All posts by GuruOfSales

Announcements, Blogging, Blogging tools, Gadgets, Reviews, Social Networking, Web 2.0

Own a mini Facebook using Google’s Friend Connect

3 Comments


It is as simple as it sounds, with Google friend connect you will be able to insert little gadgets that will turn your blog or site into a mini Facebook or a Myspace!
Still in beta, but has a lot of social gadgets, Google’s Friend Connect is the result of a greater project that Google started a while back called OpenSocial.
Without the geek talk, a very good example will be Facebook. Think of your Facebook’s profile as your own blog or site and the facebook add-on applications is (instead) your Google Friend Connect gadget.
You choose your social gadget, copy the code then paste it into blog or website and your done, now your blog’s readers can sign from within Google Friend Connect and interact just like any social network.


Now your site is more social than ever, your visitors can sign into Friend Connect using their Google ID, Yahoo ID, Twitter ID, or their OpenID. Pretty easy and slick is the feeling they will get.

Still worried about the coding and geek stuff? Worry no more, at Wahol.com there will be an entire video class (Still for free) about Friend connect as part Wahol’s setting up your Online life section. (Sign up at Wahol.com)

Or maybe the following image will explain:

Adding Friend connect to your self hosted WordPress blog could make your blog as powerful as Facebook in terms of interacting social readers. (A video on Wahol will also go though how to add it to your blog)

You can visit Google Friend Connect here!

Don’t forget to get the RSS and follow me on Twitter.
Any questions about Friend connect? Ask in the comments below and I will answer 😉

Blogging, General, Social Marketing, Social Networking, Web 2.0

Create your own Social Network (Introducing Ning!)

1 Comment


Ever dream of having a social network that’s about your own band or another social network just for your company and your co-workers?!
Ning.com allows you to do just that.
“Ning” is a Chinese word for “Peace”, co-founded by Mark Andereessen and Gina Bianchini, and launched in October of 2005.
Ning.com allows you to create a social network just like myspace or facebook including any feature that you can imagine from blogs to forums to sharing photos and videos.
Your own created network could be about your family members or about your company or even your school’s basketball team! There are no limits of what you can create a social network about.

At www.Wahol.com There will be at least 2 classes about setting up a Ning network and other services like Ning. So make sure to sign up soon, it’s free!

In late 2007 Ning added support for OpenSocial, a project started by Google that I think would be the future of social networking.

No matter what your specific interests and no matter if you have any technical skills, Ning’s unique feature of allowing anyone to create their custom network about a topic or need or just to interact with fans or even raise awareness, is just great to have and is simply Web 2.0 at it’s best.

You can create networks for free that will be ad supported by Ning or you can create and brand a social network without ads in exchange for a small monthly fee. (A study I did before shows that it’s around $50 a month per network on Ning) and we will go through details of how to have your own branded social network for free, or whether to choose Ning’s paid branded network for your business in a near future class at www.Wahol.com

Ning.com now hosts over half a million networks.

Of course you can join our own network of Guru Of Sales right here: http://guruofsales.ning.com/
Or join our Wahol.com network here: http://waholnetwork.ning.com/ just remember that they are both under research testing right now, so I might not be active on them for quite a while, but I will notify you on twitter, so if you’re not following me, do so, by going here: http://twitter.com/guruofsales

Create your network and comment below with a link to your network and I just might become your first member to join 🙂

Advertising, How To's, Pay Per Click (PPC), Web 2.0

Manage your advertising with Google Ad Manager

Leave a comment

gamlogo

Although it’s still say that it’s in beta, but Google Ad Manager has been open for public use for a while now.

I have been invited (secretly) to use the service a while back and I found it extremely useful.

Basically the service aims to help web site publishers and blog owners to integrate ads into their pages, whether it’s Google’s AdSense, other ad networks, or even your own in house ads.

googadmng

Here is what they offer (From their site):

Inventory management

  • Inventory levels: Define inventory at granular levels for more efficient line item creation and trafficking. Use ad slots to generate Ad Manager tags for your pages, ad placements to group related ad slots, and ad products to bundle and sell inventory packages with the same cost and targeting criteria.

  • Inventory availability tracking: Easily confirm whether ad impressions are available for specific dates, placements, and targeting criteria. Avoid overbooking and underselling.

  • Simple ad tag generation and management: Copy and paste tags directly into your HTML. Avoid the need to re-tag your site when you change the way you sell your inventory. (Available upon request: iframe tags.)

Yield optimization

  • Optional AdSense Integration: Use AdSense to fill unsold inventory or compete on price against other ad networks.

Ad targeting

  • Built-in targeting options: Target ads to your site visitors’ geography, day and time, bandwidth, browser, browser language, operating system, and domain.

  • Customizable targeting criteria: Target ad impressions by passing your own custom key-value pairs to Ad Manager.

Trafficking, ad delivery, and order booking

  • Delivery options: Choose one of five delivery types (exclusive, premium, standard, remnant, or house) to determine, automatically, how ads may be delivered.

  • Frequency capping: Set multiple levels of frequency capping, which limit the number of ads the same visitor sees over a minute, hour, day, week, month, or lifetime.

  • Roadblocking: Deliver multiple creatives together on the same page. (Available upon request.)

  • Proven Google infrastructure: Enjoy fast, reliable ad delivery and load time.

  • Support for various ad pricing models: Choose from cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM), cost-per-click (CPC), and cost-per-day (CPD).

  • AdSense integration (optional):Consistently deliver the highest-paying ad by enabling AdSense.

  • Ad network management: Easily manage your third-party ad networks with network orders.

Creatives and rich media management

  • Rich media support: Use tags from a variety of rich media providers. Automatically detect macros.

  • Free ad creatives hosting: Save bandwidth and costs.

  • Redirect creatives support: Easily track ads from a third-party network, affiliate provider, or other URL you provide.

Reporting

  • Multiple reporting options: Run reports on order delivery, inventory performance, or overall sales.

  • Detailed reporting: Break down reports by date, line item, placement, advertiser, and other categories.

  • Fast report generation: Create reports in seconds.

  • Interactive views: Sort data, add or remove columns, review different data subsets, and make other edits without having to leave the page or run a new report.

  • Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited: Feel confident in Google Ad Manager’s ad impression measurement process, accredited by the Media Rating Council to be fully compliant with Interactive Advertising Bureau standards.

User interface

  • Search functionality: Locate order, inventory, or advertiser data from any page in Ad Manager.

  • Intuitive work flows: Quickly and easily create orders, approve orders, and review status of orders. Decrease training time and trafficking steps.

  • AdSense channels integration: Import your existing AdSense channels into Ad Manager (optional).

  • Browser session support: Use your browser’s ‘Back’ button and other built-in navigation without losing data.

Administration

  • Access controls: Set various viewing and editing permissions for your team.

  • Contacts organization: Store and manage advertiser and agency company information.

  • International language and currency support: Use Google Ad Manager in your native language and currency.

And a great 5 slides demo explains it easier is available here.

As of January first we are re-opening our advertising opportunities here at Guru Of Sales and we will be using Google’s Ad Manager 🙂