Over the last few weeks I have been hearing a little more about Windows 8 and so I decided to have a look at some Windows 8 reviews (previews?) from four leading tech sites.

Reading the reviews I can’t help but get excited by Microsoft’s latest OS offering. With Windows 8, Microsoft have taken on the challenge of creating an OS that flows easily between desktop and mobile (read tablet) computing.

These reviews included two video reviews:

• walk-through of the interface by Engadget
• Windows 8 vs iPad iOS

(See the videos yourself below)

and two written reviews:

• a short review from Techcrunch
• a detailed review from Techradar

(Links to each of the reviews are provided below)

Heading for the Cloud

Windows 8 leans heavily on cloud technology – making it lighter (in terms of Mb) and potentially more portable.

It is easy to forget that Microsoft have offered a cloud based storage system for a while (SkyDrive) – although they have not offered the type of integration promised by Chrome or planned by Apple (with iCloud and iOS 5) to date.  Perhaps Windows 8 will be the one integrated OS that Apple is striving for with its plans.

Have a look at these Window 8 reviews and judge for yourself.

Engadget Windows 8 for Tablets Hands on Preview

Click here to view the embedded video.

This short review looked at the user interface (in particular Metro) and performance. The written review repeats and comments on the points raised in the video:

• Touch screen performance was good, but pinch and zoom still needed work
• Navigation was good – in particular the ubiquitous nature of the Search, Share, Start, Devices and Settings “charms” meant basic functions were in easy reach (no swiping several screens back to “Search”)

Link to original article: Engadget Windows 8 Review

TechRadar: Hands on: Windows 8 Review

“compelling, genuinely innovative”

Probably the most in depth Windows 8 review of the four, in addition to commenting on what the interface of this OS is like, they also touch on security and performance.

The review includes views of the control panel and Internet Explorer 10. The IE 10 is simpler (no obvious browser bar) and it looks like Windows have gone for a slim (bare) look.

Link to Techradar’s Windows 8 Review

Windows 8 Compared to Apple’s iPad OS

Want to see Windows 8 in action and compared to the iPad then the Gizmodo is article is your baby:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Linked side by side review of the iOS to the Window 8 OS by WinRumors.com – on Gizmodo.com.

While a little grainy, which made it hard to assess the quality of the graphics, you do get to see the operating system in action and the search function and navigation. You also get to see how IE 10 in Windows 8.

I thought this was a useful review and very well done despite the sound quality.

Techcrunch: Previewing The Future: Hands On With Windows 8

“quite cool and quite innovative”

Written by John Briggs and Devin Coldeway this review is in two parts – John comments focus on the Windows 8 OS, while Devin appears to look at it from a hardware angle.

John’s review brings up the extensive use of the Cloud in Windows 8 – something which makes this OS a lighter and also improves its portability “profile pictures on your login screen will appear on every machine you log into”.

Given Microsoft’s investment and marketing of the SkyDrive (as anyone who has watched the last season of “Bones” can attest”), cloud integration in Windows 8 should not be a surprise. I imagine Microsoft is aiming for the sort of portability that Google are promising with their Chrome OS.

Link to Techcrunch’s Windows 8 Review

Let me know what you think – have you got your hands on Windows 8 – are these Window 8 reviews on the money? Tell me in the comments below.

Until then, woof .

In this article I will show you a simple process for how to find and assess forums for content research for an article. It is not as hard as it seems and you just need to keep in mind a few rules if you want to ensure you are providing good (that is useful content) to your readers.

Start with a Plan

The first step before you start your research is to work out what you are going to do. Make sure you can answer these questions:

• What is my key topic? (This will be influenced by your keyword research)
• Who am I writing this for? (This affects what voice you use and how you deal with the topic)
• What is the result or action I want? Do I want to enhance my authority or is their a call to action?

I find a mindmap particularly helpful at this point. Here, for example is the mindmap I created for this article:

Finding Forums for your Content Research

(Okay, for the pedantic that strictly speaking that should be Fora in my defence Forums is in common use.)

The first step to using Forums for Research is finding them.

Fortunately this is pretty simple – yes, you guess it just use a search engine and your keyword and the word “forum”.

Here I am assuming you have not already found forums to assist with your preliminary research on a topic and to keep you up to date on the latest developments in your field of interest.

In this case I am research on writing applications for the Mac, so my search would normally start with a query like this:

Assessing Forums for Content Research

Not all forums are the same – some will be mature and reputable, some will have just started and be gathering members and making a name for themselves.

In the interests of quality it is important to know the difference. That said – you may find a new forum with some useful content so think of this as a prioritisation tip rather than a rule for culling forums.

Some of the steps you can take to assess a Forum:

1. Look at the Forum’s statistics – you are looking for good (ie large) membership numbers, fresh posts (look at the date of the latest posts), and ideally many posts.
2. Use Technorati and Alexa to check out a forum – a forum is a website after all
3. Look at where the Forum ranks in your search engine results
4. Finally, and importantly, read some posts. Look at the
•  date of posts to see how active the forum is (look at the number and dates of views and replies)
• number of threads and posts – the more the better
•  spam (ideally low to none)

Example: Checking out the quality of your Forum

The forum I used for my research on my topic was MacRumors Forum. Now I know this is a reputable site (I visit it often and know it is frequently updated and the Forum is very active).

Checking the Forum Statistics

However, say I didn’t know this I could have a look at the forum stats – you should find these on the homepage of the Forum at the bottom of the page. These are the results for MacRumors Forum:

Using Technorati and Alexa

Looking into Technorati and Alexa I can see that MacRumors the main site of MacRumors ranks in the Top 100 Technorati sites:

and the statistics for Alexa are good too with sizeable links, a 4-star rating and a rank of 601:

Search Engine Result Page Ranking

Looking at the search results displayed earlier, you can see that MacRumors ranks number 2. Another tick.

Finally check the content

I look for spammy content (irrelevant comments or link laden content). In my eyes a forum that is heavy with these comments indicates poor moderation or indifferent members (spammy comments should have been voted down, reported or removed).

I am also a little wary of fanboy or flaming posts – although some is a good sign since it indicates a level of passion (if not necessarily reasonableness) about a topic.

I also checked the date of posts in the Forum (easily done by clicking on the New Posts link). Again you want fresh content (and non-spammy).

You would obviously apply the same criteria when you look for posts related to your specific area of research.

Closing Thoughts on Finding and Assessing Forums

This is a simple and quick process. You can use it not only to research specific topics but also to find active groups that you can follow and (ideally) participate in and so keep abreast of current issues in your area of interest. It also provides a good chance to establish your authority on an issue or topic.

In most cases you don’t need to visit the actual Forum itself everyday – most forums offer an RSS feed so you can keep track using Google Reader or whatever your RSS aggregator of choice is. (I use Reeder.)

Next time

I’ll show how I use forum posts to build your article.

If you have any thoughts or questions on the topic of how to find and assess forums for content research let me know in the comments below.

Making money with online marketing is not complex. It is simple. That doesn’t necessary mean it is easy or quick.

It can be outlined in five simple steps:

• Find a market
• Find a product
• Create a market place
• Get people to visit (traffic)
• Get people to act (conversion and action)

The Website: Online Marketing Engine

Simple really.

Market Research – Finding the Hungry Crowd

the critical and first step is finding in the oft-quote words of marketing guru Gary Halbert’s “hungry crowd”. Once you have a hungry crowd, you know what they want and then the next step is delivering it to them.

Of course the other thing you have to do is get noticed.

The web is a big place, full of potential customers, full of seekers and hunters and buyers.

How do I get noticed?

Well getting to the top of a search engine result page is one way. If you get to position 1 on the first page of a SERP you will attract about 30-40% of the traffic (source: SEOMOZ) (that is the people) for that search. By attract I mean, people will go and visit your site.

Getting on page 1, top position is something of a holy grail for many internet marketers and when I say holy grail I mean it is desirable, magical. Unlike the Holy grail getting to page 1 is also real and possible and not protected by knights or mysteries. Judging by the plethora of services and schemes that offer to easily and quickly get you at page one it sounds like getting to page one is hard and magical.

The other option is buying traffic. Usually online this via pay per click advertising – Adsense, Ask.com. Offline you can do this via advertising as well – print, television, video, radio you name it.

You can also get traffic via personal recommendations – friends recommending your site to other friends. This can be via links to your site on people’s blogs, Facebook pages, social bookmarking. This has gained huge prominence in the last few years.

How do I get people to act?

To get action, you need to tell people want they have to do and help them do it.

The old saying keep it simple stupid is valid here, or as one author aptly puts it in the title of his book: Don’t Make Me Think.

Basically design your site or you page or you web copy so that there is straight line between your visitor’s desire/need and what you can offer to satisfy it. Crudely you could say – make sure there is a straight line between their credit card and your possible solution.

More precisely, especially if you want to create a sustainable business, make sure your visitor has an clear path between his or her need and your solution. Whether you charge for that solution is up to you.

How do I get people to act 2? Show them the ‘money’

Okay, so they are on your page, you have created a straight line between their need or problem and your solution. Sorted. Right?

Oh, if only it were so, but there is a little more to it than that – your page layout and your page copy are important aspects of your site that you need to consider.

People who visit sites want answers fast. Jakob Nielsen points out in article How People Read On the Web that people do NOT read webpages, they SCAN.

Make sure you site is set up so that visitors to your website can see your message quickly  (and by your message I mean the solution – remember the “straight line”).

• Use headings to identify the key messages so that someone visiting your page can tell JUST BY READING THE HEADLINES what you are trying to say.

• Use images or videos to draw attention to key points and to illustrate points. (Also pictures or videos draw eyes to them)

• Use bullet points – means you can get away with incomplete sentences – short, sweet and to the point.

• Use lists – see bullet points – for some reason the concept of a list just excites visitors – maybe because it suggests solutions. Whatever. Try it.

There are many books and websites on web design. The best one in my opinion and a relatively quick read with some great ideas and examples.:Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

How do I get people to act 3? Give before you can get.

This is not just some platitude or fuzzy touchy  fee-lie  marketing speak (although it can be in the wrong hands). People are more likely to follow your advice, your calls to action if they can trust you.

Part of this involves being honest and acting with integrity. Be honest with those ideas – don’t promise the world if you can’t give it. Two pages of half truths is no substitute for two paragraphs of truth.

The other part is giving first – people have come to you with a problem, they think you can help. So help. Offer solutions, offer information, offer ideas.

Okay so that is internet marketing in a pot. There is obviously much more and I will be getting into that over the next few months as I test out a few of these ideas and put them into practice.

What am I doing?

And by this I mean me, as opposed to your dear reader (although I would be keen to find out what you are up to.)

Two things – one I am going to test putting a book online via Kindle/Amazon.com. Inspired by a talk from:

I am going to build a website and go through the steps of drawing and converting (hopefully) people to the site or sites.

Lets see how simple this is and how to do it with ease and grace (or find a way to do it with ease and grace in the end).

Talk to you again soon.

Neil

Using your Facebook Fanpage to share your blog is a simple and effective way of spreading the word and also supporting your fans.

You can set it up so that your Fanpage is automatically updated – no more messing around with status updates. Set and forget so you can focus on link building, content writing and talking with your readers.

And it is so easy, I can show you in a just over 30 seconds how to link your blog to your Fanpage in seven easy steps.

Check out my slideshow below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Seven Steps to Link Your Blog to Your Fanpage

1. Log in to Facebook and click on “Edit” next to “About”. This will give you access to your Facebook page settings
2. Click on “Apps” to access the Facebook apps associated with your Page
3. Go to the “Note” app and click on “Go to Application”. This opens the Notes application
4. Click on “Edit Import Settings”. This opens the Import Settings view.
5. Add your blog’s or website’s URL or its RSS feed address.
6. Tick the checkbox confirming you have the right or permission to link the blog to your notes.
7. Click on the “Start Importing” button.

Works for Facebook Profile Pages Too

This third foray into social media by Google (a moment of silence for Google Buzz and Google um, Google um…Google Wave) seemed at the opening to be a little shaky. But after only a matter of two months Google has achieved the same coverage as Facebook took almost twenty times as long to do. The challenge now is deeper adoption.

In this article I look at the comparative offers of Google Plus and Facebook (using Adam Arora’s infographic) and touch on a few things Google could do to get adopters to use Google plus more.

What’s on Offer: Google Plus and Facebook Compared

Source: Created by Adam Arora  published in Daily Infographic

The Challenge for Google + – Getting 25 million Users to Use It

Clearly the next big hurdle for Google+ is adoption. Mashable recently reported that there are now 25 million users of Google +(Google + Hits 25 Million Users) – achieving in under two months, what Facebook took almost thirty six months.

This is particularly dramatic given Google Plus is still invitation only (albeit under very generous terms).

However, “users” aren’t necessarily “using”.

As was noted in the article the critical challenge now is to get users to actually go from signup to actual use.

What can Google do?

• Link the “+1″ button to your Google + account is a start – taking a leaf out of Facebook’s Like
• Encourage third party social media platform providers like Seesmic, PeopleBrowsr, Hootsuite and Tweetdeck to add Google + to the suite of networks supported in their products
• Spend some time on a Google+ centric homepage – so users can manage their Google+ network, Google calendar, Gmail and Google docs from one spot

Basically, make Google+ more accessible to current users.

What do you think?

If you have any comments, thoughts or suggestions feel free to add them in Comments below.

Until next time.

PS I was a big fan of the Google Wave, maybe it will come back in another guise as part of Google+

In this article I look at Google’s replacement offer for the Wonder Wheel. It’s free, looks at Google Data and is easy to use, just not as visual as the dear old Wheel.

The Wonder Wheel is gone…for now

Google has removed the Wonder Wheel as a search tool. This officially happened in July as part of the revamp to the Google Interface but judging from some of the posts in the Warrior Forum happened in June. The specific date is arguably less important than the disappearance itself.

The loss of the wheel has been greeted with disappointment and also hope – disappointment that it is gone and hope that Google will bring it back (at least judging by some of the comments in SearchEngineLand.com’s post: Official: The Google Wonder Wheel Is Gone.

Will the Wheel return?

Google have definitely not declared the Wheel dead or more specifically the idea of the Wheel and the ability to search the space of related keywords. You can find a Google employee response here.

Interestingly the employee says the Wheel has been problematic for some time and that maintenance is a “headache”

At a time when Google is pushing its latest social media venture, I am not holding my breath.

Alternatives to Wonder Wheel: What Can I Do Instead?

The appeal of the Wonder Wheel for many was its graphic representation of related keywords and the apparent ease with which users could delve and explore new directions. It would be fair to say that this tool was most greatly prized by the internet marketing community and those interested in keyword research (i.e. the internet marketing community).

This was one reason I quite liked the tool.

Quintura – A Keyword Cloud Alternative to the Wheel

One alternative to the Wonder Wheel that offers a visual representation of a keyword and possible related terms you can try Quintura – make sure you click on Old Version.

Quintura draws its information from the Yahoo index.

Use Google’s Related Search

If you’re keyword interests are more Google oriented, your best (free) option is to get familiar with the Related Search option – activated by clicking on the words “Related Search” in the left hand sidebar.

This has always been available in Google but has been overshadowed by the Wonder Wheel.

This offers a greater range of keywords than using the ‘default’ related keywords that normally appear at the bottom of your search result page.

Related Search - Keyword Suggestions

Related Keyword Suggestions - Default

Related search presents you with keywords that Google reckons are related to your current keyword. Drill down is a matter of clicking on the keyword, you can go straight to the related search terms for a related search term by clicking on the words: More Like This.

It’s not as nice a representation as the Wonder Wheel but like the wheel Related Search draws its data from Google and suggests new directions to go with your keyword research.

In Depth Keyword Tools

The related search option does not give you information about search volume or competition, you need to go to the Google Keyword Tool for this or use a third party application like Market Samurai or a third party service like Wordtracker.

Tell me what you think

If you have questions or know of some other alternatives to the wheel let me know in the comments

UPDATE: The team at Downtown Ecommerce have put together a comprehensive post on alternatives to the Wheel, you can find there article here: 10 Alternatives to the Google Wonder Wheel

Google released Google Instant Search last night. Right now it is limited to browsers in the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia or if you sign in with your Google account). If you live outside these areas either go to www.Google.com or log in to your Google Account. The plan is to roll it out to other domains over the next few weeks/months – so don’t fret too much.

What does it do?

Like the name says, it provides the user with search results as they type their search in the Google search bar. The search results change as you type. I have tried it a couple of times and found no noticeable drop in speed or performance. Which is a credit to them.

What does this mean?

Other than the obvious: search results presented as you type: Google estimate that it will save more than 3.5 billion seconds a day or 11 hours saved every second (if everyone used Google Instant Search – Yahoo and Bing take note).

It also means it is easier to go deeper into a search and you can see the search results evolve as you type.

Interestingly part of that evolution is directed by Google’s auto-complete functionality.  Instant Search uses the top auto-complete entry as the source of the keyword for the search engine result page displayed, as you enter your keywords.

This disappears as you move on (and type in more parts of your search) but that it presents at all is a change. I am not sure what sort of marketing opportunities there are to be honest, instant search is fast enough that the search result  page passes by quite quickly – still we should not discount the ability of images to stop a person in their tracks. Is it possible that a little more time might be spent trying to get eye-catching images ranking?

What does it mean for SEO?

Directly – probably not that much, most SEO strategies (probably more accurately called Search Engine Indexing Optimization) are aimed at moving your website to the first search engine result page (SERP) and in the top position.

Google Instant Search (GIS) has not been accompanied by any change in how Google indexes or lays out its SERP and this suggests that basic SEO still holds true.

Matt Cutts suggests there will be implications in terms of the effect GIS will have on the nature of search. I am tend to agree. It is possible that the speed inherent in GIS combined with how it interacts with the auto-complete suggestions will lead people to use or follow longer search phrases – if only just to see how the search results change and where search might take them – the online equivalent of channel surfers. Which leads to my thoughts on the next topic…

The Death of Long Tail Search?

I have seen a few suggestions that the GIS is the death of long tail keywords. To paraphrase Twain, I think reports of that death are greatly exaggerated. Personally I think GIS will mean an increase in the quantity of long tail searches – simply because it makes auto complete results – which inherently have longer tails – more obvious.

What should you do?

At this point:

• continue with current (white hat) SEO strategies
• write good useful content for your readers
• check your search statistics with a particular eye to long tail search (the quantity may increase!) – I guess you are doing this anyway as part of your blog maintenance plan.

GIS is new, has limited release (insofar as that means anything on the internet) and this is only day one.  At this point it looks like a majority like it, at least according to polling in Mashable.

Some of Mashable’s first day results are shown here (image taken at 5 pm AEST), source: Mashable.com.

Early Result. Poll Closes 10 Sept, 10 pm PDT

The poll closes on Friday 10 September, 10 pm PDT. Go to Google Instant Search: Love it or Hate it [POLL] to participate.

If you don’t like it, well you can always turn it off – but give it a go first.