Matthew Simiana

Note - Google Friend Connect Gadget Added

Matthew — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:53:30 +0000

Hi everyone,

I am writing this post to inform you that I just added a Google Friend Connect gadget to the sidebar, just under the sponsors section. You can sign in by using your gmail login details and ask your questions about anything related to the internet such as internet marketing, html/css ….etc. I will try to answer your questions as quickly as possible.

I’m looking forward to answer your questions, so start asking now!

Hi Everyone!

7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design

Matthew — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 09:06:33 +0000

More than 2 weeks have passed since my last post, I apologize for not keeping in touch but I couldn’t do otherwise. These past 2 and a half weeks were very hectic for me. Today I am hoping to redeem myself by sharing a great webinar presented by Site Tuners CEO, Tim Ash; the webinar is entitled ‘7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design’. In this webinar Tim Ash mentions the 7 most popular mistakes(sins) that are done on landing pages and also explains how these mistakes can be avoided. The 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design are:
1. Unclear call to action
2. Too many choices
3. Asking for too much information
4. Too much text
5. Not keeping your promises
6. Visual Distractions
7. Lack of Credibility & Trust

Enjoy the webinar!

No related posts.

How to remotely logout of Gmail

Matthew — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:57:22 +0000

Did you know that you may easily logout of Gmail from any pc that has internet connection? Here is how it’s done in 3 simple steps:

1. Log into Gmail in any web browser
2. Click the “Details” button. It’s located next to “Last Account Activity” below your Inbox (in the footer, 3 lines from bottom)
3. A pop up window will come up. Click the “Sign out of all other sessions” button

That’s all

Did Twitter really allow TechCrunch publish its’ Confidential Data?

Matthew — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:12:14 +0000

TechCrunch, a blog that writes about the latest Internet news, yesterday exposed Twitter’s Internal Startegy (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/16/twitters-internal-strategy-laid-bare-to-be-the-pulse-of-the-planet/) to the world. An unknown person emailed TechCrunch more than 300 confidential Twitter documents and screenshots. They state that they discussed the matter with Twitter and agreed to publish some of the documents. The strange thing is that Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, has tweeted @ Tech Crunch and Michael Arrington (Founder of Tech Crunch) declaring that Twitter did not give the green light to TechCrunch to post that information. Here is a screenshot of Evan Williams Tweet:

You may check out the tweet here: http://twitter.com/ev/status/2676203744.

The online community is curios to know the truth about this story. Hopefully a public statement will be released very soon by one of the parties….we are awaiting.

25 Useful Apps, Plugins & Web Services for Twitter

Using Google Analytics & Google Website Optimizer Together

Matthew — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:37:08 +0000

I thought I should share this short video. It highlights the usefulness of using Google analytics and Google website optimizer when used together. Enjoy….

25 Useful Apps, Plugins & Web Services for Twitter

Matthew — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:13:58 +0000

Twitter is the latest buzz in social media, everyone is creating twitter accounts to tweet about anything but it seems like many twitters are still in the dark about the free apps, plugins and web services available. Many of these will definitely improve your Twitter experience. Here is a long list of useful twitter apps that you might want to consider:

1. Twitter Timer http://twitter.com/timer - Need to remember something? Send timer a direct message, and it will tweet you back.
2. Twitter Mobile http://m.twitter.com - A simplistic Twitter web interface orginally created for mobile phone users but also works well on desktop pc’s and laptops.
3. Tweet Volume http://www.tweetvolume.com - calculates and compares the volume of mentions in Twitter of words and phrases.
4. Twitter Counter http://twittercounter.com - calculates and compares the followers of any Twitter accounts you select, for the last week, last month or last 3 months.
5. Twitterholic http://twitterholic.com - cool tool that allows you to check the top twitters per city/region/country.
6. Tweet Deck http://tweetdeck.com - a desktop app that helps you organize your twitter account and makes communicating through twitter much easier.
7. Twhirl http://www.twhirl.org - a desktop app that has similar functionalities to Tweet Deck.
8. Destroy Twitter http://destroytwitter.com - another desktop app that has similar functionalities to Tweet Deck and Twhirl.
9. Twitpic http://twitpic.com - lets you share pictures on Twitter.
10. Mr. Tweet http://mrtweet.com - finds relevant followers for you, great way of expanding your Twitter Follower Network.
11. Twellow http://www.twellow.com - the Twitter yellow pages.
12. Twitbin http://www.twitbin.com - firefox extension that allows you to keep up with all of your Twitter conversations right from your browser sidebar.
13. Tweetr http://www.tweet-r.com - allows PC & Mac users to upload and share files and photos.
14. Qwitter http://useqwitter.com - useful app that e-mails you everytime someone stops following you on Twitter.
15. Twitpay https://twitpay.me - allows you to send and receive money through Twitter by making use of paypal.
16. WP to Twitter http://www.joedolson.com/articles/wp-to-twitter - a wordpress plugin that updates your status in Twitter everytime you post on your blog.
17. Twitter for Wordpress http://rick.jinlabs.com/code/twitter - a wordpress plugin that displays your latest tweets on your blog.
18. Tweet Later http://www.tweetlater.com - check out the free version, it has a really cool feature, it automatically unfollows someone that unfollows you.
19. SnapTweet http://snaptweet.com - allows you to post your Flickr pictures to Twitter
20. LinkBunch http://linkbun.ch - Need to share more than one link in a tweet? LinkBunch puts together all the links and provides you one link that you can share on Twitter. As you might have understood, this can be used not just with Twitter, but also with emails, IMs, SMS, etc.
21. Secret Tweet http://secrettweet.com - allows you to Tweet anonymously.
22. TweetCube http://www.tweetcube.com - allows you to post files on Twitter. The following are supported .zip, .rar, .pdf, .jpg, .png, .gif, .mp3 and .txt.
23. Twitteroo http://rareedge.com/twitteroo - another popular desktop client for Twitter.
24. Twittercal http://twittercal.com - allows you to post events from your Google (Google) calendar to your Twitter accounts.
25. Twessenger http://kunal.kundaje.net/twessenger - updates Live Messenger status to reflect latest tweet.

If you know about any other good Twitter apps, plugins & web services please share them by leaving a comment

Google Chrome OS

Matthew — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:39:36 +0000

Two days ago Google announced the release of their operating system, Google Chrome OS. This operating system is going to be installed on netbooks only for now but by the end of 2010 it will also be installed on laptops and pc’s. We should all cross fingers and hope that Google Chrome OS will be a worthy competitor of Microsofts’ Windows. Microsoft needs some tough competition because as things stand they know that they will retain their market share with minimum effort.

For more information about Google Chrome OS you may visit http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Wordpress Permalink Fix

Matthew — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:13:52 +0000

Recently I setup a new blog using wordpress 2.8 and surprisingly enough I encountered a problem during the customization process. I tried to change the Permalink Settings to have SEO friendly url’s. I followed the usual procedure which is ‘Settings>Permalinks’ and changed the ‘Common Settings’. After doing this I tried to read my live posts but I couldn’t, I was constantly being redirected to a 404 error page. My pages were loading only when I selected ‘Default’ in the ‘Common Settings’ menu.

After doing some research on the web I found the solution, it’s very simple. Here it is:

1. Set the ‘Common Settings’ back to default.
2. Rename your ‘.htaccess’ file to something else.
3. Go back to the ‘Common Settings’ page and select the permalink setting you want.

That’s all, the new permalink settings should work fine

New Drag and Drop Feature in Gmail

Matthew — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:06:55 +0000

This morning I logged into my Gmail account as I normally do but to my surprise a pop-up showed up describing 2 new features that have just been implemented by Google developers. Here is a screenshot of the message:

The first feature refers to the change in position of the labels, they’ve been moved upwards, just under the system labels (eg. Inbox). The second feature, which in my opinion is the most useful one, enables you to add a label to an email in 2 simple ways:

1. by dragging a label onto an email

2. by dragging an email into a label

Personally I find the second feature to be very useful as I am a very fond mouse user

How to remotely logout of Gmail

5 Google Tools for Market Research

Matthew — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:26:55 +0000

As most of you may already know, market research is very important, especially in the online world. Before deciding on what product or service you are going to sell you should always do market research. At first you might consider it as a waste of time but on the long term it will definitely save you time, money and will also help you be more efficient. I’m sure that you wouldn’t like to end up in a situation where you finish a product only to learn that you wasted your time because competition is too harsh. To help you start of your market research here are 5 FREE tools that are being offered by Google:

Market Research Tool 1 - Related Searches & Wonder Wheel

When you start typing in the main Google search box you should see a drop down box appear displaying some alternative search terms related to the word you typed. Note these phrases down. They will be useful as part of your keyword list used in the next tool. You will also see more related search phrases after you click search. Scroll to the bottom of the results page and you will see “searches related to:” Note down any new phrases shown there.

Recently Google has released Wonder Wheel which is also a related keywords tool but is shown in a mind map format. You can also click on the related phrases to find more useful search terms. To access wonder wheel: enter your keyword in the standard search screen, then at the top of the results on the left you should see a show options link. Select that and it will reveal a menu. Near the bottom of the menu you should see wonder wheel. Here is a screenshot of the Google Wonder Wheel:

Market Research Tool 2 - Google Adwords Keyword Tool

We all know how important keywords and search phrases are. Let’s face it, it’s what drives the internet. Google has provided us with a tool that tells you what keywords and phrases people are using to find what they are looking for. You are able to search an individual country, more than one if you hold down the ctrl key on your keyboard as you select, or all countries.

The adwords tool is now more valuable due to the fact it shows actual search numbers. Previously you only had a green bar to indicate how much traffic the search term receíved. You can also see how competitive each keyword is amongst adword advertisers, showing us which keywords are commercially viable.

Market Research Tool 3 - Google Trends

Now that you have an idea what keywords your market is using you can use the trends tool to check the history of that keyword / phrase. Google Trends supplies data for the last 5 years, giving you an idea if the search term is consistent. You can also see if the search term is popular at certain times of the year, also known as a seasonal keywords.

Another important function of Trends is the section that tells you the popularity of a keyword by country, city and language - very useful if you are targeting particular countries or even cities.

Market Research Tool 4 - Google Alerts

Alerts is underused by webmasters. If you want to stay in touch with what’s hot in your market, you can by using Google Alerts. All you have to do is enter the most popular phrases in your market. Google will then send you links via email depending on what type you select.

The types are news, web, blogs, video and groups. If you would like a mix of all, you can select comprehensive. You can decide how often you want to be updated by selecting either: as it happens, once a day or once a week. I hope you can see how powerful this is if you want to be seen as an authority in your market.

Market Research Tool 5 - Google Web Search

Finally, we have Google’s standard web search which is not standard in my eyes. It provides a lot of information if you know what to look for. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important part of running a website. By performing a search of your market keywords, Google will tell you what type of content it sees as important.

If you see videos, blogs or images this gives you another way to reach the top 10 of Google. If you see Web 2.0 style sites such as Digg, that could be another avenue. If there are adword ads on the right side of the screen, that tells you the market is commercially viable and more importantly that the keyword you entered is good enough to pay for, especially if there are 10 ads or more.