Now that Larry Page has taken back control of Google (much like Steve Jobs did at Apple), the focus seems to be streamlining the whole operation and ‘social networking’.

Google has been worried (obsessed??) by Facebook for some time and hasn’t made much of an impact with its own social networking products to date; at least not in the major western markets.

Google is acutely aware of how much money Facebook is making outside of Google’s ‘sphere of search’.

Rumor is rife that Social Networking and Facebook are Google’s #1 priority; so much so that Larry Page has appointed Vic Gundotra SVP for Social Networks. The rumor mill has Google developing a network to rival Facebook with names such as Google Circles or Google Plus One.

The question is; how will it differ from Facebook? Will it be all about social or will it attend to the needs of business?

Many major companies now promote their businesses through Facebook rather than their own websites with advertisements that feature links like www.facebook.com/nike. More and more small businesses now feature their business pages on Facebook. So what are Google going to do about it?

And we all know that adage ‘When Elephants fight it’s the Ants that get hurt?’… so how will Google’s new look and refocus affect the smaller social networks?

It seems that the whole world has come to expect everything digital should be free. To a large extent, and for a large proportion of Internet users, digital is pretty much free. Granted, you pay for your Internet connection through your Comcast, Qwest, AT&T cable/DSL services but even then, many people ‘piggy back’ off someone else’s service, or use that of the library, coffee shop or free Internet zone.

Free sells and makes money because so many people partake. Just look at Facebook; 600 million users and rising as well as 23% of the entire Internet advertising revenue. It’s free and always will be is their tagline and it’s true. You can spend hours every day updating your Wall, browsing NewFeeds, evaluating and discussing products and services with other Facebook members. You can upload your photo albums, snapshots of where you are and quick videos from your phone. It’s all free. (Did you know that Facebook is the World’s largest photo sharing site?).

When you have millions of ‘highly active’ members, you have the ability to make a huge amount of money. Those members talk about their interests, where they are and what they are doing. The software behind those sites track that information and ‘low and behold’, small ads appear that are relevant to what is going on (millions of them). It’s great for the consumer and great for the advertiser. It’s a win/win and that’s why it works so well. What paid service is effectively competing with Facebook?

Offering a free service and ‘almost free’ add-ons works well too. Look at Skype; you can call the whole world for free (so long as everyone is on Skype). But their nearly free service is also fantastic value. You can pay a quarterly fee of less the $30 and pretty much call any landline anytime and anywhere in the world. It works because of the number of subscribers.

The great thing about FREE is that there is no risk. If it doesn’t work what have you lost? You try it but must understand what you’re doing as good content and active participation is vital. The old maxim of garbage in / garbage out still applies.

Those business people who ignore (or are unaware of) promoting their services through interactive online communities will find that what they knew about marketing has lost a large degree of relevance. An advert in yellow pages says a whole lot less than a well written blog post with a series on comments from happy customers.

Writing a blog costs nothing other than the time you spend writing it. You can subscribe to blogging sites like WordPress.com, Blogger.com for free or host your own site with free open-source technologies like WordPress. You can incorporate video from a free video sharing site (YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo etc). You can promote it through Facebook, Twitter, Digg or countless other community sites.

So do those 15 to 60 minutes per day actually turn into business? You bet they do. Who really goes to the yellow pages or buys from TV ads anymore and who will in the future? The Internet is the future and FREE is the key for many businesses. We’re not all going to become FaceBook but the lessons are there for all to see.

The simple answer is both but with WordPress.com supporting your WordPress.org version. Both versions of WordPress are free but WordPress.com is easier to setup and offers easy and free hosting. If your blog gets a lot of attention, the size of WordPress.com should insure that performance is really good.

The WordPress.org version has to be hosted and installed. Many hosting companies will provide a free installation service with their hosting plan but it’s a good idea to choose your webhosts carefully. If your website becomes highly successful, you don’t want performance issues from substandard bandwidth. A typical hosting plan will cost around $10 per month which is very reasonable for a ‘business’ website.

A WordPress.com account effectively gives you a sub-domain (eg. www.christineely.wordpress.com) whereas the .org version allows you to install WordPress to your own domain (eg.www.chrisely.com); which again for business is highly preferable if not mandatory.

WordPress.com provides you with a wide range of free themes to choose from and a good selection of plugins (small programs that extend the functionally of WordPress) but you cannot install premium themes or your choice of 3rd party plugins. You can do a certain amount of site customization but nothing compared to that of the WordPress.org equivalent.

The short answer is that if you want to just blog then WordPress.com is a great facility. If you want a business website and blog, the WordPress.org is a must but with WordPress.com account in support.

When you register an account with WordPress.com, you get some great add-ons for your .org site. You get an APIKey which is a little like your SSN for the WordPress environment. You will need that APIKey to activate some WordPress plugins like Akismet (the anti-spam plugin). You also need to have a WordPress.com account to install and activate the JetPack plugin from WordPress. This plugin provides a host of features that include site statistics, social media integration, Twitter widget and much more.

A WordPress.org site gives you unlimited scope to grow and extend. You can create anything you want from an online store to a fully functional social media site. You will almost certainly run into the short comings of WordPress.com but never of WordPress.org. So although I highly recommend a WordPress.org site over WordPress.com, you should certainly have both.

There is no cost involved with WordPress.com and absolutely no downside in running both.

There are many differing opinions about how much time you should spend online marketing your business and it is easy to while away the hours thinking you are doing effective marketing.  In reality, all too often the hours are spent chatting, drilling down through friends and colleagues Facebook walls and news feeds; tweeting about the weather or what is happening in your life at the specific moment in time; getting involved in discussions that have NOTHING to do with your business.  It’s easy to do.

The solution is FOCUS.

Every business owner should have their own website; preferably in WordPress as this gives you so much in the way of blogging, dynamic content and search engine ‘stickiness’.
On your website you should say everything you want to say about your business, how you can assist your clients, what you do and how you do it.  Put all of your testimonials there, show who your clients are and what you have done for them.  Write some case studies but say it all in one place and make that place the ‘hub’ of your marketing effort.

WordPress has the facility to incorporate social media plugins which allow you and your visitors to share that content across the Internet to all of the social sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.  WordPress is free and with a little training, totally self manageable.

The time spent on all of the social sites can be greatly reduced but the value of your time greatly increased by focusing your effort on your website and blog.

It’s great to spend time online visiting and chatting but when you want to get serious about business, get serious about your own site and use social media marketing and search engines to direct potential clients your way.

It’s true that not everyone is online but seriously; enough are that it makes sense to have a very strong ‘focused’ presence.

So here I am in Dallas for 5 weeks and thinking that it’s a perfect opportunity to create some WordPress events and get to know the local Biznik community. There are around 300 Bizniks in Dallas and ZERO events so it seemed like a great idea.

I have created the event and it has been reviewed by the Biznik events staff but has received a:

“This event was reviewed by Biznik’s editorial staff and was not chosen for circulation on the main calendar. It may be a virtual event, it may not be a business event, or there may be vampires here. Or it may be totally cool.”

So we emailed the local community and apparently have been flagged as spamming. So no more emailing.

Of course, I have used the traditional and trusted methods of Twitter, Facebook and contacting the local businesses but are there any other avenues within the Biznik community to stimulate interest and to get the local community active?

For those of you in Dallas who might like to come; here’s the link: http://biznik.com/h/e4i1

It is important to realize that the 3rd layer of a WordPress website is the ‘Theme’. The 3 layers consist of (1) Database (MySQL), (2) WordPress itself (development environment, dashboard etc.) and (3) the Theme which sits on top and provides the interface that is seen by visitors to the site itself.

There are literally thousands of free themes out there and many people choose a theme that looks nice but fail to realize that a theme has to provide access to all of the features WordPress offers. Many of the free themes fall behind the updates provided by WordPress and by default, tie the user to an older technology. In my view, it is vital to get your choice of theme right. We use (almost exclusively) the StudioPress Genesis Framework Premium Themes.

There is a cost involved but as your website is a vital part of your online presence, a few dollars spent on the theme will reward you hugely in the long term. The premium themes keep up to date with WordPress technology and utilize the newer features such as Custom Menus, Dynamic Sidebars and Dynamic Home Pages, as well as providing massively superior Widget and Plugin support.

The moral of the story is that a Theme should be much more than just a pretty face over WordPress; it should enhance both the developer’s and the user’s experience.

How cool is that?

My first blog post written from my Android phone.  Much easier than you would think.

Good Job Automattic!!

Having spent thousands of dollars in the past on networking events, advertising, yellow pages, direct mail, telemarketing and more… I came to a realization a couple of years ago that it doesn’t work anymore.

So I stopped all marketing expenditure, quit the BNI, changed my business model and joined Biznik as a fully paid up member. So my marketing budget is now a grand total of $24 per month. And business has never been better!

There is huge value in being a paid up member in so many ways.

• increased Search Engine Visibility
• better communication
• credibility for articles and events
• holding paid events
• discounts on other premium events
• and much more…

I hold both free and paid events. I don’t charge for ANYTHING except my time (or if I’m passing on a charge). But I do have to earn money and so does Biznik. If my paid events offered nothing more than my free events, why would anyone come to my paid events? If my ProVIP membership gave me no more than Basic Membership, why would I pay the fee?

The service Biznik offers for free is exceptional but they are a business and someone has to pay something otherwise we would all lose out. $10 or $24 per month is a fraction of what I used to spend but my Biznik membership, combined with my website and other social media tools now powers my business.

Interruption marketing is on its way out and inbound (social media, search) is here to stay!

Anyone can join Biznik for free but paying for membership adds incentive to make it work. Regardless of the economic climate, anyone in business for themselves should be able to invest at least $10 per month in their marketing effort. Where they spend it is up to them but for me, Biznik is the best investment out there!

Another day, another bullish report on the state of Google’s mobile operating system.

According to NPD Group, not only are Android-powered devices now outselling iPhone (as another report indicated earlier this week), but they’re also now besting BlackBerry, making Android () the top selling mobile OS during the second quarter in the U.S.

[ read full story here ]