It was a headache with trying to process orders and manage customers when there was no way to view the actual orders, much less the payment information.

If you’ve ever experienced this same problem, you’ve probably pulled out your hair, fighting with the customer support personnel of your website hosting company, probably getting nowhere (because truth be told, most of them don’t really know what they are doing beyond what they were trained to do).

A Solution To Your Website Viewing Issue

If you’re having this problem and white-listing your public IP address doesn’t help, then the problem has nothing to do with the server settings your website is hosted on.

The problem most likely lies with the name servers owned by your internet service provider.  When an internet service provider’s nameservers aren’t resolving IP addresses to their respective host names, this prevents you from seeing your website.

To fix this issue, simply following the steps outlined below:

1. Click your “Start” menu (Windows Orb on the taskbar of Windows 7 & Vista).
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Double-Click Network & Sharing Center or Network Connections Icon.
4. Click to Open “Local Area Connection”
5. Click “Properties”
6. Choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4), then click “Properties”
7. Click the radio button that  says “Use the following DNS server addresses” and type in one of the below listed IP addresses in the “Preferred DNS Server” and “Alternate DNS Server” fields.
8. Click the OK button, the close all of the open windows.
9. Click on your “Start Menu” again.
10. Click “Run” on Windows Vista or earlier, or type the following into the search field in Windows 7.
11. Type cmd & hit the enter key.
12. Type ipconfig /flushdns
13. When it says that your DNS has been successfully flushed, close the window.
14. You should be able to access your website via your preferred internet browser.

If you’re not using Windows, you can find a list of steps to following here:

www.opendns.com

List of Available DNS IP Addresses

You can use any of these available IP addresses you want.  It doesn’t matter who your internet service provider is.  I’d recommend OpenDNS over any of the others.

OpenDNS

• 208.67.222.222
• 208.67.220.220

Genuity

• 4.2.2.1
• 4.2.2.2

Level3

• 209.244.0.3
• 209.244.0.4

DNSAdvantage

• 156.154.70.1
• 156.154.71.1

Google

• 8.8.8.8
• 8.8.4.4

DynDNS Internet Guide

• 216.146.35.35
• 216.146.36.36

Have you ever had any issues like this?  How did you solve the problem?

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In turn ruining all current marketing materials owners of fan pages use that reference anything related to becoming a fan, or being “FANatic”, much like some t-shirts I had printed for a local fan page I manage.

Fan Pages are now simply known as “Pages” and instead of becoming a “Fan”, a person simply “Likes” a “Page”.

Here’s Facebook’s reason for the change:

“Why did “Become a Fan” change to “Like”?
To improve your experience and promote consistency across the site, we’ve changed the language for Pages from “Fan” to “Like.” We believe this change offers you a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which you are interested.”

My Thoughts on Facebook’s Change

The change in terminology doesn’t affect the functionality of the process, but I believe it will cause those that normally wouldn’t have become a fan, to now connect with Pages they “Like”.

The change will increase the number of people connected to a Page, which benefits the business or person running the page, aside from having to redo all marketing materials.

But will it make Facebook users feel manipulated into connecting with a Page that will in turn occupy the users’ wall with unwanted updates?

I think Facebook’s reasons for the changes leave something to be desired.  It’s obvious the changes support “Page” owners (who will often spend money on advertising with Facebook), rather than the Facebook users (who typically might not spend a dime on Facebook).

What are your thoughts on Facebook’s changes to their Pages?

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I struggled for about a month trying to come up with a new look.  I wanted something more professional and a little less “neon”.

Enter the new theme I finally settled on.

Now I need your opinions.  Do you like it?  Does it seem more professional than my last theme?

Here are a couple of screenshots showing the previous two themes this blog once sported.  Compare them with my new theme, and give me your opinion in the following poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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So why, if there are so many blogs on the internet, do we only hear about a small group of them being very succesful?

Because most bloggers who are interested in being successful or making a ton of money with their blogs, aren’t doing it right.

Reading Between The Lines

Many of those blogger’s who are successful are giving everyone the same answer when asked what is the best topic to blog about.  I even catch myself doing it over and over again, without thinking.

The answer is correct, but it’s not a full explanation of what we really mean.

Like the many religious views that are taken out of context, rather than seeing the big picture, just as many bloggers are taking the “blog about your passion” answer out of context.

Do I think it’s on purpose?  Absolutely not.  It’s a mere ignorance of the real meaning.  And I think those of us who are successful at blogging should start explaining ourselves in better detail when we answer a question of such importance.

Find The Demand

The best thing I can say to you before choosing a blog topic, is to forget about your passion!  I know, you’re probably thinking I’ve gone and lost my mind, but just hear me out.

There are other steps you need to take before choosing what you’re passionate about, and demand is the first.

Is there a demand?

Just like in any business, if what you supply isn’t what the consumers demand, you will not succeed.

Blogging isn’t any different.  So when choosing a topic make sure there is a demand for the information you’re giving.  The topic doesn’t have to have the highest demand.  There are millions of internet users on the web each day and even a demand from a small percentage of them can yield great results.

Is the demand shrinking or growing?

If the demand for a specific topic is on it’s way out, then you probably shouldn’t choose that particular topic either.

The best way to go around this stumbling block is to blog about something that is timeless.  If you are blogging to make money or be successful, then you probably plan on blogging for many years.  If you choose a fad topic that will be gone by next summer, then your long term plan will fail.

If you’re interested in blogging about fads, then create a blog about fads as a big picture.  Don’t focus on one specific fad, but on all fads, as they come and go.

Much like the stock market, if you can predict the next big thing that everyone will be searching for, then you will be a winner.

Overcome Over-Saturation

I often find that new bloggers like to choose a topic that covers something a large majority of bloggers already cover.  They’re thinking is that if “what’s his name” is making money on that topic, then I can too.

That is the wrong way of thinking when you’re choosing a topic, and more often than not the chosen topic was one that was already over-saturated.

Over-saturation of the market for a particular topic actually means there is less demand.  Not physically, as in lower numbers, but mentally, as in “I’m not looking somewhere else when I can find it here”.

Think about where you go when you’re interested in buying a specific book online.  You’re first thought was probably Amazon.  Would it make sense to start an online book store when there is already a huge contender in the market?

When looking for something online that is in the niche of a particularly famous blogger, or a group of bloggers that have already super-saturated the market, most internet users no longer use Google to search for that particular topic.  They know the website address and will type it instead.

If you’re stubborn and you still want to blog about an over-saturated topic, then try to find something not covered within that topic and blog about it.  This is called creating a “sub-niche”.  Many bloggers have become successful in an over-saturated market by focusing on a specific point that no one was covering.

Create A Monetization Strategy

In a nutshell, the problem of monetization simply means, if you cannot monetize your particular topic and your end goals are to make money, then you should probably choose another topic.

So before you begin your blog, choose two or three topics you’re interested in, do your research and find any and all ways to monetize that topic, compare the two or three topics, then decide which ones offer the better payouts and monetization sources.

Choose Your Topic

Now that I’ve utterly confused you about the topic you should choose for your blog, it’s time to take your first steps:

1. Generate a massive list of topics that have a high demand.  I’d try to list at least 100 or more of them.
2. Mark out all topics that are over-saturated, unless you can narrow it down to a specific area that isn’t being covered.
3. Research the various methods of monetization each topic remaining has, and cross out the ones that offer little to no monetization.
4. Of the remaining topics, find two or three you’re really passionate about and write them on piece of paper to stash away somewhere.
5. Choose one of those topics and begin your blog.

The other topics you chose that you were passionate about are your backup topics should you realize later that you may not have been as interested as you thought.

Remember not everyone can be successful blogging, but taking the right approach and using the right steps, anyone can increase their chances for success.

How did you choose your blog topic?

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All of these social media spaces have two things in common:

1. They are being used to leverage awareness of a brand or product.
2. They are most often being used in the wrong way.

The Wrong Way To Use Social Media

With the overwhelming growth of social media, major corporations like McDonald’s, BestBuy, and Dell are creating accounts to interface with potential and already existing customers.

The sad part is that most companies using social media just don’t get it.  They are promoting their products but not taking the time to engage in conversation with their customers.

Social Media is a place to build and foster relationships for so much more than forcing your product on everyone with whom you come in contact.

The real reason companies are getting it wrong is because they are bundling social media with their marketing department.

Social Media is so much more than marketing, and the two should never be paired together as one group in a company.

If companies want to be successful with social media, their best bet is to create a social media position or even team, and hire those of us with experience in creating and maintaining those relationships.

Look at Crocs.  They are a company that understands social media enough to know that they didn’t understand social media.  And hired someone for the sole purpose of running the social media side of the house.

The Right Way To Use Social Media

If you really want to use social media correctly, hire an expert and let them run the show.  But if you can’t afford and expert, here are some simple guidelines to follow that will help you tremendously, at least until you figure it out.

1. Never forget that social media is about person-to-person connections. You are not speaking as “the company”, but as an individual within that company. Many companies don’t know how to do this, and it takes a lot of practice to find that voice and feel comfortable with it.
2. Be a good listener. All companies say they listen to their customers, but do they really LISTEN and let people know that they are listening by responding?
3. Be patient. This takes a long time because you are going to be transforming your company, one person at a time.
4. Be opportunistic. Start small with the people who are most passionate about building relationships with customers.
5. Be flexible. You never know what’s going to happen so you have to constantly adjust your thinking and learn.
6. Be collaborative. You need people from up and down the management chain to buy-in.
7. Be humble. Remember that you are not as influential as your community. If you forget this, they will let you know.

Are You Social Networking or Social Notworking?

If you aren’t sure which it is you’re doing, it’s as simple as asking your community.  People are very opinionated and they will not hold back in telling you whether you’re doing it right or wrong.

This goes back to the step on listening.  If you can keep your mouth closed for a moment and truly listen, you’ll hear things you’ve never heard before.

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But through it all, you have been great and seemed to have stuck it out with me.  My Twitter follower numbers continued to rise, the number of visitors to my blog continued to rise, and a few other online endeavors came into existence.

Among all of this that has happened in what seems like only the blink of an eye, here are the 5 posts in which you all enjoyed the most, and the 5 biggest sources of my traffic for 2009.

My Top 5 Posts of 2009

1. Skype – A More Powerful Social Networking Tool
2. 8 Daily Tasks To Increase Blog Traffic
3. The 5 Biggest Uses Of Google Wave
4. Establishing A Sense Of Security On Your Blog
5. 8 Ways To Make Your Blog Sticky

My Top 5 Traffic Sources Of 2009

1. Direct Traffic
2. StumbleUpon
3. Twitter
4. Google Images
5. Yahoo (organic)

Google organic search was number 7 for traffic sources, if that tells you how the web is changing.

The traffic I got from referrals beat out all other traffic producing methods with a ranking of 61.83%.

This only proves that engaging in conversation and building your community is so much more important than worrying about how well you rank in the search engines (which only produced 9.52% of my traffic for all of 2009).

The Future Of My Blog

In 2008 I built my blog to a level unimaginable by most people in an extremely short time.  In 2009, with all of the life changes, I let the blog coast and slowly build a stronger community, rather than worrying about massive increases in visitors.

And in 2010 I plan on ramping it up once again, and hopefully making this a year to remember with both my blog, and my personal connections and workings with every one of you.

How are you going to make your blog great in 2010?

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While that excitement is great, and you hope it lasts the rest of your life, you don’t want to let it cause you to lose control of your blog, especially if you are interested in running it as a business.

Losing control can be one of the most dangerous things you encounter when blogging, and if you’re not careful, you lose control without even realizing it.

Here are 5 tips to help you maintain control of your blog, and keep you on the pathway to becoming successful:

1. Stay Calm

Just because the top bloggers in your niche are kicking out a post 2-3 times a day, it doesn’t mean you have to do the same to become successful. In fact, many very successful bloggers sometimes only post 1 article per week. Yaro Starak, for example, skips many days at a time on occasion.

As long as you’re putting out great content and building your community effectively, it really doesn’t matter how often you post, as long as it’s consistent.

So stay calm.

It doesn’t matter that you’re running behind on getting a post out at exactly 8:00 am.  Your readers will still see the post.  It also doesn’t matter that some of your Twitter followers didn’t see that tweet about your latest blog post. You don’t have to tweet it 5 times to make sure.  In fact, sending that many tweets about the same thing could actually have a negative effect on you and the trust others have in you.

2. Limit Yourself

Don’t think you have to spend 24 hours a day writing content, marketing it, or building your community.  If you’re spending that much time on your blog, your time management skills need to change.

Everything you need to do in a day for building your blog can be done in a short amount of time with the correct time management methods.

Spending too much time on your blog can also burn you out.  Then before you realize it, you’ve stopped blogging altogether, and that doesn’t make for a very effective business model.

3. Get Rid of Distractions

Those distractions you experience when writing an article, like answering emails, responding to someone on Facebook, or retweeting a great Twitter message, effect not only your quality of work, but also delay the time it takes you to get an article published.

The best thing you can do is to focus on one thing at a time, and make sure you’re completely finished with the task at hand before moving onto another.  Make a list in order of importance if you have to.

Making a list also helps keep you on track with what you need to get done.  Whereas working haphazardly with no real direction can cause you to focus on things that have absolutely nothing to do with your blog.

4. Incorporate One Affiliate Program At A Time

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen among other bloggers interested in making money online is signing up for every affiliate network they can find all at one time and trying to implement them.

The best advice I can give you is to pick one affiliate network you want to work with, and really take the time to maximize it’s effectiveness to fit you and your blog.  Then move on to another.

Taking this approach keeps you from being overwhelmed, which is a major factor in many bloggers giving up altogether.

5. You Decide

Now, it’s your turn.  I’d like to hear your experiences that have caused you to either temporarily or permanently lose control.  Leave me a comment, letting me know.

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While I’m not extremely impressed with it yet, I can foresee some big uses for Google Wave coming about.

1. Forum Integration

With Google Wave’s ability to imbed Waves into existing websites and allow for comments within each embedded wave, this could be a very awesome change for forums.

Currently, in order to reply to a thread in a forum, you have to register for that forum, type your reply then wait for the page to refresh in order to see it posted.  And if others are posting comments at the same time, you could miss conversation posted while posting your own.

Google Wave allows you to reply to each individual sentence and see all comments and threads as they are typed, in real time.  It will also allow you to read the forum and make comments via your Google Wave account, so you can participate in many different forums from one location.

Forum participation has declined since the creation of blogs, but I think forums will make a huge comeback with the implementation of Google Wave.

2. Blog Integration

Much like forum integration, using Google Wave to imbed your posts onto your blog will allow other Wave users to add to the content (much like a wiki), and hold a conversation dynamically with other blog readers.

This integration could help increase your blog community by allowing you to interact with your readers as they visit your new posts.

The only downside I see to using Google Wave for your blog posts is those who try to add to your content that don’t know anything about the topic. And it could cause less visitors to your actual blog, meaning those advertisements you have will not be seen.

Sponsored Conversation, much like that created through Izea’s new Sponzai, will be the future of making money through your blog when Google Wave starts being implemented.

3. Education Integration

Google Wave will make a huge impact on education.

The ability to collaborate as a team will help promote a better learning environment and a place for students to work together to solve problems whether at school or at home.

Students will also have the chance to continue asking the teacher questions and receive help after school hours, through shared waves.

I think education will have the biggest opportunity for change using Google Wave!

4. Conference & Team Integration

Because Google Wave allows for real time communication between individuals, it will make amazing headway for company teams working together on a single project as well as conferencing.

Virtual businesses will be able to communicate with each other on projects much easier and give them a better chance of surviving against brick and mortar businesses.

This will also allow companies to save money by converting their employees to a telecommute position and decreasing electric, water, and so many other costs involved in operating a physcial business.

5. Email Marketing

Email marketing has been around for a long time, but with the popularity of social media websites and blogging, it has become something few do anymore.

In the past couple of years it has started making a comeback.  But it’s difficult for those new to email marketing to really get involved because they aren’t sure of how to create amazing content for those email lists that are being created.

With Google Wave, email marketers will be able to send out truly dynamic emails and respond to questions and comments as they are asked. This will also allow everyone in the email list to see and questions and answers based on the material and could possibly persuade them into performing a desired action based on an issue they may have had but was cleared up by someone else.

If the product is good enough, it could also help to build trust between the email marketer and the client by allowing them to see real-time testimonies and compliments.

There are probably many other ways Google Wave will make an impact, but I see these as the biggest uses for Google Wave.

What uses to you envision for Google Wave?

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The majority of regular Twitter users seem to be bloggers who have started using it because other bloggers have as well, but there is a growing usage of Twitter from businesses trying to reach their target market to create more sales and a better customer relationship.

This is very important, especially with our economy the way it is.  So as a business, whether your blog is your business, or you have a more traditional business, here are very important ways in which Twitter can help further your efforts, and fatten your wallet.

Customer Relations

Recently I made a comment on Twitter about how Crocs were the ugliest shoe ever made, but within a matter of minutes, @georgeGSmithJr, the social media representative for Crocs, reached out to me and offered a view of different styles of Croc shoes that I had never seen before.

My view of the shoe as well as the company changed dramatically.  They actually do have some decent looking shoes. (I even own a pair of the flip flops for men, now.)

The fact that the company had a representative reach out to me gave me a view of them as real people and not some giant machine that sucks everyone in.

I’ve even met George at a couple of blog and social media conferences since that time and have realized he is a really cool guy.

Had Crocs not been on Twitter and not reached out to me, they would have one less customer, or even less depending on how many other individuals they’ve reached out to in the same way.

Your company will be talked about, whether you’re using social media or not.  Your best bet is to jump in and help direct the conversation in a way you want it to go.

Increased Sales

I have Tweetdeck to help manage my Twitter efforts, and recently I added some search columns looking for any conversations involving web design and other variations of the topic.

My intentions were to monitor who on Twitter was looking for a website designer and to offer my services.  I was hoping to get one or two new web design projects using this method, but what I wasn’t expecting was to get so much business from it that anything else I’ve been working on would get neglected (such as this blog).

But I’m finding that it doesn’t bother me, because all of this new work is putting money in my pocket to better take care of my family and build my business.

By doing the same thing, you can use Twitter to build your business, while spending virtually no money in marketing.  Which brings me to our next benefit of using Twitter for your business.

Free Marketing

While you don’t want to simply blast your marketing campaigns on Twitter (I explain why in a recent post that shows how Twitter is A Sports Bar), it is still a great platform for marketing your business.

Traditional methods of marketing often cost thousands of dollars and offer very little chance that you’ll actually get any return on investment from it.  You may be marketing your business to a huge audience, but what percentage of that audience is even in your target market?

With Twitter, you can market your business for free, and can even target your product or services to an audience that is interested in what you offer.

Social media websites like Twitter are putting many traditional companies with non-internet limitations out of business because they offer your company increased profit by decreasing your overhead.

How do you use Twitter to build your business?

If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry, you can join in on the conference too.  Here’s the live stream from IzeaFest:

Free Webcam Chat at Ustream

This live stream is only available between October 2, 2009 and October 3, 2009.

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