I have been arguing for a long time that SEO and Social Media Marketing are becoming the same thing. At least, they work together extremely well, or should.

Some of our new members wonder why the first thing we want to do for them is open up a bunch of social accounts. They picture hour on hour of wasted time wading through these sites looking for customers. But, luckily, that’s not the purpose at all!

I can see this in action when I Google my name, something you can, and should do. Anyway, while there are 387,000 pages currently online for my name, nine of the top ten results are me, not those thousands of other wannabe Dave Sherwin’s! (Sucks to be them.) But that’s not the real point. The real point is the analysis of the 9 results for my name:

1. my name dot com. Well, that makes sense, that’s just good SEO to own the URL of the keyword people are searching for.

2. EzineArticles results. Is EzineArticles a social site? I think so, and many would agree with me, but whether you think so or not, having an account open and posting articles about any keyword (including your name!) just makes sense in your SEO efforts.

3. My blog. A blog is also a social site. People can post, respond, and interact with the blogger, and blogs also get great SEO love from the search engines. So blogging is a great example of the fusion between SEO and Social Media Marketing.

4. My website.

5. Another article directory.

6. A twitter account. There you go, a purely social site coming up on the front page for a search term.

7. My LinkedIn profile. Again, a social site. I don’t do much in LinkedIn, but because I have an account there it ranks for my name when people Google me.

8. A fake guy with my name. How annoying.

9. My slideshare dot com account. Another social site…

10. Facebook.

So, depending on what you term to be a “social” site versus web 1.0, I’d say that about 50% of my personal web presence is from social sites. And in case you’re thinking that a person’s name isn’t that important of an SEO item, think again! People DO Google you! But whether they’re Googling you, your brand, or your product, the concept is the same. Good social media marketing fuzes perfectly with good SEO, they support and help each other, and if you want to be successful online, you need to use both.

Dave Sherwin is the founder of the Social Marketing Blackbox, #1 ranked blogger, and writer.

Get a PLETHORA (it’s a great word, look it up) of great Social Marketing training and downloads **FREE** at:

http://socialmarketingblackbox.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Sherwin
http://EzineArticles.com/?Fuzing-SEO-and-Social-Media-Marketing&id=5756369

So in this video I thought we’d talk about what it takes to become a billionaire…

Since personal branding is one of our biggest concerns, it’s important that we learn the most efficient ways of branding ourselves.

One of the best books on this topic is called, “The Personal Branding Phenomenon” by Peter Montoya.

It covers the personal branding secrets of people like Oprah, Martha Stewart, and Michael Jordan.

This video describes the 10 Personal Branding Characteristics of Michael Jordan and how you can start focusing on developing your 10 personal branding characteristics in your market.

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Everyone has something they are good or great at.
Some people don’t know what their niche is yet,but finding what you are passionate about isn’t as hard as it may seem, and once you find it, it’s one of the best feelings in the world.

Steps

1. Grab a pen and a piece of paper. Prepare to make a list.
2. Ask yourself some simple questions, like:
   • What are my goals?
   • If I could do one thing for the rest of my life, what would it be?
   • What do I love to do?
   • What would I do, even if I didn’t get paid to do it?
3. Dig deep within yourself, think about what you love to do with your spare time, and whether it’s something you could do full time.
4. Combine your talents. Maybe you have more than one talent, like doing tricks on a BMX, and you love to write. Could you see yourself writing books on BMX riding and tricks, or true stories about how those riders started out doing what they love?
5. Try doing a few new things. Take up some extra hobbies, try writing or singing; just get out there and try all kinds of things. It will help you see what you do like doing and what you don’t; and hopefully, your passion.
6. Talk to people who are involved with what you find interest in. Ask questions on how they got started, what they like/dislike about it etc. Then maybe give it a shot and see for yourself if it’s something you truly are interested in or not.

Tips

• Take as long as you need to, your ideas may not come to mind right away, but in no time, you will find that you already are passionate about something, you just need to trust your instincts. If it feels right, give it a shot.
• Take a day off from everything. Isolate yourself from the world for a little while. No chores, no cleaning, no friends, relatives, not even family. Unplug the TV, turn off your cell and your phone. Image you have no deadlines, no mortgage to pay, no worries, no other tasks. Relax for a few moments then pay attention to your thoughts. Does your mind envision the next great gizmo? Do you see yourself building your own business, or designing the next dymaxion house? Do you feel like starting that project you have been thinking about for the past five years?

Warnings

• Don’t just dive into an instinct full force. Everything takes patience, careful planning, and a lot of dedication.
• Something you do as a hobby can quickly become a grind if you decide to try to make a living at it. If it turns out that doing it full time makes you love it less, consider returning to your previous duties. Take a vacation from your “passion” activity for awhile, then try it again to see if you can rediscover your love for it.

Related wikiHows

• How to Play the Piano
• How to Ride a Dirt Bike
• How to Play Softball
• How to Get Inspired
• How to Write a Good Story

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Find Your Passion. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

You can check out more of Marshalls stuff at http://MovieStarEntrepreneur.com

The Blue Snowball Microphone runs around between $70 to $80.

I picked mine up on Amazon. You can Click Here to open a new window to the mic.

You’ll notice that the sound quality is much better.

So if you’re going to be using a web cam for your video you may want to consider getting a mic.

It doesn’t have to be this $80 mic. You can also pic up a $20 headset mic at any department store that will do just fine.

You can also check out Kelsi’s Video Response: Difference in Audio Quality. He is using a Gigaware Clip-On Microphone that sounds better as well.

You can check out more of Marshalls stuff at http://MovieStarEntrepreneur.com

*MyWants Inc. is an affiliate of Amazon Products in this post

In this article, I am going to go over the reasons why you should consider using video promotion to start your social life online. I will include the basics of creating videos as well as how using video can build your reputation and bring traffic to your website. If you have ever thought about creating video of yourself, NOW is the time to get started with video promotion!

Why Video?

Video has become one of the biggest means of learning and entertainment on the internet. It has even come to the point where YouTube has become one of the biggest search engines on the internet. This is because people are now seeking to find things via video much more than just a typical search engine. Not to even mention that the fusion of the Internet and TV will be HUGE for online video. So the reason you want to get involved with video production is simple, by producing video you are able to put your face and knowledge in front of many information seeking individuals via the computer and TV.

Video Production

You can start creating video for online consumption very quickly, easily, and cheap. It may be a good idea to see this blog post on “What Camera Should I Use to Video Blog?” It will show you that a starting point can be with a cheap web cam and can build up to a highly professional camera.

When you have your camera, start shooting. You can do a close-up face shot sitting in your computer chair, full body standing in front of a wall, or even round table style where you and perhaps someone else is sitting at a table. Either way, you want to do your best to teach and maybe even entertain with a little humor, as long as you are getting your point across.

Let’s say you are a bar tender! Maybe you can do a round table video blog on unheard of mixed drinks. Once a week, have a friend come over to help you make and taste test an unheard of mixed drink. You can even give it a rating, overview, and name it if possible. But the idea is that you are going to become well known for creating these unheard of mixed drinks that people are going to come to you to taste for themselves in real life. This is the way you have to look at any video production topic.

Getting Started

One thing I have to stress is that you just need to get started. Don’t worry about being high quality with special video tricks. As long as you are professional and can get your point across, you will be fine. So jump into producing your own videos and playing around with it. You will learn as you go and make tweaks as you see fit. I would also suggest keeping the videos between 3 and 5 minutes long. You don’t want it to be too short where the viewer doesn’t grasp much and you don’t want your viewer to get tired of watching a long video.

Once you start creating videos, you want to make sure you are producing them on a regular basis and responding to any comments people leave you on the video. Don’t worry about looking like a fool either because, trust me, there are millions of fools out there who you couldn’t compare to.

Conclusion

By producing video, you are building another channel to become more social and build your personal brand. Creating video is seen as one of the best ways to generate awareness of who you really are and get viewers back to your blog. Maybe you can become one of the next viral videos to hit every corner of the media. Now THAT would be a fun and social life online. I wish you luck, and I’ll “See” you online!

This article is going to cover the reasons why starting your social life online with a blog is very important. I will also include how using a blog can build your personal brand and bring traffic to a website that is yours, not someone else’s. I will continue to stress through the article that a blog is YOUR HOME. If you have ever thought about starting your social life online, NOW is the time to start blogging!

Blogging

Let me start off by saying that blogs have GREATLY reduced the technical bar for giving people the ability to create content online. If you can use a word processor, you can create a blog. All it takes is putting in a little effort to learn the buttons associated with the platform you choose to use. I will go over platforms later in the article.

Why are blogs so important in starting your social life online and why is a blog your true home?

The reason you want to consider starting a blog is fairly simple. Blogs give you a Home online. You don’t want to consider your social networking profiles or YouTube channel as your home base online because these are NOT yours. You have NO control over the website, and have NO say so in functions and features. You also will not have the same potential to create revenue. And not to mention, what happens if the owners decide to close down shop or something else? Bye bye all hard work. These profiles and channels are simply outposts of your home base and lead everyone back to ONE place.

Another reason you want to start your own blog is because it gives you the ability to create online buzz through blog posts and commenting. Your content can easily be discovered by millions of internet users that are interested in your topics and opinions.  Not online do you now have a voice, but a megaphone to shout out ANYTHING you want.

I recommend that you start a blog so that you can produce quality content that people are looking for. You can become somewhat of an expert on the topic you talk about. Once you have a steady flow of quality content, people are going to look up to you and trust you. This then gives you monetizing opportunities (making money).

Blogging Platforms

The first place you want to get your feet wet may be with a blogging website. Examples of blogging Platform websites are: Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Tumblr.com, LiveJournal.com, and more. Each of these sites give you a FREE account with extreme ease to start. The only problem with the free accounts is that you do not have your own domain name. It is something like www.blah.blogger.com or www.blah.wordpress.com. Like I said before, you don’t want to have your website on someone elses website.

The great thing about WordPress and Tumblr is that they both offer the ability to turn your blog from www.blah.wordpress.com into www.blah.com. And this is where your TRUE home base should be. If you are serious about blogging online for any type of business reasons, you MUST have your own domain for your blog. It could even be something like: www.yourwebsite.com/blog

Getting Started

Once you have created your blog, you are going to want to create a steady flow of quality content at LEAST 2-3 times per week. This content should teach, inform, and entertain your potential followers. By doing so, you are creating a resource of information for new and returning visitors. Building and maintaining a resource, is a very important part of your life online.

Building a home online with a blog all balls down to growing your reputation and personal brand at a place you can call your own. Without a true home, you are losing out on building a solid resource of your own and maybe even revenue opportunities.

The blogging portion of your online life ties in greatly with your Social Networking life. Social Networking plays a great role in pulling visitors into your blog. The goal is to use Social Networks, Forums, and Video promotion as channels feedings into your home online where you have the ability to collect visitors and monetize.

Start Your Social Life Online – Part 3 (Forum Posting)

The main reason for getting an OpenID is because tens of thousands of websites are starting to use this system for registering and signing in. With an OpenID, you will eliminate the need of remembering many usernames and passwords.

I first suggest that you watch the following 2 OpenID Videos first.

The following steps will help you organize your life online with OpenID.

Step 1.  Select an OpenID provider that is right for you. You can review and select a provider from our Review of OpenId Providers article or choose from one of the accounts you may already have.

Step 2.  Register an account, and fill out all the information that is asked. You can put as little or as much data into some of these accounts as you wish. The more content and accounts you add, the better you can organize and control from one location.

Step 3. Login to a site you already use, or register to a new website anywhere you see the OpenID symbol. When signing in, you will see a form that looks like this.

You will then verify your account and setup if you want the website to remember you. And That IS IT!

Step 4.  This step is a bonus. If you own a website, it is very easy to accept openid. You will allow visitors to register and login with extreme ease. You could even get access to profile data. There are many simple OpenID plugins to add to your WordPress blog or scripts to add to your social website.

The conclusion is that OpenID can be a great way for you to start organizing your life online. Create one username and password and never fill in registration data again. You will have one identity to control from one location. Isn’t that a great place to start organizing your life online?

Let me know what you think about OpenID and what it may be like in the future.