Pacific Leisure Marketing

Using simple tools like Bitly that can track the clicks you’re getting from your Social Networking on twitter and facebook is invaluable. It can show you what type of content your followers and friends appreciate more so that you can see that from real data and then create more similar content…

Conversely you can also see what type of content your followers don’t like.
So you don’t create that type of content anymore.

Tools like this allow you to do what the Social Media Marketers, best search engines and network marketers do daily: Keep giving your target market the actual content that interests them… and use it to build better relationships, which is the heart of Social Networking anyway.

SOURCE: attractionlistbuilding.com

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By: Anil Gupta at scopeformoney.com
Here are top 10 reasons why self hosted wordpress blog is better than free blogs that are created on blogger.com or any other free blog creation websites:

1. Full Control over your blog

Blogger.com is owned by Google and they can delete your blog without any prior warning if some people report your blog as spam even if there is no spam element in your blog and the same thing applies to blogs that we create on Wordpress.com. I have seen this thing happening with lots of bloggers. So I would suggest you to go for self hosted Wordpress blog where you will have your own domain name and thus full control over your blog.

2. Adsense Approval

No doubt every blogger want to make money from their blogs. And when we think about making money with a blog, the first thing that came to our minds is that’s Google Adsense. These days, it becomes difficult to get an Adsense approved with free blogs created on Blogger.com. Your chances of getting approval from Google Adsense are huge if you have your blog hosted on your own domain and have email associated with that domain.

3. Blog Selling Options

You will be going against Blogger terms of service if you happen to sell your blogger blog. As per Blogger TOS:

No Resale of the Service. Unless expressly authorized in writing by Google, you agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes (a) any portion of the Service, (b) use of the Service, or (c) access to the Service.

But if you have a self hosted blog, you can sell it and by doing so, you will not be doing anything against Google policies.

4. Professional Approach towards Blogging

No doubt, blogger is still one of most used CMS with Wordpress. Blogger is surely a bless if you are new to blogging and want to learn the basics about blogging and how to write content and post on blogs.

But if you are aiming at doing blogging with a serious note, I would recommend going for self hosted wordpress blogs. With Wordpress, you will have your own domain, full control over your website, content and can use lots of themes, plugins and tools available for wordpress blogs.

5. Guest Blogging Options

You cannot create authors, contributors or admin and give them some level of access or full access to your blogs. So guest blogging, multiple authors’ kind of facilities are not available on blogger blogs. But with wordpress, you can create users, authors and admin and give them specific permissions. I himself have been a guest writer on some of self hosted wordpress blogs where I have an account created. I simply go and submit my guest post for approval. Owner of the blog simply go through my guest posts and he decides whether to publish my guest posts on his blog or not. So guest blogging and lots of security options are available with self hosted wordpress blogs.

6. Plugins and Gadgets

‘Plugins’ is also one of the biggest reasons why lots of bloggers are moving from blogger to wordpress. There are lots of plugins available for each task in wordpress that you image for your blog. In blogger, gadgets serve the same purpose what plugins does in Wordpress. But there are very few gadgets available on blogger compared to huge list of plugins available on Wordpress.

7. Theme Options

There is a big collection of themes available on internet for Wordpress blogs while there are very few templates (themes) available for blogger blogs. And some of blogger themes are originally converted from wordpress themes. You will not be doing any level of compromise while choosing a theme for your wordpress blog as there are themes available for every occasion, business with seo features, good navigation and lots of customization options. And if you want to design your blog as per your requirements, you can do so with Thesis Theme which will help you create an seo friendly theme for your self hosted wordpress blog.

8. Better SEO

There is no doubt, ultimate target that every blogger has is lots of traffic on their blogs whether they are working on free blogger blogs or self hosted blogs. With Self hosted wordpress, there are lots of plugins available like All in One Seo, Automatic Google XML Sitemap generator, Seo Title Tags etc that makes optimizing a blog quite easily from search engines prospective.

9. Your own domain and email address

When you choose a self hosted wordpress blog, you will have your own domain name and email address associated with that domain. Having a full domain is much better than working on a sub-domain on blogger or wordpress. And you will be leaving a positive image in peoples mind when you communicate with an email address associated with your own domain name.

10. FTP account Facility

When you buy hosting for your wordpress blog, you will have dedicated FTP account associated with your blog that you can use for downloading and uploading purpose on your blog. And blogger is dropping FTP facilely from its blogger users.

Source: scopeformoney.com

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One persons opinion about Wordpress vs. Blogger

1. Ownership and branding – I could install the software to the server under my owned domain name
with no sub-domain name structures. Like am on thewwwblog.com which looks lot better than thewwwblog.blogspot.com, and having something behind your desired name doesn’t look brandable. Wordpress proudly hands over the “Ownership” rights to us, making us the sole owner of the blog. With blogger, you are under their ownership and are just a blogger with no much branding to your blog.

2. Blogs never go dead – This statement is right until you yourself kill the blog. If in any case, your blog is hacked or the database is lost, then you can have a backup from your server, or directly through your host. But in blogger seen most of the times, blogs are just gone, and a line “Blog not found” is seen there when we try to access the blog. There are very little chances of recovering a deleted blog in blogger.

3. Categorized blogging – This is one of the main advantages with wordpress, we can have any number of categories and can post in these categories, rather than having no categories and posting random stuff as in blogger.

A normal visitor searches for articles/posts in his desired category if he is browsing a blog powered by wordpress, but in a blogger blog there is absence of categories leading to visitor being in a confused land.

Blogger Blog Software4. Plugins for customization – There are thousands of plugins that help a wordpress blog to look more smarter always, easy to use and makes it more search engine friendly. A wordpress blog can be customized into any type and can be made look like a normal website/forum etc. Blogger gives just a blog, nothing more like plugins are included with it.

5. Reaching the world through pings – Hundreds of pinging services and blog directories with RSS accept all wordpress feeds and are pinged once and always when a post is published in the wordpress blog, and the pinging in their sites can be automated.

The same isn’t there with blogger and very few blog directories accept feeds from blogger powered sites.

SOURCE: thewwwblog.com

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Video on Why Have a Business Blog

SOURCE: videos.sitepronews.com

This should not scare you away. It should, though, inspire you to learn the basics of business blogging before you turn your baby loose on the world. Planning out your blogging strategy first is a wise move, because it gives your blog a greater chance of success. Here are 10 tips for launching your business blog:

1. Identify your readers.
Before you start writing anything, make sure you understand who your target market is. This is also known as your “buyer persona”, which marketing guru David Meerman Scott defines as “…a distinct group of potential customers, an archetypal person whom you want your marketing to reach.” Basically, you want to tailor your topics to the groups of people who are most interested in your company. Otherwise, you’re missing the mark and losing out on potential leads and sales. To identify these buyer personas, there are 3 questions you should ask yourself–

Where do your customers come from?

What type of content will be useful to them?

Where do your customers hang out online?

2. Create social media accounts.
If you haven’t already done this, register accounts with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Start with these and expand later. This is important because you need places to post links to each new blog, so that your groups, fans, and followers can read them. Posting on social media also encourages people to subscribe to your RSS feed, another great way to promote your blog.

3. Establish your social media presence.
Lay the groundwork for later blog promotion by establishing relationships with your target markets. One of the best ways to do this is through social media. Now that you have accounts started, you can go in and join forums, listen to conversations and hear what people are saying about your industry. Add thoughtful and insightful comments whenever possible. Hire employees to do this if you don’t have time, but try to contribute every once in a while if you can.

4. Determine where to place your blog.
You can either put your blog on a page within your website or give it its own domain. Your choice depends largely on your goals. Do you want the blog to be part of your site, and linked to it directly? Or do you have plans to use your blog for other purposes, such as to earn revenue through ads or creating a secondary business from it?

SOURCE: sitepronews.com

A eMarketer report shows that the number of Baby Boomers embracing social media, especially Facebook, jumped drastically between 2008 and 2009.

In its Boomers and Social Media report, eMarketer takes a look at social media adoption among different generations. Results showed that while the percentage of Millennials maintaining a social networking site profile was fairly consistent from 2007 through 2009, the same cannot be said of Baby Boomers’ social media usage.

According to Deloitte data, 2009 was the year that social media bloomed for Baby Boomers, with nearly 47% of them actively maintaining a profile on the social web, which is up 15% from 2008. Further driving home that 2009 was the year of the social BB is the fact that from 2007 to 2008 there was barely a measurable change — just 1% — in that demographic’s adoption of social media.

Boomers also love Facebook  far more than other social media sites, with 73% of the group claiming to maintain a Facebook profile, while only 13% have taken a liking to Twitter. We also find it somewhat shocking that only 13% identify themselves as active LinkedIn users. One would think that given their place in the professional world, Boomers would we more active on the professional site.

For another quirky finding, take a look at the percentage of “Matures” — individuals between the ages of 63 and 75 — who use Twitter regularly. Seventeen percent is actually quite high when you compare it with the percentages of the other demographic groups. Also of note is that nearly all the Senior social media users (90%) have picked up Facebook as a new hobby.

It should come as no surprise that the digitally connected youth are the most socially active, with data showing that 77% of Millennials and 61% of Generation Xers maintaining social media profiles. Social media profile maintenance may not be on the rise for these groups, but that’s likely because they’ve been familiar with the web as a social platform for several years now.

You can take a look at two of the telling charts referenced in the report below:

SOURCE: mashable.com

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BOYNTON BEACH, FLA.—In recent weeks, the Beatles, Gene Kelly and a dog named Lassie have been spotted at Flakowitz, a popular deli here.

There’s usually a long line of customers, mostly senior citizens, waiting for tables. And lately, they’ve been passing time by leafing through a glossy new magazine stacked by the entrance. The free publication, titled Nostalgic America, matches iconic images with local advertisements aimed at seniors.

For instance, people tend to most prefer musical recordings that were released when they were teenagers or young adults, with their interest peaking at about 23½ years of age, according to studies by researchers at Columbia University and Rutgers University. Those who were 23½ on Feb. 9, 1964, when the Beatles appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” will be turning 70 this year.

The music, cars and movies you identify with when you’re young stick with you the rest of your life, say David Sprott and Darrel Muehling, researchers at Washington State University who study the marketing of nostalgia.

For marketers, the key is finding the right music or images. It’s not even necessary for a song or cultural reference to directly relate to their products, as long as warm feelings are stirred inside us. “The emotions generated from that good feeling then influences people’s evaluation of the products,” says Dr. Sprott.

SOURCE: online.wsj.com

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Facebook and Twitter Making a Major Impact on Purchase Decisions

A new study shows that those who are fans or followers of a brand on Facebook or Twitter, respectively, are significantly more likely to buy products and services or recommend the brand to a friend.

Specifically, the study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that consumers are 67% more likely to buy from the brands they follow on Twitter, and 51% more likely to buy from a brand they follow on Facebook (Facebook). Moreover, they’re 79% more likely to recommend their Twitter (Twitter) follows to a friend, and 60% more likely to do the same on Facebook
Overall, the study is another sign that social media is becoming a competitive advantage for those that are participating, and an increasingly major weakness for those that aren’t.

SOURCE: mashable.com

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The Annual Morro Bay Blessing of the Fleet was yesterday.  Pacific Leisure was there to film and participate in the event.

This Blessing of the Fleet is an annual event in Morro Bay. The Blessing began on the North T pier with a remembrance of those lost as sea.

The Blessing then moved through the harbor, bestowing red roses and blessings and good wishes on the families and boats of the fishing fleet.
The Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization then hosted a community potluck Bar-B-Que at the Veterans Hall at 2 PM.

Great Weather in Pismo Beach