What’s a plugin? Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress. Plugins allow you to do almost anything you can imagine to your blog. For example, plugins can gather statistics on the site, such as Google analytics. This helps the web developer be able to see what people are doing on the site. This can what changes need to be made to optimize the site. Check out this article that Yoast just posted on the best plugins:

11 Top WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Have

By using these plugins in your blog, you can make it much easier for search engines to crawl your site, which will give it a higher ranking on search results. There’s infinite possibilities with plugins, so learn how to use them, get comfortable with them, and start making professional sites!

Penny Auctions are a simple concept, an user buys bids from the site, then the user finds an item that he desires and begins bidding. Every bid that is placed raises the item one penny. This simple concept sounds like a great way to save money on items but there are some downsides. It is very difficult to win a bidding war. At times if nobody is bidding the site itself will bid on the item. Another way to look at it is that although you might get an iPad for cheap, that might be the only auction you win. All that money you put into bids are basically a waste because for each penny bid you can pay up to a dollar. So although there is a possibility of getting a product at a great price you have to be careful that you don’t get too involved without thinking about it.

Facebook is becoming the ultimate marketing tool.  So much so in fact, Facebook is on every web site I have visited today.  Facebook markets itself and others at the same time efficiently through the “like” button.  Users can “like” anything from items they buy to newspaper articles.  Twitter, digg, and other sites are moving to do the same, but Facebook is pioneering the field.  “Liking” something posts it to your Facebook page, and thus further incorporates Facebook into its users’ lives.  However it also provides advertising for the item which is “liked” because there now exists a link to the product on a high traffic website.

Facebook is also partnering with other subscription services such as Skype, JibJab, and an increasing number of others to include a feature where you simply sign into the site using your Facebook information.  If you are already signed into Facebook, you will be signed into these websites.

Facebook IS internet marketing.

Twitter, “the best way to discover what’s new in your world.”

I don’t own an account and I don’t understand what it is all about. From my perspective it is a way for a self-absorbed society to talk about themselves and expect other people to care. Now, some people have more of a reason than others because people care about famous people (for some reason). A lot of famous people have very popular twitter accounts, that people can follow and see what they are doing. Its still under the assumption that people care what they think and do every second of the day.

I am being negative. Twitter definitely could be used in a non self-absorbed way. If you and your family or friends don’t live near each other it is a way of staying up to date on the day day doings of those people close to you. This kind of social media could bring families together in a way that not many other websites do.

I will have to give twitter a chance before I condemn it.

Small businesses have started to step away from physical marketing tactics and they have turned to social media marketing. The average small business budgets $2,500 for marketing and they don’t plan on increasing. Social media marketing has become an extremely efficient way of marketing. Facebook is the most popular tool. It is now number one after passing Google, 70% of businesses use Facebook to their advantage, let it be an ad or a page. Facebook is very simple to use and it shows great promise for the business. Another tool that is used for marketing is Twitter. Businesses use this to create awareness about their busniess. Twitter is also simple to use and it can be updated from any phone so it is easy to maintain.