You Can Opt Out Of Applications

Facebook has now introduced a button for users to opt out from the entire Facebook Platform. That means you can block all applications, games, etc. While developers will probably not be happy about this, this means users no longer have to deal with application requests, as well as spam on their wall from applications. That means the more that developers spam, the more likely users will opt-out of the Facebook Platform all together.

You Can Hide Your Friends List

One major upgrade is that users’ friends lists can now be made private. That means applications and other third-party developers will not be able to find out who your friends are. Additionally, all friends can be made private which means anybody who found your Facebook profile through Google can be prevented from finding out who your friends are. This is a major move by Facebook in terms of giving users more control.

You Can Hide Your Interests

Facebook’s interests were recently shifted to a system called “Connections”. That means those interests were essentially made public when the new community pages first rolled out in April can now be made private. This is a huge win for users who suddenly found out that a large percentage of their profile

Much Information Is Still Public By Default

When users register for the site, it appears that a lot of information will still be public by default. This is different than the more private nature of the site, which Facebook started as. However, all new users will be able to customize their privacy settings and make their information more private. Facebook believes that more users want to share more information about themselves, as society becomes more transparent, and as such their default settings reflect this.

You Can Hide Information From The Past

By shifting your information to “Friends Only” you can prevent previous status updates from being made public. This is a great feature. Many users have been confused about privacy settings over the past couple years, and by making the settings work for information that was posted in the past, and in the future, users should now be clear about what is public and what isn’t.

You Should Review Your Settings

Once the new privacy settings roll out, you should immediately check your settings. This is because your settings will be saved as they currently exist. So if you have information that was made public through Facebook’s last privacy change (via the transition tool), you can now go back and make content (including status updates) that were previously made public, private.

Privacy Now Only Takes One Click

The most significant change here is that Facebook has shifted the privacy settings to only require one-click. By selecting “Everyone”, “Friends of Friends”, “Friends Only”, or “Recommended”, users can have most of their settings configured quickly. If users decide that they want to get even more granular with their settings, each aspect of their privacy can still be configured, as was the case before.

There Is Now A Single Directories Settings Page

Your Facebook information shows up in a number of directories around the web. In order to control how that information was displayed, you previously needed to visit a number of pages. All of those settings pages have been boiled down into a new privacy directory page (pictured below). This will control how (and if) people from Google, and within Facebook search are able to access you.

Settings Will Be Rolled Out Over The Next Few Weeks

Over the next few weeks, users will see the new privacy settings rolled out to via www.facebook.com/privacy. As users get used to the settings, we will be posting more comprehensive guides that explain everything. Overall, the new settings should be much easier as they only require a single click rather than configuring 50 different things. For those users what granular control, it still exists, but the redesigned privacy settings were built for the masses and that means they should be much more simple.

Check back over the coming weeks to learn more about what these new settings mean for you and your privacy and safety.

Does the length of your website’s domain name registration affect search engine optimization and results? Should you renew your domain name for a long period of time? And if so, how long is long enough?

If you want to stay ahead of your competition, then you might consider looking at the length of time your competitors have registered their domain names. If your competitors have generally renewed their domain names for one or two years, you might consider registering your domain name for 5 or 10 years. While putting off your domain name’s expiration date might help your search engine rankings, keep in mind that this may be only a small victory when it comes to search engine rankings.
Its good business sense to register a domain for at least 10 years. You don’t want to deal with the annual process of renewing them every year. It’s best to obtain the domain names that you want to keep for a while and renew then on a 5 to 10 year plan.

If your domain name expires, there’s a good chance that someone will register your domain name immediately after it expires. If, for whatever reason, you don’t renew your domain name, someone keeping a ‘watch list’ of expiring domain names will try to capitalize on the online business that you’ve built over the years. They know that there is potential website traffic they can have simply by renewing your old domain name. By renewing your domain name for several years, your domain name won’t expire for a while, and it won’t be opened up to expired domain name buyers.

We highly recommend the domain registrar and hosting service, Fatcow. Yeah, funny name but incredible service and the best value online. Register a domain and get hosting for your site for only $66 a year. This same $66 fee also gives you UNLIMITED websites, UNLIMITED bandwidth and UNLIMITED space! It’s true…I have been using it for years and it is rock solid.

A healthy traffic of Internet users is always a welcome sight in online marketing. There are ways of increasing web traffic and one of them is by utilizing the RSS or Real Simple Syndication button in your webpage.

 Real Simple Syndication goes like this: Readers that are interested in getting up-to-date information regarding your entries may opt to subscribe to your RSS feeds, whether it be on their computers or in their mobile phones.

This creates a virtual messaging system that informs them when you come up with new content. And the faster that news gets to them, the better it would be for you and your online marketing site.

Once your readers subscribe to your feeds, it is all a matter of giving them info that they want.

But let us take it up a notch.

What if you could find a way to see what is it that readers want and make content off that? You can imagine the power that it will give you in choosing popular topics that will keep your readers interested all the time. More traffic to your site, more profit for you. Google News searches for keywords from world headlines within a given time frame. Results are then displayed for your use and advantage. Google news can be customized to give you constant alerts whenever news related to keywords that you typed in occur or happen. You can do this by subscribing to Google News Alerts straight to your own RSS feed. And being the first one with new (relevant) news is always good.

Now this is the fun part

Armed with that information, you can also create articles that are relevant to news tipped to you by Google News. Wonderful, is it not?

 Imagine the articles and entries you can write from all that relevant news!

To get ahead of the online marketing pack, you have to be two steps ahead of the competition. If adapting and tailoring your content to the readers’ needs and interests makes the difference to your survival or demise, you will need all the help you can get.

Use Google News to your advantage and the readers’ delight. More readers equals more income for your site!