So what do I have left to add? Well, starting from the top, I can add a photo. I’m still skipping that for now. I can get recommendations for previous positions I’ve held; likewise, I can give recommendations. I can add my interests, groups and associations, and honors and awards. I can add two more web sites.

Finally, I can decide on my contact settings – how and for what I wish to be contacted. Here you can choose to accept introductions only, or introductions and InMail. (It appears that InMail is currently a paid feature). You can give users advice about contacting you, and choose to be contacted for eight different opportunities (career opportunities, consulting offers, new ventures, etc).

I decide to make a recommendation; if I do it right, I figure I can get one in return, and I sorely need one. Here’s the first screen the pop-up showing here is what I got when I clicked on the link that said “select from your connections list.” So I make my choices and continue. Here’s the next screen, before I’ve added anything:

The positions listed in the “Choose a position” drop-downs are the ones both you and the person you’re recommending have included in your respective profiles. The ones listed under “Basis of recommendation” are designed to cover most situations, including direct manager/subordinate, working with each other in the same (or different groups), and a more indirect relationship where one person was junior to the other, but did not report directly to them.

Once you recommend someone, they receive a message notifying them of your recommendation. Your profile also changes to note that you’ve made the recommendation (you can always change it).

Meanwhile, other changes I’ve made to my profile may be starting to pay off. Link din’s system is set up to spot commonalities in people’s profiles – in this case, people who have worked at the same company at the same time. So Linked In may not have a separate profile for Faulkner Information Services, but it recognizes the company name well enough to spot it in the profiles of three other people who worked for the company at the same time I did. Unfortunately, I don’t recognize their names immediately, but I can always look up their profiles later to see if it jogs my memory. Incidentally, this is a good reason to upload a photo to your Linked In profile (which I plan to do after I finish this article). At any rate, Linked In makes it easy for me to connect to these people.

    All products need marketing. However, a few years ago, marketing your products was limited to your state, country or a few countries in the neighborhood. The Internet has changed all that, and Internet Marketing is today seen as a very good way to market your products. There is a learning curve to everything, and the same goes for Internet Marketing.

Internet Marketing is one of the most scalable, conventional and easy to use kind of marketing. Almost any individual or institution can take the advantages of Internet Marketing for their business. But what is the way to market your product or skill on the Internet? What is the success rate of Internet marketing? Can it work for any product? Here are some secrets to Internet Marketing.

Secret to Internet Marketing Success # 1: Blogs

Blogs are the superstars of Web 2.0, and web 2.0 is the future of the Internet. It is therefore only right to spend some time and resources into getting your own blog about the product or service that you are offering. One secret of having a very successful blog is the content. Duplicate and plagiarized content is a sacrilege over the Internet, and should be avoided at all costs. Also, ensure that the blogs are not too commercial, and do not hype the product or the service too much. Internet marketing and Web 2.0 work on originality and freshness.

Secret to Internet Marketing Success # 2: Non Intrusive

The Internet is the true democracy, and anything plopped onto website visitors will be criticized, ignored and forgotten - in that order. You know that you have to sack your Internet advertising and marketing company the moment they say these words: Pop Ups, Pop Unders, 'Installed on the User's Computer'. In fact, try to ensure that none of your Internet advertising concepts intrude or obstruct the Internet user's experience.

Secret to Internet Marketing Success # 3: Non Obtrusive

Never, ever, obstruct the Internet user's experience. The best example of non obtrusive and non intrusive ads is text ads. Text ads are, in fact, the latest fad in internet marketing and signing up with a good text ad program is one of the many secrets of Internet Marketing success.

Secret of Internet Marketing Success # 4: No Spam

The most important factor of Internet marketing is the right of the Internet and website users to decide whether they wish to view the Internet marketing advertisements. E-Mail marketing is an important part of Internet Marketing. One secret of E-Mail marketing is to send e-mails only to people who have opted for e-mails from you and your e-mail address.

Secret of Internet Marketing Success # 5: Article Marketing

With the advent of Web 2.0, Article Marketing has come up as a very good option over traditional and traditional Internet marketing. Article marketing means you hire good writers, who specialize in writing for the Internet, and then upload their articles, with a link to your website, over the Article Marketing directories. Most of the Article Marketing websites offer free space for articles, and if you can write yourself, article marketing comes up as a way to advertise your products over the Internet.