The Best Of The Web 14/12/2013

Hello Bee’s, Matt again here with this week’s roundup from around the web.  We have a great selection for you that I think you’ll enjoy.

It’s just over a week to Christmas now, so not long left to go to get any last minute presents that you still need to buy.  I still haven’t found time to put up any decorations yet, though I’m determined to do that at some point this weekend.  Never quite feels like Christmas until the tree is up with all the lights on.

Just another reminder that you can sign up for a FREE trial to our brand new membership site ‘The Hive’.  This offer won’t be around for long as we are officially launching on the 6^th January 2014, so get in quick.  I’d also like to add that we have a very special Christmas offer planned for our subscribers.  I can’t reveal anything just yet (everything’s a bit hush, hush at the moment), but we are very excited about it, so if you want to learn more, subscribe and we’ll send you info about it in the next couple of days.

Anyway, here is this week’s pick of the bunch from around the web to take a look at.

1. The 12 Cyber-Scams Of Christmas

Sticking with the Christmas theme, however not everything is quite so jolly this time of year.  Online shopping is increasing in popularity, but there are some cyber criminals making the most of this who are looking to scam you out of money.

This post (from the BBC) looks at 12 cyber scams to watch out for online so that you don’t get duped.

2. Staying Ahead of the Curve

This great post was suggested by Clair, mainly because it features Gary Vaynerchuk and she is a HUGE fan of his, but also because it gives great insight into how to stay on top of the competition.

Gary explains some of the things he and his team have done to “stay ahead of the curve”, which is great advice for many businesses (whether online or offline).

3. The Hootlet: Social Sharing for Lazy Professionals

Good friend of the site and former Bizzebee Kapil Jekishan talks about the incredibly useful ‘Hootlet’.

Hootlet is an add-on extension for Google Chrome and Firefox that allows you to share content via HootSuite.  All of the Bizzebee team use HootSuite, so this little add-on is of great help.

4. How to Harness the Power of the Pause

John offers up a great slideshare presentation from ‘WeAreVisual.com’ that looks at speaking.  Many online content creators use video to get across their message, but one issue with that is that it is easy to tell when someone is inexperienced at speaking in front of camera.  Lots of “erm’s” and “err’s” doesn’t come across very well.

In fact this doesn’t just apply to video, anyone that does (or is planning to do) public speaking can learn from this as well.

5. The Purple Cow that’s Right Underneath Your Business’ Nose

This week’s award for best title goes to this post.  Here Marcus Sheridan suggests one of the best ways to make your business stand out amongst everyone else – much like a purple cow.

Every business wants to stand out in some way, as that helps you to get noticed and ultimately (or at least hopefully) leads to creating more sales.

6. 7 Superheroes Who Can Enlighten Entrepreneurs

One post now for the geek inside all of us.  Who doesn’t like a superhero, we all have our favourites (Radioactive Man is mine from the Simpsons) and Ronald Alexander (the writer) has put together a list of traits that can be applied to entrepreneurs.

It’s a bit of fun, but still highlights some of the important characteristics that make up great entrepreneurs.   Which characteristics do you have?

7. 10 Writing Tips for More Engaging Content

This awesome post by David Aston looks at some great tips to help improve your content and make it more engaging for your readers.  He argues that people are a lot more interested in how you present your content rather than what it is actually saying.

All online websites need content, so this post will help you make the most of  it to try and keep your readers on your site for longer.

8. Blog Growth: How to Build a Mega-Following

This post is quite unique as it includes both an interview with Syed Balkhi (founder of WPBeginner.com & List25.com) and information about how he managed to grow his sites to be so popular.

Not only do they talk about the popularity of Syed’s site’s, but they also look at the types of content that they use to create a site that people want to read.

9. Optimize The Top Mobile Tasks On Your Site

This new video by the Google Webmasters team looks at which aspects of your website you should be optimizing for mobile users.

If you haven’t watched any of the Google Webmasters video’s before, I suggest you subscribe to them and spend some time learning from them.  They publish some vital information that can really make a difference to the success of your site.

10. 12 Killer Social Media & Content Marketing Blog Posts from 2013

Lastly, we have a link to a post with some absolutely great social media and content marketing tips for you to take a look at.  The ‘TopRankBlog’ site lists their very best posts from the last year for you to read through again.  I’m a big reader of their site, but there was a couple that I had totally missed.  Make sure you don’t miss out either.

…and finally

To round off this post, we have a sweet and quite amusing letter to Santa from a ten month old for you to check out.

A Ten-Month-Old’s Letter To Santa

There is no need to buy this kid any expensive presents as he seems pretty keen on stuff that you wouldn’t have thought of (makes sense when you read the post).

I’m now off to put my Christmas tree up and wrap up some presents.  Make sure to check back next week for another ‘Bizzebee – Best Of The Web’. 🙂