You now have an opportunity to receive the Internet marketing education that can last a lifetime.

The Secret Classroom

It’s not an ebook that overpromises and underdelivers.

It’s not a software tool that teases you with an “easy” button and leaves you disappointed.

And it’s not a seminar that doles out a few juicy bits and then asks you for your money.

On the contrary…

The Secret Classroom is the course that the Internet marketing community has been waiting for… even begging for..

I’m sure you’ve heard of Joel Comm’s internet marketing reality show, The Next Internet Millionaire, and perhaps even the Secret Classroom which was 12 DVD product released soon after.

Well, Joel has now put all DVD’s, workbooks and bonuses online in a private member’s area and he’s slashed the price to make it literally a no brainer for you to get instant access today.

You’ve undoubtedly heard of the legends who are a part of this 22-hour one of a kind event.

Check out this amazing roster…

- Mark Joyner (the Godfather of Internet marketing!)
- Armand Morin (made over $25,000,000 in his online business!)
- Jeff Walker (responsible for more successful product launches than anyone else!)
- Marlon Sanders (a living legend of online marketing!)
- Mike Koenings (no one knows online video like this guy!)
- Brad Fallon (can you say StomperNet?)
- Kristopher Jones (CEO of Pepperjam Search!)
- Mike Filsaime (the world’s viral marketing expert!)
- Ray Edwards (gets $10,000+ to write a sales letter!)
- Dave Taylor (prolific blogger, author and speaker!)
- Perry Marshall (the world’s leading AdWords expert!)
- Rich Schefren (the guru to the gurus!)

You could pay thousands of dollars to attend a conference where SOME of these people are speaking…

… but you will never find them all together teaching for up to two hours each!

Only twelve people were privileged to attend this exclusive seminar.

Now, for the first time…

YOU ARE INVITED!

To Watch All 22 Hours ONLINE!

And check out the amazing intro video at SecretClassroom.com and then take advantage of the lowest price ever for this incredible product.

Post from: Social Media Vision

The Secrets of Twelve Internet Millionaires Revealed

Twitter Clean Up

I wrote a post before on how to do a Twitter cleanup by using FriendorFollow.com to remove all non-followers on Twitter and using Twitter directories like Twellow.com or Wefollow.com to find and increase your niche follower count. The reason for a Twitter clean up is to remove all the non-engaged followers in your Twitter stream (besides celebs and news profiles).

Why follow these users if they don’t follow you back and provide relevant and engaging conversations? The 2nd step of a Twitter clean up is to increase your niche and social network of Followers that’s relevant to you.   The Twitter directories was a way to focus on finding new friends who you can target more effectively than friend  search.

New Twitter Account Management Tool for Maintenance

Well I have found a new website tool called InRev TwitIn at http://www.buzzom.com/ In their words

Welcome!!! Experience the new Social Media Tool. To follow and unfollow people in Twitter is just a click away. Just type in your Twitter Id and get on. Have Fun!! Manage your Twitter Account with faster operation and methods found nowhere else, secured by OAuth.

I recently came across this site and have found this tool to be the All-in-One ultimate resource for account management.  I also found this to more effective and faster than using friendorfollow in which I will explain why here shortly. To use the site, you must first log in using OAuth (an open protocol to secure access to a website with protected data)

Once in you will notice 3 major features for this website

1. Flush – Unfollow who are not following you

2.  Grow - Grow network, follow new people

3.  Reciprocate – Follow your followers back

The Flush Button

The Flush button is used to bring up 50 users (hit “refresh list” to bring up more) you are following but are not following you back.  Take advantage of this method by removing all the users in your Twitter stream who provide no engagement or value.

There is however the exception with Celebrities, News and other High Profile accounts that you may follow but don’t expect them to engage or follow back. Buzzom does have a great feature for filtering out these users and still pursue the rest.  These features are considering “locking”.  You have the “Follow Lock” and the “Unfollow Lock”.

• Locking – Locking users will place all the users you checkmark in an area where it won’t be in your future results anymore.
• The Follow Lock – All locked users you checkmark while searching for new users to Follow will be placed in the tab.  This is great when searching for new people to Follow on Buzzom, you can filter out all the Spammers, Bots and non-relevant people you don’t want to follow.  This is not a block feature but simply a filter to not show these users in Buzzom.
• The UnFollow Lock – Every user you Checkmark to Lock while “Flushing” away or finding users who you follow but they don’t follow back will be placed in the Unfollow Lock tab.  People place here are your typical Celebrities, News Feeders or High profile users who don’t typically follow people back.  Don’t worry if your afraid of removing a Twitter user who you like to follow but don’t mind they follow back, you can “SAVE” them or “LOCK” them so that way you won’t remove them from your Follow list.

Everything you Lock will be saved for all future uses due to OAuth.  Once you login Buzzom it will save your information for future use.  So Flush away and be sure to “SAVE” the users who you want to keep following while “FLUSHING” the rest of the users who don’t follow you back.

The Grow Button

This action provides you the list of people who are likely to follow you back. You can select the people from the list and follow them all at once.  You can also “LOCK” users who you do not want to follow and have Buzzom show them in the future searches.

The list is actually relevant to your profile and the users do have a high follow-back ratio.  Just because Buzzom automates the list you can still manually scroll down and un-check mark users you may feel not be worthy in following and adding to your network.

One of the fastest methods I seen to accurately grow your Twitter Network effectively and efficiently.  Other great methods Buzzom provides are:

• People Search - This search you can target new people to Follow by using keywords to locate in the Bio’s or Tweets.  This is a great search that I have found to replace the Twitter Directories like Twellow.  For instance I would use Twellow to locate “Real Estate Agents” or “Virginia” in the categories or search.  Buzzom now takes the search 1 step further by also allowing to switch to keywords in Tweets too.  So in essence this is an all-in-one search in this one stop shop site.
• Cross Follow - This cool feature will allow you to choose which Twitter user you want to show data for either all of his/her Followers or all of his/her users she is following.  In essence you will be comparing your data with thiers and will only show the people not in your network to allow to add to yours.  You can start selecting all the Top profiles in your niche to Cross Follow, it’s all about surrounding your self with like minded success individuals right?

The Reciprocate Button This action will bring up all the users who are following you that you haven’t followed back yet.  Now mostly the users you have skipped may be due to spammers or bots but you may occasionally skip a few on accident and this feature is great for finding lost stragglers.  These users who are following you should deserve a follow back if they are not spammers.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Ultimate Twitter Account Management Tool & Clean Up Maintenance

Video Pocket Cam War

I am actually in the market for a new pocket camera that is real easy to use, not too high-tech and for the right price.  Last year the Flip Video Camera killed the market making it popular to all consumers both tech savvy and non.

With the increase in Social Media Video Blogging especially cheesy Facebook birthday videos (LOL) Pocket Cams are all the lastest buzz.

This year it seems that the HD market is in play and the 3 names that kept coming up when doing comparisons were the..

• Flip Ultra-HD – The leading pocket camera maker that boosted its popularity last year with the cheap Flip Camera now with a ultra slick hd version.
• Sony Webbie-HD – Sony’s baby in trying to compete with the Flip market
• Vado-HD – Vado was Flips biggest competitor last year who was cheaper and better specs but because of the media and hype Flip got more attention.  This year though Vado is back with a vengenace.

So below are the Side-By-Side specs and features..lets see who the winner is just on specs alone and maybe ill do a follow-up blog

Flip Ultra-HD

The Flip Video Camera website http://www.theflip.com

• The Price: $199

• Recording Time: 2 hours

• Memory: 8gb

• Screen Size: 2.0″ (Diagonal)

• Weight: 6.0 oz

• Digital Zoom: 2x

• Video Resolution: 1280 x 720 pixels

• Battery Life: up to 2.5 Hours
  

• Battery Option: 2 AA Batteries Rechargeable

• Colors: 2 colors

Sony Webbie-HD

The Webbie Video Camera website http://www.SonyStyle.com/handycam

• The Price: $169

• Recording Time: When using 16GB Memory Stick PRO Duo^™ media (sold separately) up to 5 1/2 hours

• Memory: Requires Memory Sticks – up to 16 GB

• Screen Size: 1.8″ (Diagonal)

• Weight: 4 oz

• Digital Zoom: 4x

• Video Resolution: 1440x 1080 pixels

• Battery Life: up to 1 hour 25mins
  

• Battery Option: built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery

• Colors: 3 colors

Vado HD

The Vado Video Camera website http://www.Creative.com

• The Price: $229

• Recording Time: 2 hours

• Memory: 8gb

• Screen Size: 2.0″ (Diagonal)

• Weight: 3.5 oz

• Digital Zoom: 2x

• Video Resolution: 1280 x 720 pixels

• Battery Life: 2 hours
  

• Battery Option: rechargeable lithium ion battery

• Colors: 1 color

Winners

1.  Price – Vado HD $229

2.  Time – Webbie HD 5 hours

3.  Memory – Webbie HD 16GB

4.  Screen – TIE – Flip HD & Vado HD 2″ Diagonal

5.  Weight – Vado HD 3.5 oz

6.  Zoom – Webbie HD 4x

7. Resolution – Webbie HD 1440 x 1080

8.  Battery – Flip HD 2.5 hours

9.  Type Battery – Webbie HD built in rechargeable battery

10.  Color – Webbie HD 3 colors

Totals = Webbie the Winner with 6 out of 9 GOLD.

Specs alone show that the Sony Webbie is the best choice…but does that mean its still the best overall camera?

Hope you enjoyed the side by side!

Post from: Social Media Vision

Flip Ultra-HD vs Sony Webbie-HD vs Vado-HD for Video Pocket Cam War

TweepME Still Alive? https://www.tweepme.com/

The run down on TweepME is that its a Web service that Auto-Follow Application on Twitter promoting to gain Followers based on Self Replicating Followers who use TweepMe service.  Bottom line is sheep of followers who mindlessly auto-follow who ever is in the scam network.

TweepMe has been Suspended many times on Twitter and recieved much criticism over the past months on how this service is a joke and is missing the whole point of Social Networking.

TweepMe started out if you ReTweeted the Web Site link you get added to the network for free as long as you login your Username and Password which is stored from the Twitter API.  This is why it was called a Virus or Trojan because it would manually follow and followback all people associated in this shady network.

Now TweepMe is charging members to join?  The latest ad as seen in the picture above on my blog is asking for$12.95, the sad thing is people are still gullible in doing this service.

TweepMe is pointless because……

• It’s a scam and a waste of money
• It has a bad reputation already and you don’t want to associate with them
• Most accounts who follow you are FAKES with no AVATARS
• You lose your connection and personal side with your followers

If you want more followers, use the simple approach………

• Use Services like www.twellow.com to find followers in your niche like Location, Business, and Interests.
• Connect with your followers more and then in turn you will get noticed
• Join twitter directories like Wefollow.com
• Use Followfriday #Hashtags in hopes to get some follow love back
• Have a complete written profile with strong keywords to be searchable
• Provide Quality Tweets and you will get noticed

Post from: Social Media Vision

TweepME Will Not Go Away, Don’t Waste Your Money On This Site

Seesmic Desktop Launches

Twhirl was pretty much the only competition for Tweetdeck and was naturally crushed by Tweetdeck’s great organizational columns and clean interface.  Twhirl was purchased by Seesmic last year and just couldn’t find a way to catch up to Tweetdeck’s success until now, maybe…

Seesmic just launched a new third party Twitter client called Seesmic Desktop which is only in “Desktop Preview” which basically means beta or alpha stage still.  Go to Seesmics website http://desktop.seesmic.com/ and input your e-mail address to get an invite.    

Keep in mind this is a Desktop Preview, so there is many bugs and issues to be resolved still.

The main focus is having Multiple Accounts     

Seesmic has seemed to answer out Twitter prayers by providing a client that can handle multiple accounts at the same time!  I love this feature and I have been following the TweetDeck suggestion boards for a while and I am surprised TweetDeck has never implemented this highly sought out feature.

It is so simple to switch accounts and manage all your replies, main streams and even direct messages.  You can even reply in which ever account you want to display in the client.

Why have multiple accounts?

Most users have multiple accounts to fill in different niches.  For example myself, I have a business and a personal Twitter account.  I of course Tweet my business updates via my Twitter business profile and my personal tweets via my personal Twitter profile.

Now instead of logging off Tweetdeck everytime I want to Tweet in my business profile, I can seamlessly switch to either account on the fly.

The clone is missing the Facebook feature

Yes Seesmic Desktop has pretty much copied Tweetdecks main features the one feature that Seesmic did not take as of yet is the Facebook feature which TweetDeck has.  TweetDeck just recently came out with a new update just in the nick of time when Seesmic launched, coincidence?

Other Cons

Like I mentioned before, not to be too harsh on Seesmic because they are still in preview mode….below are some cons I am frustrated with

• The interface is really ugly and the fonts are not clean compared to TweetDeck.  It’s really hard to read sometimes Twitter users profiles and other messages because of this.  They really need to get a good graphic artist to kick this up a notch.
• Adding people to groups is really a pain because unlike Tweetdeck you can only add people by finding the people you want to add in your Twitter Stream Archive or using the search feature.  There is no master user list where it populates all the Twitter usernames in your follow list so that way you can just check off the ones you want to include.  This is very frustrating and I hope they fix this soon.
• Errors…Errors…Errors….I really hate when I shut down the client it does not save my groups and I get this annoying error window.

Fullfillment

Bottom line is that for users who were craving for the multiple account feature, well now you can fullfill that with Seesmic and I am pretty sure that the final released version should hopefully clear up these issues before then….

Post from: Social Media Vision

Seesmic Desktop Replaces TweetDeck For The Multiple Account Twitter Client

Updated ShareThis (http://sharethis.com/)

People know that I love ShareThis widget because it’s so easy to add to your blog and the many links they provide lightning fast.

They have been growing increasingly popular with all the awards they have been recently receiving and growing a stronger base more and more everyday.

Today ShareThis announced the latest release of the ShareThis widget.  The biggest and most exciting change that I saw was that they are going Tab-Free which was the biggest complaint of most ShareThis users.  Simplicity is key and they simplified the tabs to one section making it more convenient for us bloggers.

The other updated changes focus more on the Social Media content of improving ways to share your links and importing contacts.  These are also great simplified changes that improve performance time and time consumption.

Below is the official press release of the update…

Here is what you can expect:

• No tabs!  We listened to your feedback and redesigned the widget to be tab-free.  We have merged the Social Web and Post tabs into one section, making the experience more intuitive and manageable for the user.

• Smarter Widget.  Whenever registered ShareThis users share content to their contacts, we will display the last three addresses used.  Reducing time searching for most used contacts encourages users to share more frequently.

• ShareBox v2.0.  Users can now save content directly to their ShareBox through a link in the widget.  We had several requests for this feature so we are excited to announce it is now available!

• Contact Manager. ShareThis users will now be able to access and import their contacts from within the widget.  This allows your users to gain access to their address books without leaving your site.

Common questions:

Q. Do I need to make any changes to my existing code?
No, we will automatically push the new design to your site as well as maintain your current customization, such as link colors and the order/selection of the social web services.

Q. When is the new design going to go live on my site?
We plan on doing a full release across all publishers starting later this week.

Q. Will my reporting still work after the new design is released?
Yes, all data will be intact and viewable from your ShareThis Reporting Dashboard.

Q. Can I change the customization of the new widget?
Yes, in order to change the look and feel as well as reorder the services, you can do so by using the new ShareThis Widget Configurator (available when the new widget is on your site).  You will find some new customization options, such as the ability to allow the widget to open on click or on hover.

Q. Will my offset settings migrate over to the new widget?
Yes, your offset parameters will migrate, however, since the new widget is much smaller, please check your settings to make sure the widget appears in the right location on the page. 

 

Great update ShareThis team and keep those updates coming!

Post from: Social Media Vision

New Updates with Social Media Widget ShareThis

A new content discovery platform where bloggers can monetize on their talent (http://www.bloggersbase.com)

I just recently discovered this website early this month in which subsequently I just found out that the website just started in December 2008.

The website is called BloggersBase.com and is a new Blogging community where you can share your content, enter in weekly cash prizes, actively view/engage the best posts of your favorite niche and gain exposure for yourself as a blogger.

I really like this website because it’s still in Beta and I got a chance to explore the community and provide some of my posts on my website that may of not got much exposure with other avenues.   So I got a chance to test a new audience and a new source of results.

I also noticed one of our Favorite Social Media Marketers is Blonde 2.0 is an active contributor and advocate on the site.

The Blog Competition

The website has it’s standard categories to post your content to; Entertainment, Lifestyle, Technology, World Affairs, Special Events and Partnerships.  Each parent category has it’s own sub-categories.

I am a Tech & Social Media blogger so I found Technology->Internet to post to.  What’s unique about BloggersBase is that you can re-publish your content that you already written and does not have to be an exclusive article.  This is great especially if you are time constraint and wishing to just get more exposure with an article you have written before.

Nuggets

When you first start out you are assigned a newbie rank as a blogger and a reader.  You can promote in ranks for both “Blogger” and “Reader” rank with the more you participate in.  With the higher ranks you achieve, you will gain “Influence” or Authority.

For Example:  A lowbie “Reader” rank who comments and votes.  Your votes are counted very little.  When you gain more higher ranks, your votes will have more value.

A lowbie “Blogger” when posting new posts will not be displayed in the voting competition right away.  The newbie blogger will instead be put in a “Nuggets” category where you have to gain certain votes to get out of.  Once out of the “Nuggets” stage you can then post your posts to the voting competition.

Weekly Prizes

Since Bloggersbase is fairly new, you have less competition and more of a chance to win the weekly cash prizes every week.  Like I said, I just started and already won $50 in 2 weeks time.

$40 for first prize and $10 for second prize.

Payment is sent to Paypal which is great because its fast and secure.

The winners will receive also status points for the “Blogger” rank system, promotional prizes (one week was a BloggersBase Ipod), Cash prizes and the title of Author to keep posting posts to the main blog instead of writing new “Nuggets” for that week.

Conclusion

The last reason why you should join BloggersBase is because most posts have already hit the front page results for Google.  This is another great SEO technique similar to posting to EZine Articles and other posting platforms.

So join now, its Free and less competition right now.  I will see you around Bloggersbase.

Post from: Social Media Vision

New Blog Platform Competition Community To Gain Exposure & Money – BloggersBase

Power Twitter 1.0 Review

New Firefox Addon Power Twitter just released a new version 1.o that is making headlines all over the Twittersphere lately.

Narendra Rocherolle over at 83 Degrees created this Firefox Addon found here.  (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9591)

This new Addon allows Twitter users to use some strong features within Twitter to become more of a Power User for Twitter.  Most recent famous Twitter Stars that associated with Power Twitter were Techcrunch, Problogger and Twitter founder Biz seen below.

The Hype

The Features

1.  Twitter Search Improved

Power Twitter enables a better call-to-action with the new location of the Twitter’s Search feature.  Not only is the main search feature moved to the sidebar but also you can search within a Twitter user’s specific timeline if you click on their profile.  This is a great feature that makes searching for content more accessible.

2.  Tweet History 

With Power Twitter installed you can now mouse-over a user’s profile picture in your Twitter stream to showcase a Tweet History of that user.  This is really effective feature because you can now keep track better of previous Tweets from your favorite Twitter friends.  I find this extremely necessary when you have more than 300 friends to follow.  This option may not be as organized as Tweetdeck’s group feature but still does the trick in keeping up with your priority friends on Twitter so you won’t feel guilty in missing a Tweet.

3.  Facebook Status Updates

This is a cool new feature where you can see your friends on Facebook status updates.  You can’t really respond or update your own Facebook status with this new tab in your sidebar but does keep you in the loop with your Facebook updates which might be handy.

4.  Embedded Pictures and Videos

Now this feature is really handy because now your Twitter stream will show you the Videos and Pictures that are linked on Twitter now instead of seeing the shorten URLS.  You maybe familiar with this type of set-up with Facebook wall posts that show you the automatic pictures and videos embedded in the profile.

5.  URL Improvement

URL’s are now showing the URL titles instead of the shrink URL links.  This removes the masking of the shorten urls so you might get  better picture in what you are clicking to.

6. Reply Feature Improved

If you ever used Tweetdeck, you may of noticed you pick up better detailed Reply messages in the client than the web browser.  The reason behind this is due to that Tweetdeck scans for all @(your username) regardless at the beginning, middle or end.  The web browser only shows the @ replies that only begin with your username, not showcasing Retweets or other conversation elements.

7. Web Browser Tool

Finally another feature of the Power Twitter is that this is just an add-on to your current Firefox web browser.  This is not a software client you need to download and install.  Some people may not like software clients and thus is why you may want to choose Power Twitter.  Another reason why web based is a good option is because many corporate computers will not let you download any software but will let you install addons to current software like Firefox.

The Complaints

With any new up and coming Twitter Power Apps there will be complaints and cons.  Below are a couple I have found.

*Multi-Platforms

Power Twitter is only made for Firefox toolbar and is missing support for Mobile, Mac & other web browser users.  They are missing a huge opportunity here.

*Options Menu missing

Power Twitter needs to have an options menu to configure because I sometimes want certain features like the URL expansion disabled or the Video/Picture removed.  People like Twitter because its very clean and having the Videos and Pictures keep auto-populating in the Twitterstream can clutter and slow down immensely.  Also with with the URL expansions, I would like to sometimes ReTweet with the shorten url attached but when you copy in Power Twitter mode you get the title formation instead.  Very, very aggrovating.

*Software Client Option 

This is simple.  Have an option of transferring these features to a software application like Tweetdeck.  Some users hate using the browser to Tweet.

*Extremely Laggy

Last but not least, Power Twitter has very delayed load times when loading the Power Twitter features on every refresh and new page on Twitter within the browser.  This may improve in the future or may not.   As of right now this is considered a slight hassle because the load time is not huge but is noticeable.

So there you have it, the Pros & Cons of the Power Twitter Tool.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Becoming A Power Twitter User With New Firefox Addon Power Twitter

About 6pm EST the Twitter world has witnessed a massive DM response saying “hey! Check out this funny blog about you? http:/ / j an nawa litax. blogspot. com ” (Don’t click ont that link)

The link turned out to be a Re-Direct Phishing Scam to a Fake Twitter Log In Screen.  The idea behind this scam is of course tricking users thinking that they somehow logged off of Twitter and will need to re-enter their username and password.

Phishing in the cyberworld is a play-on-words for Fishing which shows scammers in the act of Fishing action to trick people into getting their Passwords.

Don’t Mess With The TwittPack

Twitter is a very tight community that if provoked can turn on you like a rabid wild wolf pack feeding off a hungry frenzy.  We all witnessed the Motrin Mom case where the Twitter world backlashed the Motrin PR people and ultimately started an uproar in the cyber world.

Now another case arises from this and this time the Tight Twitter community has turned on Scammers.  Below is an excerpt of just some conversations going on.  At the time of writing this article the Twitter Search trends has reached over thousands of Tweets just in a 30 minute span.

The Twitter spammer apparently comes from china (via PhishTank.com):

Organization : zhang xiaohu
Name : zhang xiaohu
Address : changningzhonghuainanlu192hao
City : changning
Province/State : Hunan
Country : CN
Postal Code : 421500 

 

The Twitter spammer will sadly feel the wrath of backlash in the Twitter World and will be another guinea pig made into example in not to mess with the Twitter Wolf Pack.

The wildfire has spreaded from the Twitter Staff to Google’s own poster child Matt Cutt.  The scammer who might of gotten away with this kind of thing if they kept this on the down low and really didn’t mass affect everyone but the scammer purley deserves this because you got to be insane to think that the Twitter community will not spread news faster than Superman.

 Now the scammer will more than likely be shut down, banned, pressed charges and be black balled in the cyberworld forever.

Within a half hour the Twitter Staff has uploaded a Static Banner across all the Twitter Home Screens

Power of the wolfpack!

Post from: Social Media Vision

Twitter Wildfire Spread On The Jannawalitax Scam Like A Pack Of Wolves

URL Shrinker

URL shrinking tools have become very popular over the few years with long links like EBAY auction links and the character limit in Plurk and Twitter.

The most popular and most classic URL shrinking tool is Tinyurl which even Twitter has adapted as the main URL shortening tool.  Tiny URL is the original URL shrinker and is the one that is most understood with the name.  Everyone knows what Tinyurl means when looking at the service where other services like is.gd or snipurl may not be user friendly to some.

Birth of Budurl

I have been using Tinyurl like most others have and I noticed there was something missing.  I wanted a way to see who was clicking on my links that I provide on Twitter to measure my results.

Within my Real Estate community I was introduced to Budurl where a lot of my fellow Real Estate professionals been throwing up Budurl links instead of Tinyurl links.  This sparked my interest in checking out the site because of so many Tweets I been noticing the switch.  

Budurl turned out to be great tool in providing Link Stats and a URL shrinker.  You can even create an account to keep track of your URL shrinks to see how many people have clicked on your link.  If you don’t want to create an account you can just put a “/s” at the end of your Budurl link to see the stats within your web browser.

So Budurl was only 22 characters while Tinyurl was 25 characters.  Budurl provided link stats while Tinyurl didn’t.

Budurl won my vote.

Bit.Ly knocks out Budurl

Recently there has been many new URL shrink sites out there that really do the same thing but with just different names.  I have experienced quite a few of these and still became loyal to Budurl.

2 Sites have caught my interest though recently, Is.Gd and Bit.ly URL shrink service sites.  Now these 2 sites have caught my interest to the simple fact that the Twitter client Tweetdeck has the shorten URL services within the client.

Is.Gd is by far the shortes URL service out there with only an astounding 17 characters total.  The only down side is this service still doesn’t provide good link stats and track like Budurl.  So I would only use Is.Gd if I need to utilize a very long Tweet, taking advantage of the extra 5+ characters I can save.

Character Limit

Bit.Ly is only 20 characters but does a whole lot more than Budurl.  I have been a Budurl fan for a long time and I didn’t think any URL shorten service will beat Budurl until I seen the features on Bit.Ly.

Traffic Sources

Bit.ly has a link tracker too like Budurl but always takes it a step further.  Bit.Ly displays all the referring sites and E-mail/Software stats.  So whether a user reads the shorten url via chat client, e-mail or Twitter, Bit.ly will show you how many clicks.

Conversations

The biggest reason why I switched to Bit.Ly is due to the c0nversation tracking in this URL shrink service.  You can actually keep track of your Retweets in Twitter and reposts in Friendfeed.  Not only can you keep track of sites displaying your shorten url but you can also view the comments left on the link as-well.

Convenience

Lastly on why I made the switch to Bit.Ly is because of this last feature which makes Bit.Ly more attractive to use especially at work when you can’t download Twitter clients like Tweetdeck, the feature is the last 15 recent shrinks.

Bit.Ly will display your last 15 URL shrinks without forcing you to create an account or log in an account.  This is perfect for on the fly and is so convenient to see all your stats on one page.  Budurl can display all your Budurl links to display clicks but you have to log in and create an account.

Yes I have made the switch to Bit.Ly now and I have nothing against Budurl they were a good service to use but for right now Bit.Ly has won me over.  What are your thoughts?

Post from: Social Media Vision

Bit.ly Trumps Budurl To Become Best Twitter Link Track, Stat & Shrink Tool