We’ve previously seen some of the changes that could happen in the world of online marketing in the year 2012. While it’s good to know about what will be new in online marketing, it’s even better to know how you can apply this in a more practical context, as in your own online marketing efforts. If you want to establish some better online marketing habits for this year, there are certain things that you should do. Of course, not all of these tips will apply to you as some might be specific to local businesses, e-commerce websites or affiliate websites. What you should do is to think about what will make sense in your own situation and how you can integrate it within your business. Of course, you should also develop your own methods, strategies and ideas if you’ve resolved to have better success with internet marketing during 2012.

• Establish a Plan

This is how you should start, no matter how simple your goals are. There’s no need to buy $1000 software that creates fancy graphs and flowcharts either. A simple plan drawn up with a pen and paper is sufficient. List your goals, as well as the methods that you intend to use in order to achieve them. Also, list some backup options or side goals that you would want to use if your main objectives don’t work out for whatever reason, or have already been achieved and you would like to do something more.

• Keep Track of Changes in the Online World

Anyone that does online marketing, whether as a primary occupation, a side job, a hobby or as an alternate to other means of marketing (print, radio ads, etc) should stay on top of the new things in the online world. This is because you could find some opportunities to take advantage of that you otherwise wouldn’t have even known existed! By reading online marketing related blogs, forums and news sites you can see if there’s something that could be useful for you, such as a new advertising network which has a unique business concept, an up and coming social networking site that is starting to grow, etc.

• Cut Costs Whenever You Can

Now this doesn’t mean that you should go for whatever is cheapest without regard to quality, but there are many ways that you can cut your business expenses online. For example, if you’re using a web host that charges you $25 a month for just 1 website and domain, you could find other hosting companies that can provide you with unlimited website hosting for just $5 a month and still be of high quality. The bottom line is that you need to look at the services that you’re using or are planning to use. Think about whether it would be possible to get the same functionality and quality for a less expensive price. This can be done by contacting your existing partners and providers to negotiate better rates, or comparing other companies online to see if they have something that would be right for your business.

Using social media safely for your business is possible. We’ve seen a few pieces of advice previously that will help you do this. Here are some few final tips on this topic that will help you make the most of social networking sites all the while keeping your business safe from hacking and other security breaches.

• Beware of compromised accounts

Just because your account is safe and you follow good security practices, doesn’t mean that everyone else in your contacts necessarily does the same thing, however. Be careful, as your clients, business partners, as well as personal friends accounts could be compromised. While most hacked accounts are used simply for posting spam, there are some other uses that hackers make of them. Beware of any strange links given to you by your contacts, especially if you don’t expect to be sent any links by that person. Very often, these would go to a phishing site, or a site that has been compromised by malware. Be careful about friends claiming that they need to borrow money or that they urgently need you to make a purchase for them on an e-commerce site. These are common scams that target social media users as well. If you’re unsure if the person that you’re talking to is really your contact, then get in touch with them in another way, such as by email, IM, text message or phone call.

• Avoid discussing sensitive information on social networking sites

Don’t publicly post information that should be kept in private messages. For example, don’t post on your suppliers Facebook wall that you’ll be making an order for such and such product. This just gives information about your business to competitors. If one of your clients or partners wants to talk about something related specifically to business between you and them, then it’s better to do this in a more private environment such as by phone or email. Remember, there is always the potential that someone is impersonating a contact that you know on social networking sites, or that one of your contacts accounts has been compromised.

• Keep up with developments in the security and social networking world

Read technology websites such as ZD Net, etc. They’re not just for computer geeks, but contain some very useful information about the latest technologies, in terms of online services, hardware as well as software solutions. You may learn more about a product that you’re currently using, or that you may find useful to get. But the most important reason why you need to keep up with technology news is that information about the latest security threats is reported a lot more quickly and thoroughly on these sites than on “general purpose” media websites. That way, if there’s a security threat such as a loop hole in site security that was found by hackers, or a piece of malware like a worm or trojan that is circulating through social networking sites, you will be the first to know about it and can find out ways to protect yourself from that security threat.

Nearly everyone who has ever used the internet has heard of Twitter and many people online have used this social networking site. Either in a passive way, simply by reading posts, or by actively participating on it by creating their own Twitter account and making posts to share with others.

Twitter is unique in the social media world in the way that it is different from other sites such as Facebook, Google+ and MySpace operate. Twitter is known as a microblogging service where users can post short messages, called Tweets, which are up to 140 characters onto their profiles. They can also share pictures and include a short description, location as well as a website URL on their Twitter profile.

These attributes make it an interesting service to use as part of the overall social media marketing strategy for your business, whether you run an online business or a physical one. As you may have already noticed, the best use of Twitter is to give your audience quick descriptions of new things about your business. These “new things” could actually be quite diverse. For example, a new product or service you are offering, new promotion, post on your blog, YouTube video, or even a post that you made on another social networking page such as your businesses FaceBook Fan Page.

One of the keys to success with Twitter marketing is the integration aspect. While it can be a good tool to use alone, you obviously want to use more ways to communicate with your existing and potential customers. Linking to other content, such as blog posts is an excellent way to draw attention to them.

As such, your Twitter messages need to be clear and to the point. Remember, you only have 140 character, so every single one of them counts for you. For example, if you want the reader to look deeper into something that is on your website or your blog; and you want them to click on the link, include a call to action. A clear call to action has been shown to increase click through rates on Twitter, just like it increases conversions on your main website.

Remember to keep your Twitter profile updated on a regular basis, otherwise your followers may soon lose interest if you haven’t posted anything in a while. However, if you are saying something, be sure that it will be of interest to your followers. Repeatedly posting mundane Tweets such as “Everyone! We’re the best! Check out our Website!” will also get them to lose interest in you. Those who look at your profile without being subscribers will also be unlikely to follow you if all your Tweets look boring and “spammy”.

Getting more followers is not complicated at all. Include a link to your Twitter profile on your other social media pages. Include a button on your main website. Put a link to it whenever you send out a newsletter to your mailing list. Your users will then see that you are on Twitter and will follow you if interested in what you have to say to them.

Over the years, Google Adwords has become known as the dominant platform when it comes to pay per click advertising. There are plenty of business owners, as well as various internet marketers and affiliates who have made use of it. However, just because a service is popular, it doesn’t mean that it is good. There have been numerous complaints in webmaster and online marketing forums of people getting banned from Adwords for reasons that are not that clear. Often, when the client contacted Google, they would simply get a generic response stating that they violated the terms of service.

However, when it comes to pay per click advertising, Adwords is not the only game in town. Now that Bing has combined their pay per click platform with Yahoo Search Marketing, many people have jumped to create an account and start advertising there. According to a recent survey done by an internet marketing company, over half of small business owners who are using pay per click marketing are already using or are considering using Bing for their online marketing campaigns.

One of the complaints that many advertisers on Bing (formerly Microsoft AdCenter) had is that they weren’t receiving enough traffic. Well, it is a known fact that the Bing search engine receives far less traffic than Google. However, now that they are working together with Yahoo, this should resolve the complaint that many advertisers have. For those who are already used to Google Adwords, using Bing should not be much of a challenge, as the basic way that both advertising platforms work is very similar.

But when it comes to pay per click ads, there is another site that some marketers and business owners sometimes overlook: Facebook. Let’s not forget that this social networking site is the second most popular website on the internet, right after Google. So the traffic is obviously already there, you just need to put your ad in front of people who will be interested in your products. Facebook has a pay per click advertising platform that works in similar ways to Bing and Google Adwords.

The main difference, however is the way the traffic is targeted. Obviously, Facebook is not a search engine, so you can’t really target people that are looking for specific keywords. However, there are some other demographic options that you can use instead to target you ad. All that you have to do to get optimal results would be to target your ad so that it will only be shown to the demographic that would more closely match your customers. You can select things such as age, gender, relationship status, location, etc.

So as you can see, there are other pay per click advertising solutions besides Google Adwords out there. If you are considering using one, all you simply need to do is a bit of research on how it works and whether it is a good platform to use for promoting your specific products online.

For those of you who have thought about being an online freelance writer, here is some information that will help you out on your new journey to making money by writing content on the internet. Being a freelance writer in the online world is not as difficult as it may seem in the first place. In most cases, you won’t need to have much literary talent. After all, most online writing jobs involve writing information and advertising, rather than works of fiction. Therefore, you won’t need experience in writing epic novels that have won awards for best literary work of the century.

But there are a few things that you will need. One of them is a capacity to learn quickly. When you freelance online, you will be writing about various different topics. Sure, you could be an expert in one or two of them, but it’s going to be quite hard to only get work related to things that you are knowledgeable about. When you write about things that you’re not very familiar with, you are going to need to do some research on the topic quickly. This isn’t like in high school where you get two weeks to turn in your research paper. You will need to be able to find the necessary information that you need online and use it to write the article. For example, you may need to write a review about a certain model or cell phone or car. This would involve finding the specifications and details on the subject, as well as looking up online comments to see what other people are saying about it.

This is why it is always a good idea to keep yourself on top of the news and what goes on in different industries. That way, you would be better prepared and already have some information about your disposal if you are asked to write about, say a new social networking site that has become very popular, or a revolutionary new mobile device that is changing the world of communication.

As a freelance writer, you need to be reliable and be able to meet deadlines. You also need to pay attention to client instructions in order to make sure that your work will reflect what the client wanted. By doing quality work and delivering it on time, you will be very likely to get regular clients which can be quite profitable for you.

Another thing that you must have is the ability to work fast. Especially when you are just starting out, most article writing jobs will only pay you from $5 to $10 per 500 word article. Now if it takes you all day just to produce one article, it will not be a very lucrative activity for you. Learn to optimize your research to be able to get the info that you need quicker and also be able to rapidly write down what you are thinking about.

I have put together a list of the top 10 most successful online entrepreneurs under 30 who have made their money online via their own website business

Most of them started out in their bedrooms and have now built up a multi million dollar online business

Picture	Name	Website Business	Description	Age	Networth
	Mark Zuckerberg	Facebook	Created the social networking site facebook	23	$700 Million
	Andrew Gower	Runescape	Created the famous online game Runescape.	28	$650 Million
	Chad Hurley	Youtube	Founder of the famous online video sharing website Youtube	30	$300 Million
	Blake Ross & David Hyatt	Mozilla	Creators of the internet browzer Mozilla Firefox	22	$120 Million
	Andrew Michael	Fast Hosts	Founder of the UK based Hosting Company	22	$110 Million
	Angelo Sotira	Deviant ART	Creator of the Artists websites Deviant ART	26	$75 Million
	John Vechey	PopCap Games	Creator of the famous online game portal website PopCap Games	28	$60 Million
	Alexander Levin	Image Shack	Created the image hosting website Image Shack	23	$56 Million
	Jake Nickell	Threadless	Created the online clothes store Threadless	28	$50 Million
	Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith	Tagged	Created the 3rd largest social network in the US and has over 80 Million members worldwide.	28	$45 Million

I only wish one day my name will be on that list some day… but hey we can all dream..