The Raging Tech

SocialSpark Stimulates Economy

As many of you know, I sometimes write and do advertising on my blog for a company called IZEA. Those of you not familiar, IZEA is a social marketing solutions company. In hard times, businesses are failing, advertising budgets are shrinking, and as a result, less people hear about your business. It’s not that people aren’t up for spending their money on your product; They just don’t know enough about you yet. People are on tighter budgets, making more informed decisions about their purchases. That’s just not something people are going to get from a 30 second TV or Radio spot. It might be enough to pique their interest, but then they have to find you and ask their friends about you and read website reviews about you.

Nowadays, especially in niche markets like tech gadgets and gear, people are going to tech blogs and review sites to find out what’s the best bang for their dollar. They want the best deals on the best brands. When they go to do their homework, are they going to find that YOUR business or product are the hottest thing out there?

There used to be a very sketchy smog surrounding the concept of “sponsored conversation” – because it harbored the odious stench associated with product placement in movies or television. People would steer clear of any such form of promotion, especially content publishers like bloggers, because they didn’t want to risk their integrity. Here’s where SocialSpark comes in:

• 100% Honest Opinions. If a SocialSpark blogger doesn’t like something, they’re going to tell you. It’s not all glowing product-worship reviews – but a client’s product or service will get to be a topic of conversation amongst the blogger and their readers.
• 100% Full Disclosure. Every SocialSpark blogger is required to have a disclosure policy (like mine in the links at the top of the page). This lets our readers know that there is sometimes compensation for talking about something in our posts, but this is always identified with a badge at the end of each sponsored post.
• 100% Transparency. Sponsored posts or affiliate ads are chosen by the blogger from available opportunities, and if a blogger doesn’t like an opportunity, they are not required to take it. Blogs in the SocialSpark system are categorized, so that bloggers don’t post on irrelevant topics just to earn money.

SocialSpark helps the economy in two ways: first of all, it helps your business grow by leaps and bounds harnessing the power of social media like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and traditional web page ads. Secondly, SocialSpark lets tech bloggers like me monetize their blogs (yes, PLURAL, you can register more than one blog with SocialSpark). Being able to earn profit while doing something I enjoy gives me motivation to write more often and to write relevant and informative (or at least entertaining!) content. It’s encouraged me to try to build my readership, learn the ropes of social marketing, and build relationships around the blogging community.

If you’re a tech blogger and you’ve been wondering how to get involved in monetizing your blog, SocialSpark is your invitation to the Big Show. If you’re a business owner or advertiser and you’ve been trying to find a non-shady way to break into the social marketing niche, SocialSpark is your inside man.

EDIT: If you sign up for SocialSpark, be sure and get your blog verified, then leave a comment here letting me know you signed up so I can find you and add you as a friend. Or DM me on Twitter @ragingtech.

Promote Your Web Site with Network Solutions

Internet marketing is not a simple science. You have to understand things like web trends, search engine  optimization, social bookmarking, social networking, forums, blogs, google analytics, and the subtle nuiances of ad placement and demographic targeting. You’re running a business. Do you really have time to bother with learning all that? You practically need a degree in internet marketing to be successful with your web site on the internet.

If you’re not interested in doing all that by yourself, wasting hundreds of dollars on books and webinars and training courses, or maybe you just don’t have time to handle your business’ marketing online, why not let professionals who have been doing it for years help you? Network Solutions has been in the internet business for a long time. You’ve probably heard of them at some time or another. They used to be the only place to go to register internet domain names.

Network Solutions offers more than just domain names, they have hosting and most importantly to you (since you already have a web site) they know how to market web sites successfully. They work closely with Google Adwords and Yahoo keywords to help you place targeted ads and their Pay-Per-Click system brings you customers right when they’re ready to buy!

Paying per click means the traffic you receive to your web site that you’re paying for should only be highly-qualified leads from Network Solutions and their affiliates. Let’s face it, other advertising and internet marketing programs can generate traffic, but how much of that is quality traffic? Probably not a lot. Get authentic visitors and let Network Solutions’ web site promotion services help you convert those visitors into sales.

Everybody Do the Stamp (Self-Inking Stamps!)

Lots of people have collections for hobbies. Some people collect postage, some collect Troll Dolls, Beanie Babies, Pokemon (Because let’s face it, you really DO have to catch them all), Yu-Gi-Oh! stuff, human remains, you know, the usual. A neat hobbie I’ve seen people do is collecting rubber stamps. You remember these as a kid, you’d stamp them in a little ink pad and then stamp them on paper, and you’d have neat designs. I remember once in scouts we carved shapes into potatoes and used those as stamps.

Vista Print, the internet’s printing giant, has crazy deals every day on any of their basic offerings, usually free and you pay shipping for the first batch, and any more than that you still get a decent price. You also pay a little extra if you customize, but that’s not too steep either, compared to a brick-and-mortar print shop like your local Slinko’s.

Be sure and check out Vista Print’s Rubber Stamps, on sale now with a coupon code: Stamps50. That will get you 50% off all rubber stamps. They also sell Self Inking Stamps, which might be more useful for businesses that need to stamp their name, address, or other contact information on forms and invoices a lot.

Vista Print is a great place to go to get customized goods like business cards, signs, t-shirts, hats, stationary and anything else you can think of with your message, logo, or business name on it. Branding makes your business stand out and provides you with great schwag you can give away to promote your business. For a small business, this also makes you look more professional.

Put Up Your Website as Little as $4 a Month

If you’re at all serious about running your own business, either as primary income or as a side consultant for the off-hours from work, you’re going to want to have some sort of a web presence. Or maybe you’re an artist. Or maybe you’re a technology worker who just needs a place to rant and talk about tech news.  If all you want is a measly place to put your photos up of your family to share with realtives, you’re going to probably want a web page so that you have control over your own stuff.

I know some people may not have four bucks to spare, and if so maybe a web site isn’t your primary concern right now. But if you feel like your budget can stand the strain of four bucks a month, there’s at least one option for you that can get you unlimited space to host your site and unlimited traffic from visitors to your site. You can compare website hosting services online to find the best match for you – maybe you want a little more and are willing to pay a little more than four bucks a month!

Compare web hosting companies online at Web Hosting Rating. They have a breakdown chart of top web hosts for your money. If you’ll go to that link, you’ll notice the best isn’t always the cheapest, but the cheapest is still in the upper echelons of the rankings! Be sure to check out the 2008 Web Hosting Awards, especially the “Best Blog Hosting” winner.

Certifications can Boost Your Hireability

This is a no brainer, but if you’re struggling out there in the job market, try to get some certifications. You may find that your field experience or self-research and training qualify you for a certification already. Or, you may learn something new by studying a “For Dummies” or exam prep guide.

Currently, I hold two Microsoft certifications – Microsoft Certified Professional, and Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician. These are great, but hardly enough on their own to get an awesome job. That’s why one of the things I am for sure doing with some of my inheritance money is getting my Apple Desktop Support certification and a Vista upgrade to my Microsoft certifications. Then I’ll probably get my A+ and start looking into a Cisco cert of some sort.

Cisco certs are neat, because that’s where the REALLY big bucks are at. You can go almost anywhere you want with the right Cisco certification. Why? Because nearly every enterprise-class network has Cisco hardware somewhere – either in their network infrastructure, or their phone systems, or somewhere in their data centers.

Cisco has certifications that can lead into any of these career paths, and even if the company you go to work for doesn’t have Cisco-brand equipment, they look highly on the certification during the hiring process. These certs aren’t cheap, but they’re well worth the investment in your time and equipment.

Getting your Cisco certification is fairly straightforward though, you just start at their website and begin researching the first level, the associate certification (or CCNA).

By itself, the CCNA is plenty to get you a good job. Like you’d expect though, a higher level certification gives you better chances and better money. The next levels are going to be even harder though, and you’ll want to find yourself some access to Cisco equipment so you can practice and train for your exam. Usually if you have a job where you can use your CCNA, you’ll have higher-level staff who can help you with that, though.

Find a Better Deal on Web Hosting

While I’m pretty happy with my web host, Dream Host, you may not be happy with where your web site or blog are currently located. Perhaps you’ve seen banner ads and pop-ups and other forms of advertising at your favorite blog that has a deal you find more than tempting?

There’s more than a plethora of web hosts out there for your web site or blog or forum or whatever you might use your corner of the web to publish. With all the options, competition is high and prices keep dropping. But are you really getting a good deal?

Busy people, especially small businesses or entrepreneurs, don’t have time to shop around for a good web host. In fact, many may fall into the trap of paying too much for a cookie-cutter web page that barely stands out from the rest in their trade.

So what’s a reasonable person to do? Spend hours and hours doing research? You don’t have to – there are plenty of people who have gone before you and done the leg work. Web Hosting Geeks is one such web hosting comparison site that can help you make the right decision.

The thing I like best about Web Hosting Geeks’ site is that it immediately takes you to a bare-bones comparison of the most simple kind of web hosting with ratings and features. If you want to get into more features and complicated options, they have categories of web hosts you can look into. It’s an easy way to find cheap web hosting that fits your needs.

Bye Bye, DRM – Hello Manageable Music!

Since the legitimate sales of digital music downloads began, record labels and recording artists have been looking for ways to protect their intellectual (ha, if you can call it that) property. Copyright law alone was not enough to enforce rights protection, so before many would let their music be sold online, they required a system to prevent copying and distribution.

That’s where Digital Rights Management (or DRM) came in to play. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (or DMCA) was passed in the United States, making the circumvention of any digital or electronic system designed to prevent copy or distribution of works illegal and prosecutable with huge fines. These DRM systems qualified under the DMCA, and that made the RIAA and MPAA very, very happy.

Unfortunately, there was no standard on DRM, and so each online retailer of digital media invented their own proprietary system. This lead to issues with media not being accessible on all PC platforms, mobile devices, or other arguably Fair Use methods of enjoying your purchased content.

As a result, more people turned to illegally downloading content to get higher-quality, DRM-free media that could be played (or at least converted to play) virtually anywhere. Also, the delivery times from Peer2Peer networks was faster, and often lead to movies and music being leaked before their official release.

From a marketing perspective, what was the community at large saying about how it wanted its media? Free is obviously nice, but people know free either means advertising or lack of legality. Some labels and artists and film studios started to realize that customers want media fast, in high-quality, early releases, and they want to be able to enjoy that media on anything that will play it.

iTunes led the way towards the DRM-Free movement with higher-quality iTunes Plus music unencumbered by DRM or other restrictions. They have by no means released the entire iTunes Store in this format, but offer many artists already. Amazon followed up next by making their entire store DRM-Free mp3 format downloads. And just recently, Rhapsody joined the pack by offering DRM-Free downloads on a per-track basis.

Also, Verizon Wireless is jumping on the bandwagon by partnering with Rhapsody, and will soon allow VCast customers to download music from Rhapsody DRM-Free, by way of a $15 / month subscription for the music rental, or a per-track purchase just as you would from Rhapsody’s program on the PC.

Will DRM-Free music turn more “pirates” into legitimate customers? Will you purchase music, video, etc. that you’ve previously downloaded from Peer2Peer networks? What devices do you use to play your media besides your computer? Let me know in the comments.

-The Raging Tech