Guidelines, Best Practices And Examples -Call To Action Buttons!!

Call to action buttons on websites are often neglected. Designers sometimes don’t understand exactly what makes a good call to action button beyond being attractive and fitting into the overall design. But call to action buttons are too important to be designed without some kind of understanding of what makes them effective. After all, the main point of a call to action button is to get visitors to do something.

It’s important to gain at least a basic understanding of how color, scale, language, and other factors influence the conversion rate of a call to action button. The concepts here aren’t complicated, but they do take a bit of forethought and planning to create the most effective call to action buttons possible within a given design. Read on for more information on each of these points and more.

The Purpose Of "Call To Action" Buttons

Call to action buttons can serve a variety of functions. After all, “call to action” is really a bit vague. All it means is that it’s main purpose is to get a visitor to your site to do something. That something could be adding a product to their shopping cart, downloading something, requesting information, or just about anything else.

Because call to action buttons have such varied purposes, a lot of consideration has to go into what the button aims to achieve. The type of site, the target market, and the desired action can all play a role in how to best design a call to action button.

Types Of "Call To Action" Buttons

There are a few different types of call to action buttons. While each type aims to get visitors to perform a certain action, that action can vary considerably. Below are the most common types of call to action buttons, based on the action they want you to take.

1. Add To Cart Buttons

E-commerce sites generally use a number of call to action buttons, but the most widely-used one is the “add to cart” button. These buttons generally appear on individual product pages. Their purpose is to entice customers to purchase an item. Common design elements in add to cart buttons include simple wording (such as “Add to Cart” or “Add to Bag” or “Buy Now“) and the use of icons (usually a bag or cart).

2. Download Buttons

Download buttons are similar to add to cart buttons in that they’re trying to entice a visitor to take possession of an item. In the case of download buttons, many designers opt to include more information than other types of buttons (such as version information or download size).

3. Trial Buttons

Some sites try to entice their visitors to try their offerings, generally in the form of a free trial. This could be a free download or a free account, depending on the particular site. Some sites use the “less-is-more” philosophy and keep the language on their buttons to a minimum, while others like to offer more information on what the trial contains.

4. Learn More Buttons

Learn more buttons are generally used at the end of a block of teaser information (often on the home page). These buttons are usually simple, but often oversized to attract visitor attention.

5. Sign Up Buttons

Sign up buttons appear most commonly in two different versions. The first type is usually directly associated with a sign up form. The second type is usually used in a similar fashion to “add to cart” buttons, as a way for users to purchase or sign up for a service or account, before they actually reach a sign-up form.

There are other types of call to action buttons, but these are the most common. Guidelines that apply to those above will likely also apply to any other type of call to action button you might be designing.

Using Negative Space Effectively

You want your call to action buttons to stand out from the surrounding content and really command attention from your site visitors. To that end, you need to make use of negative space around those buttons. Incorporate blank space between your content and your call to action button. While this is less important (and less common) on some buttons, such as add to cart buttons, with others, like those to learn more, work better with more space.

It’s important to balance the amount of negative space you have around the buttons with the size of the buttons themselves. It’s about proportion. You want your button, the space around it, and the surrounding content to all look like they go together, even with disparities in size. You may have to fiddle around with things a bit in order to get them looking just right.

Some guidelines:

• Make sure there’s enough space around your button so that it doesn’t feel cluttered
• Consider principles like the rule of thirds or the Golden Ratio when determining how much space to include
• Negative space gives your call to action button room to stand out among your other content and sets it apart

Size And Color

How large your call to action buttons are is very important. A button that’s too large will overpower everything around it. A button that’s too small will get lost in the shuffle of all the other content on a page. You want your button to be large enough to stand out without overwhelming the design.

Color can be used to great effect to help balance the size of your buttons. For larger buttons, choose a color that’s less prominent within your design (but still stands out again the background). For a smaller button, you may want to choose a brighter, contrasting color to really make the button pop. In either case, make sure the color you use sets the button apart without clashing with the site’s overall design.

Some guidelines:

• Your call to action buttons should ideally be the largest buttons on a given page
• Use contrasting colors to make smaller buttons stand out more
• Use less distinct colors to make oversized buttons fit in better
• You call to action buttons need to command attention without overwhelming your design

Language

The exact wording you choose to use on your call to action buttons can have a huge effect on conversion. Compare “Buy Now” with “Add to Cart“. One is much more urgent than the other one. Or how about “Try it for Free” with “Free Trial“? One is much punchier than the other and stands out more.

The language you use on your call to action buttons should be as straight-forward and simple as possible. You want visitors to know with just a glance exactly what they’ll get when the click on a button. If they question it, that means they’ve paused, which can lead to lower conversion rates.

Don’t forget your font sizes, too. The text on your call to action button should be large and bold, properly suited to the size and color of the button itself. Make sure there’s sufficient contrast and that the text is easy to read.

Some guidelines:

• Use simple, direct language
• Use a large, bold font on the button for the main text
• Make sure the language clearly calls for a specific action

Create Urgency

You want visitors on your site to carry out the desired actions with as little thought as possible. While you don’t want to deceive your visitors, the more opportunities you give them to stop and consider what they’re doing, the more opportunities you’re giving them to say “no”.

You want your buttons to give them the impression that they need to act right away. You want to encourage them to make their decision immediately, on the spur of the moment. While this won’t work for every call to action button (especially those to purchase high-ticket items), for low-cost or free actions, having visitors click with little forethought is desirable.

Some guidelines:

• Encourage your visitors to act immediately
• Don’t give your visitors any reason to pause
• While urgency is important, don’t mislead your visitors in any way

Provide Extra Information

Where appropriate, use your call to action buttons to give visitors extra information about what they’re going to get if they click on the button. This is most commonly seen with trial buttons or download buttons. Common examples of extra information include the length of time a free trial will last or the size of a file download. Version information is also commonly seen.

When including extra information, remember that you need to keep the focus on the actual call to action. Make sure that the text for the language enticing visitors to act is most prominent, with other information much less visible.

Some guidelines:

• Only include extra information when it adds to the user experience
• Extra information is only appropriate on some types of call to action buttons, most notably download or trial buttons
• Make sure the main call to action is still the most prominent text on your button

Prioritize

It’s important to prioritize the call to action buttons on your page if there’s more than one. This can be done in a number of ways, but the most common are through the use of color and size.

Use color to highlight the most important button on a page, or to make the less important ones seem less prominent. Or use size to make the most important button stand out (by making it larger) and de-emphasizing the less-important ones.

Icons And Images

Including visual cues in your call to action buttons can also help to increase conversion rates. An icon of a shopping cart on an “add to cart” button, for instance, or an arrow on a download button are both good examples. Think of unique icons to use, too, but make sure that the icon adds to the user experience by clarifying what the button is for, and doesn’t add any confusion.

Some guidelines:

• Make sure the icons you use help clarify your button’s meaning, rather than confuse it
• Easily-recognized icons can immediately indicate meaning to your visitors
• Don’t be afraid to use less-commonly used icons, as long as their meaning is still clear

Examples

Here are a few examples of great call to action buttons. While they don’t all perfectly conform to the guidelines above, they meet enough of the criteria to be considered great.

Livestream
Differentiating the "buy now" (for paid options) and "sign up" (for free options) buttons is a good strategy.

Windows 7
The big, green "Get Windows7" button is easy for visitors to spot.

Fileshare HQ
The bright green button here really stands out against the white background.

Logbook
Using different colors for the "Download" and "Buy" buttons sets them apart and gives priority to the "Buy" button.

TasteBook
This button makes great use of an icon and uses larger, bold text to stand out.

GoodBarry
Another bright green call to action button.

Lifetree Creative
Continuing the same typeface from the body copy to the call to action button creates a sense of cohesion.

The Resumator
A bright red call to action button with bold type stands out against the blue background.

Notepod
A good example of including extra information in a call to action button.

Inkd
A great example of prioritizing buttons with size.

Elegant Themes
Another excellent example of using color to stand out without clashing with surrounding design elements.

ZenDesk
Another great example of making a button stand out using color.

Storenvy
A round button is unexpected and stands out, especially when surrounded by a white border.

Bara’Mail
Sometimes a button that blends in works better in your overall site design, especially when the action is less urgent.

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Blog vs Hubpages. Which is better? Pros and Cons of Hubpages and blogs. A complete review!!!!

Blog vs Hubpages. Is Hubpages better than blog? Pros and Cons of Hubpages and blogs. A complete review!!!

I am writing his article because many of you may be wondering as to which is better than the other, and which one gets better revenue when used with affiliate programs- Blog or "Hubpages" ?

Well, this is a very tough question to answer. To say the truth, both Blogs and Hubpages have their own features and benefits. Both are wonderful means of free web hosting through which you can publish content on the internet. Both of them serve as a useful source of income, when used in conjuction with affilate programs such as Google adsense, Yahoo publisher or Chitika ads. They also enable you to create multiple web pages, and increase traffic to your other sites through links

Though I am an admirer of both blogs and Hubpages, I have put forward my unbiased and honest ideas on the Pros and cons of hubs and blogs, without any plagiarism

Pros and Cons of "Hubpages" and Blog. Which is better?

Which is more professional? Hubpages or Blog? Though both Hubpages and blogs are substantial means to create free websites, a Blog offers a more professionalistic design than a Hubpage. Due to the unique facility provided by Blogs to create text content and links of our own choice, using various fonts and styles, a blog can be optimized to look better and attractive, as compared to a Hub. Further, blogs provide you a wide variety of pre-defined web page design templates to create your page, whereas Hubpages don't provide this facility

A List of links lined up on a blog will look much professional and similar to that of a stand alone .com website, whereas hubpage links always come in the same format. These may look rather monotonous and unimpressive to catch the attention of a visitor. On the other side, the bold and large-fonted hub links may grab the attention of even the lethargic internet user who would hardly take the effort to peep into all corner of a webpage

Further, Blog provide the option to move and place gadgets(links,affiliate ads or news/poll columns) on the desired part of the webpage, whereas a hubpages don't

So, if you wish to design a professional website for business purposes, better opt for a blog than a Hub

Which drives more traffic? Hubpages or Blog? Well, after the introduction of Blogs and Hubpages, site owners have been able to attract more visitors to their sites. Though blogs and hubpages provide almost the same SOE(search engine optimization) ranking levels, Hubpages have the ability to create a greater amount of traffic from its own community of Hubbers. When someone searches for a certain topic through Hubpages, they will be presented with the list of related hubs along with the description and label photos. As a matter of fact, the number of visitors to your site each day will be more if you have a Hub instead of a blog.

The reason is that the number of "Hubbers"(members of Hubpages) visiting your Hubpages will be much more than the total number of visitors coming to your site from other sources such as people who have found out your site through search engines Google, Yahoo or MSN. More importantly, Hubbers would also take a look at your other Hubs by browsing through your profile or the topics on which you have created pages on.

So, if you wish to create some good traffic to site right from the start, better go for a Hub than a Blog

Which provide more revenue? Hubpages or Blog? This is perhaps the more important question of them all. With Hubpages, you get to display Google adsense ads and Kontera ads by default. You can also display eBay and Amazon ads. However, Hubpages does not allow you to display other affiliate ads such as Yahoo publisher ads, MSN (Microsoft adcenter ads) or Chitika ads. In contrast, Blogs allow you to display all the above types of affiliate ads on your blogs. A Blog will allow you to input the HTML code of any affiliate tool, such as Adsense, Yahoo publisher, Kontera or MSN

This is one the greatest advantage of blogs, when compared to Hubpages

Another important feature involved as far as Google Adsense is concerned, is that Blogs offer much better content- targeted ads since they offer the advantage of manually implementing adsense code in blog pages. As a result, you can display ad groups of your choice which would have better target content.

However, hubpages doesn't provide this feature. Further, since hubpages display ads of their choice, ads are mostly irrelevant and as a result, CTR(click through rate) in hubs are much lower as compared to blogs. Many affiliates have reported a 300% increase in click rates when they switched from Hubs to Blogs

How to obtain maximum benefits by using both blogs and Hubpages?

We have seen the Pros and Cons of having Blogs and Hubpages. Now, let us see how we can obtain maximum benefits and earn maximum revenue by using both Blogs and Hubpages.

I would suggest everyone to have an account with both Blog and Hubpages. By creating web pages on both blog and Hubpages, you can optimize your features and get the maximum out of both tools. Below are some useful tips to get maximum benefits by using Blogs in conjuction with Hubpages:

1. Place Hubpage links on your blogs that will direct visitors to your Hubs, and blog links on your hubs that will direct visitors to your blogs . This will enable visitors the maximum opportunity to check both your hubs and blogs

2. If one of your blogs or hubs is not getting enough visitors, increase traffic to that particular blog or hub by placing a link to that site through one of your blogs or hubs which gets lot of visitors everyday

3. Give brief description of a topic on one of your blogs or hubs, and direct the visitor for detailed information on the topic through links, that will lead them to your other blogs Hubs. For example, If you have created a blog on Finance, give a brief description on the Finance sector, and direct the visitor to one of your hubs containing detailed information on finance and financial products, through a link on the Finance blog

The above 3 tips are great means of increasing traffic to your blogs and Hubs

4. If you have enrolled yourself into various affiliate programs, split your affiliate ads on between your hubs and blogs. If you have 5 blogs and 5 hubs, keep all your Google adsense ads on your hubs and place all your Yahoo publisherads on your Blogs.

This way, you can optimize your affiliate earning level considerably

5. Placing same types of ads in marketing affiliate programs like eBay andAmazon onto a single site is particularly not a very good idea. Let's assume that you are have a blog and Hub each written on health related topics. Instead of placing Health supplement ads on both sites, you can place "health supplements" ads on your blog and place "Sportswear" ads on your hub

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Next-Gen Electronics Charge Themselves With Energy-Harvesting LCD Screen

Engineers at UCLA have developed technology that allows energy gobbling gadgets like smartphones and laptops to convert sunlight, ambient light, and their own backlight into energy. Equipping LCD-enhanced devices with so-called polarizing organic photovoltaics will
recoup battery loads of lost power, and enable smartphone users to scour Yelp, scan Twitter, and update their Facebook page without fear of draining the charge before a real communication crisis arises
Read more: Next-Gen Electronics Charge Themselves With Energy-Harvesting LCD Screens | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World


Liquid crystal displays make up the majority of the display screen market because they render bright and colorful images and are relatively easy to manufacture. As popular as they are, LCDs are by no means efficient — as much as 75% of energy is lost in the traditional polarization process and brightening the display drains the majority of the device’s stored electricity.
Photovoltaic polarizers can capture and recycle light that would otherwise be lost in the transmission process.  The polarizers act as light filters and are capable of transforming backlight as well as ambient and natural light, which means that energy-harvesting LCD displays will power up your gadget whether or not it is in use.
Though it will be awhile before the technology is integrated into the design of everyday electronics,  the days of keeping one charger at the office, one in the car, and another at home are limited.

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The best blogging advice you’ve ever received

Hi Bloggers,

We've set out to learn more about blogging from the people who know it best -- our users. I’ve really enjoyed your responses to our #bloggerasks tweets over the past two weeks, and spent a good amount of time reading through the blogs and posts that you’ve sent us.


Something that always astounds me about blogging is how the core experience of sharing stories pulls together an incredibly diverse group of people. The emphasis you all put on connecting with each other really speaks to the power of community among bloggers.

Here are some of my favorite responses to the question, What’s the best blogging advice you’ve ever received?

• “Write to build community; link to others and participate in the conversation” (@LisaSpangenberg)
• “To blog consistently, respond to comments, and to read and comment on other people's blogs (especially those who read mine).” (@kelblogg)
• “To not only be active within your own blog but on others' as well - leave comments, but don't spam!” (@OnceBittenBlog)

Although it’s important to keep your readers in mind, most of you tweeted about staying true to yourself, and writing about what you love. @Mistylovesvamps said it best: “don't be a slave to stats & followers.”

The balance between writing for yourself and becoming part of a community can be difficult at first - even a little scary - but it’s worth it. And if you’re still on the fence, consider the best blogging advice @Shakestweetz received: “Hey, you should start a blog.”

Missed our #bloggerasks? Keep an eye out for future tweets, and for my posts on your responses. Have even more blogging advice? Let us know - leave a comment!

source: bloggerbuzz

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10 Best Uses of Orkut or Facebook for Students

              Initially it was really exciting and checked the orkut account as email, and also had scrap and friend requests alerts set. Whenever someone used to scrap, send a friend request or approves it I used to get an alert. It was really fun meeting all old friends in one place after a long time. And also made friends from different parts of the world, specially having more girl friends was an honor. One fine weekend I decided to go for trekking and got off my research lab little early to take rest for next day trekking. I was getting busier with research paper’s deadlines too and this was last chance for me to go out for hiking. After dinner I went room I checked my mail and saw few friends’ requests and scrap alerts. Just opened orkut to accept and read the scraps and go to bed. Unfortunately or fortunately met many old friends and started scraping them and reading them unknowingly it went very late in the night.
Next day early in the morning when friends called me, I was not in a position to go with them, too tired and sleepy, just took excuse from them and slept long. In my history I missed my only first breakfast at IIT the next day. After waking up late, I took shower and ate some fruits and went to lab. As soon as open my mail saw a friend request form my B.Tech junior with a scrap. I jumped with happiness and opened orkut again and replied her scrap. It went on again and I missed my lunch. When I came out it was dinner time. I orkuted whole weekend, and missed my social life because of social networking.
Next Monday when I looked back at my progress, I felt really bad and sick of orkut. I thought of deleting the account at first, but speared it for my old friends here. On the way to lab I decided to make best use of orkut or any other social networking site to support my research as I used Internet.
First suggestion, to make best use of any social networking sites like orkut, facebook, my space, Hi5…etc. is to disable all the default setting, do not receive any alerts from them. You go the site whenever you feel like going there. Don’t give them a chance to pull you there. I went to settings and cancelled all the alerts and concentrated on my research work. With the changing the settings the golden time started.
Afterwards I used orkut the most efficient way to help my research, develop hobbies and finding friends at new job location. Instead of searching for orkut themes, best orkut birthday scraps or some best scrap shairee to send it to girls you can use it as most effective product to shape your career. Here are few tips.
1. For Education
Make best uses of communities join some of the best and active communities of current semester subjects specially the one you found difficult. Post your questions and be interactive in the community. There are lots of experts there who will be happy to help you.
2. Subject book reviews
In engineering we are usually confused about buying books for semester, most of the time students find it difficult to understand the concepts. Most of us end up buying a difficult book that we never study and finally end up with weak subject knowledge and just pass it and never dare to touch that again. With the help of seniors and other people who used these books we can find some very good book reviews and can decide which book will help us to grow in strong knowledge. The eventually help us in scoring good marks in final exams. Other books we can definitely borrow from college library.
3. The best buyer guide
Asking parents to buy a laptop for you and confused about the range available, go thought the community discussion related to the product and get an idea of product you were planning to buy. You can go through the reviews of your own community of people on certain electronic products. Most of the bloggers just copy paste info from the information brochures and really don’t have any idea about what they are talking about, therefore it is always better to use trusted communities.
4. Seminars
Seminars are must in almost every course these days. For selection of good seminar topics, materials and white papers join communities and learn from others experience. It will also help you to find out the trends while searching for a good topic that may be useful for your mini project and final projects.
5. Projects
Selecting a good project topic and working on that is usually one of the most difficult part the curriculum. Most of us think that our job mostly depends on the kind of project we do or at least our scores depends on it. You can search some good project names in some related communities. Ones you are done with collecting information and start implementing it and struck somewhere you can always approach the right person to help you in the communities. As expecting help from guides back at school will usually not much fruitful.
6. Competitive Exam preparation
When we are at the verge of finishing the course we usually look around for jobs, you can find lots communities with people similar to us, hunting jobs everyday. They will usually post some information about test and interview questions. Having a look at them will definitely help.
If you are preparing for some competitive exams like GRE, GMAT, GATE, TOFEL, JAM or MBA or MCA CETs, for further studies you will find huge recourse on these sites. You can see how people are using audio lectures and links to prepare for them. Preparation plans, ebooks and materials are often shared in these communities.
7. Promoting hobbies
Don’t get puzzled when some ask you for your hobby. What you would like to do in free time is your hobby. I love to read and write about personality development, using my time efficiently, therefore I joined a group till I found useful. I gave suggestions too but latter decided to write them on my own blog.
8. Outings
Vacations and semester breaks, don’t spend them at home just playing video games and thinking about reading something that you never read. Plan properly and look around what are the nearby tourist attractions that are affordable by you and your parents. Checkout the experience of other travelers and find out their recommendations to help your travel. This will make you fresh and also give a feeling of break from routine and gives strength to concentrate on studies again.
9. Contacts with old friends and Alumni
Everyone loves their close friends and loosing them make us cry. The best way to know how abouts of them is to add them as in your friend list and checking their profile updates and scrap them sometimes. Another set of important people to you can be your college Almuni who share a common interest with you or in places where you want to go in future. Don’t disturb them but on the same time don’t hesitate to ask a good question. Be good to them you may face them in some interviews. Also check their activities and have a note on their attitude this may help you to reach there.
10. News around the campuses or companies
Join the communities of companies and campuses you are targeting or going to join. This will make you understand the culture there make it easy for you to adopt. You can make friends before you go there. A new joining community can help each other with the admission or joining process. This can also be the best uses to keep your momentum going for your target jobs or campuses.
Hope this helps. Keep reading for new stuff..

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End of dotcom era, Net braces for 'notcoms'

WASHINGTON: Coming soon to the internet: website addresses that end in ".bank," ".Vegas" and ".Canon."

The organization that oversees the internet address system is preparing to open the floodgates to a nearly limitless selection of new website suffixes, including ones in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts. That could usher in the most sweeping transformation of the domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.

More than 300 suffixes are available today, the bulk of them country-code domains, such as ".uk" for the United Kingdom and ".de" for Germany.

Hundreds or even thousands more suffixes could be created, categorised by everything from industry to geography to ethnicity.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will meet Monday in Singapore to vote on its expansion plan for domain names. If ICANN approves the plan as expected, new domains could start appearing late next year.

The new system could bring innovative branding opportunities and allow all sorts of niche communities to thrive online.

But businesses worry that they'll have to grab their brand names before others do. New suffixes could also create confusion as consumers navigate a Web with unfamiliar labels.

It's also possible that the new names won't make much difference because many people these days rely on search engines and mobile applications to find what they are looking for online. Consumers don't type Web addresses into browsers nearly as much as they did 15 years ago when talk of a domain name expansion began.

"Most people don't pay a lot of attention to website addresses anyway these days," said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land, a website that covers the search industry.

From a technical standpoint, domain names tell computers on the Internet where to find a website or send an email message. Without them, people would have to remember clunky numerals such as "165.1.59.220" for "ap.org."

The monikers have grown to mean much more, however. Amazon.com Inc has built its brand on its website address, while bloggers take pride in running sites with their own domain names.

ICANN has already allowed two major expansions of the addressing system. In 2000, it approved seven new domains, including ".info" and ".biz." It began accepting new bids again in 2004. It has approved and added seven from that round, including ".xxx" for pornography sites this past March.

Under the expansion plan now before ICANN, future applications would be streamlined and open to all companies, organizations and individuals.

That has set off a virtual land rush.

Organisations that operate new suffixes will be able to collect registration fees from websites that want names. The fees could add up to millions of dollars a year if a website is popular enough.

A group of entrepreneurs in Las Vegas is vying to operate a ".Vegas" suffix. They have the city's endorsement and consider ".Vegas" a way to unify local merchants, entertainment venues, residents and even businesses beyond Sin City.

Former professional hockey player Ron Andruff is working with international sports federations to bid for ".sport." He expects sports leagues, teams, athletes, equipment makers and fans to want websites with a suffix that defines them better.

Two groups - one backed by the Sierra Club and the other by Greenpeace and other environmental organization - are separately seeking the right to operate a ".eco" suffix.

Big business will stake claims, too. Printer and camera maker Canon Inc plans to apply for ".Canon". Trade groups for bankers and financial-services companies are working together to explore bids for ".bank", ".insure" and ".invest" for their member companies.

New domains offer fresh branding possibilities for companies to identify themselves online in "a more relevant or a more localized" way, said Pat Kane, a senior vice president at VeriSign Inc., which operates ".com" and ".net."

Although suffixes added over the past decade haven't been as popular as ".com," there has been demand for an expansion because nearly all of the most desirable ".com" addresses have been taken. There are more than 94 million registered under ".com."

The thinking is that new businesses setting up shop online might prefer a simple name that ends in ".bank" rather than "TheBankDownTheStreetFromTheSupermarket.com."

The expansion plan before ICANN had been delayed, however, largely because of concerns that new suffixes could infringe on trademarks and copyrights. There's also worry that new suffixes could deceive consumers, create new platforms for hate groups or lead to website addresses ending in obscenities. ICANN spent years crafting guidelines and creating procedures for objecting to applications.

ICANN already has approved rules for some countries to claim suffixes that spell their names in languages other than English. The new plan opens that up to Chinese and Arabic versions of ".bank" and ".sport" as well.

It won't be cheap to operate a domain name suffix. The application fee is $185,000, and winners will have to pay $25,000 annually after that. Disputes are likely as different groups go after the same domain. ICANN may auction off domains if multiple parties have legitimate claims. Legal fees could also pile up as trademark owners and governments file objections to certain applications.

Trademark holders, in particular, fear they would have to register a lot of addresses they don't need or want simply to keep others from using them. Microsoft Corp, for instance, would not want websites addresses such as "Microsoft.software" and "Microsoft.computer" used to commit fraud or sell pirated goods.

Copyright owners, too, worry they would have to devote more resources to fighting online piracy with a proliferation of websites ending in ".movies" and ".music" that distribute copyrighted content illegally.

ICANN has crafted rules meant to give trademark owners a first shot at claiming their brands. It would also have a process to quickly disable addresses that are clear violations.

But Steven Metalitz, a lawyer for a coalition of movie studios, recording labels and other copyright holders, fears ICANN won't be aggressive enough in enforcing the rules.

Still, supporters of the expansion believe it will create opportunities.

Juan Diego Calle, whose company operates the existing ".co" suffix, said that with more alternatives available, more businesses and groups will see that they can set up shop online with a catchy, easy-to-remember website that doesn't end in ".com."

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5 Clever Ways to Get a Job Using Social Media

Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0 and the founder of Millennial Branding, a full-service personal branding agency. He’s spoken about personal branding at Google, Harvard, Time Warner, IBM, and CitiGroup. Read his Personal Branding Blog for more information.

Social media is making it easier to find the right jobs, and for you to connect to the right people that can help you get those jobs. Many job seekers are still using traditional job search methods that are yielding poor results. The New York Post reported that one woman applied for more than one thousand jobs over 99 weeks, getting only two interviews. Nearly one in three job seekers has been out of work for more than a year, and the average job seeker gives up after five months.

But you don’t have to end up like these professionals! By understanding who you are, what differentiates you in the marketplace and establishing your personal branding online, you can compete in the new talent marketplace. Once you’ve built your own website and established your social network profiles, you’re ready to start leveraging your relationships and talents to get the job of your dreams, not just one that pays the bills.

More and more companies are recruiting using social media, and 40% of young professionals are using social media to get jobs, reports Elance. You can have a successful job search by following these five new ways to get a job using social media.

1. Leverage Your Social Graph

People get jobs through other people, not computers. By having a personal connection to the company you’re applying for, your chances of getting a job multiply. If all you do is submit your resume blindly on job boards, you won’t have much luck. Ten years ago, it would take you a lot of effort to ask your friends who they know and to remember where all your friends work. Now, you can tap your social graph on social networks and have all of that information at your fingertips. For job seekers, this means that you can get introductions to people who work at companies you’re interested in. For companies, this means growing your business though introductions instead of cold calls. The internet is your personal research laboratory. Here are a few tools that will help you tap into your social graph during your job search:

• 1. LinkedIn. LinkedIn gives you access to hiring managers through your close connections. After creating your profile, upload all of your email contacts so that you have a foundation to build upon. Then, search for a company or position, filter your results by location and see who in your immediate network can introduce you to a hiring manager. LinkedIn forces us all to do more research on employees and companies before interviews. All of their information is online, so it’s created an expectation that you’re doing your homework.
• 2. InTheDoor.com. Think of InTheDoor.com as a job board overlay on your Facebook social graph. It connects Indeed.com’s aggregated job board database and your Facebook social graph to show you who in your network can connect you with specific openings. You can find jobs at your friends’ companies, search for jobs in different cities by preference and search by company and job title.
• 3. BranchOut.com. Much like InTheDoor.com, BranchOut utilizes your Facebook social graph. The main difference is that you access BranchOut from within your Facebook profile, and it gives you more of a professional identity. It was always hard to build a professional identity on Facebook but BranchOut has tried to solve that. With $18 million in a recent venture capital round by Redpoint Ventures, more than 3 million job listings and 20,000 internships listings, this site is serious business. Like LinkedIn, you can get recommendations on your page, and like Foursquare, you can earn badges.

2. Use Augmented Reality and Job Search Apps

People are starting to use mobile applications to see job openings near them and apply with just a few touches of an iPhone or Android. In fact 20% of job seekers use their smartphone in their search for a job, reports LinkUp. “Augmented reality” blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell. If you have an iPhone, you should download the “Layar” application. Once installed, click on “Layars” from the bottom menu and search for “JobAmp Mobile.” When you use this layar, you will be able to see all the companies near your current location and what positions are open at them. This information is very useful if you see a company you’re interested in when walking around your city.

In 2009, I wrote a post for Mashable on the top iPhone job search applications. Since 2009, I’ve found a number of other good applications that will assist you in your search, wherever that may be:

• CareerBliss (Free). It has company reviews, salary information, and about three million job listings.
• Good Job ($4.99). Organize your job search by tracking jobs from multiple sites, contacts, interview schedules, resumes and more.
• Real-Time Jobs (Free). Attach a social network profile and video to Twitter job postings.
• BusyBee (Free). If you’re a freelancer, then you can find contract opportunities nearby with this app.

3. Build Your Online Influence

More than a decade ago, if you had the right “hard” skills (i.e., C++ programming), you were almost guaranteed a job. You could almost trade your college diploma for a job upon graduation. Then, as the economy changed and became more competitive, companies started to pay attention to a new set of skills. Soft skills (i.e., communication, organization, leadership, etc) became increasingly important as a way to choose one candidate over another. Companies were interested — and still are — in passion, teamwork and cultural fit. In today’s world, not only do you need strong hard and soft skills, but you need to develop online influence. When two candidates look the same on paper and are both good communicators, the differentiator will be their online influence.

Online influence is measured in how many connections you have, who those connections are (and how influential they are), who and how many people are sharing your content and backlinking to your website and more. Klout.com, a site that measures online influence and gives you a “Klout score,” is becoming increasingly popular with employers. If you have a high Klout score, it can help you get hired over the next person. Online influence attracts employers, who are increasingly looking to hire professionals who are already well-known by their target audience. Companies understand that those with larger networks are more productive and can generate new business, recruit top talent and market their brand better than someone who lacks a big network.

4. Use Multimedia Instead of a Paper Resume

A recent OfficeTeam survey noted that 36% of companies think that it’s at least somewhat likely resumes will eventually be replaced by profiles on social and business networking sites. More and more professionals are using creative ways to promote themselves online. I’ve seen rap videos, dedicated Facebook Pages, a blog saying “hire me” and SlideShare.net presentations. These promotional tactics can be effective and even land some media attention, which could turn into a few job offers. Since very few job seekers take the time to invest in these tactics, they stand out and are shared widely.

• SlideShare.net. Develop your own PowerPoint presentation, upload it to SlideShare.net and promote it through your networks and on your website. Your slides can include information about your technical skills, projects you’ve completed, an endorsement from a manager and more. Here is an example.
• QR codes — Share a quick response (QR) code on your social networks to direct an employer back to your website. You can also put the code on print materials. Here is an example.
• Viral videos — Create a video about yourself, or multiple videos linked together, and use YouTube to promote it. You can also develop a video resume which will showcase your personality to employers, in addition to your skills. Here is an example.
• Creative websites — Use your creativity and establish a creative website under your full name (yourfullname.com). Here is an example.
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5. Turn Yourself Into an Advertisement

Another way to get people’s attention is to advertise yourself to the specific people and companies you’re looking to work for. The four most common ways to advertise yourself are through Facebook social ads, Google AdWords, blog advertisements and LinkedIn Ads. These are all offerings used primarily for businesses, but can be applied to your job search.
You can see an example of this being done by Alec Brownstein in 2010, when he advertised himself by targeting specific executives at companies he wanted to work for. Since people Google themselves, the executives saw his advertisement and he landed interviews. You want to create an advertisement that catches a recruiter’s attention and make sure that it links back to your main website or LinkedIn profile. Your advertisement should be specific and have your expertise clearly identified.

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