Guru.com's Next Generation Feedback Advances Freelance Marketplace Reliability

Guru.com, the world's largest online marketplace for freelance talent, launched a proprietary Feedback Management methodology to improve the value of subjective comments or rankings on its site. For the first time in any online marketplace, subjective feedback will be validated against actual performance metrics to provide greater assurances of quality while limiting misuse.

A common Web convention, feedback is traditionally posted for public review with minimal intervention or modification. The practice typically entails the submission of remarks or rankings by one party in a transaction to capture, share, and guide public opinion about the other party.

Feedback Management preserves the natural order and use of feedback as a decision-making tool while neutralizing its tendencies to illogically bias choice or to inhibit honesty. Users are invited to block some unwarranted feedback but only in proportion to their prior, proven success. Negative feedback is not fully suppressed; rather its exposure is made more reliably predictive. Objective performance metrics determine a variable blocking rate, or 'Blocking Power,' which is calculated for each user in real-time. A seven day review-and-approval period is allowed for assessment of individual feedback records prior to public disclosure.

"Current feedback standards create an assumption of validity predicated on transparency," explained Inder Guglani, CEO and Founder of Guru.com. "But as incomplete information and fear of retaliation are introduced into the feedback process, transparency requires objective verification."

Why Manage Feedback?
Feedback Management addresses well-known shortcomings of the traditional feedback model, such as those involved in the Feedback Policy adjustments announced by eBay last May. Feedback can be inaccurate and misleading in cases where transaction details are unavailable, retaliation is feared, or there is a general disagreement between two parties. As business relationships break down, the parties involved may become prone to questionable motivations, poor judgment, and unethical or predatory behavior, such as blackmail or libel. Global markets face these concerns more often as differences in language, culture, and work style may directly contribute to failed transactions.

Website: http://www.guru.com/

Business Cards Go Digital on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch

SnapDat Networks, Inc. has made it so mobile users everywhere will never lose another business card with the launch of SnapDat, a free mobile business card application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

SnapDat seeks to revolutionize the way mobile users exchange data between mobile devices. The patent-pending app allows mobile users to instantly exchange contact data in the form of customizable, graphically-rich mobile business cards known as "SnapCards" Since not all interactions are equal, SnapDat allows users to establish multiple SnapCard profiles, each with their own unique set of data, design, and a profile photo.

SnapDat includes a number of unique features:

* The ability to create personalized mobile business cards with 40 preloaded design templates. New designs will continue to be added for further customization.

* Does not require users to be in the same room. Users can exchange contact information whether they are in the same location or thousands of miles away.

* Integrates with the iPhone and iPod touch address book so that the details from a received SnapCard will be automatically written to the native address book as well as to the user’s computer when they synchronize their device.

"We give mobile users the power to establish social or business connections where they naturally occur - while on the go" said Chris James, SnapDat Founder and CEO.

SnapDat's SnapDirectory also acts as a digital Rolodex, where users can click on a SnapCard to email, call or text a contact, map their address, visit their social networking site or view their favorite YouTube video.

Finally, SnapDat allows iPhone and iPod touch users to connect with anyone, even if their contacts don’t share the same device. SnapDat users can email their vCards to recipients, allowing them to send their contact information to Blackberry devices, Windows Mobile phones and other email-enabled mobile devices.

With SnapDat, there's no business card to lose and no pile of cards staring you in the face, waiting to be entered into your address book. SnapDat contact sharing begins and ends where it belongs - directly on your mobile phone.

Website: http://www.snapdat.com

4 Ways To Use Social Media Marketing To Make Money Online

Social media marketing is a way to promote your business on the internet via social networking. This has grown to encompass a very large number of websites and methods.

The savvy internet marketer is learning how to use this powerful marketing method to grow their business and make valuable contacts for the future.

Of course this also means making more money if you do it right. Let's take a look at 4 ways to use social media marketing to make money online.

1. Blogging is a very strong way to combine various forms of social media marketing all in one place. If you do not have a blog you are losing ground to your competitors who do.

2. Social bookmark your blog posts to create traffic from social directories and as search engine bait for search engine traffic.

Be sure and use a quality blogging platform such as WordPress. They offer a terrific plug-in that makes social bookmarking a blog post very simple.

Social bookmarking gives you a way to get backlinks to your blog very quickly. You should be bookmarking to social directories such as Technorati, Digg, Stumbleupon, and Propeller.

Also go get a Twitter account and learn how to make friends and use it to drive traffic to your blog. This is fast becoming one of the top social sites online.

3. Video such as You Tube is becoming a favorite way for bloggers to add some excitement to their blogs, but it is also much more than that.

For example many affiliate marketing programs now offer videos embedded with your affiliate i.d. that you can use to pre-sell a visitor before sending them to your affiliate website.

Many bloggers are also easily creating videos and putting them online on their blog. This is a very powerful form of social media that is giving your visitor what they want. Many people are a product of the TV generation and like to learn by watching as opposed to reading.

4. Discussion forums are a great place to make friends and sell products if you do it right. They can also be an excellent place to create joint ventures and millions of dollars are sold online now because of these.

There is much more we could say about social media including social networking in places such as FaceBook, My Space, and many others. The bottom line is making money online via social media all comes down to finding a way you enjoy and then mastering how to use it to your business and personal advantage.

(C) www.WritingCareer.com

Feeling the Financial Pinch? Become a Paid Blogger

Boasting the largest blogger training center on the web, Blog Success shows bloggers how to go from hobby to paid blogging with basic to advanced training on all facets of professional blogging. Designed from the ground up to show exactly what well paid bloggers make, how they became popular, and the exact steps to building a profitable blog regardless of writing skills or technical experience.

Jack Humphrey's new "Blog Success" training center promises average Joe's the ability to make money in a lagging economy by blogging.

"Blog Success is a project that we have been working on for months. It is the culmination of years of being on the forefront of social marketing and blogging" says Jack Humphrey. "It is a giant project that provides people from all experience levels with the tools necessary to start a blog, make it popular, and profit from it."

Blogging seems to be reaching more and more non-geeks as a way to make money doing something they love: creating great content, networking, and being a thought leader in their market niche.

Blogging is getting easier with better software, better tools, and far fewer technical hurdles which have kept average people from taking a shot at starting a serious blog.

"Bloggers are making money with their blogs through advertising, primarily. They get popular within a certain market demographic and advertisers pay them to get in front of their audience" Humphrey says. "But we also teach people how to create their own products and services and use the traffic from their blogs to sell their visitors."

There are countless professional bloggers online today who report earnings anywhere from a few hundred dollars per month to over $100,000.00 per month. Some blogs literally pull down millions of dollars per month, but those are rare.

There have been several success stories reported about bloggers who never considered themselves to be technically proficient. One niche Humphrey points out as an example is the "Mommy Blogger" niche. Advertisers are ga-ga over the mommy niche and mommy bloggers can command high advertising rates.

"For the average person with very basic skills, there isn't an easier way to set up shop and start to make money blogging" says Humphrey. "That's why it appeals so much to the technically-challenged audience as a viable business opportunity they can really do."

BlogSuccess.com is designed for newbie to advanced bloggers. It is both a community of bloggers and a very large, well-stocked with written, video, and audio training, exclusive software, and blogging resources of every shape and size.

For more information, please visit: http://www.blogsuccess.com/

The Affluent Artist: How Creative Could You Be if Money Wasn't an Issue

When it comes to the stereotype of the "starving artist" it is often assumed that creative and artistic people have no business acumen. The Affluent Artist: How Creative Could You Be if Money Wasn't an Issue? The Money Book for Creative People by Rick DiBiasio, CFP®, with a foreword by Jack Canfield, invites all creatives, no matter what their discipline, to use their creativity to understand and obtain financial freedom.

Rick DiBiasio is a Certified Financial Planner with 25 years of experience and a national planning practice that exclusively deals with creative clients. With The Affluent Artist he offers a fun, easy-to-understand "How To" guide for people who have been too busy dancing, sculpting or dreaming to learn the "money stuff".

The book invites artists from all walks of life to throw out the stereotypes about art and money and allow financial abundance into their lives. Whether you've been learning to train dolphins for SeaWorld, working as a Broadway dancer or as an Imagineer for Disney, chances are you've been learning about your craft, not about personal finance. DiBiasio offers business and financial planning wisdom to creative individuals who find themselves in the roles of the Starving Artist, the Corporate Artist, the Self Employed Artist and the Affluent Artist.

The book includes stories and interviews with artists in each of these roles as well as "Financial Stuff You Just Gotta Know", a humorous and necessary primer on financial terms and situations. In addition, DiBiasio presents a "how-to" on avoiding financial pitfalls along with a business fable based on his years of experience helping artists find their financial footing. He says, "Creative people don't have to starve! Having a good idea about personal finance and the business process will help you, in the long run, to be more creative."

Rick DiBiasio CFP ® is a 25 year veteran of Wall Street and the Financial Planning Industry. He has written newspaper columns, has been a radio talk show host and currently hosts a popular blog. His series of interviews with creative people and how they make their soul happy is available through his website, http://www.affluentartist.com/. He lives in Florida.

Adobe Calls for Entries for 2009 Adobe Design Achievement Awards

Adobe Systems Inc. announced the call for entries for the ninth annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA).

Adobe said the competition honors the best student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from accredited higher education institutions worldwide. Now in partnership with the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda), the awards ceremony will be held during the Icograda World Design Congress in Beijing, China in October 2009. The Congress will bring together 2,500 delegates from around the globe at the China National Convention Center, located in the heart of the Beijing Olympic Green.

As demand increases for talented designers and developers in the interactive design and development fields, the Adobe Design Achievement Awards spotlight the talented work of students in three media categories: Interactive Media, Motion Media, and Traditional Media.

-- Interactive Media categories include Browser-Based Design, Non-Browser Based Design, Application Development, Installation Design and Mobile Design.

-- Motion Media categories include Animation, Live Action and Motion Graphics.

-- Traditional Media categories include Illustration, Packaging, Photography, and Print Communications.

Open to students in 40 countries, the contest also draws attention to interactive design and development programs at some of the best accredited higher education institutions. Students are invited to submit projects through the Adobe Design Achievement Awards website. From the website, visitors will also be able to access ADAA Live!, an interactive website that lets visitors see participants submitting projects in real-time.

Submissions will be accepted online through June 5, 2009. The online submissions will be judged digitally in June. For the final phase of judging, semifinalists will be asked to submit their source files and a physical aspect of their entry as it is meant to be viewed. Finalists will be invited to Beijing, China and the Icograda World Design Congress and awarded software and cash prizes.

2009 Adobe Design Achievement Awards: http://www.adaaentry.com/.

The New Rules of Business Blogs in a Free E-Book

In changing times business blogs have changed from "diaries" to a powerful marketing tool. But to use business blog as an effective marketing tool, your must know what rules have changed in web 2.0 as well. Marketing expert Linas Simonis in his e-book "The New Rules of Business Blogs" writes exactly about the changes of business blogging rules in web 2.0.

"Internet rules which have worked in the pre-internet era must be enriched or even replaced with the new rules from the internet era. In the nearest future lots of old businesses will be marketed only by the new medium " the internet, and it will be mandatory to them to adapt to the new rules and if you know the new rules of business blogs, you can use it as a powerful marketing tool, " " says the e-book author Linas Simonis.

Helpful business blogs can provide for readers answers to many business problems, more important, for companies " the blog can be an effective marketing tool helping to differentiate from competitors or even to cut on advertising.

"Today if you want to be heard, you must follow the new rules. Because business blog is a personal blog of a person who represents all business, when writing a business blog don't forget that it is about long-term impact to your readers," " advises Linas Simonis.

The e-book "The New Rules of Business blogs" was written using Linas' experience of managing his own business blogs. By reading this free e-book, business owners, CEO's and other high-ranking executives will find out the differences between a Corporate blog and a Business blog and why managers must have one. And the most important " you will find the New Rules of business blogs.

Linas Simonis is a consultant and keynote speaker of Marketing Strategy in web 2.0 age. He is a member of the Business Week social media experts group. His blog http://www.positioningstrategy.com/ is on the top of 150 Social Marketing Blogs on the Web.