Here’s a review of my new ebook “How to Get Astonishing Results in Life Using the Eight Crucial Elements of Self-Development” written by Troy Boyd from over at http://www.successfulselfhelp.com…

Troy read the book and sent me the review saying that he’ll be posting this on his blog later today.   Hope you like it.

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We’re inundated with people pushing their products every single day on the internet, and sadly most don’t live up to all the hype.  Let’s face it, how many times have you been promised the world on a sales page, only to be disgusted by the amount of disappointment you have.

After all, sometimes we’re desperately searching for a solution to our problems and when we drop some good money on a book or report that promises to give us that solution…then we’re hoping beyond hope that the report will deliver.

This is especially true in the self-development field where the solution could mean the difference between our hopes soaring or being beaten down even further in the dirt than they were in the first place.

All this is going somewhere, I promise.

Recently a good friend of mine David Feinstein gave me a review of his new e-book in the self-development field titled “How to Get Astonishing Results in Life Using the Eight Crucial Elements of Self-Development”.

Now I’ll be honest, I get a lot of stuff to review and very often just skimming through a product I can tell that it’s going to be pretty much the same old crap that’s all over the internet already.  So in other words, most of the stuff I get sent for review doesn’t make it past the table of contents and a skim through the chapters.

I felt a little differently getting a copy of David’s new e-book because well, frankly I knew David already, and I knew that David was already hugely successful in his own right.  I also knew from working with him that he was a guy with huge amounts of integrity, so basically I was fairly confident that this book would make it through the skim test.

What I didn’t expect though was that the book actually stopped me in my tracks, and all the skimming went out the window.  I pretty much read from cover to cover (well, virtual cover to cover since it was an e-book but you get the point)…

From the introduction David pretty much had me gripped.

Here’s why.

He immediately explains exactly why the reader might not be seeing success in their lives…and in great detail.  He then goes on to say that the elements of success are within each of us already – and in fact we already use them, we just use them backwards.

I finally understood exactly how so many people get confused with their lack of success, even though they might feel like they’re doing all of the right things.

Each chapter goes on to explain a new element of success, and how it’s meant to be used correctly, with real world examples given at each opportunity.

The thing I really like about all this though is that these are not just chapters like so many other books have that simply explain the problem, and never giving a real solution.  David gives real usable solutions that anybody can start implement immediately to see results.  He seems to realize that sometimes people need to have something that they can relate to rather than just text book theories…and he gives that all throughout the book.

Probably the best part of the e-book is the personal letter to the reader about exactly how to use the e-book to get the most out of it.

Listen, we all have our e-books that we read and never go back to again, but David lays out a plan so that you can get tons out this e-book.  He shows you how to implement the ideas and see consistent and constant improvement…and how to use the book as an actual tool, not a quick read.

One thing that I think makes this book really truly stand-out – that some may not actually like to be honest – is that he doesn’t tell you anywhere that by simply reading the e-book that your life will change or any success will happen.  But he does lay out a nice plan for that to happen in a very effective and long reaching way.

I would recommend “How to Get Astonishing Results in Life Using the Eight Crucial Elements of Self-Development” for anyone in the world who wants to see their life improve from where it’s at now.  With this book I think that it’s possible for that to happen at near warp speed, simply because of the rock solid principles and success based elements within it.

You can read more about it by clicking here…

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In the offline world, the big thing is and has always been 3 words for success…location, location, location.  Remember hearing that?

Well online theirs is no location.  Your website is floating around somewhere in cyberspace, and so to get people to come to you, you must do the things necessary to either direct them to you, or to get in front of where they are looking in the first place for the information that you’re providing.

Of course, the best place to be is always where they’re looking in the first place right?  This way you don’t have to be chasing…you are actually right where they’re looking. Essentially, you’re being chased.

It’s common sense to think that the more traffic/visitors that you get to your website, the better your chances are for success.  That is mostly true, but the thing that you really want to focus on is getting targeted visitors to your sites.  In other words, you want the people who are most likely to purchase your products, or join your opportunities.  So, in other words, massive traffic is nice, but laser focused targeted trafficis even better. I’d much rather have 2,000 people who are looking to join a network marketing opportunity come to my sites than people looking for a networking solution for their companies computer system.  See the difference?

The key to getting targeted traffic is by use of keywords.  Keyword research is key to getting pinpoint targeted visitors to your site.  It’s like the difference between having a taco stand on a glacier in Alaska, or a taco stand on the highly trafficked corner of Sunset and Vine in Hollywood, CA.  Where do you think you’d sell more tacos?   That is unless Eskimos and polar bears eat tacos I guess.  But you get the point.

There are two primary ways to get traffic online.  Free or Paid.  That’s the main breakdown, but it goes even further than that.  With paid search there is PPC (pay-per-click) traffic , there are banner ads, you can pay to simply place your ad on someone else’s website, there are ezine ads, solo-ads in ezines, co-registration, lead buying, etc.  Of those pay per click is definitely the most popular and widely used, and when used correctly most effective.

Of course free traffic is the best that there is in most people’s minds, especially if you’re just starting out. (There are those in the PPC world who would disagree with that notion though since they’re having huge great success with paid traffic).

Free types of traffic include SEO traffic (search engine traffic), article marketing, traffic from signature files in forum posts, blog posts, and other places where you’re allowed to make comments, there’s social networking traffic, and then there’s also Joint venture and affiliate traffic (assuming that you have your own product with an affiliate program of course).

Of those the one to strive for is definitely SEO traffic, but this takes time to put into place, and depends on a well optimized website in most cases.  Yet, the time that you spend can be well worth it in the long run considering that when someone goes to a search engine such as Google (the biggest there is with about 65% of all search traffic), and they type in the keyword or search phrase that you’re listed under, they  are distinctly looking for exactly what you’ve got.  That’s the ultimate way to get yourself right in front of them.

Regardless of which type you use, paid or free, the key is that you want targeted searchers coming to your sites.  Using the right keywords again is how you do that.  There are a number of tools out on the market for you to use to do keyword research, with probably the best being Google’s own keyword tool.

There’s not enough space here for me to write all that entails when it comes to website traffic, but hopefully this article has given you a more clear idea on the type of traffic that YOU want to aim for, and that fits your monetary and time budget best right now.

No matter what, the more you learn about getting targeted traffic to your website, the greater your chances are for massive success.

You’ve probably heard the term duplication thrown around a ton of times if you’re involved with, or have looked into network marketing.  It’s a term that’s used very loosely, but has such importance that’s it’s almost scary that it’s not solidified even more-so within the industry.

Duplication in network marketing is basically the foundation of any hope for success, and definitely any hope of the passive residual income that we’re all so intent on earning.  In case you didn’t know by the way, that’s why you’re in network marketing, for the passive residual income.

But, the fact is that the main obstacle that stands in your way of passive income versus simply exchanging time for money is duplication.  Or more definitively, helping your downline duplicate your efforts and success, in order to build their organization, which therefore increases your income.

You see, without your downline growing their business, your business doesn’t grow like it’s supposed to, no matter what compensation plan your opportunity operates under.

This is the magic of the system, but can also be the doom of the system as well.  The reason, because most of the time in network marketing, it’s like the blind is leading the blind.  Upline sponsors who have no clue what they’re doing, usually because either their upline has no clue, or because they don’t listen to their upline and proceed in the duplication process. In other words, they’re trying to re-invent the wheel.

Now sometimes re-inventing the wheel is a good thing and new ways of recruiting are discovered, but if you’re new to the business, then to build quickly and hugely, you need to duplicate the efforts of your upline.  And as touched on, you need to look upline from them and be sure that they’re actually doing the same.  It’s a process that once broken, often means the end of an organization.

The best way to ensure duplication is by having or tapping into a system that makes it a total streamline process.  This means that everything is done the same way, over and over again, and can easily be followed by your downline immediately.

These days, most systems include some sort of online marketing tool since most people have access to the internet, or else a multi-media tool like a DVD or a CD for people to listen to.  Then there are group conference calls to plug into, and the three way calls with your upline.  These are standard in most good duplicable systems.  The best ones have a system to drive prospects smoothly along the process, which is as hands off for the network marketer as possible.

This is because you want to get yourself out of the system as much as possible and let the tools do the work for you.  This does two things.  It gives you more time to prospect and take care of your downline, and lets your prospect see that it’s just as easy for them as well to run their business.

Network marketing takes a lot of effort and time to begin, but the better the system that you get involved with, the better off you’ll be, and the higher your passive residual income will begin to skyrocket.

If your direct sponsoring upline doesn’t seem to be plugged into a system, then do your best to go upline from them as high as it takes to get hooked up with someone who does have a duplicable system.  If you’re not involved in network marketing yet then find a team that has a system in place and can help you set it up most effective and efficiently.

Your income potential depends directly on your duplication system.

When it comes to making money in internet marketing, there are numerous ways in which you can do so.  Though you probably have your primary reason for being online, and a product, service, or opportunity that your trying to make money with, it’s important that you realize not only how to actually get people to buy your stuff, but that there are other ways to make extra money by using the same resources that you’re putting online already.

If you’re trying to sell your service online, then you must know that it’s essential for you to know how to either know how to write sales copy, or know that if you don’t you should be looking to hire someone who does.  There’s really no getting around it what so ever.  The amount of money that you make online is nearly directly correlated with your sales message…and your sales process.

Your process is very important because you need to have a sales funnel to put people through.  You see online, things are a little bit different than if you had a regular brick and mortar business on the street.  This is because of the trust issue involved.  People need to be exposed to you a little bit more in order for them to trust you.

I talked about Branding yourself online in a previous post that you can read here…

…but the point is that you must have a sales system (sometimes called funnel) put into place in order to do so.

The absolute best way to do this is by capturing the information of your website visitors.  In fact I would say that it’s almost crucial if you’re looking to massively succeed online at all.  If you’ve studied internet marketing for any period of time now, you’ve surely heard that the money is in the list.  Well, that’s precisely what that means.  It means that you capture the name and email address (or more, but at least the email address) of your website visitors so that you can send messages to them over and over.

What does this do?

It gets them used to you.  If you do it correctly it lets them get to know you.  It allows you to build trust with them overtime.

Another thing that it does though is it gives you a chance to try and sell to them again if they don’t buy the first time.  Plus, it let’s you be able to sell other things to them as an affiliate so that you can at least earn money off of those people who don’t buy YOUR product.

This also does another thing which is really important.  It conditions them to buy from you.  Once they’ve made a small purchase from you once, and you’ve delivered (even if it wasn’t your own product by the way) then you’ve built a trust with them that will make it easier for you to sell them on something else…hopefully something a little bit more expensive.

So you definitely want to be collecting your visitors information as much as possible.  You do this by putting a form on your page, and using an auto-responder service.  The one I prefer is Aweber because it’s the most popular and it’s very easy to use.  More importantly, they have one of the best deliverability rate in the industry, which means that more messages get through the spam filters.

There are other ways to monetize your sites though…

You can use Adsense, which is a program through Google that allows you to put relevant ads that people have paid to place on your sites, and so every time someone click one of those ads, you get paid. It’s not always a huge amount, usually cents rather than dollars, but overtime this adds up.  Not to mention the fact that if someone is going to click away from your site anyways, you may as well get paid for it right?

Other ways is to actually let people pay you to have their ad on your site either weekly, or monthly.  This usually requires that you have a site with high traffic, but not always.  If you can prove that you’re getting very highly targeted traffic then many people will be willing to still place there ad on your site, and pay you to do so.

There are tons and tons of ways online to make money, and many people don’t tap into them enough.  If you use the traffic funnel system that I’ve spelled out for you here, and you use some of the monetization systems that are out there like Adsense, you’ll soon start seeing your site earning money from more of your visitors than ever before.

In a previous article on internet marketing we talked a lot about how you should begin, and the mistakes that most people make online that you should do everything to avoid.  So you should know that slapping up an ugly website, and hoping people will come is a failing strategy nearly every time.

I also talked about how you should consider your prospective customer or business partner depending on your industry, and why you should carry on less about yourself and really focus on them.  Well, this article is going to touch on how you SHOULD use your websites and the internet to brand yourself and your name.

It’s going to show you how to get people to notice you and begin to recognize you as an authority in your industry or niche.

Now, let’s not get confused here.  You see, I believe that most people have this intention from the very beginning and that’s why they do make that first mistake of going on and on about themselves on their websites.  But that’s not how you establish yourself as an authority.

Let’s look at it from the reader’s point of view!  Actually, let’s look at it from your point of view but from the other side of the coin.

Let’s say you were looking for a person to build you a house on a new piece of property that you’d just bought.  Of course you would shop around right for the building who you thought would do the best job.  So let’s say you go to the first person and he starts to tell you how great he is, and how he builds the best houses there are.  How everybody loves him, and how if he builds your house that you can’t go wrong.  He may even tell you that he’s been building houses for 20 odd years.  Wow!  Impressive…or is it?

Let’s say the next guy you go to sits you down in his office, and pulls out a large catalog of all of the houses that he’s built for other people.  But while he’s showing you these houses he’s telling you all about the process of building homes, and why he did the things that he did to each house to make each structure more solid, to make each window more secure so that you lose less heat in the winter and less cool air in the summer.

If he went through and educated you on all of this stuff, and really laid it out there for you, without ever…not once…saying how great he thought he was…tell me, which guy would you trust and want to work with the most.  The guy who talked obsessively about himself, or the guy who showed you why he does things the way he does, and how if he did those same things for you your house would be more secure and you’d save tons of money?

I think we know the answer to that question pretty easily.

You see him as an expert now because he’s shown you he was an expert, not told you so.

On the internet it takes a lot more to get someone to trust you because it’s not a face to face meeting.  Therefore, you have to prove in other ways that you’re a real person, and that you’re knowledgeable.

Now just proving that you’re a real person goes a long way in branding yourself as well.  That’s why you should always have a picture of yourself on all of your websites…on everything that you do online.  You see people are actually very afraid of the anonymity of the internet…because they’ve heard horror story after horror story about people getting ripped off.  You probably have too right?

So you need to prove to people right off the bat that you are a real person.  The way to do that is with pictures of yourself, videos of yourself (which is really easy to do these days) and even audio of yourself.

You need to have a quick and easy way for people to contact you.  Give your phone number, your email address, and even Skype profile if you have it.  If not you should get it.

You also need to always remember to educate your prospects and prove to them that you’re an expert, not just tell them that you’re one.

Keeping these things in mind will set you so far apart from your competition that eventually you’ll have to do less work, to get many more customers simply for the trust factor.

Network Marketing/MLM is a unique business model for a number of reasons.  Never mind the residual income, but the fact that it’s a business model where those involved are not only encouraged to, but basically required to grow as people in order to succeed.

It’s also one of the few business models or industries where you’re actually mentored by the person who hired you, or in the case of network marketing…sponsored you.   Sure, when you get hired into a job no matter where it is, even at McDonald’s you’re trained.   But you’re trained to perform only the job requirements that you’re handed and that’s the extent of it.

Your superiors don’t really care whether or not you grow in the company; much less grow as a person.  In fact, they’d rather you didn’t grow within the company because they’re usually afraid that you might take their own job.  If you grow you actually threaten their job security and their income.

In that case, you almost can’t blame them for being worried.

But in the industry of network marketing there’s a huge difference.  But the problem can sometime lie in the fact that people come from exactly the field of thought that I’ve just described above…simply because that’s what they’ve gotten conditioned to in their lives.

Can’t really blame them either!  But these people don’t always make for the best sponsors.

You see, as a network marketer you have a responsibility as a sponsor.  You’re not only a sponsor, you’re also a coach.  A mentor!  Your job is to show the people that you recruit or sponsor into your opportunity how to succeed.

The ultimate way to do this is with duplication, hopefully within a system.  That’s the ultimate win/win solution.

You see, for that selfish side of you (we all have it, don’t feel bad) don’t forget that there’s a huge benefit for you in mentoring your downline to success.  Your income is directly correlated with their success isn’t it?  As they grow and sponsor more people into their business, if you’ve chosen a company with a good and fair compensation plan then you’re ultimately going to benefit as well.

But the fact is that it just feels really good to know that you’ve helped someone achieve their dreams.  Granted the money is good, but guess what…if you help people achieve their dreams the financial gain will come.  One way or another, your service to them will be paid back monetarily, because ultimately you’re building your self-value, and that simply determines your all around income.

As a network marketer you have the rare chance to mentor and coach people, and help them actually achieve their wildest dreams.  Plus you have the ability to become extremely wealthy in the process.

Sure we all want to become recruiting machines and bring in tons and tons of people every month to our frontline and see who sticks, but let me remind you that passive income, the greatest income in the world…the income most responsible for the wealthiest people in the world… is gained in network marketing only by your downline becoming successful.

You have a role as a sponsor, don’t neglect it…doing so is at the expense of your own success.

So you keep hearing about this PPC thing and you’re wondering what the heck it is.  Every time you try to get some kind of information about online/internet marketing you get to this word, and the guru’s write it like you’re supposed to know what the heck PPC means.

First of all it’s not plastic pipe.  That’s PVC.

PPC stands for Pay-Per-lick.  This is a type of advertising where your small ad goes onto a website and you pay only when someone clicks on your ad (hence, the phrase pay-per-click.)

It’s actually a genius thing and has made many people fortunes over and over again, but it’s also cost people fortunes that they really didn’t have in the first place.  How does this happen?

Well, with Pay-Per-Click you can really get handed your head very fast if you don’t know what you’re doing.  There are certain techniques, strategies, rules, and just a way of doing things that you should educate yourself on before taking part.

But don’t let that scare you away from it, because it’s one of the most effective ways of advertising that there are in the world.  Never before has there been a form of advertising where you can so quickly see results (sometimes within 5 minutes) and be able to tweak so easily your ads in order to make them increasingly convert at higher rates.

So now you’ve got an idea of what PPC is, now you may be wondering what it looks like exactly.  The fact is you’ve probably seen a zillion times on your online quest for information.  If you’ve ever been to Google, and typed in a search term, then you’ve likely seen the ads that run on the right hand side.  On Google these ads are called Adwords.

[Google is probably the most popular, widely used, and effective places for utilizing PPC but there are literally thousands of places online that use this form of advertising that should not be overlooked, such as Yahoo, MSN, Kanoodle, and various others.]

So once you’ve typed in your term, and your results show up, on the right hand side of the search results there are usually between 8 and 10 ads in a vertical row.  These are the Adwords.

The way it works is that when someone wants an ad on Google they literally bid on different keywords.  So let’s say that you were a freelance writer, and you wanted to market your services online.  You would then go to Google’s Adwords back-office and bid on the term “freelance writer” (plus all the other words that have to do with that service, but for simplicity we’ll use just one term for now).

So then you would decide how much you want to pay each time someone clicks on your ad, leading them to your site about your writing services.  Now, depending on your bid amount, this determines which place you’re in on that row of ads, as well as what page.  So basically the higher the bid, the higher you’ll be.  So the highest bidder would likely be in the first position.

Now here’s where people lose their shirt however, because there is much more to it than this.

You see there are various factors that determine your placement besides price, and the biggie is quality score.  This is Google’s way of keeping things relevant – so basically more relevant your ad is with your webpage, then the higher your quality score – which allows you to be placed higher.

Another factor is what’s called your “click thru rate” or CTR.

This is determined by the percentage of people who go to the page with your ad and click on it.  Usually a fair quality score is any above 2% which means 2 out of every 100 people that land on the page with your ad clicks it.  Now depending on the content of your ad, your conversion can go up astronomically, as well as the relevancy of your ad.

You see there are a few very important factors when it comes to PPC advertising, but once you figured them out then the world is your oyster and your business can quickly grow faster than you’ve ever imagined.

But it is important that you take the time to learn about PPC and all the little intricacies that go along with.

Life is a continuous journey of cycles and events.  When we’re on our way to achieving success things can easily get away from us.  And quickly!

How many times have you found yourself sitting there, knowing that you have a bunch of stuff that you need to do, but not having a clue what?

I’ll tell you right now who this happens to and you may not like it, but I’m a straight shooter.  This happens to the people who have no discipline and have not developed the habits in their life in order to get the things that need to get done…done.

When you are able to prioritize things and delay your gratification…which means doing the things that need done, before doing the things that are fun to do, you’ve began the process of building self-discipline.

The key to carrying out self-discipline are habits.  You must get into the habit of doing the tasks that get you closer to a successful life every single day like clockwork.  When this happens great things begin to happen in what seems a very short period of time.  This is because your discipline is having an accumulative effect, and each task, each day, builds onto the next…and eventually you end up one day as having a successful life.

Those people who don’t take the time to build self-discipline and good habits are the people that you see in life who flounder along.  They’re the people who always jump from one next great thing to the other, because they don’t have the discipline to stick with one thing long enough to see it through to fruition.

You must have a goal, or better yet, a plan, and you must do the things each and everyday to reach that goal to the end.  If not, then instead of going from A to Z with your goal, you’ll get stuck somewhere in the middle…perhaps at around P or worse H, and start something over again.

What happens then?

That’s right; you have to start again at A!  If you’re always starting at A, and never making your way to Z… that is a life begging for failure.  What’s it take to get from A to Z?

You guess it.  It takes discipline, and the habits to carry out that discipline.

Your life is a series of events and tasks.  Letting the events go by, without performing the needed tasks is the quickest way there is to flounder around through life never getting anywhere.

Take the time to develop your self-discipline and good habits and you’ll very soon find yourself at that coveted Z, with a goal that’s been reached, and another success under your belt.

In an earlier post I talked about Passive Income as being one of the most profound aspects of building wealth.  This is the truth, but the fact of the matter is that there is one aspect which is paramount over any other when it comes to wealth building, especially wealth building in a hurry, and that is Relationships.

Here’s the thing that few people mention when they talk about building wealth and becoming rich.  No matter what happens in this world, there’s always a linkage of people who actually make it happen.  No man or woman can becomes wealthy on their own effots without dealing with people in one way or the other.

Let’s face it, people are the ones who are going to give you their money for your services right?  For people to feel comfortable giving you their usually hard earned money they have to perceive what you have for them as having intricate value for them, and they have to feel comfortable and trust you.

That comfort and trust is built on your relationship with them.

This is why building relationships is the key to building wealth.  There are various types of relationships that you’ll have to build and cultivate to truly see major success.

In essence, one of the things that you should get into the habit of, which is rare and will put you in a small percentage of the population, is to learn to see the good in everyone you meet.  Dan Kennedy, the business and marketing consultant that the business and marketing consultants go to for advice says that “everyone on Earth is here for a purpose even if only to serve as poor example.”

This is true, but the fact is that if you learn to see the good in people then you have something to go on to build a relationship with them.  The majority of people in this world like to see the bad in everyone they meet.  They would rather gossip and talk about that person – to the other people that they gossip and talk about – than to actually form a friendship or bond with them and get to know them.  Getting to know just one right person can change your whole life forever, and often times it’s the people that we think will mostly likely have nothing to offer for us that have the most to offer.

This is not to say that you should form relationships just for your benefit.  You see that’s where people will often make a huge mistake.

If you read the post on self-value, you’ll remember I advised that you need to serve people and therefore become valuable to that person.  Then and only then will you ever get anything from any relationship, and rightly so.  It’s a cause and effect action and that’s one of the laws of the universe.  You can never truly expect anything when you haven’t created a cause for the outcome…the effect.

By building relationships on the foundation of your value, you’ll begin to see that people are attracted to you and will be standing in line to build relationships with you.

The types of relationships that you’ll need to build are:

• With the everyday people in you life (remember, you never know which person will have the most immense effect on your life)…

• The people who you work with who are your peers…these are the people who you can expect to partner with and increase the value of both parties.

• Your prospects and customers (this is a biggie)…no business is complete or even possible to succeed or thrive without customers and prospective customers…

• Mentors…these are people who can help you grow to new heights in your life and your business…but the fact is that you need to show them value before they’ll truly care to share their knowledge and expertise with you…

• Those that you can mentor.  It’s important that you give back to the world and the universe and one of the best ways to do that, if not the best way, is to mentor someone yourself.

If you’re not building relationships then you’re not actively building your life. It’s time you took stock in your life right now and the relationships that you have built, and begin to truly become of service to people and watch your relationship base grow in leaps and bounds.  You’ll thank yourself very soon for doing so.

There’s a bit of a new buzz phrase online right now that everyone seems to be talking about. The phrase is Social Networking or sometimes called Web 2.0.  This refers to sites that let users correspond almost directly with one another through various methods online, and through different applications.  It sort of involves instant messaging, forums, etc. all in one place.

Of course you’ve heard about Myspace and that would be what most people know about social networking, but that’s only touches on a very small percentage of the scope.  It expands very broadly beyond that.

The important thing is that though social networking does get hyped up a bit, it can be extremely effective in getting your marketing message out there, and also helping you get your website into the search engines.  It’s a bit of a two-fold benefit and I’ll explain why.

First of all, the online world has moved in this direction basically in response to all the crap that was crowding the online world.  Stagnant websites were basically clogging up the internet and nobody was getting much use out of them.  People were being bombarded with highly irrelevant messages and never being able to find what they needed, when they needed it.

It was quite tragic because we had this great tool in our hands and it was starting to get ruined.

The answer to that was Web 2.0 sites, which let people – internet users – help each other decide what was actually useful online and what wasn’t.  It also gave people a platform of their own to display their value, and project their opinions freely.

All sorts of information can be and is shared through social networking… from re-connecting with friends, recommending new music, new movies, great books, political news that’s up to the minute, and all sorts of other things.

Granted, the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon was created to get rid of useless advertising but when done correctly it’s very effective to put your advertising in front of people in a way that doesn’t insult or annoy, but is deemed as highly useful.

In a separate post I explain why content is king online and how to most effectively advertise online by being more discreet, and providing information that people want rather than try to shove your marketing message down their throat.  This is one of the great reasons that Social Networking is great for exactly this use.

But there’s another important reason as well…

You see, since Google’s main purpose to exist is to be relevant for people searching for information, and they’re constantly trying to give them the exact information that they’re looking for right now… they actually LOVE the social networking sites for that very reason.

They love up-to-date highly relevant information and that’s precisely what web 2.0 sites offer, and therefore will reward these sites rather quickly with high search engine placements.

Now like everything in life, Social Networking and Web 2.0 aren’t limited to one single aspect. There are many different types of sites that qualify as being apart of the Web 2.0 phenomenon.  These include sites for actually networking like Myspace, Facebook,  Flickr, and even dating sites like Adult Friend Finder.

Then there are different bookmarking sites which allow users to post intriguing web pages and articles and rate them online at certain sites like Digg, Technorati, Zimbio, etc.

There are also blogging sites that allow you to post articles as well as a profile of yourself like Squidoo, Hubpages, Gather, Blogger, etc.

There are many forms of social networking and the key to taking advantage of them is to learn how to inter-connect them all to one another so that you control your own network of information, and therefore direct the user/reader from what site of yours to the next.

When you’ve mastered this…or even gotten pretty good at it…you’ll begin to see your messages taking on lives of their own and creating a stir across the internet!

Don’t be fooled into thinking that Social Networking is for the kids.  Use it to your advantage while still respecting the other internet users and it’s a win/win situation.