Black Friday HostGator Blowout Up to 80% Off!

I use HostGator for all of my sites and love it. For a long time, I used free hosting from 000 WebHost until I finally got sick of the hassles and downtime… and let me tell you, I can’t believe how long I put up with crappy hosting! Naturally, I received a Black Friday HostGator email alerting me to the deals they’re offering. Trust me – if you’re looking for hosting then you do NOT  want to miss it. Unfortunately, it’s only available to new customers (boohoo). Here are all the juicy details…

Black Friday HostGator discounts start at 12:00 AM Friday November 26th CST (-6 GMT) and will run until 11:59PM CST (-6 GMT) 11/26/2010

50% OFF EVERYTHING From 12:00AM CST – 5AM CST

80% OFF EVERYTHING From 5AM – 9AM CST WHILE SUPPLIES LAST (first come, first receive; so definitely don’t miss out!)

From 9AM – 11:59PM CST OR after 80% OFF accounts have sold out, we will continue to offer 50% OFF EVERYTHING

COUPON CODE: BlackFridayBonanza

(Simply copy and paste the coupon code!)

The coolest thing about their promotions? They apply to ALL accounts, plans and term lengths! That means whether you need shared hosting, dedicated hosting, reseller hosting or a VPS, you can get a whopping 80% off. Just for example’s sake…

Shared Hosting – $4.95/month AS LOW AS $0.99/month

Reseller Hosting – $24.95/month AS LOW AS $4.99/month

VPS Hosting – $19.95/month AS LOW AS $3.99 First Month

Dedicated Servers – $174/month AS LOW AS $34.80 First Month

Get all the hosting you need while it’s 80% off (From 5AM – 9AM CST WHILE SUPPLIES LAST) at HostGator.

Thanksgiving Social Media & SEO Roundup

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I actually had gathered these up, meaning to get around to posting them last week. But that just didn’t happen. I thought Thanksgiving was a great time to go ahead and share them with you. From keeping up with your blog to getting the perfect Twitter followers, here are some of my favorite recent posts by bloggers I like to keep up with…

Annie Cushing @ BlueGlass.com
#1 Mistake Marketers Make with Tracking Social Media

SocialMouths.com
How To Build Your Facebook Landing Page (If You’re Not A Programmer)

Chris Brogan
How to Write 3 Blog Posts Per Day

sam murray @stateofsearch.com
Why your Link Strategy Should Involve Guest Blogging and Tips for Success

Mark Collier @ Alexhalley.com
The Perfect Twitter Follower – And How to Get More of Them

Adding Retweet Buttons to Your PDF Document

As you almost certainly know, Twitter is one of the hottest spots for sharing information. People often put twitter buttons on their blog post to make it easier for their readers to share. But here’s something that you may not know, as many people are not aware of it… Did you know that you can even add retweet buttons to their PDF files?

This enables anyone reading PDF files to share it in the massive world of twitter. Tweet buttons should be added to any PDF, whether it’s a white paper, report, an ebook or simply an article that you’re uploading to document sharing sites. These are usually files that people are going to want to share, so when creating them you should be sure to add the twitter button. Don’t worry it’s not hard at all!

When the reader clicks on the retweet button they have to do nothing except log in if they are not already logged. If they are already logged in then all the better! The button will send out a direct link to the original PDF file.

You can really benefit from using PDF files, because PDF files tend to be very, very, portable. People can download files on their desktops and email them to people as well as post them on forums. The retweet button allows for easy sharing. PDF’s typically float around so it is important to have an easy way to share a file with the world. For instance, if you’re writing about Sihanoukville, then it makes it much easier for travelers to share your document among others who will be visiting the region.

To start sharing a document through twitter, the first thing you’re going to need is a Twitter graphic. If you aren’t skilled in creating simple graphics, you can hire someone to do it or find one of the many free Twitter icons that are available.

There should be a bird on the graphic to tell people that it’s a Twitter graphic and the color that twitter is typically known for is blue. Then you need to set up a link to the PDF file. It is a good idea to link to a page about the PDF file and not to link to the PDF file directly. Linking to the PDF file directly limits the possibility of describing what the PDF is actually about. Also, consider using an @ tag to yourself to help grow your Twitter following.

When you get the link you want to shorten it on a site like bit.ly, so it looks more attractive to Twitter users. Now that all of that is done go ahead and write the tweet that people will see when someone presses the retweet button.

Copy and paste this code:

http://twitter.com/home/?status=

For everywhere there is a space in your message, add a plus sign (+)

If your Twitter name is SihanoukvilleNow, then your message may look something like this:

http://twitter.com/home/?status=RT:@SihanoukvilleNow+Tourism+Up+as+Expected+and+New+Railway+Underway!+http://yourshorteningURL.service

Then just link your graphic to that special URL you just created. Test it out!

Link all three of the elements together and a PDF file can now help you gain followers and spread information. If you don’t have a program to create PDF files, you can use https://createpdf.adobe.com/ Alternatively, you can download OpenOffice (free). The OpenOffice writer has the ability to export as a PDF file.

See a shared document with a retweet button in action: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/62066304/Add-Retweet-Buttons-To-PDF

Related articles

• How to Link PDF Documents to Buttons in Flash (brighthub.com)
• Saving your documents as PDF files [Shelley Fishel] (ecademy.com)