Category: Social Media

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Google Friend Connect New Easy Interaction for Your Website

I am not a programmer and simply do not aspire to be one. I consider my expertise to be in other areas, but that does not mean that I do not want to add cool new interactive features to my website that typically require a strong knowledge of web programming. This is why I am so interested in checking out Google’s new Friend Connect.

Created just for people like me, Friend Connect lets Google do the heavy lifting for you. You can now install into your source code cool little mini applications that allow for users to become members on your website, add comments about a page or your website, and to rate your content. It is the beginning of a very neat interactive component that I am sure many will actively embrace. More applications and sharing tools are sure to be created as Friend Connect allows people to add programming-like elements into their static website without programming or database integration.

Friend Connect allows users with a Google account (which Google early on nearly forced on everyone who advertised in AdWords and when Gmail was initially introduced, so many users already have one), Yahoo accounts, and even AIM accounts. You can visit our website today to check out what we’ve done with Friend Connect integration. Just visit our resources section and click any top tip link to see just a bit of how we are using Friend Connect.

Although every page in our website is not using Friend Connect, we see it as a content interaction tool and so on some of our content pages which are really focused on teaching or sharing we want to help others to share our information and leave comments.

Friend Connect is easy to install for users who understand HTML, but not for the person who does not update their own website. You can find out more about Google’s new Friend Connect by visiting the official Friend Connect website.

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Google’s New Friend Connect

Finally I have finished integrating Google’s new Friend Connect into my website content pages. If you don’t know what Friend Connect is, it is a new programmer-free social interface that allows any website to use hi-tech programming features to allow site visitors to interact with the content. The key is that with Friend Connect you do not need to have any programming skills.

I have used the page review rating and comment module in many pages of my website. You can visit our instruction section to click through the various pages to see how it looks and how it works. Click into a few pages and you can see how the modules act and work on the page. Leave a comment, mouse over the stars and leave a rating and you can do so anonymously.

Personally I found the application after a few dry runs, extremely easy to work with and simple to install. There are several modules you may want to consider for your use. You can install a comment module that even allows video upload, a website rating module, a page comment and rating module, and a friend network module. For my needs, I am only using the page rating.

One thing that I have found is that it is best to only have one comment or rating module on a page otherwise the application gets confused.

It is easy to style the modules anyway you want from inside Friend Connect and then style the <div> that contains the content back in your source code. Implementation of Friend Connect is still best for webmasters or people who know their way around source code.

I consider the application a new exciting way to interact with website visitors. Take a look and tell me what you think by clicking comments below.

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The Truth on Linking From Forums and Other Blogs

Okay, it used to be a great SEO technique to actively and aggressively link to your fledgling blogsite or website on other blogs or forums. You could get quality one way inbound links using this not talked about much technique. It was very workable. Mind that I said WAS.

Now, that technique is passé with Google’s Blogger, Typepad, and some WordPress sites automatically inserting a “nofollow” tag in any link left in comments. You simply cannot get the search engine capital you used to be able to get with blog commenting or forum posting.

There are still some sites that don’t have the no follow tag installed and for these sites you can still build capital with great comments and then a link back to your website. So how do you know which sites this technique will work on and which it will not?

Go to a site you think if a good match for authority for your site or blog. Go to a post that has a comment. If there are non, leave one yourself and then go back to the page where you comment appears. Right click anywhere on the page and then select view source. Notepad will open, using the Find feature go to a word in your comment and then go to your actual link. The link source code will have this in it. <a href=”http://www.yourweblinkaddress.com”>Your text</a>. If you see inside the a href a nofollow or external nofollow tag, you will never get organic capital from this site. If you do not see the no follow tag, better book mark this site and come back to comment often and frequently.

Now one thing about commenting. Most site and forum owners have ways to ban you or delete your comments. So, don’t be a spammer! Say something insightful about the blog post not “great post, I am bookmarking your site.” Spammers do that, actually leave something of value, a tip, a trick, another link, but always insert a link to your blog or website to deep content and include your full http://www.webaddress.com in that format to your website or blog in your signature block.

You can still get links and great search engine capital from forum or blog comment posting, you just have to be more careful about where you go to invest your time.

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Have Twitter Auto-Update Your Status in Facebook

Wow, this was so cool I just have to share it right now. Here the link: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543

This application allows your Twitter updates to be status updates in Facebook. Now you don’t have to login in a million places to update your status. Just do a Tweet with what you are doing and voilà, your Tweet appears as a new status update on Facebook.

Just another reason that I just LOVE Twitter!