Internet Tracking: How To Minimize Data That Is Used

How to miminize interest-based adsMany of us have dabbled in Facebook ads at one time or another with mixed results. As an “Ad Placer,” we can carve out what types of people we want to see our ads by geography, age groups, interests, and more. Up until now, as a Facebook user, the ads you see have been a result of what you do on Facebook, your profile, status updates, and interests.

This is all changing and changing dramatically. Facebook is making a shift to give advertisers more options to tailor ads to what people do outside of Facebook. As if we didn’t get the heebie-jeebies already, Facebook is teaming up with retail stores to analyze data about purchases and what Facebook knows about you. In other words, Facebook is sharing with retailers the fact that you saw an ad for shoes and matching it up with the fact that you purchased the same brand in a retail store later. This is powerful information for advertisers and of course, helps Facebook sell more ads.

The reality is, you are being tracked everywhere. The only way to prevent tracking is to stop using the Internet. That is not an option for an Indie Author. Continue reading “Internet Tracking: How To Minimize Data That Is Used”

Great Tool for Tracking Goals

You’ve heard me preach about goals in this space before. Wait, wait, wait … Before you click to another Indies Unlimited post, hear me out.

I’m not going to drive the message of goals down your throat … again. I’m here to give you a tool.

Before I get into this tool, for the record, I want to say that I’m a little old-fashioned when it comes to writing down goals. I like to grab a pad or whatever, and manually write them down. I’ve got a little notebook that has goals written down from more than ten years ago, Continue reading “Great Tool for Tracking Goals”

Start Tracking Your Mentions: A Web-Monitoring Tool

We have lots of tools within our various platforms to help us track who is talking to or about us. We’ve talked about commun.it, Hootesuite and Tweetdeck before, but they can only follow things on a limited basis. In other words, each is geared toward certain social media platforms.

There’s also Google Alerts that will send you an email when your “alert” is mentioned somewhere out on the Internet but it is preferential to things within its search engine.

Today I want to introduce to you a site that puts it all together—Mention. This social media and web-monitoring tool combines the specificity of the above platforms with the power of Google Alerts to display who is talking about you or your books. Continue reading “Start Tracking Your Mentions: A Web-Monitoring Tool”