Networking is very important in the web 2.0 sphere. The good thing about networking on the internet is that you have a broad reach to many people. When your stuck in one city with one business your pretty much capped on what you can do and who you know to a degree, but the internet is not like that you can meet any one and every one, so in other words the web is like a mad leverage tool (talk about major momentum).

I get clients all the time asking me how do you get the clients you do or just general SEO’s and I’m thinking to my self are you kidding me. Most generally I tell them just be good at what you do and network, network, network and build your brand like no other brand and you’ll be fine.

I mean really building a company is all about having patience and staying persistent no matter how tough it gets it will just continue to grow, now if you was working for someone else would you continue to grow through the company maybe a little bit, but not like you would if you was conducting business with your own brand.

So what are some good ways to network?

1. Communications: <— This right here let me tell you one thing and one thing only this is the key to success is being good with people and communicating if you can communicate with people or find a way to communicate with people then your heading in a positive direction, but there again you have to stay persistent.
2. Social Networks: This will open the communications up for you participate in blogs, forums, and other social networking sites this can help big time the best thing to do is create your own blog and start building content through the site and possibly creating discussions.
3. E-Mail: Try to communicate with people through e-mail, so in other words just e-mail people and start a conversation up with them and let them know who you are specially if its someone you think could use your services.

Them are just a few tips to open up your mind which don’t expect to be a millionaire over night by doing the following above, but I will tell you it will help you a lot and think about it as your client list grows; you grow; then your brand grows therefore you can price your product on a higher scale because people trust you and know your good at what you do, so they won’t mind paying you what you want.

Community building is something that takes skill and patience, but the out come is remarkable nothing can out beat it you don’t have to depend on search engines well not to the full extent such as putting all your eggs in one basket. The thing is with community building is that you can literally have full control over your traffic if that makes any sense.

Building communities can be done in many ways rather its done through PPC, Blogs, Online Banner Ads, and etc. The idea behind building communities is to create constant momentum and start sucking in your visitors most generally blogs are a lot easier to build then forums, but then again if you have the money you can easily build forums and thats by creating momentum like I was saying earlier.

I mean think of it you drive in 5000 uniques a day for 3 months straight your bound to get sign ups every day speaking your leverage your traffic right. Some of the biggest online communities out there were built using these techniques for example v7n.com was built using PPC and many other successful forums were built the same exact way or some type of advertising.

Not only is the advertising good for traffic its also good for branding to get your community name out there.  The idea is to have relevant traffic coming from relevant sources of course for example if your wanting to build an online community around search marketing then you would advertise and promote in relevant areas.

As you start to promote and every where people look they see your logos, your name, your identity, and you name it there going to check you out sooner or later and give in. You just have to build the traffic and leverage it. Its a pretty simple process well maybe to some people, but if test, test, and test sooner or later you will get it.

Conclusion 
I just decided to write this post up to give people an idea of how to build online communities there is several ways of building online communities of course, but to be honest the best way to do it is by building momentum into your site and like I was saying blogs are a bit different they take more of a viral approach with then the content, but forums are a different story.

Sometimes you might have a product thats hard to promote or better yet it is more famaliar with some people then other people or say for example you have a product or service your wanting to offer that helps with something else, but not every one is famaliar with that particular service or product, so what should you do?

Well lets say its link building, not every one is famaliar with link building. I mean honestly most generally when people want higher rankings there going to search for something like internet marketing, search marketing, pay per click marketing, and similar terms to that.

I have talked with numerous prospects that have no idea what link building is by any means. I will bring the term link building up and there like what is that, I’ve never heard of that, and then I explain to them what link building does and how it increases your search engine rankings and then there like ok I see.

Now in this case what would you exactly do if you wanted to get people more famaliar with this service?

Simple you create content on your site I would prefer hefty articles and similar things to that and then you just get the content known around the web you know through social media sites and get it indexed on the search engines try to get this content ranked using terms such as internet marketing, internet marketing services, online marketing services, and etc.

Maybe you could even explain in this article what link building is and then you just build trends in your service.

There is tons of ways of promoting products and building trends around it and thats the best thing about the internet specially with the web 2.0 life style, so give it a try and start created some viral content.

Today I’m setting here and looking at v7n Forums do you think it got hacked I mean it could of, but I wouldn’t doubt it if it was done on purpose by John and if so I give him all the credit in the world because thats a very innovative way to create buzz and then leverage the after math into sales, more forums signs ups, and etc.

It’s also a way to get your brand out there a little bit more. Which I don’t know if John did this on purpose or not, but if he did that was a very smart thing to do because I looked it up on the web and I already seen numerous forum post about it and people blogging on it and etc.

There is several ways of creating a buzz market, for example Aaron Wall the author of SEO Book he had a company threaten to sue him over the book he wrote because they was saying that he supposedly revealed trade secrets.

Networking on the web is vitally important you can manage a lot of things by networking such as creating more friends that will spread your name for you. I know I have made a lot of friends on the web and they send me clients and talk good about me on the, so its a plus plus by every means. If your wondering how you can meet new friends through the web 2.0 sphere and network with new people its simple take a look below and I’ll get more into details on how you can network with people. (more…)

Connecting with other communities on the web is very important specially if your wanting more links not only will you get links, but its a way of networking with people its a good feeling specially when you connect with 100’s of blog publishers and create massive links ;).

Read the following below on why connecting with communities is important and how it can benefit you.

• Creates Brand Buzz: Joining communities and connecting with other people on the web builds brand its seriously does. If you learn to leverage blogs, forums, social sites, and etc in the right patterns you’ll find out its very valuable I have created an extra 10-15k a month in sales from certain forums before by just leveraging them right. Which granted sales always come in, but there is things I have figured out where it generated extra income and its the same for any one else find your leverage and play with it.
• Link Love Baby: We all know when other bloggers connect with other bloggers they always link to each others and this is for damn sure, so connect with other people and link out find ways of connecting with other blog publishers.
• More Traffic: There again if you leverage social networks properly you can create more traffic to your website some people might get frustrated with it and say its a waste of time such as social networks, but remember if you leverage them right they can be very very beneficial.

There is numerous reason why connecting with communities can be very beneficial, but the idea is to just test, test, and test then see whats working for you. You’ll find out not everything will work for you right off the bat, but sooner or later you will start to find stuff that does work and when you do stay focused always keep that in mind, don’t ever lose your focus I do this my self sometimes on occasions I get to doing 30 things at once or trying to do everything at once and lose my focus on whats actually working.

Some people might find a blogs a waste of time, but the facts are they are not a waste of time blogs are great for marketing online. Which I’m not saying every one has to have one, but I would recommend a lot of people to have them for numerous reasons, but anyways read on and I’ll give you some ideas below on why you should have a blog installed and how it can benefit you from a marketing stand point view.

• Creates Media, Blogs create media such as online traffic, publications, get mentioned on news sites, and many other things. You notice people with blogs or popular blogs are always getting motioned in books and etc. The reason for this is because when editors of books and etc go looking for things to write about they always have the tendency to check out blogs and similar stuff to that nature.
• Viral Media Networks, Blogs create viral networks what this does is gets your brand more aware to people through social networks and its an excellent way of getting brand awareness.
• Link Baits, Blogs are excellent for link baits, which will result in even more exposure directed towards your brand.

These are just a few reasons why blogs are great to have which I could name of many more reasons, but the main thing that blogs are good for is creating media, exposure, link baits, viral networks, and etc. This type of stuff can get your name out there very easily and its something that your not really depending on.

For example take the search engines if your depending on search engines for all your business thats the biggest mistake your making in this day and age if you ask me from a search marketing stand point. You should depend on business from multiple channels such as blogs, ppc, organic search, and etc. When you have a blog its all you and its not search engines which granted don’t take me wrong search engine traffic is excellent, but don’t put your mind 200 percent on them put your mind into other areas at the same time just encase something was to ever happen with your website on big G.

You know I could really care less what people think about what I say, or what I do it don’t bother me to be honest, but then sometimes I’m thinking maybe I should be careful what I say you never know what gets leashed on the internet. The thing is though sometimes it can be a good thing you can get links from it and many other things as funny as it sounds just make sure its nothing that people are going to think negatively about.

You know I was setting here thinking about all the stuff that gets said on the web about other people and who says what. I see SEOS arguing all the time over silly stuff thats just considerably non sense then I see people get mad at other people over the silliest stuff or certain people take things personal then try to unleash there power, and I find it quite odd.

Don’t ask me why I really decided to write this post I just thought it would be a good post to write because in the SEO world is seems like theres a lot of positive going on in the social networks, but at the same time a lot of negatives just be careful what you say and what you do, but then again speak your mind as you feel and always feel free to say what you want to say thats how I feel about it :).

Someone that is strong and speaks there mind on there opinions I have a lot of respect for and that comes to tell me they stand there corner and protect there brand (there confident and they have a high ego). Which I’ll do the same, so I think any one else should, but there is a stopping point and I don’t think negative flares should go back and forth between people, but who knows.

Anyways how can this be positive for you?

1. It can create links for you and create viral networks.
2. Creates more business believe it or not some people will really get into it and respect you for who you are and what you say.
3. Brand awareness
4. Link bait that never stops and believe that.

There is numerous things it is great for and I could go on for ever just be careful on how you create controversy and how you leverage it. You ever notice some of the biggest brands out there create controversy in a weird way, but they leverage it into a positive network after they get it created, they know what there doing A lot of people will do it on purpose or just maybe do it out of attentions because they have been practicing at it for so many years, but they know how to spin it around into something else.

Give it a try and keep it in mind and it will happen!

You know blogs are excellent for not only branding, but social networks of course. I have had things happen and I”m like yes I love my blog and I’m glad its installed, then other times I’m thinking to my self I’m going to get rid of this blog because sometimes of the controversy that can be created, but the facts are blogs create networks and media.

Thats why I always suggest that every one has one if you haven’t notice and you take a look around look at all the people that get mentioned through out magazines, other websites, and etc. Most generally its because they have blog and when writers search for stuff to write about they check out blogs and etc. Now if you had a service orientated website the chances are no ones going to just write up a review about your product unless you have something that creates something very powerful and virally that other people will talk about.

Its amazing the power blogs can hold and what you can leverage them for you can get links with them; create media through social networks; build brand awareness; and you name it. Blogs are wonderful for numerous things sometimes you might feel like your wasting your time with a blog, but the facts are your not wasting your time one way or another they pay off specially when your participating in other communities and at the same time trying to leverage your self into other communities.

Publishing valuable content always catches people attention, now keep in mind when you go installing a blog don’t expect to have a ton of results right away it can take some time to get your blog built up and get it going. Some blogs don’t take off for a few years it just depends on how much effort you put into it and how you leverage your current subscribers, and of course the idea is to keep increasing your subscribers now if your doing that then your moving into a positive direction of course because once them subscribers increase it give you more room to create more subscribers by leveraging your current subscribers.

Building link baits and communities is not a simple task, it takes time and encouragement. I think the thing is some people think that you can just automatically spit the content out there and expect to get links well this is not guaranteed. Which yes its happen, but its rare some of the best viral marketers out there fail time after time before they actually get it right. I wouldn’t consider it as failing, but its just not something you can say hey lets do this and its going to turn out like this it just don’t work that way.

Which yes there is content that hits the front page all the time on Digg and people don’t do it on purpose or anything its just something they wrote up, but if you notice a lot of the content that does hit Digg front page of Digg is from websites that have a strong community built up, and that right there is the best way to getting links and etc.

The idea is to build the community up first, and then leverage the community into links and sales. When you have the community built up its a lot easier to promote your content through social networks and to get people to Digg stuff because you have 1000’s of viewers reading your content. Thats another reason why a lot of popular news site have a lot of community driven traffic is because they have a strong community already built and it gives them leverage for building social networks and creating more media.

Just give it some thought