How to auto-update your website content
Have you ever noticed how sites that syndicate content from other people’s blogs and newsfeeds seem to get high search engine rankings? Do you want to integrate RSS newsfeeds from one of your own sites (or those published on other websites) into your blog but can’t figure out how it’s done?
Well, I did some research and you’ll be glad to know that the solution is really quite simple.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Facebook: Top 3 Tactics for Making Money
This is the 6th (bonus) post in 5-part series social media marketing using Facebook by guest blogger, Alexander Alaric. You may read his other posts here.
I decided to add this post in response to questions about “where’s the money on Facebook?”. Since you have a decent understanding of Facebook now having read my other posts in this series, I’ll tell you about the 3 basic ways I use Facebook to make money.
Although you could use their PPC system which has profitable possibilities. I know people who are making good money using this but since I’ve not personally tested it I’m not qualified to advise you about it so these are ways to use it without spending money in the process.
- Groups
- Events
- Live FB on-site Chat
Groups
You know about groups already. The benefits (and drawbacks) of setting and having your own group have been discussed. However, when you have a group of 200-300 or more you can get good leverage by sending an email to the entire group. Build the community side of it.
Here’s a picture to show you that there are all kinds of groups on Facebook… there’s even one about rodents.
To make this work, you could develop a 3-6 part email series and a schedule of when you are going to send it out. Start by encouraging conversation on the group’s wall and posting interesting threads on the group bulletin board. This gets people active in your group and further bonded to it.
It’s no longer “just another FB group I’m a part of”. It becomes something they remember and the sense of community is stronger.
Then start asking them questions. Ask them about their concerns and how you can help. The more you engage your members the better.
Finally, you can send out an email inviting them to join you on your webinar/teleseminar or even your ustream.tv channel. The benefit of the ustream is they can see you making the presentation, your body language and gestures. It is almost like being live and face-to-face which is the most powerful communication.
This bonds them to you even further.
You’ll want to use a webinar if you’re doing a highly technical subject where you are going to walk them through how to do it on your computer so they can watch step-by-step what you are doing.
You could compile some of the biggest questions they asked and just do a Q&A call. That’s the easiest way to get your content for the call and it’s most VALUABLE TO YOUR MEMBERS.
This gives you a good running start.
Events
Events can be handled in similar fashion. In fact, I recommend that you combine Events with the Groups strategy. After you’ve finished the mailing series to your group, you invite them to the Events page that you have setup with the details of your call.
The really cool thing about events is that you can invite all your friends. It’s the ONE AND ONLY safe way to invite all your friends without being caught in the facebook spam filters.
Once you have sent out the invites to the friends who’d be interested (or all of them) you have the ability through your events page to follow-up with them. It separates into “attending”, “maybe”, and “not attending”. You can send different messages to each category of friends.
You can see from this image how someone raises their hand to confirm that they’re attending your event. Be sure to send a reminder and bonus info to the “attendees” to further pique their interest and increase your attendance rate.
Include additional reasons explaining why the “maybes” should attend. Make it so desirable that they want to cancel whatever else they had planned because the content of the call will be of such MASSIVE benefit they’d have to be complete fools to miss it. 
When you can make it more important than their wedding anniversary you know you have a winner. Okay I’m young so have never been married, and this level may be unattainable but making it really desirable for them is the goal.
To the “not attending” you can send a “hate for you to miss out on this valuable advice, but here’s some bonus info now and maybe I’ll make the recorded version available to you” message. This gets some of them to want your info.
Live Facebook on-site Chat
The chat bar “floats” down below. It’s a standard php bar you’ve seen.
Although I haven’t experimented with this much yet I see the widest potential of this for 1-on-1 client acquisition. For someone like me that does copywriting at $100/hr I can get on here and talk with Facebook friends whom I know are looking for a copywriter. I can see what they are needing done, what they’re looking for, and how I can create a valuable sales piece that will pull high response and ultimately make them more money.
You could be a plumber and contact local people you know are having plumbing issues (no double entendre here). You’d be surprised what people post to twitter and their Facebook status updates.
Also, if you’re an article writer, web designer, seo underground guru, graphic designer, publicist, business coach, or a host of other remote-ready consultant/service based provider the possibilities for this type of 1-on-1 communication on-site are endless.
One piece of advice…make any potential client jump through a few hoops before getting involved in a long-winded conversation with them. This will save you time and eliminate the proverbial “tire-kickers” and “looky lous”.
Nothing fancy just send a couple emails back and forth. Have them send some info to you about what they need from you, and some kind of qualifier that lets you know they’re in a financial position to pay your reasonable fee.
This saves you headache, frustration and ultimately makes you more money because you’re more efficient.
What are you still doing here? Get out there, expand your business and make more money right now!
Special thanks to Ros for her caring commitment and making this series possible. Get more social media facebook tactics here.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Weekly Recap from the Road
I barely tweet at all, but after realizing just how many more visitors were coming to my site from Twitter, I became a real twit one day last week.
Posted 30 tweets in one day.
That was good for some fun, but I’ll stick with my lazy approach to attracting visitors with Twitter. Works like a charm.
Just in case you want to Twitter more, check out this list of Twitter software apps & services.
BTW, I’m checking out the fossil beds in southern Washington state at the moment and have my computer with me, so stay on the look out for tweets from me!
Too, be sure to check the post about the oldest person on Facebook.. who is probably now avidly reading Alexander’s latest post ‘Nailing the Facebook News Feed’.
Until next time… get social and prosper!
Cheers,
Ros
Popularity: 7% [?]
Twitter more with these software apps & services
You’re probably already posting tweets to Twitter directly on the Twitter web site.
However, did you know that there are an increasing number of different applications which are designed to let you post to Twitter directly from your desktop or from specific devices, including your iPhone, Mac and Blackberry?
Here’s a list of software applications and services that will make your Twitter experience simpler and more enjoyable.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Did you know that Bluehost accepts checks and Paypal?
Awhile ago I wrote the article, Can I Start an Affiliate Business with a Bad Credit Rating? and yet many of you still think you can’t do business online if you don’t have a credit card.
Granted, it’s difficult, but did you know that in addition to accepting all major Credit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, AmericanExpress, Discover), BlueHost.Com also accepts PayPal and money orders?
They also accept checks from U.S. residents.
So, if not having a credit card has stopped you from starting a website, check out BlueHost.
When sending checks and money orders be sure to include the following information:
- First & Last Name
- Company Name (optional)
- Billing Address
- Phone Number
- Valid Email Address
- Domain Name [new or if transferring your current domain]
- Domain Privacy [state yes or no]
- Terms of Service [state you read & agree]
- Package Type [24, 12, 6, or 3 month account]
- Password [for administrative control panel]
Important: 3 and 6 month accounts do NOT qualify for the FREE domain name. If you need a new domain the cost is $10 per domain per year.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Nailing the Facebook News Feed
This is the fifth in a 5-part series about social media marketing using Facebook by guest blogger, Alexander Alaric. You may read his other posts here.
The news feed is quite probably the most powerful part of Facebook.
The screen capture show here to the left is the news feed that appears on the Facebook home page when you first login. As you can see, some of the activities showing up in the news feed are things your friends have done. In this instance Richard created a group and had added videos to his group, and 41 of my friends are now friends with Sean.
Other items that show up in the news feed include: Read more
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How to Get More Traffic from Twitter
Although I don’t post to my blogs every day and barely tweet at all, (OK, I went nuts one day and updated almost 30 times, but that was a BIG exception) I’m getting much more traffic from Twitter by using a special service.
Best of all, it’s free, only takes 2 minutes to set up and after that there’s no extra effort required on your part.
To learn more about this service, read “How to Get More Traffic from Twitter“.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Ivy Bean: The World’s Oldest Person on Facebook
Do you want to get a lot of Facebook friends fast? Then you need to stand out - just like Ivy Bean.
At 102, Mrs. Bean is the oldest person on Facebook, joining after she heard her caregivers talking about a 97-year old Facebook member in France. Bean posts news and video about herself, including the gold medal that she recently won throwing frisbees during her nursing home’s “Over 75 Olympic Games”.
Since Ivy’s status as the world’s oldest person on Facebook broke in the media, she’s been getting LOTS of friend requests. At time of writing, Ivy Bean has 8,504 fans and 4849 friends. All those requests are apparently hard to handle, according to an update posted by one of her cargeiverson August 15th:
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their friend requests and all the lovely messages left for Ivy, we are doing our best to accept everyone’s requests but have had over 8000 today. Ivy will be back on Facebook tomorrow. Look out for her next week on This Morning and Richard and Judy. Many thanks Mariessa
8000 Facebook friend requests! Zowee! Obviously, having a claim to fame that gets media attention is pretty powerful stuff in terms of social marketing.
Anyway, if you can’t get on Ivy’s friend list, you can still be my Facebook friend.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Are your promotions up to par?
First a quick weekly recap… NPT’s FAQ is growing in size daily (the latest article is “What is a squeeze page?“) and now there’s also an easy-to-access Internet marketing terms Glossary from every page in both the articles section and blog.
This week, guest blogger Jim Lillig provided us with a follow-up to his “How to Promote Your Offline Business using LinkedIn” post with “Social Networking using LinkedIn Groups“. Once again, although the article deals specifically with realtors, these online marketing strategies can be applied to almost any offline (or online) business.
Are your promotions up to par?
Are your promos at or below the average conversion ratio of 1:200 to 1:100?
REALLY?
Please tell me it ain’t so! I personally think that the average is pretty darned dismal and I KNOW you can do much better!
No matter what your current rate, learn how to improve them by reading “7 Steps to Promos that Work“.
I did a thorough review of Marlon Sanders’ new Promo Dashboard this week and in the first 5 minutes alone, I learned about 10 very useful websites that I knew nothing about. I liked it so much that I made a sneak peek (7 minutes, 40 seconds long) video for you to check out his step-by-step program for creating perfect promos.
Marlon also posted a new video titled “How To Promote In 3 Easy Steps” which applies whether you have your own product or promote affiliate products.
The 14 minute 32 second long video answers the following questions:
- What does it take to create online promos that work?
- What if the formula isn’t working for you?
- What if you promote but people don’t buy?
- How do you build your list?
- The solution to information overload and overwhelm
- Why your ppc ads may not be working
That’s 10 steps and 2 videos to help you improve your promos. So, until next time… follow the steps, promo and prosper!
Rosalind Gardner
Popularity: 10% [?]
Video Sneak Peak of Marlon Sanders’ Promo Dashboard
Here’s a sneak peak inside Marlon Sanders’ Promo Dashboard - a step-by-step system for creating perfect promotions. Read more
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