Pay-Per-Click advertising changed the Web. The perfect fit for the new point and click, immediate gratification Internet world - and advertisers flocked (and still do) to providers both large and small. What was missing however was strategy - many advertisers got burned and that alone was enough to dissuade the majority from using the advertising method.
PPC Strategy: Budgeting
Applying strict budgeting rules to your PPC campaign is a exceptional way to derive more value from your advertising spend. One of the simplst strategies is to set a monthly budget and divide it amongst your advertising channels, but daily budgets can also help as they enable advertisers to throttle the traffic and distribute it throughout the month - something which as a monthly budget alone can not accomplish.
In line with budgeting, sophisticated advertisers are increasingly testing the waters with day parting whrein bid strategies are changed throughout the day and possibly turning off bids at different times of the day - ideal for companies that only want calls during normal business hours or those that want to avoid foreign traffic. The most savvy advertisers (those that understand the buying cycles of advertisers even engage in day excluding. Ecommerce websites are some of the most frequent users of day exclusion as they can minimize costs if regular shipping options become too extreme.
PPC Strategy: Bidding
The essence of PPC is bidding, but there are many advanced PPC bidding strategies that are not used by the vast majority of advertisers. It is a basic principle of Web marketing that higher on the SERPs is better, so the first position must be the best.
Bidding to position is common, but depending on the keyword can quickly become cost prohibitive as bidding wars and bid inflation result. As such, requiring that your campaign be in the first position on each keyword is not recommended. Instead, bidding to just the second and third positions, while driving less traffic overall, lowers the cost of traffic considerable. Focus outside of the top three positions will be less competitive for bids, but count on much less traffic than positions 1-3 can provide. There are much better bidding strategies to employ however than bidding to position.
Bidding to your enterprises specific ROI goals is the best PPC bidding strategy. While it is important to pre-define performance metrics for each and every keyword, understanding the maximum amount you are able to spend on the whole while still turning a profit is the choice of many professional PPC advertisers and marketers. The most successful PPC management agencies take great care in understanding your business model, product pricing and sales funnel to understand the bid threshold.
PPC Strategies: Keywords
Website Magazine has discussed keywords and match types specifically at great length. Since both Yahoo and Google have some form of keyword matching deployed on their platforms, it's essential to understand these features and leverage them for the betterment of our PPC campaign initiatives.
PPC Strategies: Ad Copy
Much like price is the easiest factor to modify to test conversion, Ad copy is an important part of PPC strategy and one that can make all the difference in the success of a keyword and an entire campaign. Once you become familiar with the more basic PPC stragies, engaging in inserting keywords dynamically into listings can be quite beneficial. Each PPC platform, both on the first and second tier have specific keyword insertion rules, so make sure that you are setting up campaigns correctly before going live (more on that in a later post). Other tips for stellar ad copy include developing variants, utilizing capitalization, modifying based on seasonablity and including geo-centric references to search queries.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Business Listing Sites To Promot your Website & Business
Local Search Engines & Popular Local Search Listings
Considered the most popular local search engines and local listing sites. Many merchants add their business location or list locally using these popular local search engines. Getting a business listed is easy, all you have to do is decide where you want to begin and follow the links from this page for instruction. We suggest adding your business to the FREE local search engines first to get an idea of how aggressive to be when launching your local listing campaign.
Google Local Business Center (Free)- Allows business owners to add their company address location, hours of operation, storefront or product photos and more to Google. Listings appear within Google Maps and Business searches. Free to list, comes with account listing and management tools, no website needed. Google account required. Local business listings update every few weeks.
Yahoo Local (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows merchants or business owners to add their business name, website, address, phone number, relevant categories, hours, payments accepted and more to Yahoo local. Free basic listing or paid enhanced listings available. Yahoo account required.
Windows Live Local (InfoUSA Affiliate) - Allows local business owners to list their company name, phone number, address and line of business within Windows Live Local. Free to list and update information. Submit listing through InfoUSA affiliate. Listing may take several months to update after changes have been made.
AOL Local (InfoUSA Affiliate) - Allows merchant business owners to add their company information including name, phone, address and line of business within AOL Local. Free to list and/or update business information. Submit through InfoUSA affiliate. Listing may take several months to update.
TrueLocal (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Get your local business information listed including company description, website, specialties, hours, payments and more within TrueLocal search. Accepts both free and paid enhanced submissions. Ability to update listings or information. May take several weeks for listings to update. No account required to submit.
Local.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local business owners to list company name, address, phone, email, website and relevant categories. Listings appear within the Local.com search results and participating affiliate sites. Both free and paid enhanced listings available. Listing may take several weeks to update within results.
Citysearch (Paid Programs) - Get your local business listed within Citysearch including the company name, photos, address, map, website, coupons, personal messages, offer types and more. Citysearch listing look like recommendations or reviews but work like advertisements. Only paid programs are available at this time. Listings are updated within a few days from the time businesses update information.
Local Yellow Pages & Online Yellow Page Listings
Local yellow pages and Online yellow page listing sites have been in existence for years, but are quickly gaining more attention as technologies and data delivery methods are constantly improving. The following local yellow pages are for merchants who wish to list and maintain a number of IYP listing over many yellow page portals or other inclusion programs offered by the site. We recommend using Online yellow page selling as a part of your eCommerce strategy rather than focus primarily on these listings. Use local search engines and yellow page sites to help saturate search results with your business brand and product information. Having many paid yellow page programs can get expensive so be sure to monitor your budget and consider listing in the most popular Online yellow page sites rather than each and every one you find.
SuperPages (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows business owners to list relevant information including location, hours, contacts, categories, optional enhancements and more. Free listing option along with paid enhanced listing options. Listings appear within SuperPages and affiliate sites. Listing may take several weeks to update.
BigBook (SuperPages Affiliate) - Allows local business owners to include relevant information such as name, location, phone, website and more. Free basic listing options along with paid listing enhancements. Listings appear within BookBook and other SuperPages affiliates. Submit through SuperPages.
InfoSpace YP (SuperPages Affiliate) - Get local business information listed within InfoSPace YP and affiliate sites. Include the business name, address, phone, email, site and other optional information. Listings appear within InfoSpace affiliates and SuperPages affiliates. Listing updates may take several weeks to display. Offers both free and paid enhanced listing options. Submit through SuperPages.
411.com (SuperPages Affiliate) - Allows merchants or local business owners to include relevant company information including name, contacts, location, website and more. Listings appear within 411.com and other SuperPages affiliates. Listing may take several weeks to update within SuperPages and affiliate sites. Both free and paid enhanced listing options available. Submit through SuperPages.
Switchboard.com (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Allows business owners to list relevant information about their company including names, locations, contacts and other optional information about the company being listed. Listing appear within Switchboard.com, InfoSpace and SuperPages. Listing may take several weeks to update or list for the first time. Free listing and paid enhanced options available. Submit through SuperPages.
Yahoo Yellow Pages (InfoUSA Affiliate) - Allows business owners to list and display company information including name, phone number, address and line of business or services offered. Listings appear within Yahoo Yellow Pages and other InfoUSA affiliates. Free to list and update business information. Submit through InfoUSA affiliate.
YellowPages.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local business owners to list relevant information about their company including names, locations, contact information and more. Listings appear within YellowPages.com and affiliate sites. Once updated, listings may take several weeks to display. Both free basic and paid enhanced listing options available. Free account required to list.
AnyWho (YellowPages.com Affiliate) - Get listed within AnyWho search services and YellowPages.com by listing your information including business name, location, phone, site and more. Offers both free and paid listing options. Free account required to list a business. Submit through YellowPages.com affiliate.
Yellowbook.com (Paid Programs) - Allows merchants or local business owners to list company information for display within Yellowbook.com and affiliates. Business may include name, location, contacts, website and additional optional information. Paid listing program options only. Free account required to list a business.
MagicYellow (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows business owners to list phone numbers, type of company, contacts, location, website, description and keywords. Listing appear within MagicYellow search and yellow pages. Listing management options and tools available, may take several weeks to update or list. Both free basic and paid enhanced listing options available.
Dex (Paid Programs) - Allows merchants to feature local business within Dex Online and other Dex affiliates. Featured, business, starter, enhanced, sponsorship and even video options are available. Listings appear right away and update in real time. Only paid listing options are accepted. Allows purchasing of ad services via the Web and shopping cart.
YP.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local businesses to expand presence online, display relevant business information, including maps and listing management tools. Business listings appear within YP and their network. Listings update within a few days. Offers both free basic and paid enhanced listing options.
Local Meta Search Engines & Special Local Listings
Local meta search engines and special local data listings are often times overlooked by merchants, physical business owners and Online sellers, however it's a great, easy way to spread data about your local business around the Web. Meta search engines automatically scour the Web using crawlers in search of specific data about a site, company or whatever the intended purpose of the crawler is. Some of the special local listing sites, including MapQuest are great places to gain additional exposure for any business, online or off. Many of the special local sites will get your business listed in prominent areas across the Web that many marketers traditionally have to pay for. Because these meta crawlers and special local listing sites share data with so many places, your chances of getting listed within hundreds of authoritative sites increases depending on how many meta cralwers or special listing sites can access your data. We recommend using these sites as part of your overall marketing strategy rather than focusing on just meta crawlers or special local listings. As with any other paid marketing, be sure you can track ROI and always monitor your spending/profit to be assured you are getting a return.
MapQuest (InfoUSA Affiliate) - Allows local business owners or merchants to list company information such as name, location, contacts, site and more within MapQuest search results and map results pages for MapQUest and affiliates. Free to list, comes with management tools. Listings may take several months to update. Submit through InfoUSA affiliate.
Dogpile YP (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Gives local business owners the chance to be discovered within Dogpile yellow page listings and local Dogpile search results. Business submit useful information including their company, address, phone, email, contacts and more. Offers both free basic listing or paid enhanced listing options. Submit through SuperPages affiliate.
WebCrawler (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Allows business owners to include data about the company like name, location, phone or contact information, website and more. Listing appear within WebCrawler search results and affiliate partner sites. Both free basic and paid enhanced listing options are available. Submit through SuperPages affiliate.
MetaCrawler (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Gets merchant or business information included within MetaCrawler search results and appears on other MetaCrawler affiliate or partner site results. Businesses can list their name, address, contact information and other useful information about the company. Free basic and paid enhanced listing options. Submit through SuperPages affiliate.
WebFetch (InfoSpace YP Affiliate) - Allows local businesses to list information about themselves including name, location, site, references or contacts. Listings appear within WebFetch search results and other affiliate sites. Offers both free basic and paid enhanced listing options. Submit through SuperPages affiliate.
Metrobot (Free) - Allows local businesses to include data about themselves including website links or business name, address, zip, business type, events, polls, maps and more. Update and management tools available. Listings appear within Metrobot and affilaite sites. May take several days for listings to update. Free to list, free to update.
Tyloon (Paid Programs) - Allows local business owners to upload a company profile and mange it within an easy to use platform. Listings are distributed across a network of at least 30 local/YP listing sites. Unlimited products, categories or business content. Includes ability to interact with prospects. Only paid programs are available. Listings update rather quickly.
ZoomInfo (Paid Programs) - Allows businesses to list useful data about the company, people, jobs and more. Create a local business profile and get relevant business data displayed on ZoomInfo, a free business information search engine. Listings include company profile, history, education, affiliations, Web references and contact information. Listing update often, only paid listing options are available.
Local Business Data Providers & Data Listing Services
Local business data providers mantain enormous databases of information about small businesses, companies and merchants all over the world. Data proviers work in conjuncture with data listing services to collect and display local business results. Common ways to list these companies include by category, service market, service offering, name, phone, geography, zip and more. Many of the largest data providers share their content with hundreds of other sites and even other data listing services. By including your company information within the popular local data providers you can be ensured that your business name, address and site will appear within the majority of local/business listing services available to Web consumers. Once you have listed with traditional local search engines and internet yelow pages, consider adding your items to local business data providers and data listing service sites.
InfoUSA (Free) - Provides data to thousands of the most popular listing service companies. Allows local business owners to include relevant information about themselves within a database that is shared with many of the best local listing sites and IYP listing sites. Listings may take some time to get included or update. Free to list and update business information. Submit here and show up in multiple sites with only one submission.
MacRAE's Blue Book (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows companies to list detailed product or service headings, live links to sites, company email links, contact information, description and other inportant corporate information. Listings update often. Offers both free basic and paid enhanced listing options. Also offers ads to highlight business logos or products.
Localeze (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local business owners to include their corporate information within over 40 of the largest search engines that provide local results. Offers a merchant profile manager with the ability to add, edit or delete listings easily. Manage multiple listings and enhance them at any time. May take up to 30 days to process listing requests or updates. Free basic and paid enhanced listing options available.
Experian (Paid Programs) - Allows businesses to list their corporate information within Experian's national database along with over 16 milion other companies. Listings may take several weeks to process or update. Only paid programs available at this time.
DeepData (Paid Programs) - Allows local businesses to list and include data within severa local yellow page listing services. Listings include company, phone, localtion, lat/long, country, site, hours, products, brands and more. Listings are updated no less than monthly. Only paid listing programs available.
Wcities (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows businesses to list name, address, location, site and more within Wcities, data provider for many of the most popular local search engines and IYP listing sites. Listings may take several weeks to update. Offers both free paid and basic enhanced listing options. Provides data for several authoritative sites inlcuding Yahoo Local.
iBegin (Free) - Provides both U.S. and Canadian listings for millioins of businesses. Listings inlcude name, address, phone and category, in addition to closest intersections. Listings appear within many popular local search engines and IYP listing sites. May take several weeks for listings to update. Free to list and update local business information.
UniversalBusinessListing.org (Paid Programs) - Allows local businesses to include name, address, location, phone, site, hours, payments, logo, products and more. Listing appear in a variety of locations including yellow pages, search engines, business portals, city guides, 411 and more. Listings may take several weeks to update. Offers only paid listing options. Data provider for several large, authoritative third-party sites.
Local Social Networks & Online Business Networks
A large part of selling Online and getting others to know about your product line is by using peer to peer networks and word of mouth tactics to increase business or brand recognition. Having others who share or recommend the products you offer is a great way to increase sales, increase brand awareness and inform others about the location of your local business. The sites listed below are ideal for merchants who want to leverage and use local social networks, product or service communities and online business networks to help spread the word about the items they offer or where to find those items. Local social sites are quickly becoming one of the best places to include your corporate, company or business information. Once you have listed with local search engines, yellow page sites, business meta searches and data providers consider adding your corporate or company information to these local social communities and business networks.
Yelp (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows local bussinesses to gain exposure and brand awreness through business or company reviews. Business owners can manage or enhance reviews listed within Yelp pages and can even join their word of mouth program. Listing update in real time. Free to review, paid enhancement and word of mouth program options available.
Judy's Book (Free) - Allows local business owners to bring more customers, gain exposure online and increase word of mouth awareness about their brand. Listings include reviews, ratings, business email notifications and the ability to add comments to reviews. Free for businesses to list. Free account required.
MojoPages (Free) - Allows business owners to review and get reviewed in MojoPages' people powered yellow pages. Using intuitive search, helpful features and tools for users or businesses, anyone can find nearly any business and write a review. Helps to increase awareness and word of mouth hype about a company. Free to review or get reviewed. Free account required.
Tupalo (Free) - Allows users to add spots in their local area, rate and review those spots and receive feedback from the social community of users. Allows local businesses to increase word of mouth hype, exposure and brand awareness. Useful features available inlcuding recent reviews, photos, maps, popular stuff, recently added and recent users. Free to add spots. Free account required.
Insider Pages (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Allows users to find popular local businesses through friend recommendations. Allows local businesses to gain exposure, increase brand awareness and word of mouth within their niches. reviews include business name, city, state and zip. Cose matches are presented to choose from or list a new business. Listings feature ratings and reviews which are then shared with friends and the entire Insider Pages network. Offers both free basic and paid advertising options. Free account required.
YellowBot (Free) - Allows users to find, rate and review local business they admire within a local region. In addition, patrons and business owners can then share or exchange tips and experiences within one another. Allows local businesses to gain exposure, word of mouth, additional credibility and more. Includes popular tags, users and cites. Free to list and update reviews. Free account required.
Citysquares.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - Local search site designed to connect people with businesses. Allows users to find, rate and review businesses in local regions. Allows business owners to increase brand awareness, word of mouth exposure and overall online exposure. Offers both free basic and paid advertising options. Free account required to add or review.
LittleEngine.com (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - A local social community around small business for both patrons and business owners who want to support, connect, and communicate in a human-to-human manner. Allows business owners to include relevant information to be displayed in the LittleEngine community. Offers both free basic and multiple paid enhanced listing options. Free account required.
Yokld (Free) - A local business social ranking platform allows merchants to list their business and have it voted on by other local socilal community members (sort of like Digg for local businesses). Listings appear within Yokld for community members to vote on and rank. Free to list favorite businesses, free to participate in the community. Free account required.
Lopico (Free Basic, Paid Enhanced) - A local social business directory that allows local business owners to add related information about their company into Lopico. Community users can then rate and review businesses they have visited and know of near or around their location. offers both free basic and paid enhanced listing options. Free account required to list or review local businesses.
Need Help Listing Businesses & Picking Portals?
Sifting through the various places to add your local business can sometimes be an exhaustive task which requires much spare time and planning. We have done our best to list as many of the most used and authoratative local business search engines, yellowpage listings, meta crawlers, data providers and local social network sites as we possibly could. If you are having issues getting your company included in one or more of the local portals or business listing sites we may be able to assist you in getting the answers you need. If you are looking to get listed within ONLY the popular or most used business portals you may find that listing with InfoUSA and SuperPages is the best way to go as they provide data to many of the major local business portals. I recommend adding your items to as many of the places listed on this page as possible for the most exposure, the most traffic and the best chance of early success. Keep in mind, not all companies or businesses will fit well within each and every local listing portal, so find the ones that fit best around the items you sell, the services you offer or the physical location of your business.
If you find misspellings or typos, try to ignore them, but let me know so I can fix those too!50 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence on
Social-Media/Social-Bookmarking Sites
Share your favorite sites on the Web with potential clients and business partners by commenting on, uploading and ranking different newsworthy articles. You can also create a member profile that directs traffic back to your company's Web site.
- Reddit: Upload stories and articles on reddit to drive traffic to your site or blog. Submit items often so that you'll gain a more loyal following and increase your presence on the site.
- Digg: Digg has a huge following online because of its optimum usability. Visitors can submit and browse articles in categories like technology, business, entertainment, sports and more.
- Del.icio.us: Social bookmark your way to better business with sites like del.icio.us, which invite users to organize and publicize interesting items through tagging and networking.
- StumbleUpon: You'll open your online presence up to a whole new audience just by adding the StumbleUpon toolbar to your browser and "channel surf[ing] the Web. You'll "connect with friends and share your discoveries," as well as "meet people that have similar interests."
- Technorati: If you want to increase your blog's readership, consider registering it with Technorati, a network of blogs and writers that lists top stories in categories like Business, Entertainment and Technology.
- Ning: After hanging around the same social networks for a while, you may feel inspired to create your own, where you can bring together clients, vendors, customers and co-workers in a confidential, secure corner of the Web. Ning lets users design free social networks that they can share with anyone.
- Squidoo: According to Squidoo, "everyone's an expert on something. Share your knowledge!" Share your industry's secrets by answering questions and designing a profile page to help other members.
- Furl: Make Furl "your personal Web file" by bookmarking great sites and sharing them with other users by recommending links, commenting on articles and utilizing other fantastic features.
- Tubearoo: This video network works like other social-bookmarking sites, except that it focuses on uploaded videos. Businesses can create and upload tutorials, commentaries and interviews with industry insiders to promote their own services.
- WikiHow: Create a how-to guide or tutorial on wikiHow to share your company's services with the public for free.
- YouTube: From the fashion industry to Capitol Hill, everyone has a video floating around on YouTube. Shoot a behind-the-scenes video from your company's latest commercial or event to give customers and clients an idea of what you do each day.
- Ma.gnolia: Share your favorite sites with friends, colleagues and clients by organizing your bookmarks with Ma.gnolia. Clients will appreciate both your Internet-savviness and your ability to stay current and organized.
Sign up with these online networking communities as a company or as an individual to take advantage of recruiting opportunities, cross-promotional events and more.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a popular networking site where alumni, business associates, recent graduates and other professionals connect online.
- Ecademy: Ecademy prides itself on "connecting business people" through its online network, blog and message-board chats, as well as its premier BlackStar membership program, which awards exclusive benefits.
- Ryze: Ryze lets members organize contacts and friends; upcoming events; and even job, real-estate and roommate classifieds.
- YorZ: This networking site doubles as a job site. Members can post openings for free to attract quality candidates.
- Xing: An account with networking site Xing can "open doors to thousands of companies." Use the professional contact manager to organize your new friends and colleagues, and take advantage of the Business Accelerator application to "find experts at the click of a button, market yourself in a professional context [and] open up new sales channels."
- Facebook: Facebook is no longer just for college kids who want to post their party pics. Businesses vie for advertising opportunities, event promotion and more on this social-networking site.
- Care2: Care2 isn't just a networking community for professionals: It's touted as "the global network for organizations and people who Care2 make a difference." If your business is making efforts to go green, let others know by becoming a presence on this site.
- Gather: This networking community is made up of members who think. Browse categories concerning books, health, money, news and more to ignite discussions on politics, business and entertainment. This will help your company tap into its target audience and find out what they want.
- MEETin.org: Once you've acquired a group of contacts in your city by networking on MEETin.org, organize an event so that you can meet face-to-face.
- Tribe: Cities like Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, New York and Chicago have unique online communities on tribe. Users can search for favorite restaurants, events, clubs and more.
- Ziggs: Ziggs is "organizing and connecting people in a professional way." Join groups and make contacts through your Ziggs account to increase your company's presence online and further your own personal career.
- Plaxo: Join Plaxo to organize your contacts and stay updated with feeds from Digg, Amazon.com, del.icio.us and more.
- NetParty: If you want to attract young professionals in cities like Boston, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Orlando Fla., create an account with the networking site NetParty. You'll be able to connect with qualified, up-and-coming professionals online, then meet them at a real-life happy-hour event where you can pass out business cards, pitch new job openings and more.
- Networking For Professionals: Networking For Professionals is another online community that combines the Internet with special events in the real world. Post photos, videos, résumés and clips on your online profile while you meet new business contacts.
Consider linking up with one of these social-media sites to narrow down your business's target audience. You'll find other professionals, enthusiasts and consumers who are most likely already interested in what your company has to offer.
- Pixel Groovy: Web workers will love Pixel Groovy, an open-source site that lets members submit and rate tutorials for Web 2.0, email and online-marketing issues.
- Mixx: Mixx prides itself on being "your link to the Web content that really matters." Submit and rate stories, photos and news to drive traffic to your own site. You'll also meet others with similar interests.
- Tweako: Gadget-minded computer geeks can network with each other on Tweako, a site that promotes information sharing for the technologically savvy.
- Small Business Brief: When members post entrepreneur-related articles, a photo and a link to their profile appear, gaining you valuable exposure and legitimacy online.
- Sphinn: Sphinn is an online forum and networking site for the Internet marketing crowd. Upload articles and guides from your blog to create interest in your own company or connect with other professionals for form new contacts.
- BuzzFlash.net: This one-stop news resource is great for businesses that want to contribute articles on a variety of subjects, from the environment to politics to health.
- HubSpot: HubSpot is another news site aimed at connecting business professionals.
- SEO TAGG: Stay on top of news from the Web marketing and SEO (search-engine optimization) industries by becoming an active member of this online community.
The following social-media sites provide excellent opportunities for businesses to advertise; promote specials, events or services; and feature published, knowledgeable employees.
- Wikipedia: Besides creating your own business reference page on Wikipedia, you can connect with other users on Wikipedia's Community Portal and at the village pump, where you'll find conscientious professionals enthusiastic about news, business, research and more.
- Newsvine: Feature top employees by uploading their articles, studies or other news-related items to this site. A free account will also get you your own column and access to the Newsvine community.
- 43 Things: This site bills itself as "the world's most popular online goal setting community." By publicizing your company's goals and ambitions, you'll gain a following of customers, investors and promoters who cheer you on as you achieve success.
- Wetpaint: If you're tired of blogs and generic Web sites, create your own wiki with Wetpaint to reach your audience and increase your company's presence online. You can easily organize articles, contact information, photos and other information to promote your business.
- Frappr: Embed a Frappr map and guestbook into your company's Web page so that you can pinpoint exactly how users find your site, discover in real-time what they have to say about your company profile and services, and create an "interactive, fun and engaging" spot for visitors.
- Yahoo! Answers: Start fielding Yahoo! users' questions with this social-media Q&A service. Search for questions in your particular areas of expertise by clicking categories like Business & Finance, Health, News & Events and more. If you continue to dole out useful advice and link your answer to your company's Web page, you'll quickly gain a new following of curious customers.
If you want to secure high-quality talent during your company's next hiring spree, you'll need to maintain a strong presence on popular job sites like the ones listed below.
- CareerBuilder.com: Reach millions of candidates by posting jobs on this must-visit site.
- The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal: The Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal attracts well-educated professionals who are at the top of their game. Post a job or search résumés here.
- CollegeRecruiter.com: If your firm wants to hire promising entry-level employees, check CollegeRecuriter.com for candidates with college degrees.
- Monster: Post often to separate your business from all the other big companies that use this site to advertise job openings.
- Sologig: Top freelancers and contractors post résumés and look for work on this popular site.
- AllFreelance.com: This site "offers self-employed small business owners links to freelance & work at home job boards, self-promotion tips" and more.
- Freelance Switch Job Listings: Freelance Switch is the freelancer's online mecca and boasts articles, resource toolboxes, valuable tips and a job board.
- GoFreelance: Employers looking to boost their vendor base should check GoFreelance for professionals in the writing, design, editing and Web industries.
- Yahoo! Hot Jobs: This site is often one of the first places that job seekers visit. Post open opportunities and check out informative articles and guides to gain insight on the hiring and interviewing process.
- Guru.com: Build your company's repertoire with top freelancing professionals by advertising projects on this site, otherwise known as "the world's largest online service marketplace."
List of 350+ socil networking sites
One of the main topics here at Mashable has always been social networking. In the past several years, some networks have thrived, some vanished, while hundreds of new ones appeared. It has become a huge area to follow, and this article illustrates this well: a collection of over 350 social networking sites, all of which were covered in one way or another here at Mashable. We hope to have created an extensive and useful resource for anyone interested in social networking. Enjoy.
Feel free to add more apps in the comments. And don’t forget to subscribe to Mashable for the latest web news and resources.
Books
Americabookshelf.com
- One of the largest book exchange clubs across the US.
BooksConnect - A book sharing community site connecting readers, authors, publishers, librarians and booksellers.
BookCrossing.com - A community of users from over 130 countries who exchange books with each other at public places like cafes, parks etc.
Bookhopper.co.uk - Free community for UK residents to share used books with each other.
Bookins.com - Book sharing website that enables members to exchange used books with each other in real time.
BookMooch.com - An interesting concept where users can exchange books with others through points. Users gain points when they give books to others.
Booksalescout.com - Online community of users allowing them to sell books in the US.
Bookswim.com - Book borrowing service with free shipping for registered website.
ConnectViaBooks - A social networking site connecting book lovers and enabling them to discover other similar interests.
GoodReads - GoodReads is a book reader’s community enabling members to review, share books they have been reading.
PaperBackSwap.com - Users can share books amongst each other and only pay for the delivery charges.
Pazap.com - A book trade engine for students to buy and sell old books.
Read It Swap It - A free service that allows users to exchange books with others.
Revish - Revish is another community for book lovers, letting them review their favorite books, group up, or simply tell the world what they’re currently reading.
Shelfari - Shelfari is a popular social networking service for book lovers.
Socialbib - Book swapping network between students.
Business Networking & Professionals
AdvisorGarage - It is an online directory of advisers who are willing to assist budding entrepreneurs.
ArtBreak - ArtBreak is an artist community for sharing and selling artwork.
Blogtronix - Blogtronix promotes corporate social networking, enterprise 2.0 and wikis.
Commutal - Commutal is an online sharing platform for businesses to create media rooms, participate in domestic groups and share event happenings with each other.
CompanyLoop - An online co-working community for global businesses.
ConnectBeam - Connectbeam offers social networking specially designed for corporate users.
Decorati - An interior designer community enabling users to post items for sale and for exchange.
DoMyStuff - A good site for working professionals looking to find online assistants.
Doostang - An invite only career community for professionals.
Fast Pitch - It is a quickly growing business networking community in corporate world. Its online provides users with a one-stop shop network to market their business.
iKarma Inc. - iKarma is a specialist in providing customer feedback for organizations and professionals.
ImageKind - ImageKind is a community and marketplace for professional artists.
Jambo - Jambo lets you connect with your neighborhood friends.
Jigsaw - An online business card networking directory for users to establish contacts with each other. Each business card is listed with an email id and a contact number.
Konnects - Konnects enables members to create their own professional networking communities.
Lawyrs - A professional social networking community for lawyers.
Linkedin - LinkedIn is a professional social networking website for business users, one of the most popular such sites out there. Some aspects of it are free, but many are paid.
mediabistro.com - mediabistro.com is for professionals in content or creative industry.
Pairup.com - Pairup connects business travelers assisting them to travel together.
Ryze.com - A site for establishing new connections and growing networks. Connections for jobs, building career and making sales.
Spoke.com - Spoke offers access to business network of over 40 million people worldwide.
Visible Path - Visible Path helps organizations to integrate social networking into their existing tools.
WebCrossing Neighbors - It provides a private label social network with personal spaces and user groups.
XING - XING is a networking directory of business contacts powering relationships between business professionals allowing users to connect with each other.
Family
Amiglia - A family networking service enabling users to connect to family members by publishing and sharing family trees, photos etc.
CafeMom - CafeMom is a social networking site for mothers to connect and share thoughts with each other.
Cingo - Cingo users connect with each other to organize their family life.
CommonGate - A social networking platform that enables users to create their own social network for their friends, family or organization.
Family 2.0 - Family 2.0 helps you create your own family social network, you can add family members, send personalized emails and create event alerts.
Famiva - A premier social network to connect with family members and relatives in a secure environment.
Famster - A private secure social network for family members.
Geni.com - An exciting social networking site enabling members to create their family tree. Although it’s a relatively new site, it has grown tremendously fast, and has hundreds of thousands of users.
Genoom - Genoom creates a meeting place for its site users. They can create a family network by inviting their relatives and discover their past memories.
Kincafe - An ideal social network for families to connect with their beloved ones.
Kinzin - Kinzin is an online meeting place for families to share family events, photos, stories and recipes.
MayasMoM - A family networking site for parents.
Minti - A collaborative parenting site.
MomJunction - MomJunction allows mothers to find reliable answers to questions, create private spaces with friends and build communities.
MothersClick - MothersClick connects mothers in a neighborhood with each and provides parenting advice to them.
myfamily.com - An excellent way to connect with your family members.
OneGreatFamily.com - An online shared database with combined knowledge and data at a single place.
OurStory.com - OurStory enables users to share stories of their families with others.
Parentography - A social network offering advice and advice for families.
The Family Post - A sharing network for communication with family members.
Friends
43 Things - A tagging based social networking site. Users create accounts and list a number of goals or hopes and these are parsed based on similarity to goals of other users.
Amitize.com - Amitize is a worldwide friendship network.
aSmallWorld - aSmallWorld is a private online community designed for individuals who would like to connect, re-connect to share similar thoughts with each other.
Badoo.Com - Badoo is a dynamic multi-lingual social networking site with innovative photo and video features that allows its users worldwide to gain an instant mass audience and interact both locally and globally.
Bebo - Bebo is a hugely popular site (especially in the UK), and similar in philosophy to MySpace. It allows users to communicate with their friends in multiple ways including blogging, sending messages and posting pictures.
Eons - An online gathering place for the elderly; most of the users are over the age of 50 years.
Facebook.com - Facebook is a social networking phenomenon connection people with their friends, family and other users with similar interests.
Faceparty - A UK based community social networking website. It started for youngsters but has now risen to popularity among all age groups.
Flingr - Flingr allows users to connect with all categories of friends – colleagues, college mates and school buddies.
Friendster - It is a popular global social network for finding new friends and developing friendships as well as searching old friends.
hi5 - Hi5 is a prominent social networking service in India with over 40 million users. However, Hi5 has recently experienced an upsurge beyond India and has shown increasing popularity in EU too.
Lovento - Lovento allows you to discover news friends and also find information about latest events.
Multiply.com - Multiply is a social networking website providing easy way to share digital media which includes photos, videos and music.
Mycool - Mycool enables members to find and share their interests with special groups.
MySpace.com - MySpace is an interactive social networking website consisting of personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos. It’s currently the biggest social networking site out there, and while it might not be the most advanced one, the users seem to love its simplicity.
NetFriendships.com - A comprehensive social networking site enabling users to make new online friends and discover old ones.
Netlog - A social community of more than 20 million young Europeans.
Orkut - Orkut is a social networking service owned by Google. It enables users to meet new friends and create communities.
Passado - Passado is Europe’s no.1 re-union website connecting members with friends from school to workplace.
Piczo - Piczo offers safe social networking environment to youngster around the world. Piczo users can design their personal website with photos, videos etc. and share it with their friends.
Plazes - A social networking website for connecting with local users.
Pownce.com - Pownce is a mix of social networking and microblogging. It enables users to send messages, files, events and links with each other.
ProfileHeaven.com - A UK based social networking site for teenagers.
reunion.com - A leading online service for discovering old friends, classmates and family members.
Vox.com - Vox is a social blogging service where users share their ideas, photos, videos with family and friends.
Xanga - Xanga is one of the biggest social networking platforms with features of sharing photos, photos and videos.
XuQa - An online college social networking site with poker gaming features.
Hobbies & Interests
ActionProfiles.com - It is social networking community for sports and action. The features of the website are profiles of users with photographs and videos, reviews of products and job discussion boards.
Arts community - Arts community provides a dynamic community experience by providing extensive listing of exhibitions, events and openings.
BeGreen - BeGreen is a community that aims to generate environmental awareness for users.
beRecruited - beRecruited is a dedicated online community for sportpersons and coaches.
BottleTalk - BottleTalk is a wine lover’s community making it easy for members to share their drinking experiences.
CarGurus - An automobile community website enabling users to post car reviews, photos and share opinions.
Change - Change is a nonprofit social networking website that connects like minded users and allows them to exchange information.
ChangingThePresent - A nonprofit fund raising community with membership of over 400 nonprofits.
ChickAdvisor - ChickAdvisor is a sharing community for women users.
CircleUp - CircleUp is one of the best community website connecting users to groups, clubs for knowledge sharing, information exchange.
Coastr - Coastr connects beer lovers with each other.
ColShare - ColShare is a community for people who have hobby of collecting items like coins, stamps etc.
coRank - A rating community for users to share interesting information on internet.
DailyStrength - A huge community of over 500 groups dealing with health issues and various medical challenges.
Dundoo - Dundoo enables users to create image collages out of social networking profile. A big amount of ads on the site somewhat diminishes the overall impression.
Flixster - Flixster is a community for movie lovers.
FuelEmpire - FuelEmpire brings automobile enthusiasts together at one place.
GirlSense - A community for girls to promote their fashion designs & creations.
Greenvoice - An online networking platform for people who are conscious about the environment, who want to inform each other on environmental issues and create a difference.
iYomu - iYomu is an adult social networking website and it allows users to search for site members who have similar interests or for business needs.
Motortopia - Motortopia is community for automobile lovers. It consists of passionate lovers of bikes, planes, cars and boats etc.
MyCatSpace - MyCatSpace is a community for lovers of cats passionate to share experiences of their cats with others.
MyDogSpace - MyDogSpace users can share their dog pictures, write blog posts about dogs and communicate with other dog lovers, all in a very lovely community.
Uniteddogs - A social networking website for dog owners. The dog owners can creae profiles of their dogs, create blogs and share their thoughts.
vSocial - vSocial is a video based social networking platform allowing content owners, site operators to deliver the message online with video.
Language
Media (Photo, Video & Audio)
Buzdeo - Buzdeo provides secure video sharing service with friends and family.
Fotki - A photo sharing service enabling users to connect with friends.
Fotolog - A big online photo sharing community.
Music
Asoboo - Asoboo is a sharing network for cultural artists from around the world.
BandChemistry - A network for musicians uniting music bands all over.
BandWagon - BandWagon is a music community website for music fans to manage their web pages, profiles, videos and music.
CrackSpace - A common place for fans of hip-hop music.
Moob - A dedicated community of hip-hop fans.
MOG - An online community powering site members to discover music and music lovers.
Mobile
CrackBerry - A community dedicated to BlackBerry users.
Dodgeball - A New York based service facilitating social interactions through mobile phones.
Friendstribe.com - A mobile phone based social networking site.
GotZapp - A mobile social network for sharing images, audio and graphics with your friends’ mobile phones.
Groovr - An ultimate mobile social networking site for staying connected with friends. It is compatible with iPhone.
Jaiku - Jaiku is essentially a microblogging service with an SMS gateway, very similar to Twitter. They’ve recently been acquired by Google.
Loopt - Loopt is a cool mobile based friend locator website. It uses GPS to show its users the location of friends by updating maps on mobile handset.
Mixxer - Mixxer enables users to content on their mobile with site members.
Mobango - A mobile community service powering users to search for user generated music content, videos and other data.
Mozes - Mozes enables members to connect & socialize with each other through mobile phones.
Partysync - Partysync helps users to interact with people using mobiles.
Peepsnation - Peepsnation allows users with similar interests to connect with each other on location basis.
Rabble - A location based social networking service for mobile phone users.
Socialight - Socialight is a mobile based social networking site where users share their travel experiences with other mobile users.
Wattpad - A mobile phone social networking platform allowing users to discover, read and share their stories with each others.
Shopping
18 Sites for Social Shopping and Deals
3LUXE - A community generated product research site.
AgentB - A common place to find out the best shopping deals on internet.
bringsome.com - A global goods delivery platform enabling community members to assist each other with access to best items from across the world.
boxedup.com - Boxedup.com users add their favorite products to their list and share it with others.
CoWorkersAds - An online marketplace listing allowing site members to discover and sell items among coworkers community.
iliketotallyloveit.com - A user generated marketplace where users submit cool products.
MyItThings.com - A user generated magazine for shopping.
MyStore.com - A social market place for buyers and sellers.
Productwiki.com - ProductWiki is a common place for users to share information about consumer products.
RedFlagDeals.com - RedFlagDeals.com is Canada’s most popular shopping community which offers huge discounts to site users.
Sale Grab - SaleGrab is a social shopping site for best sales and discount deals.
Shoppero - Shoppero offers profit sharing to site users for writing product reviews.
Smashing Darling - A collaborative market place connecting buyers and sellers at one place.
Social BookMarking
Students
AlumWire - AlumWire has been created to assist college students, alumni with professional opportunities.
B4Class - A social network for high school and college students.
Campusbug - A college student social networking website.
CampusRank - CampusRank members select and rate their old school friends and group them into various categories.
College.com - An online community for college students.
CollegeMedium.com - A student classifieds website for buying and selling items, jobs search etc.
College Tonight - A great place to meet fellow college students and alumni.
DormItem.com - A local classifieds listings for schools in various cities.
Graduates.com - A social networking site assisting graduate school students to stay in touch post completion of course.
Half.com - A leading student market place for buying and selling textbooks at discounted prices.
iHipo - An international community for college students and business professionals looking for networking opportunities.
LocalSchools - A networking site connecting students with local US colleges and universities.
Pazap.com - A student trading site for buying and selling on-campus books with other students.
Quizilla - Quizilla is a social network for young teens.
RateMyProfessor.com - RateMyProfessor connects students aspiring to study similar courses by assisting each other.
Student.com - Student.com is a big online community for college students, high school students and teens with around 1,000,000 members.
Studentbid.com - Studentbid.com is a student market place for sales and purchase of items without any fees.
StudentSN.com - A social network allowing users to create home pages with contact information, personal information and photo albums.
Uloop.com - Uloop allows students to trade textbooks, promote community events and do host of other activities.
Travel & Locals
Amicoz.com - Amicoz is slightly different from conventional social networking sites; it doesn’t have some of the common features found on socnets. It is dedicated to assist users in sharing their travel experiences, nothing more, nothing less.
Citizenbay - Citizenbay is a user community for discovering local information.
CityTherapy - CityTherapy is an easy way to find and share places of interest (restaurant, bars) in Europe.
CouchSurfing - A global travel network connecting travelers with local communities.
fatdoor.com - A fun and an interactive way to connect with the folks from your neighborhood online.
Going.com - A fun way to interact with people locally.
iloho - An online travel community with similarity to social bookmarking services like digg.
MatchActivity - A site connecting people on the basis of their activities. Users can find things to do and join people in their area.
Matador - A travel based social network with an integrated blogging service.
myTripbook.com - myTripbook.com is a place for people who want to share their travel experiences through photos, videos and blogging with others.
OurFaves - OurFaves is a community of urban savvy folks who enjoy the Toronto city and find out cool places to hang out at.
Outside.in - A nice way to explore local communities to keep track with neighborhood news.
Rummble - Rummble enables users to discover as well as share places of interest in your neighborhood.
TravBuddy - TravBuddy is a cool site for sharing travel experiences, finding new travel friends or reading travel reviews of fellow friends.
Travellerspoint - An international meeting point for worldwide travelers.
TravelTogether - A travel based social networking service enabling users to share travel plans, travel deals and experiences.
tribe.net - Tribe.net is one of the easiest ways to connect with people for finding a restaurant, a killer apartment, a gentle dentist or a hiking friend.
TripUp - A travel community site for finding travel information and planning for trips.
Triporama- Triporama provides an easy way to plan and collaborate on group trips.
VibeAgent - VibeAgent is a site about hotel reviews, travel meta-search and social networking.
WAYN - A social networking website uniting world wide travelers.
WeExplore - WeExplore provides an online platform for volunteers and travelers from all over the globe.
Wikitravel - Wikitravel is dedicated project for creating a trusted, up-to-date travel guide. It has over 16,641 travel destination guides maintained and written by Wikitravellers from around the world.
Zoodango - Zoodango is a website enabling users to connect with urban professionals either online or face-to-face at local venues.
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