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If you need just one tip on what to look for in a social media marketing specialist, let it be someone who is trustworthy. Knowledge can be learned, experience can be gained but integrity and honesty cannot be improvised or faked. You need to be able to find someone you can trust and partner with as you share your thoughts on growth and marketing ideas. Even new products may leak to your competitors is you’re not careful.

Here are some other tips you will find useful when hiring a social media marketing specialist:

Have an excellent product

Make sure you have something of quality offer. Your world will expand to an international market with discerning taste and a possible encounter with customers who either love to enthuse about a product or put it down for being worthless. As you develop your online presence, you will also be creating a brand name and reputation.

Your product or service will carry the feedback of customers for a long time, so it would be a good idea to get it right the first time around. And a social media marketing specialist should be able to advice you on what may need a little tweaking.  Your product does not have to be perfect, but it has to have value. For instance, let’s say you own a hotel comparison site. Well, you would want to make sure that your site is in order and able to compare hotels before you begin promoting it.

Make sure there’s passion

A social media marketing specialist must have passion for the job. Time won’t matter, only results.

The Marketing Specialist must be driven to learn daily

The internet is a constantly evolving medium. Those in the internet business need to stay on top all the time. They need to know new marketing approaches and updates; they also need to know what doesn’t work anymore. Furthermore, it’s not just about strategies but new technical skills that could make the job easier and quicker. In short, don’t hire someone who relies on one strategy alone.

The Specialist must be approachable and easy to get along with

Unless you are the company and you have no employees, then there shouldn’t be a problem. However, if you have staff, this “new guy” must be able to get along with them so as to make the job easier.  But at the same time, the “new guy” shouldn’t be a push-over but be able to gain the respect of you and your staff.

She/he must be reactive and quick on the draw

There will be times when you need to react fast, and your marketing specialist should be able to come up with solutions and new ideas to deal with the fast-changing pace of the internet. For instance, I once found a client at the internet marketing forum australia and we used a variety of creative marketing strategies (Twitter and Facebook) to get her site the exposure it needed to be successful!

In conclusion, hiring a social media marketing specialist isn’t hard but it does take a bit of patience to find someone suitable. Simply follow the above tips and you too will find a great social media marketing to spearhead your campaign and get you noticed too!

Hello everyone!

Today is January 23, 2012 and it just hit me – tax time will be rolling around pretty quickly. So, its now time to get motivated – to take action and get prepared for tax day. So, before you panic – here are a few tips that I plan on implementing in the next few weeks/month. Tips to make your tax planning easier. Are you ready? Let’s get started.

1. Purchase tax software. If you’re a do-it-yourself tax preparer, it would be a very good idea to use tax software.  I personally use Turbo Tax and have used it for over 5 years now. I’ve also heard some amazing things about H & R Block’s tax software as well. One thing I absolutely love about Turbo Tax is that it is relatively inexpensive and provides you with guidance throughout the process. Plus, you can see your estimated tax refund or obligation as you go, which is very motivating indeed.

2. Gather those receipts. Make sure that you gather all your receipts before you get started. This includes 1099s, mortgage statements, utility bills, web hosting receipts, office supply receipts, and all that jazz. By having all this information before you start, you’ll save yourself a ton of time and energy when you’re preparing your taxes.

3. Get professional help. Although I love doing things my own way, I’ve found that hiring a professional tax preparer is extremely important in making sure that you have not made any errors. For instance, my friend owns an online invoicing software business and he always hires a tax preparer to go over his numbers and last year his prepared saved him over $1,000 bucks. He was then able to take that money and put it back into his business.

4. Give yourself time. Don’t wait until the last minute. Get started with your taxes as soon as you can. In fact, I typically wait until April 14th to get started (just kidding). I usually start in February and since I’m self employed, it typically takes me about a month to get everything together. By starting early, I can get finished way before the deadline and still have time to get professional tax help.

In conclusion, tax time is approaching rapidly but you can get started now. I certainly plan on doing so. How about you?

A few years ago, web 2.0 properties were hot. After all, there was something really incredible about writing posts, putting them on there, getting immediate traffic and making sales without having to search engine optimize or drive traffic to them. OK, you had to do a little of this but not a lot. In essence, these sites stood on their own. They had traffic, were well favored within Google and seemed to make everyone money. Then, something happened, Panda hit and these Web 2.0 properties fell from Big G’s good graces.

In essence, all of my favorite Web 2.0 blog properties tanked and so did my income. In one swoop I lost 50% of my income. For instance,  I used to make $xxxxs per month from one site and now I make only xx. per month. So, you may be wondering, if you should even bother with Web 2.0 properties any longer.

My answer is, it depends on you and what you want to accomplish. If you are using them to generate income, you may want to out the same effort into promoting your own site/blog instead. This way you can monetize them any way you like and can make changes if your income tanks. In contrast, if you’re looking to simply build quality links then keep web 2.0ing it all you like as they still provide quality backlinks that can help push your sites up the ranks.

As for me, I’m going to use Web 2.0 properties for backlinking only while I continue to build up my own sites. Only then will I remain completely in control and being in control is what I love.

Did you know that even the most of the highly acclaimed writers realize that sitting in front of your computer day in day out, writing articles, posts and other content can actually cause the imagination to go stale. Once this happens, you experience the all-too familiar writer’s burnout. If you’re experiencing a bout of writer burnout or simply know someone who is, here are a few tips that can help you squash this annoying situation once and for all. Are you ready? Let’s begin.

Avoid Dealing with Too Many Critical Clients

This may sound obvious but avoid critical clients. Nothing is as depressing as having to listen or read criticism on written work that you think was well executed. There are many clients who have such high standards, nothing is good enough for them. Plus, to make it even worse, many of them can’t write or communicate their needs effectively so this makes it even harder to satisfy their needs. With clients like this, you may find that it is better to simply pass on them or have a delicate balance of difficult clients with positive ones.

Get Paid Your Worth

It’s acceptable to start at the bottom rung when you are a new writer. To make a name for yourself, you may even agree to getting  paid peanuts however, your mission should be to get paid what you’re worth. In fact,  if you’re good and always deliver consistent work, you will have higher paying clients begging for your services. Just don’t sell yourself short as low pay can cause writer burnout.

Writing 24/7

Yes, its true that you typically only get paid for the work you write. If you have bills to pay and food to buy, this may be quite disenchanting as this added stress can cause writer burnout. In fact, many writers assume too much responsibility; accept offers they cannot comply with; and stop themselves from getting help. The urge to earn is very strong but it needs to be curbed. Money isn’t everything and working non-stop is a sure route to failure especially in the creative department. You could lose your edge if all you do is sit in front of the computer and work. It will come to a point where you start sponging off other people’s ideas instead of coming up with your own.

Be Creative

Sometimes, you can prevent writer burnout by simply changing  your focus a bit. For instance, when I feel writer burnout coming on – I switch gears. I’ll either try a different type of writing or I will use a bit of PLR or private label rights material for inspiration. Of course, I completely rewrite everything so that it is unique but this prevents me from getting burned out. In fact, I use PLR whenever I need a burst of creative energy,  a bit more background or simply a fresh perspective.

And, if this doesn’t work….I take a much needed vacation. Sometimes you simply have to say the heck with it and take some time off. By leaving all your working behind, you can avoid writer burnout and get rejuvenated.

By following the above tips, you too can avoid writer burnaout. Just remember to avoid difficult clients, get paid what you’re worth, avoid writing 24/7 and take a much needed break. By doing this, you will inspire your creativity and write incredible work that you can be proud to call your own.

Have you ever wondered why some webmasters have successful marketing campaigns whereas others put in a lot of money but don’t see any results at all? Well, I have been marketing for over 5 years and I’ve begun to see a pattern emerging. Its not that the successful marketers have more money to put into their marketing its that they are using targeting the right audience with the right technique. To put it short, these smart marketers are marketing to the right folks at the right time using the best marketing strategy that appeals to them.

Now, this might seem simplistic and indeed it may well be but if everyone marketed to their targeted audience using a marketing strategy that appealed to that audience, then they would see an immediate return on their investment. In essence, their marketing efforts would immediately pay off. For instance, I have a website that targets men suffering from male andropause. I have Google ads on there and also sell capsules to help cure the menopause symptoms. Previously, I tried promoting the site using articles and press releases. Although it was somewhat successful, it was way too much work for the traffic.
Then, I got smart and started visiting forums specifically for men that were complaining of Andropause symptoms.  I simply responded to their questions on a popular message board and then left my signature with a link back to my site.  Immediately I saw an increase in traffic and sales. To test out this method, I tried the same method with my friend’s watch forum. I wrote a  few articles and press releases for his site about watches and then we waited. Then, a few weeks later, I started visiting other watches forums and promoting his site answering questions and leaving a link back to his site. As soon as I did this, we saw an increase in hits, traffic, and clicks.

However, I still wasn’t convinced that this was the way to go. So, I tried the same method on one of my clients’ sites. She  had a specialized service offering – she was trying to promote her original broadway style melodies service. So, I promoted his site using press releases and Facebook to other Broadway music lovers and guess what, it worked phenomenally. He immediately saw an increase in hits using these strategies.

So, the moral of this post is to go where the traffic is and use marketing strategies that  capture the attention of your market. Until you do, you’ll simply waste your time and that of your readers.