Never Ending Thoughts…

In this blog we will discuss some of the reasons why people tweet their blogs and one cool way to do it with Java.

Why tweet your blogs?

The reasons are many. To count a few:

1. It helps spread the word about your blog to a wide set of audience.

2. Tweets have an inherent tendency to spread easily and so they are a perfect tool to spread some viral news.

3. Short texts can be written to create curiosity amongst the reader and make him not only click a link and read the blog but get involved. That’s why SMS’s are so popular!

4. Good tweets can always help you build a good group of members for your blog!

5. And, last but not the least: tweeting is free! Who doesn’t like any free way of promoting anything?

So how it’s done?

Unfortunately many people don’t know that twitter APIs are very well maintained and if you spend a day understanding them and writing your own twitter bot you can save 100s of dollars that would otherwise go in the pocket of companies that sell so called “twitter bots” for ridiculous price.

Prerequisites

Although twitter APIs come in almost any programming language, in this tutorial we will focus on Java. All you’ll need is basic understanding of Java and any editor of your choice. We are not going to discuss how you are going to install and configure JDK or install the editor or the whole App end to end. We are assuming you have gone through the good old “HelloWorld” sample of writing a web application or anything of that sort for that matter. Now that if you know all that stuff and really want to know how to automate twitter from your blog, you may proceed to read further; otherwise, take a step back and first go learn Java!

What all you’ll need?

All you’ll need is RSS Utils (rssutils.jar) and a good twitter API for Java. We will focus on twitter4j. It’s the first one mentioned in twitter’s own documentation, is well documented and is even available in maven repository!

Pulling feed from your blog – using RSS Utils:

You can read how to use RSS Utils here: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/javaserverpages/rss_utilities/

RSS Utils allows you to easily read your blog’s RSS feed. If you are using wordpress or any other famous blogging engine, most probably your rss feed url will be http://your-blog-url/?feed=rss

Then you can create a Java Rss object like so:

RssParser parser = RssParserFactory.createDefault();

Rss rss = parser.parse(new URL”<rss feed url of your blog>”);

And read all the items in its Channel object. Every item will give you your blog’s title, description and url. Using this you can create a string; truncate it to fit in the 140 characters because anything beyond that will freak out twitter.

Once you have the string to be tweeted, now comes the tweeting part.

Tweeting a message to twitter:

For this we will use twitter4j. You can read all about twitter4j here: http://twitter4j.org/en/index.html

Keep in mind that twitter doesn’t support Basic Authentication any more. So most of the documentation related to basic auth in twitter4j and most of the APIs related to that are now useless. They all are deprecated (or will be deprecated). If you still use them, twitter will throw an error telling you about the same. So directly move on and learn about the OAuth (point 7 on this page: http://twitter4j.org/en/code-examples.html). This example shows you how to register an application using your twitter account and how to use the secure token to publish a message.

If you get stuck anywhere, don’t hesitate to ask here! We will be more than happy to help!

cheers! and happy twitting/blogging!

We talked yesterday about webdesign and we have presented you here some of the tips regarding the functionality and practicability part of any website. This article will present and explain some of the principles that are the bases of webdesign in general.

The first tip would be to think lot before taking any decision. Your main goal would be the following one: to have more visitors and leads. However, specialists are still discussing about this subject. It is not enough to have a lot of visitors and few purchases or even worse, few accounts created. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, your websites will need to have good conversion rates in order for you to have a pretty decent profit out of your activity.

Also, your webdesign will need a few additional things to your website and these are still pertaining to the web design domain. A good web designer will need to take into consideration other aspects, such as blogs, RSS, landing pages, SEO. Any website should be based on these basics. All these web aspects are not expensive at all and they really work. Having a blog has the role of completing a visitor’s web experience on your website. However, you will need to create content on an ongoing basis, but this will eventually converse some of your visitors into clients. On the other hand, RSS allows for some of your content to be automatically pushed out to people and other websites. Furthermore, landing pages are critical, in order to get the needed value to your website and business. Finally, SEO is not as hard as it seems, so it is worth the effort.

You need to understand the fact that web development and web design are really close fields.

Website redesigns are more common nowadays than in the past. Why? Well, the reason is because webmasters are currently more interested in supplying their clients with advanced technologies than in the ‘90s or some 10 years ago. In that timeframe, the best technology available was represented by HTML, which was not such a versatile method of offering people the best online experience. The good thing is that the ‘90s web designs are history and we are now facing a new reality when it comes to web design and other related aspects.

Because this blog is mainly about web marketing and similar aspects, we will talk a lot about how web design is capable to change the face of a business website. Our tip is to design your website in order for visitors and clients to rapidly search and even find the needed information in no time. However, this implies a lot of other different aspects, such as the implementation of a blog or forum to your website and even the implementation of new buttons, web pages. All these are part of what we call the design of any website.

Generally speaking, when people hear about webdesign they believe that it consists only from visual aspects (like colors, fonts, sizes etc.) and they forget that webdesign is mainly practicability at its best.

In conclusion, we can say that it is better not to be afraid to ask about suggestions from your friends, family, and most important, from your visitors and clients. Do not forget that each visitor represents a potential client. Try to satisfy any person who has a suggestion regarding your website’s design. It might be a tricky thing to do, however it is one of the best solutions that currently is available. This is how the most important websites in the world acted: trying and experimenting with new technologies, even if we are talking about the online environment.

This is one of the most important questions addressed by people working in the business domain. We will present you with the most important aspects that you will need to include in the case of your website.

About Us
The About Us section needs to contain information regarding you and your company. It would be wise to include details regarding your company’s experience and other information that might come out to be handy. People appreciate the entrepreneurs who put a lot of interest into coming up with fresh new material for them to read. In the About Us section feel free to talk about your company’s history, assets and experience.

Contact Us
This section is highly important because this web page represents a link between the company and the client. It is highly important to reach for the client and the client needs to find certain ways to contact the company when it needs to do this.

There are certain aspects that need to be taken into consideration when designing a Contact Us web page. The first thing is to remember to include a phone number and an e-mail address. You will need at least one e-mail address and phone number to post. Try to understand the fact that people can be insistent and they will try to use all methods to contact you when they will need a product or service from you. Also, please post the links and anchors of social media services, such as Facebook, Twitter or Youtube . You will undoubtedly see that there are numerous people who are interested in your business, products and services.

Yesterday we have talked about the basic things that make any website to be attractive. Today, we will continue to discuss this aspect and try to add some details regarding what needs to be done in terms of esthetics and functionality.

The first aspect that you need to take into consideration when designing your website, is the position of ads on the website. Too many ads will surely determine your visitors to get angry and start loosing their interest in your website. Remember that the content is the most important part of any website. The ads need to be discreet. You do not need to put your Google Adsense code everywhere. Statistics show that the top ads get the most clicks and profits. This is why we recommend you to put ads only in the top area, but the ads need to be discreet enough not to get your visitors and client mad. This is why we recommend the placement of Adsense ads at the top to get the most clicks and profits possible.

The second issue is related to creating a clear and comfortable environment for the ordinary user. This is why you will need to keep everything as simple as possible. The headlines at the top need to be straight, simple and really to the point. There is no need to attract the visitors using unorthodox measures. Keep it all simple and you will get your subscription. The sales will come later, don’t worry.

People are in a hurry. This is why you need to take into consideration the fact that people are interested in your offer or not. It is a simple as this. Don’t make people waste precious time of their lives. Keep in mind these aspects cause you will surely need to apply them sometime.

Your main goal as a webmaster or online seller is to get people’s attention quickly enough to help them take a decision. In the case of ordinary webmasters the things are the following: get clicks on the ads or get subscriptions. Either way things go well. Online sellers are in a quest for leads. Lead generation is a solution for them.

It is important to know that there are several tips and tricks that need to be taken into consideration when doing webdesign. Webdesign means more than just developing a nice design for your website . There are lots f features that need to be integrated into the pages, such as several functionalities that will definitely make your website more efficient and user-friendly.

The key in webdesign is some aspect that you will never expect to be part of designing a website: the content. Content is highly important, mostly because it represents the “core” of any website. People visit websites due to their content and capacity to offer and transmit a lot of information. Remember that pictures don’t sell. The only exception to this rule is in the case you are selling art or something really similar to this. OK, the webdesign itself is highly important as well, however beauty is not the one that sells .

You do not need to put a lot of effort in the beauty of your website. If it is possible, please invest more in the web functionalities that your website might need. Nowadays, users tend to be a lot more interested in functionalities, rather than in the design of your website. Of course, you will need to use appropriate colors, have clear logos and post the most spectacular banners that you believe are representative for you, your website or for your business .

Think out of the box when developing the functionalities of your website. If you are not such a good programmer (as most of us are), you will need a good programmer or a whole team of experts. Don’t be cheap when it comes to web development. Remember that the website’s functionalities will help you a lot in creating a brand and audience, which the most difficult part of them all. Creating a brand might take years, so do not expect for magic.

There are lot of things that need to be presented. This is why this article is made out of two parts. This was part one. So, subscribe to this blog and you will receive all the time updates, including the one for part two

Growing business and getting a steady stream of new customers has become the most challenging task in this down economy. Businesses are looking out for newer ways to attract attention, be it trying to increase presence in various Social Networks, Affiliate Marketing or Blogging. In this article, we will discuss how you can grow your business using one more technology streams – the Mobile Applications World. We’ll take iPhones as example, but the same techniques can be used on Android Phones or any Mobile Device.

Mobile Networks and Phones are becoming more tuned to supporting rich media and dynamic and focused content. The innovation done in mobile market in the past decade has made it possible to merge the Internet and the Mobile worlds into one in more seamless fashion than it was ever imaginable. However this is just a start. “Mobile Applications” have just sprung up and are poised to spread to all market niches in the coming years.

Here are some of the ways you can use to reach out to Mobile Savvy customers and increase your customer base. Just like any solution that will make a good impression in increasing your business, it’s not going to be easy and it’s going to take a few months to mature. In addition, it’s a step-by-step approach.

Start with a “.mobi” version of your Website

.mobi is the most common root level domain for mobile websites. You should first start securing the .mobi domain of your website. If you are selling eBooks or T-shirts, start with making a light weight version of your site that would work well on mobile devices. This means having very light weight java scripts and judicious use of HTML stylesheets etc. It will take a few weeks to a month to make a good SEO friendly .mobi site.

Make your “Checkout Process” Simple

Your chances of having someone pull out his/her credit card and buy something from your Website grow exponentially if you have a secure and simple checkout process. The more forms and irrelevant information you are going to capture, the more are going to be the chances of the user leaving the checkout process in the middle of it and look out for alternative website. Avoid asking for sign-ups to your other newsletters and services. You can definitely send out a mail later on talking about all the promotions and stuff. Keep the checkout process as simple and quick as possible. Ask your customers about checkout experience and fix the glitches as soon as possible.

Provide an “iPhone” or “Android” version of your Checkout Process

Once you have a clean and simple checkout process, it’s time to integrate your current business with an iPhone or Android App. Let’s take an example. Let’s say you have a website to sell T-Shirts. One of the best ways of making a seamless checkout process via an iPhone App can be to leverage existing financial applications available over iPhones to help the user make the purchase process seamless. For example, if the user already has access to their credit card information via iPhone (via a credit card application), all you need to do is have the user authorize use of his/her credit card via that already authenticated application. This will not only help the customer build trust in your Application, it will also make the process more streamlined.

Keep in mind that it does take a few iterations before you have mastered all the above steps. Keep your customers in loop regarding all these new features and ask for feedback. No one else can tell you how good or bad your checkout process is other than your own customers! You will notice as you venture deeper into the mobile applications world, more and more people are going to use your application and there you’ll have it – an altogether new channel of bringing in more customers and business!

Search engines lay the pathways to information on the internet. Without a good search algorithm, no matter how good an article or a piece of information might be, it will just get submerged under the millions of web contents spread and continuously growing all across the world. So when someone goes to a search engine to look for a particular information, what is he really looking for? Perhaps some opinion about a new restaurant in town, a paragraph from a book, may be the colors that are available for his car model, and the list goes endless. But look at it carefully and you will notice that all people are looking for is “information” and not “addresses of information”. What our current search engine technology provides us are “addresses of information”, better known as “URLs”. When you search something in google, yahoo or bing, what you get as a result is a set of URLs and not the actual information you are looking for. So in essence when people run searches in current search engines what they get are actually “Addresses” where they could find relevant information, but not really the information itself.

An actual “artifact based search engine” would be able to pull up “actual information”, perhaps along with the URL addresses from where it pulled the information.

But how will that be possible? Answer lies in the way data is stored, categorized and indexed. Current search engines are doing a great job indexing the available data based on complex keywords, page ranking and linking based algorithms. However until the data is really categorized and ontological relationships are built between various information islands, making search engines intelligent enough to be able to deliver information would be impossible.

With more research and development being put in areas related to Semantic Web, the ability to search for information rather than information addresses might turn into a reality.

With the complexity and the sheer size of the data that needs to be categorized and stored in ontological form, it would be close to impossible for any single company to make this transformation. In the coming months and years products like google search, haiku, ellipsis dive will work together and as more and more companies and people will join hands, it won’t be too late in the future when we will see real information based search become a day to day part of our lives.