How To Create A Great Website That Is Valuable To Your Audience?

How Snapchat Can Be Used To Grow Your Audience?

Snapchat is an exciting new social media platform through which people can send photos and short videos to each other. We recently talked about some of the ways you can market your brand on Snapchat. One problem for brands was, reaching out to their potential customers. Pulling contact numbers out of your marketing list was less than desirable. With a new update though, Snapchat has added the Discover feature for users to discover new content.

A potential growth opportunity for brands!

What is Discover?

The new discover feature gives users a new way to discover and explore content and stories from different editorial teams. This new tool was the result of collaboration between various media leaders to help build a story. Snapchat says the tool is unique...;

"...because it has been built for creatives. All too often, artists are forced to accommodate new technologies in order to distribute their work. This time we built the technology to serve the art: each edition includes full screen photos and videos, awesome long form layouts, and gorgeous advertising."

The discover tool can be found by clicking the bottom right corner of your open screen that leads to contacts and then clicking the purple circle located in the top right corner of your contacts page.

Personalized Ghost/QR Code

Snapchat has also released a new way to find followers. Every person on Snapchat now has his or her very own ghost. The ghost sits in the middle of a yellow box, which has several black dots. The dots are individual QR codes.

This means, that user can now take screenshots of their ghost, post it on social media and ask people to follow them. It also means that users can easily find brands on Snapchat and add them from anywhere their ghost is posted.

How does this work? A user simply points the camera at another person’s ghost and clicks on the white ghost in the middle of the screen. This will automatically add the user to their contact list.

Snapcash

Snapchat also partnered with Square, a payment processing app, to create Snapcash. Snapcash is integrated into the Square Cash Platform and allows users to connect their debit cards and send cash to other users. Once the debit information is connected to a Snapchat ID, users can send cash to other users by using their Snapchat ID. The user that was sent the money will receive an alert to their profile. If the user wants to accept the money, the user has to add their debit information to their Snapchat profile.

Business opportunities

Considering that most of Snapchat’s users never log out of the system and it is now the fastest growing social media app, it could hold many opportunities for new ways of crowdfunding from a highly engaged and committed audience.

We haven’t seen Snapcash live up to its full potential yet, because when Snapcash initially launched brands had no real way of redirecting the user from the message to the Snapcash function. Now that Snapchat has launched Discover and QR codes to each user, a brand can easily redirect people from one platform to Snapchat and then to Snapcash.

This new chapter is a refreshing one for Snapchat. It has made more room for advertisers to reach new audiences and to bring crowdfunding to an entirely new level. They have successfully created a platform that can be monetized without making users feel like they are being advertised to.

Do you think Snapchat has the potential to make it big? Let us know in the comments section below!

Now Choose Who Manages Your Facebook Profile After You Die

Have you ever put some thought into what will happen to your online accounts once you're dead? Death is inevitable, and a lot of people tend to not think about it too much. But have you ever wondered what will become of your accounts then? Will they stay locked forever, because no one knows the passwords you took into the grave? Facebook has the answer - now you can decide who will manage your Facebook account once you're gone!

If you come to think about it, the whole idea is pretty comical. While I am sure there are many geeks out there who write down their passwords in encrypted files, the keys to which are contained within their wills (guilty as charged!), a large number of people don't give it much thought, and hence their accounts get locked forever.

With the new Legacy Contact feature, Facebook now wants you to think about who you'd trust enough to have access to your account once you're gone. And with Valentine's day right around the corner, I can take a wild guess as to the topic of conversation between many couples tonight - just saying (:

Facebook Legacy Contact

You can select a trusted contact - a friend or family member - to be your Legacy Contact. Once Facebook is notified that someone has died, it will memorialize their account, and the word 'Remembering' will appear behind their profile names. The Legacy Contact (if chosen) will then be able to access the deceased's account.

The legacy contact will be able to;

Make a post on the memorialized account's behalf (for example to make an announcement)
Respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected
Update the profile picture and cover photo
The legacy contact will NOT have access to;
Account login information
Account settings
Personal messages (inbox) of the deceased person
You can view or add a legacy by going to account Settings >> Security >> Legacy Contact. From here, you can choose whether you want that contact to be able to download and archive of your profile pictures, photos, posts etc.

(If you don't yet see this option, don't worry. The feature has been introduced in the US, and is being rolled out slowly to other users around the world)

Alternatively, you can choose to have your account permanently deleted upon your death.

Let the eventuality sink in for a while! Have a long, happy and blessed life, y'all! Good luck (:

How To Get Extra 2GB Of Free Google Drive Storage?

Google Drive is one of the most popular cloud services today, used by millions around the world. Every Google account holder has his own free cloud space, which integrates so well with other Google products. From simple file sharing to hosting a website, there's a lot you can do with Google Drive. Google is now giving away an extra 2GB of free space, which I am sure many of you will find welcome.

Remember: This is a limited time offer. You can retain the extra 2GB forever, but only if you claim it before 17th February!

Google decided to celebrate Safer Internet Day in style by giving everyone a free upgrade on their Google Drive storage. There's a small price to pay - a couple minutes of your time to review your account settings.

How to get the free storage?

In order to get the free storage, you need to complete a quick security check on your account (link is given below).

Earn free storage by completing this security checkup

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After login, you will be prompted to start the security checkup.

Next, you will be taken through your recent account activity. This includes login events for your Google account, device accesses, apps authorized to use your Google Account credentials, and so on. Once all is said and done, you will see a confirmation screen.

Google says the checkup will take around 2 minutes, but it took me less than 30 seconds. It’s a 3-step process that asks you to verify your password recovery information, as well as review your recent login activity and app permissions.

Once you see the three check marks, you can close the window or continue to your account settings. you're essentially done and are eligible for a free 2GB worth of space.

You’ll have until February 17th to complete the security checkup. The additional gigabytes will be added to your account around the end of the month.

If you want to keep on top of your account security you can revisit the security checkup again at any point to ensure there has been no suspicious activity.

Enjoy your free, extra space (:

How To Get Great Content Ideas For Your Blog?

Brainstorming for content ideas can be tough. You easily get distracted and everything seems to have already been written! To make matters worse, requirements to content concepts and titles have become much more complicated. With the growing importance of referral traffic, we now have to rethink title strategies and how they appear on social sites. If you're feeling strapped for content ideas, here are a few that can help.

Check your Comments Section

When you let people share and comment on your site, you could end up with some great blog post ideas. Your readers might ask for more information about a specific item you didn’t cover clearly in your first post, or they might share their own opinions about the topic, which could make your fingers itch to write. Reading those bits carefully could make your blogging much easier.

Check out the Competition

According to 2014 stats, more than half of all small businesses don’t have a website. As a result, your top competitor may not have a blog that you can follow. But that same competitor might be active on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. The posts you find there could give you great ideas about topics you should cover.

If you grab an idea from someone else, be sure to tweak it or amend it or somehow make it your own. Stealing outright could get you in hot water, both with your competitors and with Google. But borrowing a good idea could help you to come up with the story idea that’s been eluding you.

Yelp Pages

People with reputation management problems are likely accustomed to the idea of using Yelp as an early warning system. When they see a poor review pop up, they know they must get to work generating content that either refutes or explains the complaint. But Yelp can also help you write blog posts about issues people either like or have questions about.

Read through your reviews and look for items that get a lot of mentions. Not all Yelp comments will contain blog gems, of course. Some might just contain complaints or random bits of praise you can’t build on. But, watching the comments closely could give you some great ideas for writing that will really resonate.

Targeted Keyword Research

And ofcourse, nothing beats good ol' fashioned keyword research. This is a fundamental part of the writing process, as it helps you find the right terms which will perform better on SERPs. But more than SEO, your searches can also help you to find out what people are looking for, and that could give you some excellent blog post ideas.

With Google AdWords‘ Keyword Planner, you can run a simple search on a topic you’re planning to cover. Your results page will give you keywords that are similar to the topic you’ve hit, but they come with just a few changes.

We'll soon publish an entire section dedicated to keyword research in the SEO process, so stay tuned!

Coming up with new content ideas is not easy. But if poke around and are receptive enough, with enough luck you will soon find great content ideas to go on your blog! Good luck :)

How To Implement Google's Sitelinks Search Box On Your Website?

Sitelinks are Google's way of letting users know what links could possibly be most relevant to them. They help users find content more quickly. Google implemented search sitelinks to facilitate users and make it easier for them to search for and reach the desired content on your site directly from SERPs. A lot of webmasters miss out on this opportunity though. Compared to other types of markup, implementing search sitelinks is easy. Today, we'll show you how to easily set up yours.

Does your site qualify?

This question isn't easy to answer. Not every site qualifies for the sitelinks search box, and Google isn't overly transparent about the requirements. However, if you can answer "yes" to any of these questions below, it's quite possible your site qualifies.

Google often sends notifications to verified, eligible sites through Webmaster Tools. Did you ever get one?

Navigational or branded search traffic - Keyword phrases such as 'mbt' and 'mybloggertricks' send this website thousands of visits. The more the volume of branded search traffic, the likelier the sitelinks search box is to appear.

Try searching for your site using the most common branded and navigational search queries that your visitors might use. If the sitelinks search box already appears, then you most likely qualify to take advantage of adding the SearchAction Schema on your site and directing visitors to your own search results page.

Making use of your internal search engine

Most internal search engines work perfectly fine, including the default WordPress search function. If your website doesn't have internal search, it's easy to get started with a free Google Custom Search engine.

For websites that use Google's default Custom Search engine, Google also has the chance to make money on ad clicks, because the free version of the Customer Search engine includes Google ads. Google offers a paid version known as Site Search that allows an ad-free experience.

Adding the schema

The next step if your site qualifies is to add SearchAction schema markup on your site. Add the following code to your homepage.

Make sure to edit the "URL" and "target" fields to match your own website information.

If you implement the markup on your site, users will have the ability to jump directly from the sitelinks search box to your site’s search results page. If Google doesn't find any markup, it'll show them a Google search results page for the corresponding site: query, as it has already done until now.

If you have any questions, you can create a new thread over at our new forum. Good luck :)

How To Send Money With SnapChat ?

Just when we thought messaging apps couldn't get any more unconventional, along comes Snapchat with a whole new trick up its sleeve. The popular photo messaging application that recently came to fame has announced a new feature "Snapcash" today through a deal with Square Cash, whereby users can send money to their friends as simply as sending a text message. The feature has been rolled out on Android, with the iOS version coming soon.

This isn't the first time a social networking application has delved into peer-to-peer payments. Just last month, Twitter announced a feature where users in France could send money by simply making a tweet. This latest Snapcash feature isn't very different in essence.

How does it work?

To send money, you simply have to add a payment method - such a debit card to your Snapchat account. Type a dollar amount into the text-chat feature, and just hit the green pay button to instantly send money to a friend!

Here is a video explaining how Snapcash works!

Users in the US who are 18+ can sign up by adding a Visa or MasterCard debit card. All their account details are held by Square Cash, you don’t have to worry as much about trusting Snapchat, which has had privacy and security problems in past.

While in Snapchat text-chat, you type in “$” then the dollar amount you want to send. Snapchat recognizes you’re trying to pay, changes the send button to a green Snapcash button, and tapping it deposits money into a friend’s account. That cash will be waiting for them when they sign up if they haven’t already. If the friend doesn’t sign-up to accept the payment within 24 hours, the cash will be refunded so you don’t have to worry about money…disappearing.

Beyond peer-to-peer payments, the trademarks could prime Snapchat for eCommerce and payments to merchants as well. By wedging itself into p2p payments through a consumer app that tens of millions of people already regularly use with their close friends, Snapcash could really inject itself into the lives of people who never considered downloading a finance app.

Go Snapchat!

How To Change Your YouTube Account URL?

Are you stuck with your YouTube account URL you picked long ago that doesn't quite capture the essence of what you do anymore? Despair not, for YouTube is giving you a way out. You can now get a new custom URL that's more befitting of your brand. This is definitely better than opening up a brand new channel, and losing all of your previous subscribers. The option will be made available over the next week.

Starting this week, YouTube will be sending out emails and notifications to qualifying users that will give them the opportunity to claim a new URL.

YouTube will suggest some potential URLs for you to choose from based on your channel’s description, Google identify, and websites associated with your YouTube account. One you pick your new URL, your subscribers will be automatically redirected if they try to get to your account via the old URL.

Be careful, because once you change your URL once you won’t be able to change it again, so make sure it’s one you’re fully satisfied with.

How does it work?

First, you have to meet YouTube’s eligibility requirements, which are as follows:

500 or more subscribers

Channels is at least 30 days old

Channel has uploaded a photo for the channel icon

Channel has uploaded channel art

You may also be able to qualify for a custom URL after linking and verifying your website with your YouTube channel.

You’ll know if you qualify for a new custom URL because YouTube will notify you via email. From there you can take the following steps:

Changing the Account URL

Sign in to YouTube and navigate to the Creator Studio.

Look for your “Get a new custom URL” notification and click in the included link

You’ll be redirected to claim a custom URL.

You’ll see the custom URL(s) you’ve been approved for. These cannot be changed. You may also need to add a few letters or numbers to make the URL unique to you.

Click the box next to “I agree to the Terms of Service” then click Change URL in the bottom left corner.

This URL will be linked to both your YouTube channel and your Google+ identity. Once your URL has been approved, you cannot request to change it. When you’re certain, click Confirm choice.