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Over 41 Facebook Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

by MAHESH MOHAN on September 3, 2018

Let me be honest. I didn’t even have a vague plan of writing this very blog post. The actual idea was to list all the products, services, and apps by Facebook — just like I did Over 201 Google Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know.

And I even started writing this blog post with the title “Over 51 Facebook Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know” only to realize later that they don’t even have 21 standalone products (including web and mobile apps). :D

Nevertheless, I’m listing all the products and services and apps offered by Facebook. And you will see that Facebook’s dominance comes from just three ~~products~~ apps. Facebook. WhatsApp. Instagram.

As you probably know, Facebook is the single largest social network out there and is also the second most popular website on the web according to Alexa Top 500 Global Websites (the first being Google + YouTube).

Facebook is not the first social network and yet it’s dominating the web 2.0. Just like Google did. Google wasn’t the first search engine out there but it managed to change the way we used the web. Google changed the way we gathered information, and it changed the way we spend our time online.

Facebook did the same. It changed the social networking scene forever and at the same time it crushed several other social networking websites (MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, Hi5, to name a few) and several mobile apps.

So today, I’m listing all the products and services and apps by Facebook. And I will be updating this article as they launch more products or make more acquisitions.

Don’t Miss: Over 61 Amazon Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

Over 71 Amazon Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

by MAHESH MOHAN on September 3, 2018

First Published: September 26, 2016; Last Updated: Monday, September 3, 2018.

Amazon ($AMZN) is the largest retailer on the web. I’m not an Amazon fanatic but I like to shop online (or on Amazon). And I believe Amazon will become a lot more bigger than what it is today.

For me Amazon was all about online shopping and shopping only until a few years go, and then I came to know about its dominance in the cloud computing space.

That’s how I became curious and made a plan to list all its products and services and app (or this very blog post).

So today, I’m listing all the products and services and apps by Amazon. And I will be updating this article as they launch more products and services.

Don’t Miss: Over 201 Google Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

Over 251 Google Products & Services You Probably Don’t Know

by MAHESH MOHAN on August 29, 2018

First Published: July 24, 2009; Last Updated: Wednesday, August 29, 2018.

Google may be a synonym for search, but it’s not restricted to that feature alone. If you are not a tech-savvy person then chances are that you are unaware about majority of Google’s products and services.

Anyway, how many Google products and services do you use? The common answers will be Gmail, Google+, Drive, Docs, or an Image Search. But Google is well beyond that.

Over 2.2 billion Google users. Over 1 billion YouTube users. Over 1 billion Gmail users. Over 1 billion Chrome users. Over 1 billion Maps users. Over 2 billion Android users. Over 1 billion Google Play Store users. That’s the stats of Google.

Don’t Miss: Over 71 Microsoft Products, Services, & Apps You Probably Don’t Know

Over 61 Paid Traffic Sources To Buy (Real) Targeted Website Traffic

by MAHESH MOHAN on August 28, 2018

First Published: March 29, 2016; Last Updated: Tuesday, August 28, 2018.

There are plenty of paid traffic sources on the web from where you can buy targeted traffic to your website. The best thing about online advertising (unlike television, radio, print, etc.) is that it’s totally accountable and you get to know the exact returns of every single dollar that you are spending.

Online advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry and the digital ad spending in the U.S. is all set to surpass television ad spending. Paid advertising on search engines and social media accounts for over 50% of the total ad spend (dominated by Google, Microsoft, and Facebook).

The good thing about online advertising is that it’s super easy to kick-start an ad campaign and it could attract a lot of targeted traffic in the shortest span of time. But the bad thing is that it may be effective only in the short-term because when you stop your ad campaigns the traffic may pause.

However, online advertising is extremely flexible and efficient (in terms of ad targeting, spending, and tracking) and it basically means that if you have a solid marketing strategy then your online ad campaigns can bring in higher return on investment for the short-term as well as for the long-term.

As I have already mentioned, majority of the ad spend happens on paid search because of the superior traffic quality (and hence the performance). Also, you can reach 96% of the U.S. searchers by signing up as an advertiser on Google.com (via Google AdWords) and Bing.com (via Bing Ads).

Over the past several years, I have published a dozen blog posts about website monetization and it was all about selling ads on your website and rarely about ad spending. Actually, I’m a lover of organic traffic (or search traffic). But it’s also true that it takes a lot of time to get some traction that way.

So if you start a new business and want to tap the online advertising space then the best way is buy paid traffic on different traffic sources like search engines, social networks, display ads, video ads, etc. Here is a curated list of some of the best paid traffic sources on the web — categorized and subcategorized.

Don’t Miss: Free Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising Credits Worth Over $1000 [Read more…] about Over 61 Paid Traffic Sources To Buy (Real) Targeted Website Traffic

Long-Form Content vs. Short-Form Content: The Ultimate Comparison With Pros & Cons

by MAHESH MOHAN on August 28, 2018

Long-Form Content vs. Short-Form Content

Long-form content (especially long-form articles and blog posts) is currently trending on the web among brands and bloggers because they’re proven to bring more search engine and social media traffic.

However, long-form content is not something new. They existed as e-books, whitepapers, guides, etc. for a very long time. It’s just that now it’s everywhere — on blogs, e-zines, news portals, etc.

That said, it’s also true that our attention spans are getting shorter — thanks to smartphones and social networks. Long-form content possibly gained its traction among bloggers because of the Google Panda algorithm update because it started rewarding high-quality content and penalized low-quality content (mainly content farms).

Now what’s high-quality and what’s low-quality? Well, it depends and varies. [Read more…] about Long-Form Content vs. Short-Form Content: The Ultimate Comparison With Pros & Cons

Freelance Writing Tips: Everything (Almost) You Need To Know

by MAHESH MOHAN on August 27, 2018

Freelance Writing Tips

There are not enough freelance writers. Seriously. Whenever I come up with a freelance writing based topic, I mention that it’s extremely competitive. If there’s a writing gig on a freelance writing marketplace such as Upwork.com (formerly oDesk.com), Fiverr.com, or elsewhere then there will be a ton of applicants — even if it’s just a micro-project.

Today I have a perspective that contradicts the statement “freelance writing is extremely competitive”. Over the past many months I have successfully failed to hire an affordable writer for this very blog — no, It’s not that I am going to make my blog multi-authored — I just happen to want to write and publish blog posts in a consistent way.

You might already have noticed that neither do I write regularly nor do I focus on a single topic. I only write about things that I find interesting at that point of time. Therefore I don’t have any plans to hire an army of content writers to publish 100s of blog posts a month — like the Mashables and BuzzFeeds of the world are doing.

I was just looking for someone — preferably a contributor or an editor — who could help me finish a blog post much faster. Because now I take several days to finish an in-depth or lengthy blog post (like this one). So I thought I could outsource the “writing” process and focus only on research and editing by myself — to save a lot of my time and effort.

And you know what happened? It never worked — at least for me!

If you have been following my freelance topics then you probably know that I’m not a freelance writer myself — but I wish I were one. However, as you can see I can write for myself but definitely not the way someone wants me to. And yet, I got a ton of writing opportunities in the past — by way of guest blogging, SEO writing, web content, etc. and I was forced to deny all of it. :(

So what’s the point?

Simple! You don’t have to be a native English speaker or a best selling author to make money writing.

If you can write, then money can be made. Absolutely!

But no, that doesn’t really mean that you can become a six-figure writer in few months/years just because you know how to write few sentences. It doesn’t work that way at all!

The real questions are… Can you write quality content? Can you write content that meets the criteria or guidelines set by your client? Can you write error free (both grammatically and technically) content? If your answer is ‘Yes’ to all the above questions then you can become a successful freelance writer. Guaranteed!

Don’t Miss: The Freelance Writer’s Handbook — 75+ Tips, Resources & Guides

21 Blogs You Should Really Read If You Are A Freelance Writer

by MAHESH MOHAN on August 27, 2018

21 Blogs You Should Really Read If You Are A Freelance Writer

I love reading blogs that offers tips for freelancers (especially freelance writers). Primarily because these blogs publish awesome content on productivity, writing tips, and marketing tips too. So many interesting blog posts are there on these blogs, which might interest you as a writer or even as a marketer.

Do you want to become a better writer? Then start reading a lot. I mean a lot.

21 Must-Read Blogs For Freelance Writers

In this post, I have decided to feature some of the blogs that I care to read any time. These blogs lets ideas to flow. Infact, there is never a dull moment when you read any of them.

I’ve also included some blog posts from each blog, so that you can get started. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a newbie or an experienced writer. They have immense value.
[Read more…] about 21 Blogs You Should Really Read If You Are A Freelance Writer