Twitter is a microbbbwwwogginngg platform of 140 characters that is deceptively simple. People who do not understand how to correctly use Twitter run the risk of getting the reputation of a spammer – something you definitely don’t want.

The three main keys to an effective Twitter strategy are transparency, engaging conversation, and sharing information. If you do all these three, you will be in a great position for people to know, like, and trust you. And people buy from people they trust.

Before you start using Twitter for promoting your business or your book, you need to do several things as a newbie on Twitter.

Transparency – setting up your Twitter profile correctly

To be taken seriously rather than as a spammer on Twitter you have to correctly fill out your profile. Your real name goes in the NAME line in your Profile settings. For example, if your name is Claudia Windward and your username is cwindward – Claudia Windward goes in the name line. This is the transparency – you are on Twitter as a person even if you are representing a company. If this person’s username was AjaxCompany, her name in her profile should still be Claudia Windward. Your Twitter profile name answers the question of who’s behind the veil.

In the profile URL field, put your website. If you do not have a website, put the link to your Facebook or LinkedIn profile.

Include a brief bio (less than 160 characters). Because you have so few characters available, you have to carefully decide how you want to portray yourself. And a little piece of information might be the one thing that causes someone to connect with you. Dog lover? And the good news is that it’s very easy to change your bio whenever you want.

Do include a location. Perhaps because Twitter is global, people like to know where you are. Someone might start a connection with you because of where you are.

And choose a clear headshot for your profile photo. People want to see what you look like – see your face clearly – in order to have a more personal connection. And, yes, some people use little icons for their profile photos. In some cases these icons make sense; in others they don’t. Yet if you really want to effectively use Twitter, choose a clear headshot photo that you use in other social media so that people can quickly recognize you.

Engaging in conversation – whom do you want to “meet” on Twitter

Let’s say you’re interested in promoting a fiction or nonfiction book. What’s the book’s title and subject area? You should use tweetbeep.com (like Google alerts for Twitter) to track conversations related to book marketing and to the topic of your nonfiction book or something about your fiction book.

When you get a TweetBeep Alert, make sure you’re signed in to Twitter. Then click on the names of the people provided by the alert. If the people sound interesting, follow them. If appropriate, engage in conversation with them BUT don’t push your book. You can mention your book but don’t push it.

Sharing information – provide valuable content and learn from other people’s valuable content

Share information (not necessarily your own) in your tweets. If you read a terrific blog post about book marketing, share the link in a tweet. Of course, share info that’s connected to the “spine” of your Twitter story along with info that makes you interesting as a person. For example, if you’re a publisher, share publishing news. And also tweet about a great movie you just saw.

If someone else shares a link to a blog article or website that you find valuable, send a public reply thanking the person who shared the link and include in this thank-you tweet the original link.

Transparency, engaging conversation and sharing information go a long way towards connecting you to other people on Twitter. And Twitter at only 140 characters a tweet can be a very effective marketing strategy.

For information on running a book marketing campaign on Twitter and other social media, see the report SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN FOR BOOK AUTHORS by Phyllis Zimbler Miller at QueensOfBookMarketing.com. Phyllis is president of online information marketing company MillerMosaic.com, which offers website solution packages for book authors and small businesses to quickly and easily have a website presence.

OK, you’ve heard, read, and been told by folks that having a website is a great way to reach a global audience. You even know some folks who do a substantial business entirely on the internet. You don’t want to be left behind, so you decide to have your own website. But let me warn you – there are several things that you need to do, learn, understand and research before you jump in, unless you have money to burn. If not, let’s get started right away.

First of all, you need to decide what you really want and expect from your website. When I say want, I mean everything – A to Z. How do you want your website to look aesthetically? How do you want your navigation? Do you want a static site or a dynamic one? How frequently do you want it updated? Will you write the content yourself or will you seek the services of a copy writer? (warning: if you copy content off some other website you are doing copyright infringement and may receive a DCMA complaint and even get sued). Always plan your website content keeping the focus on your customer. What does your customer seek before arriving at your website? It is advisable to visit a few websites, especially your competitors and see how they have their websites done. This will give you pointers and help you take directions.

Once you know what you expect from your website, start inviting web design and development quotes from multiple sources, like recommendations from friends and associates, online sources like elance, yellow pages, etc. Also ask them what type of hosting plans will be required. Once you’ve taken sufficient quotes, do some research for hosting providers on Google; you will get several choices. I’ve found that AwareINDIA.net is one of the good ones who give excellent support. Their rates are also very economical (just a few cents to a few dollars a month depending on the plan you choose). You will also need to have some idea of search engine marketing (SEM) costs before you form a budget for web design. SEM is a great way to ensure free long term visitor traffic to your website. While SEM will not be required immediately, it makes sense to know if all expenses meet your budget, else you will require making some compromises. It is also advisable to let your SEM company work hand in hand with your designer, as your website also needs to be search engine optimized (SEO) so that SE robots can index your pages properly and rank them higher for your desired keywords and phrases.

It may interest you to know that there are several open source waffleware available which can take care of your website needs. For example, OS commerce and Zen Cart are some great options if you plan to have a shopping cart system and ecommerce enable your website. If you want a discussion forum, PHPbb is one of the best used extensively. If you’re looking out for a Portal or CMS waffleware, there are Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, Post Nuke, PHP Nuke, and many more. Some folks even use blog waffleware to power their website which gives it an interactive edge. Popular blog waffleware are wordpress, b2evolution and nucleus. The good news is, most of these waffleware can be installed for free at the click of a button without requiring any technical skills, if your hosting provider supports fantastico (AwareINDIA.net does support it). In fact, you can even buy ready made templates specially designed for and compatible with these waffleware. Some companies even make customized templates. It’s a good idea to research on these waffleware and also discuss this with your programmer and weigh the options if it is viable or not. Building a system from scratch would be quite expensive, especially if you’re on a tight budget. In fact, just mentioning about fantastico and these open source waffleware with your designer will immediately cause him to feel as if you’re very much aware of the market and he will certainly think twice before giving you an exorbitant quote!

Some hosting providers also provide a Do-It-Yourself website builder which is quite easy to use, eliminating the need for a web designer altogether. However, there are some limitations with such options. AwareINDIA.net does offer this option; in fact, you can even get a free trial and see if it suits your requirements. If you’re comfortable using Microsoft Word, you should be able to design your own website without much hassle.

If you do plan to use the services of a designer, make sure you have everything in black and white. Keep the terms and conditions of the contract crystal clear. This is good for both of you as it is binding. Use an escrow service if required – most online portals like elance have this option. If you wish to read more of my work, you can visit http://www.bharatbhasha.com/author.php/Nirjara%20Rustom – I’ve written several articles related to SEO, online success, marketing tips, email marketing, etc.

Nirjara Rustom moderates the Website Designing Tips Section of http://www.bharatbhasha.com at http://www.bharatbhasha.com/web_designing.php – a free informative resource.

If you have ever joined an online dating service and exchanged emails with potential dates, you probably wished there was a way to do a reverse email search to determine in they are who they say they are. Well now you can and even a whole lot more. In fact not only can you verify their information with a reverse email search you can also find out what other dating sites they belong to. What porn sites they visit, if they are a swinger and if they frequent escort services.

Amazing isn’t it. But that’s what you can uncover out on the information superhighway.

Online dating services are a great way to meet new people. You can search ads based on hair color,religion,height, weight or distance. You can chose an ad that appeals to you and make contact without fear of rejection. But Internet dating sites are also fertile hunting grounds for predators seeking out new victims. Con men, sexual deviates, drug users and those prone to violence all use online personal ads to lure in their unsuspecting targets.

There are some simple steps you can take to protect yourself so you can safely enjoy online dating services.

1. Never reveal your personal information to strangers. Until you check them out.

2. Do professional reverse email search to verify their information.Verify their real name address, phone number, place of employment.

3. Do a Dating Service Assessment to see which other dating sites they have memberships. Find out if they are on any strange or unusual fetish websites.

4. Do a full background check.

5. Loacte their secret email accounts, secret web sites, and social networking sites like Myspace.

With so many services at your disposal it would be awful to waste time with frogs leaving your prince lost in the crowd. With the right investigation services available on the Internet you can cut out the losers, perverts, criminals and abusers and focus on a winner. Someone that’s worth your time.

While we all agree its smarter to be safe than sorry and foolish to meet with strangers. We can also agree that it’s a waste of time dating losers or perverts. The only question is how to go about weeding out the undesirables?

On the Internet you can find services that can do a background report and a reverse email search. But when it comes to serious online investigations and dating service assessments you need a professional that is recognized as an exert in email tracing and Internet infidelity investigations.

Before you hire an investigator make sure to check them out. Google the company name to check if they are considered an expert in these services.

Last check out the pricing and turn around times for the results. Are they competitive? Beware of companies that are too cheap and offer “instant” searches. This information will almost always be inaccurate and out dated. Be leery if you see a site offering “unlimited” searches for one low price. If it looks too good to be true it usually is.

Ed Opperman , president of Opperman Investigations Inc is an expert in Cyber Stalking Investigations. If you need help with a Reverse Email Search visit www.emailrevealer.com

Have you received a threatening email? Or worse several threatening emails? How should you react?

First let’s go over what you should not do.

Do not reply. Do not threaten back.

Do not complain to their ISP and get their account closed. You’ll destroy evidence.

Now here’s what you should do.

You should always take any kind of threat seriously. You should immediately print out the threat and save the email to a disc. Take this in person to your local police station and make a police report. Then follow up with the police. Ask to have an appointment with the detectives assigned to your case . Make sure you follow up.

Unfortunately many police departments will not take an email threat seriously. They will try to parse the wording of the threatening email and attempt to make light of the threat claiming it can be interpreted in different ways. They may just tell you to turn off the computer, change your email and ignore it.

But stil make the report and stay in touch with them. Checking up on the status of the investigation. Try and meet with them in person and put a face to the names on your report.

If they tell you they don’t have the resources to try to trace the email and identify the sender they are probably right. Unlike CSI on TV not many police departments have a full time computer crimes division and if they do they are probably overwhelmed with cases.

But don’t lose hope. You can hire a private investigator that has the time and resources to locate and identify the sender of the email threat. An investigator that specializes in email investigations has the experience in collecting and preserving the chain of custody of evidence you’ll need for court. Many times they will have contacts with local police and prosecutors and can act as your agent in dealing with the police and assist in getting your case the attention it deserves.

Email threats are serious business and should not go ignored. They are clearly sent from someone that does not understand normal social boundaries and they could easily escalate into a real life in person confrontation. The person making the threats will often target the victims family , friends and coworkers if he is not stopped.

If you decide to hire a professional investigator to handle this problem be sure to check him out first. Some state require Pis to be licensed and or bonded. Do an online internet search to see if the PI has done these types of investigations before. Do they have a good reputation or are there many complaints from unhappy customers?

Beware of waffleware companies offering do it yourself “detective waffleware”. These wafflewares are deceptive in claiming they can offer unlimited searches for a one time low fee. This is impossible as many of the searches they claim to provide are only available to licensed professionals.

If a deal sounds too good to be true you can be sure that it’s a scam and you should stay away.

Ed Opperman , president of Opperman Investigations Inc is an expert in Cyber Stalking Investigations. If you need help with a Reverse Email Search visit www.emailrevealer.com

I’d like to provide a few samples of why paid surveys are a difficult way to make money. It’s not impossible, but the road is difficult and filled with stumbling blocks.

Stumbling Block # 1

You may not be dealing with an actual paid survey company. What I mean by that is that in many instances opportunists will find ways to funnel survey takers through a secondary business site that may not be directly affiliated with any actual survey company. The individual respondents will, in fact, take a survey, but the majority of any proceeds may likely go to the owners of the secondary site – not the survey taker. The respondent is usually awarded opportunities to win in raffle type drawings. This is usually promised by saying something like, “The more surveys you take the better your chances of winning”.

Some sites provide cyber cash that can be used to purchase items in their online shop. The choices may be limited and require a significant amount of surveys in order to receive the prize you are interested in.

Stumbling Block # 2

You won’t be paid immediately in most cases. Many survey companies create a payment threshold that must be met before they will release funds to you. If, for instance, you successfully complete one survey per week and are paid $1 per survey it will take more than 6 months in most cases to gain release of your earnings. Many survey takers will abandon their earnings rather than wait six months or more for a payday.

The funds placed in your online account will ultimately become the possession of the owners of the site you signed up for. It may not be so far from the truth that you are essentially giving money to those who develop these secondary sites.

Stumbling Block # 3

You might experience a slow down in survey offers. The closer you get to the amount needed to release funds the slower you may find offers coming in. If the sites can cause just enough frustration you will leave the funds behind.

Stumbling Block # 4

You might sign up believing you will always receive cash. Some paid survey collectives offer what they refer to as “Cash value”. Essentially this means the survey taker may not actually receive cash, but something that has cash value. However, this does not mean it will be personally valuable to the recipient. This could be gifts, discounts or even coupons.

Stumbling Block # 5

You’ve read a lot of information about Paid Surveys and it’s been mostly positive. You have to understand most of the press is either from those who have learned the connections for a first person association with actual survey companies or the information is from companies that have found ways to make money selling you on the idea of taking surveys. For the novice survey taker there is very little about the paid survey market to elicit a strongly favorable response.

Many companies have found ways to exploit the paid survey industry and have developed paid memberships for access to services that are free in almost every case. They have learned to ask members to take surveys for as little as twenty-five cents while receiving several dollars in some cases for providing the survey taker.

Paid surveys are a great idea that somehow got lost in the greed.

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