoblogging

Videoblogging is the next generation of posting ideas and products over the internet. Everybody knows about textblogging. Now they use videos for a better way of expression. This form of communication may entail a lot of resources, but it is all worth it. If pictures say a thousand words, videoblogging exceeds that by far.

A videoblog requires larger disk spaces on websites, a faster server, and a whole new set of programs to support it. Videoblogs can be fed through RSS. This is technology of syndicating your website to other RSS aggregators.

Videoblogging works with people on the internet expressing their selves. Now if you put this on a business prospective, you are up to a lot of benefits. Think of it as a powerful tool in making showing your prospective customers your line of products or your services. It’s just like showing a commercial all for free. And if you videoblog through RSS, then most probably you are getting your target market.

People like to see what they are going to buy. Some would like to see proof and be sure that they are getting their money’s worth before shelving their dimes on it. All of us know the influence of a thirty second commercial. The effect of videoblogging is similar to that. You show your product, people watch it. If they like it, they buy it. If you present it good enough, they’ll buy the product even if they don’t need it.

Now on the web, things are pretty much static, unlike in television in which all are moving. If you post something that is mobile, it would most likely catch attention. Now imaging your product parading in all it’s royalty through videoblog. You’ll get phone call orders in no time.

If your business is just starting up, you can create a videoblog right at your own home. All you need is your web camera, microphone, video software, and lights. For as long as you know how to use your camera, then you can create a videoblog.

Invest in a good web camera. The higher its resolution is the better the output. And you like to present your goods in the optimum way so get the best one possible. Make a short story, or just capture your goods in one go. Just make sure you are getting the best profile for each. Get those creativity juices flowing.

Lights are important in a production. Make sure you illuminate entirely the area you are going to use to create videoblog. The brighter the area, the crispier the images will be. You can also use lighting effects for added appeal to the presentation.

Should you require sounds for your videoblog, you need a microphone. Record you voice as a voice over for promoting the product and its benefit to consumers. Sounds are as important as videos on a videoblog. It is advisable to make your sound effects as enticing as the video.

Your video editing software can be any program. You need this to finalize your work. You can add sounds, delete some bad angles, or insert some still pictures in there too. Some programs are user-friendly and can be used even with zero knowledge on video editing. Even simple video editing programs should do the trick. Select your background carefully too. The light affects the presentation so make sure that the background and the light complements each other.

Videoblogging is a great tool but it also has it downside. It may slow down the computer so other may steer clear of it. Download time may also be time consuming especially if customer is still on a dial- up connection.

But don’t let those stop you. Let videoblogging be an alternative for you, though it is best to still keep the text and pictures present in your presentation to accommodate all possible viewers of your site.

Nowadays, the more creative you are in presenting your product to the market, the more you are likely to succeed. Videoblogging offers an interactive way of selling. You involve the customers and you instill in them the advantage of your goods. And often those two things are enough to make a sale.

Problogging: Make Money From Blogs

A weblog (or simply blog) is a website that ‘publishes’ or features articles (which are called ‘blog posts’, ‘posts’, or ‘entries’), written by an individual or a group that make use of any or a combination of the following:

· Straight texts

· Photographs or images (photoblog)

· Video (videoblog)

· Audio files (audioblog)

· Hyperlinks

Usually presented and arranged in reverse chronological order, blogs are essentially used for the following purposes:

· Online journal or a web diary

· Content managament system

· Online publishing platform

A typical blog has the following components:

· Post date -the date and time of the blog entry

· Category – the category that the blog belongs to

· Title – the title of the blog

· Main body – the main content of the blog

· RSS and trackback – links the blog back from other sites

· Comments – commentaries that are added by readers

· Permalinks – the URL of the full article

· Other optional items – calendar, archives, blogrolls, and add-ons or plug-ins

A blog can also have a footer, usually found at the bottom of the blog, that shows the post date, the author, the category, and the ‘stats’ (the nubmer of comments or trackbacks).

There are numerous types of blogs. Some of them are the following:

1. Political blog – on news, politics, activism, and other issue based blogs (such as campaigning).

2. Personal blog – also known as online diary that may include an individual’s day-to-day experience, complaints, poems, and illicit thoughts, and communications between friends.

3. Topical blog – with focus either on a particular niche (function or position) that is usually technical in nature or a local information.

4. Health blog – on specific health issues. Medical blog is a major category of health blog that features medical news from health care professionals and/or actual patient cases.

5. Literary blog – also known as litblog.

6. Travel blog – with focus on a traveler’s stories on a particular journey.

7. Research blog – on academic issues such as research notes.

8. Legal blog – on law (technical areas) and legal affairs; also known as ‘blawgs’.

9. Media blog – focus on falsehoods or inconsistencies in mass media; usually exclusive for a newspaper or a television network.

10. Religious blog – on religious topics

11. Educational blog – on educational applications, usually written by students and teachers.

12. Collaborative or collective blog – a specific topic written by a group of people.

13. Directory blog – contains a collection of numerous web sites.

14. Business blog – used by entrepreneurs and corporate employees to promote their businesses or talk about their work.

15. Personification blog – focus on non-human being or objects (such as dogs).

16. Spam blogs – used for promoting affiliated websites; also known as ‘splogs’.

Blogging is typically done on a regular (almost daily) basis. The term “blogging” refers to the act of authoring, maintaining, or adding an article to an existing blog, while the term “blogger” refers to a person or a group who keeps a blog.

Today, more than 3 million blogs can be found in the Internet. This figure is continuously growing, as the availability of various blog software, tools, and other applications make it easier for just about anyone to update or maintain the blog (even those with little or no technical background). Because of this trend, bloggers can now be categorized into 4 main types:

· Personal bloggers – people who focus on a diary or on any topic that an individual feels strongly about.

· Business bloggers – people who focus on promoting products and services.

· Organizational bloggers – people who focus on internal or external communication in an organization or a community.

· Professional bloggers – people who are hired or paid to do blogging.

Problogging (professional blogging) refers to blogging for a profit. Probloggers (professional bloggers) are people who make money from blogging (as an individual blog publisher or a hired blogger).

Below are just some of the many money-making opportunities for probloggers:

· Advertising programs

· RSS advertising

· Sponsorship

· Affiliate Programs

· Digital assets

· Blog network writing gigs

· Business blog writing gigs

· Non blogging writing gigs

· Donations

· Flipping blogs

· Merchandising

· Consulting and speaking

The following are a few things that you need to consider if you want to be successful in problogging:

1. Be patient. Problogging requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention a long-term vision.

2. Know your audience. Targeting a specific audience or group is a key to building a readership.

3. Be an ‘expert’. Focus on a specific niche topic and strive to be the “go-to” blogger on that topic.

4. Diversify. Experiment with various add and affiliate programs that enable you to make money online (aside from blogging).

5. Do not bore your readers. Focus on the layout. White spaces, line spacings, and bigger fonts make a blog welcoming to read.

Certainly, it is more than possible to earn money from blogs. One just needs to take risks and have the passion and the right attitude in order to be a successful problogger.

How To Keep Your Blog At The Top Of The Rankings? Some Social Marketing Tips

Adding new posts to your blog is one of the simplest ways to keep your blog at the top of rankings. A new post will always keep people interested and clicking on your blog, more clicks means higher ranking since one of the ways rankings are established is by counting the number of clicks earned by your website. People will return to your blog if you include funny anecdotes, free advice and links to other interesting pages in your blog.

Maximum advertisement of your blog is another way to keep your blog at top rankings. You can advertise at forums, post links in chat rooms, tell friends to post links on their websites to your blog and find websites that are looking for blogs to be added to their web pages. The number of links caught by the web spider will automatically increase your ranking.

If you use your blog to promote your website, you can hire one or two writers who can write daily posts for your blog. This will also add fresh ideas and better perspective to your blog. There is no shortage of blog writers, since there are people who write blogs for themselves as well as earn a living through the blog. You can advertise on job boards and the interested ones will send you their emails and sample work, so it will be easy for you to choose the one that suits you.

You will not feel stressed with the thought of updating a blog, while you will also be reaping rewards for fresh blog entries regularly. If you earn from your blog you can surely afford hiring one blog writer. The best one would be the one who was a style of writing that matches yours.

Hiring a web writer to write keyword rich articles for your blog is another good idea of increasing your web rankings. People with good idea of SEO can do the trick for you. You can also buy top ranking by using Google Adsense, here you will have to link your blog to several sites. This effort will surely pay off in increasing your rankings.

The most important thing about maintaining a blog is being loyal to it. You should return to it each day and add at least two posts. Increase in internet rankings in the only way you can ensure that your exposure on the internet has increased substantially. You can create a newsletter and add it to your website and other ways of advertising are all good means of increasing your search engine rankings.

Your rankings will go up if you provide amusing blogs. Consistency and providing new material are the key to maintaining a healthy audience for your blog. Check out this great blog as an example.