Ping-O-Matic is a service to update different search engines that your blog has updated.

Dear Ping-o-matic users, I’m Isaac from Automattic. It was a while since anyone wrote on this blog, and I thought I’d fill you in on what’s been going on lately.

I’ve just performed a redesign on the Ping-o-matic website. The new look was launched a few weeks ago, and is meant to increase the usability of the service and make it look a bit more modern and well fitted for the WordPress/Automattic family.

For newcomers, there’s now a welcome message on top of the front page which gives you a Ping-o-matic crash course. Below this, you’ll find the familiar pinging form where you supply your blog details and select the services you want to ping. The whole form has been redesigned to stand out more from the rest of the content on the page, making it easier to see how it all fits together. The vertical space for the services list has been compressed. This list took up a big chunk of the screen before, but has now been compressed to 4 columns which saves a lot of space. …And the action button is now bigger than ever, so you can’t possibly miss it!

As for the Stats page, it’s received a minor update. The graph has been modified to fit with the new color scheme of Ping-o-matic.

The spirit behind the redesign was to give Ping-o-matic a graphical profile on it’s own, with bold colors that makes the service memorable. I also wanted to make it better tied in to the WordPress/Automattic family’s graphical profile and user interface ideas. You’ll notice similar fonts, navigation solutions and a fancy looking footer, as well as a good deal of “under the hood” similarities. Among those are the uses of CSS3 rules like border-radius, which gives people browsing Ping-o-matic in modern browsers a richer (and rounder!) experience. Ping-O-Matic

        - Ping-O-Matic is a service to update different search engines that your blog has updated.

Money 24Seven Time Online Saving Secrets

Why are social networks important to my business?

Social networks should be in your marketing plan

Social networks are groups of interconnected individuals, organizations and businesses on the Internet.

Popular social networking Web sites include MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn. Also, blogs (like online diaries) and blogging services such as WordPress, Blogger and Twitter allow sharing of ideas and activities.

These sites are important marketing tools because they have many millions of members. Facebook, for example, has 200 million users, half of whom visit the site daily, according to the American Marketing Association. Membership is exploding, with women ages 35 to 54 the fastest-growing segment.

Your competition is almost certainly using these sites. Advertising on social networks is up 17 percent this year, and often with very good results. The American Marketing Association reports that, on average, companies with high levels of social media activity experienced an 18 percent increase in revenue in the last year.

As marketers, we try to advertise to our most likely customers for best effect, and social networks are a great way to do this by age, education and interests. MySpace tends to attract a teen and young adult crowd. Facebook started with college students and recent grads but has grown well past its college roots. LinkedIn is a site for professionals to network; it’s also a terrific place to find skilled employees. Marketers choose the sites that best fit their typical customer.

Finally, these sites are free. Optional ads may be purchased that are shown when a profile contains certain words. For example, a store selling canoes and kayaks may pay Facebook to show its ad when a profile contains the word “kayak.” Otherwise, your business or organization may have a page on these sites at no cost and then any number of fans may sign up to read about your business, events, ideas and more.

Social networks should be in your marketing plan - Kansas City Star

Social networks allow you to have meaningful contacts and conversations with your best customers, who will then introduce you to their friends — your next best customers! People overwhelmingly trust a referral from a friend over a communication directly from a company.

How do you like your eggs in the morning?