Major Facebook Changes On The Horizon

I'm sure you are hearing a bunch of stuff about SSL Certificates and the October 1st deadline to comply or else right? 

Well starting October 1, 2011 Facebook will be requiring an SSL Certificate for all pages & apps hosted outside of Facebook. So what the heck does that mean? And how does that affect you?

Well that depends on how you use Facebook because it will be different based on whether or not you are a regular user, a business page owner or a  developer.  Let's do a little exploration here. 

What is an SSL Certificate????

SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer”.  Clears that right up right???  Well, what that means is that  SSL is a protocol which has been designed to enable applications to transmit information back and forth securely. Applications that use the SSL protocol know how to give and receive encryption keys with other applications. This means that they know not to give hackers your information.

The technology has been around for some time, serving a number of purposes. Today the most common use is to seal sensitive internet services such as online banking. SSL is also used for e-mail, instant messaging, and more. The main actions supported by SSL are to prove that a site belongs to a certain person.

Facebook has decided to do this as a way to try to protect you. With all the fire they've been getting about privacy issues they feel that this is the easiest way to stop outside sites and 3rd party applications from stealing your information.  So what they are attempting to do is keep those people who have nothing better to do than to hack into people's accounts by creating hijacking apps from stealing your login info.

How Will This Change Affect You

This all depends on your usage of Facebook.

For regular users who are on Facebook there will be nothing much that will change as far as you are concerned.  Whenever you click on your friend’s wall or any of their other pages you really won’t notice anything new. Where you could possibly notice changes is on games you play or any apps on a Facebook page you visit. 

If they haven’t gotten their SSL certificate you’ll get a warning message that you will be switching to “non-secure” browsing to view the content...(I've actually been getting that for months).  Anyway, you will then have to decide if you want to view the content or not by switching. You’ll notice your browser go from "https" to "http".

Business Builders

If you have created a fan page to help you attract more business, unfortunately your page is going to be affected by this if you are not currently hosting your fanpage elsewhere.

Don't panic though, I know several companies that can offer you their services to make sure the transition for you will be done quickly and easily and at a low cost to you.  If you have not done anything about this yet, please don't wait to take action because come October 1st, anyone looking for a page that has not been secured by an SSL certificate will not find it and it's possible they won't look for you again.

Developers

If you code custom Facebook apps for pages you will need to make sure the domain you are hosting the app on has an SSL certificate or your clients will truly be upset with you when their customers can't access their page and they start getting those really annoying error messages.  Just imagine how you would feel if you are running an ad to that custom tab or app and you check it only to get an error message no matter how many times you try...(you know we never believe it when we can't connect.)

Truthfully, you actually have no other option but to suck it up and so go get your SSL certificate.

If you run a page for your business you will need to make sure your app has SSL certification...this way you're compliant and can continue building your business and keeping your clients happy. You will have to have that certificate if you are using any creator or your fans will see that warning message we talked about earlier telling them that they have to switch to non-secure browsing which freaks most people out.

So...How do you get an SSL Certificate?

Whatever host you are currently using has the SSL Certificates as an add-on or upgrade so it’s pretty easy to obtain and some of the companies may have included the SSL Certificate free of charge.  It's easy enough to go online or make a call to check and see if you need to purchase one or not. Cost will run you anywhere from $50 to $150.

Your domain must have a static IP address so to be on the safe side you should check to make certain you don't have a variable IP address.  That's another question to ask when you've got them on the tele.

Warning!!!

Don’t buy any of the products you might have seen being marketed telling you how to get an SSL certificate. You don’t need somebody trying to make a quick buck telling you in a video how to get it when all  you need to do is contact your whoever is hosting your account.  Stay away from those guys!!!

If you need a hosting account I would strongly recommend Host Gator as one of the best that I've found.  They are a proven company and their customer service and support are outstanding...meaning they always answer the phone.

For any other information you may need, you can always drop me a line at fromagratefulheart@gmail.com

Till next time, as my friend Mitch says...Have a better than perfect day!

Dee Price 

Facebook Changes - View Who Shares Your Posts

Facebook has been working diligently behind the scenes to enhance our FB experience, especially for those of us who are using pages to build our businesses online.


One of the changes is that they have now given us the ability to view who shares our posts...kind of like Twitter's retweet...maybe they will come up with a name like...rebooked or refaced.  


Anyway, this is really neat because if you are an owner of a FB page and someone who networks with others, it will let you know who is sharing your posts and then you can go thank them if you have liked their page.  However, even those who have not liked your page can share it with others. This will help you develop a relationship with them as well, which as you know will help to increase not only your following but also your bottom line.  In addition, you will also have the ability to "View all shares" when you are on other pages so you could possibly go comment on pages that have been shared by others as well.


Below is a video shot by Scott Ayers which explains exactly how this is done.

Really neat stuff right???  There are more changes that have taken place which I will be telling you about in my next blog.  


Until then, as my friend Mitch says...Have a better than perfect day!


Dee Price

Get Subscribers On Facebook

Forget adding friends you don;t know on Facebook, now you can Subscribe to them!

Facebook announced several weeks ago that they were making changes to the privacy settings that would now allow you to post on your profile to three different categories...“Public”, “Friends” and “Custom”.

The Public setting will be shown to anyone coming to your profile who is not already listed as your friends yet.  This will be used as a way to posts things that you don’t mind people who are not your friends seeing should they come to your profile. (I've got stories but we'll save those for another time...)  Anyway, look at it as a way to post things for other people to show you are interesting and that sending a friend request to you would be a good idea.  I heard about a person who has been playing around with the idea of adding 5000 friends to his profile to see what that does to traffic to his sites.  Right now he has a tab where he added a bunch of people he doesn't know to a List labeled “People I don’t know."  Then he made it so that those on that list couldn’t see pictures of his kids nor anything else he didn't want them to see, but they would only see stuff he made public.

However, today it has been announced by Facebook that now people that aren’t your friends can “Subscribe” to you. This is huge!!!

So now if you allow people to subsribe to your Public posts they can see updates from you without you becoming their friend.  You don’t have to be friends with people for them to see the posts on your profile and you can use this to grow your business.

I have no clue what this will do for Google+ but this may very well keep the average person from playing around with Google+ now.  I mean for people who have been building their friends up for a few years and already have a following, why start all over on another site?

If you are a network marketer or business person I would allow this Subscribe ASAP so more people can follow you..

Here is the link for instructions on how to turn this on.  https://www.facebook.com/about/subscriptions

If you want to subscribe to my Facebook profile, click HERE

IBO Toolbox

Hi Friends,


Some of the things that every business owner who has decided to market their business online needs are the tools to market their business.  IBO Toolbox offers their associates the best service that I've ever come across.  First of all, free marketing tools are given to every associate who joins and this top notch site allows everyone to join for Free.  The mission of Paul Williams, owner of the site is to provide a high quality platform for business owners to help them brand themselves, evening the playing field while teaching us to marketing online.  They blast our businesses out across a wide array of Internet sites ensuring us of quality branding of ourselves and helping us to streamline our businesses online.


Things that you get when you join this quality business blog are:


1.  Advertising Platform which draws upwards of 60,000 visitors daily through their targeted advertising efforts.


2.  Lead Generation tools which includes squeeze pages, wall plates, social profiles, banners, a url shortening system just to name a few.


3.  Contact manager which includes email capabilities, opt-in forms and which will hold all of your leads.


4.  Media Sharing through your IBO profile.  You have the ability to upload your videos into your system so that when others click on your profile they have YOUR videos that they can watch.  This way, after your video ends, they don't have someone else's video there waiting to be viewed.  


5.  Blog Publishing using a system that is easy to use and which they take and provide leverage by blasting your blog onto all of the top SEO sites.


6.  Events Scheduling tool which is integrated within your dashboard.


7.  Sales Team Growth by networking and interacting with other IBO Toolbox and IBO Social members as well as by your information being blasted to 60,000 plus individuals each day.


8.  Live Chat which is included on your IBO Social profile.


And so much more. 


Please don't make the same mistake I did.  I joined IBO Toolbox several months ago and never took the time to really learn the system, only signing in occasionally until a friend that I highly respect joined and began raving about the system.  It was at that time that I began to take a really good look and am I glad I did.  


I recommend IBO Toolbox highly and I challenge you to find a better system, providing you with high quality business blogs, and the other marketing tools this system so generously provides.  Just click the link to get started.  http://www.ibourl.com/d0p


And as my friend Mitchell says, have a better than perfect day!


Dee Price

Eliminating Your Learning Curve

Whether you're just starting out in your quest to build a home based business on the Internet or have been doing this for a while, there are some terms that you either will be hearing or have been hearing on a regular basis.  Opt-in or lead capture pages, auto responders, splash pages and landing pages.  These are terms that started popping up after I had been trying to build my business for a while and I had no idea what they were talking about, so I set out to learn.  It was at that point that I found out that the "guru's" who were letting the world know that we needed these things had websites and when you clicked on them, you had to sift through about 20 pages of written content with about 7 or 8 videos that they wanted you to go through to finally get to the pitch where they asked you for anywhere from $497 to $997 and they would teach you how to set up your system and earn money with your current home business.  The thing about that though...I found out they would teach me how to market my business AFTER I got everything set up to bring in more money for them (which of course they would pay me a nominal fee to help them get rich.)

I joined several of these for their trial periods, just long enough for me to realize that every time I tried to set up one of these systems to work for me, it was like learning how to market another online opportunity, which I didn't want to do as I was still trying to figure out and learn how to market the one I had.  Even more frustrating was the fact that each time I tried to follow their instructions on one of the videos, either the video froze or the 30 minute video only played for 10 minutes before starting itself all over again.  Finally I had enough and just determined in my heart that I could build my business without all of these things.

Well, if the truth be told, we can do this without all of these things, but it's definitely a whole lot better for us if we learn about them and incorporate them into what we are doing, and this gives those of us who are baby boomers a huge learning curve.

There are now companies that take the guess work out of getting these things up and running for your business.  Some have everything in place and all we do is go to the pages, put in our information, hit a button and viola, it's a done deal, totally eliminating the learning curve that I struggled with for years.

Not only will they have landing pages, lead capture pages, and autoresponders, but will also give you the ability to have a video spokesperson inviting the visitor on your website and encouraging your prospects to find out more about your company and opportunity which can significantly increase responsiveness, time on your site, and most importantly new sign ups!  This will give you the ability to use these tools to help take your business to the NEXT LEVEL!

Giving you the leverage you need to help your business grow does not have to cost an arm and a leg.

Here's to your success!

Dee Price

How To Generate A QR Code

Greetings Readers!

Today one of the things that I am grateful for is the fact that there are wonderful people out there who come up with new technology and allow us to use it for free!  If you are one of those people, then I am grateful for you.  If you happen to not be one of those people, I'm still grateful for you and for the fact that you're reading my blog!

Last week I wrote a blog on QR Codes.  These are similar to bar codes that were first created and introduced in Japan where they are now very common.  QR is short for Quick Response and can be read quickly by a cell phone. 

Today I thought it would be helpful if I blogged on How to Generate QR Codes.

There are so many different ways that QR Codes can be used and the only limitations that I can see  really would be the limitations that we might impose on ourselves.  

Some things a QR Code can do are:

• Redirect to a website
• Allow someone to tour a company or destination
• To show a Movie Trailer
• To Review a Movie
• Send an Email
• As a Business Listing in a Directory
• In a Business Card
• Bookmark a website
• In Print Link a Reader straight to your website
• Send a Text Message
• Your Child's Ballet Recital
• Link to GPS Coordinates
• Link a Google Map or Bing Map
• Dial a phone number
• Link to an App

The possibilities are endless!  Your business, no matter how small or large could use QR codes in a number of ways.  You might auto generate one next to every product on your website with all the product details, the URL link to the page and contact information so that the information can be shared via someone's cell.

Add them to any print advertising, flyers, posters, invites, evites, whatever containing whatever information needed.

The great thing about this is that you and I don’t have to figure out how to make QR Codes on our own. Lots of people have already created QRCode generators for us. These generators take a few inputs like what web address we want our code to link to, and then generate a code for us.

One of my favorite QR Code generating sites is http://www.qrstuff.com/   I really like this one because you can generate your code free of charge or sign up for a paid account and they have tons of options for me to choose from.

If you’re a novice you can just take the default settings and make a simple QRCode.

If you are an expert you can do advanced things like change the color of the QRCode so it doesn’t look so boring. You can change the error correction so you can draw inside or cover up part of the QRCode.  You can even try out some of the alternatives to QR Codes.

Once you try it out, let me know what you think.  I believe you will find this an absolutely great site to generate your codes.

Until next time...

Dee Price

.

QR Codes

Welcome,

Today I'm grateful that others continually come up with new technology that we get to share in.  We don't have to be rocket scientists...we just have to know where to find them on the Internet.

Have you seen these funny looking pictures popping up in your magazine and newspaper advertisements?  When I first saw one, it reminded me of abstract art but it is called a QR Code.

Are you wondering what is a QR Code?

A QRCode is type of barcode.  We are all used to seeing barcodes on every product that we purchase in a store but a  QRcode is a different type of barcode.  It allows you to link to a web site, phone number, address, send a txt message, show a million dollar home to prospective clients and so much more.  You might not see too many of them now but in about 6 months or so this technology is going to explode.  These are really powerful little codes and the possibilities are endless.

The QR Code above, once scanned will lead you to one of my websites.

Most smart-phones have built in an option that will let you to point your smart phone camera at the QRcode and it will automatically scan  the code.  My Blackberry as well as  iPhones and iPads require a free downloadable app like i-Nigma and there are other sites that you can download a QR Code Reader for free.  When you access this particular one with your cell it automatically determines the type of smartphone you have and downloads the correct reader.

Just open the I-Nigma app with your smartphone and point the camera at the code.  On some smartphones  it will automatically scan it. You don’t even have to press any buttons. On others you would press the shutter like you were taking a picture.  Either way, the phone will then do the action the qr code creator designed. It may open a Youtube video, it may redirect you to a web site. Either way, the possibilities that this technology presents to us will only be limited to your imagination.

Advertisers can use the QR Code to direct the reader to take action or provide the reader with more information than in a normal magazine ad, movie poster, and now you will have the option of doing it using  video from a Youtube account.

To be honest three weeks ago I had no clue what a QR Code was but after doing some investigating online I found quite a wealth of information.  Last year, Central Park in New York used them as a way to let visitors discover things about the park that they never knew.  http://qranywhere.blogspot.com/2010/05/qr-codes-in-new-yorks-central-park.html  There is a realtor that is using these QR Codes to do things like link to a 3d video walkthrough of a million dollar home.

As I learn more about them I’ll continue to share ideas with you.

Have you used QR Codes before or is this new technology for you?  I will be blogging more about this in upcoming posts.

Dee Price