Is Twitter Just Twaddle?
For example, who the heck really wants to know that I was “up way too early… again” or that I was “force-feeding the cat with a medical milkshake…“?
Mine haven’t been quite as inane however as Chris Pirillo’s “I farted” twit last night — which is silly enough to be funny… almost.
But I guess I’m missing the point.
Fortunately, Maki over at Dosh Dosh has written a blog post titled “17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners” that confirms my problem with Twitter and spells things out about how to use it wisely.
In her preamble, she talks about the problem with Twitter, and says “What really matters is how it impacts your online habits and daily life. For many, Twitter is a distraction…” and “It saps your attention and pulls your focus away from other tasks.“.
No kidding. You get in there and start reading Twit after Twit and next thing you know, you’ve twittered away an hour of your time. It boggles my mind to see some who are supposedly following 2, 3 and 4 THOUSAND other Twitter–ers? How the heck is that even possible?
Presuming you can avoid falling into the pit of distraction, Maki lists 17 good ways to use Twitter for getting feedback, personal branding, setting up meetings and more.
OK, so maybe I’ll give it another try. In the meantime, let me know what you think…
Are you using Twitter? Has it been an effective marketing tool for you, or like me, do you find it more of a distraction?
Popularity: 5% [?]
SMARTS Coaching Program Opens Today
Many of you are really excited about using social marketing in your businesses after seeing the excellent video that I posted here. The associated Strategy Guide is jam-packed with good tips on how to use social networks to strategically drive traffic to your sites. Read more
Popularity: 11% [?]
IMC to Release Turnkey Solution for 2008
Anyone and everyone who participated in the “What’s Your Biggest Marketing Challenge?” poll and indicated that they either haven’t yet started a website / blog yet or that they are not making money online should read this.
On January 24th at 10am, Derek Gehl and the folks at The Internet Marketing Center will be unveiling a turnkey online business solution that will finally level the playing field for regular people who want to make money online.
That solution will include ALL the components that you need to build an Internet business including a website, products, free traffic and more.
As a big fan of IMC’s products for their exceptional quality and value for money, you can be assured that this package will be up to their usual excellent standards.
The only downside is that only 250 people will be able to participate.
I can’t tell you more than that right now, but do watch this short video and be one of the first to get a sneak peak.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Reconsidering the Value of Social Marketing
I was sick of responding to the seemingly endless ‘friend requests’, mostly from internet marketers whose idea of friendship was to spam the heck out of my account with sales messages. I wasn’t particularly keen to waste my time reading the ‘let’s get together, baby’ messages or viewing scantily clad women. Duh.
Overall, I just wasn’t seeing the value of these social networking sites — but to be fair, I wasn’t really actively participating to make them work to my advantage, either.
The video I watched this morning has me reconsidering the value of using social media sites as a marketing tool, however.
The 50 minute video “Social Marketing - There Are No Secrets” video by Don Crowther is the latest one in StomperNet’s “Going Natural” series, which are some of the best quality production videos I’ve seen in the Internet marketing arena — not to mention entertaining and informative.
Don got my attention right from the start of the video by saying, “Forget SEO!“, a statement about search engine optimization that echoes the opinion I’ve always held and shared with my readers.
He also explains how you can still get ‘first mover advantage‘ if you start using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace and social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon now — and estimates that the window of opportunity on this marketing channel will start to close within the next 12 to 18 months.
The video shows how the Stompernet boys managed to claim the first 8 PAGES on Google (yes, pages, not listings) through social media marketing.
OK, that opened my eyes to the possibilities of using Web 2.0 (a.k.a. social networking, social marketing, social media) sites to build traffic and sales for your online business.
Don also shows results from research studies that demonstrates how traffic from social networking sites is actually more valuable than traffic we might get from ppc and other marketing techniques. Nice…
I think it’s a worthwhile view and have posted the video below for you to view. Access to the other StomperNet videos is available through the playlist on video player. The Stompernet boys are also giving away a free 33-page social marketing strategy guide called “SMARTS”.
Watch it… you might find yourself reconsidering or adopting the social media marketing strategy it you do. 
Popularity: 20% [?]
I Got a First Page Google Listing in Only 9 Seconds
Despite continuing problems with getting my blog posts to show up or stay listed in Technorati and Google Blogs, it appears that at least one of Google’s spiders still loves me.
Although I’ve seen posts get listed that quickly before, many also seem to disappear from Google’s results almost as fast, so I searched for the keyphrase again this morning, and much to my amazement, it is still there.
Granted, Rohde boots isn’t a particularly popular search term. According to Wordtracker, the phrase has a predicted count of only 12 for today. Furthermore, I haven’t found an affiliate program that sells Rohdes.
So, why would I bother to target the phrase ‘Rohde boots’ if so few people are looking for them and I don’t make any money promoting them to people who find the post?
Well, my primary motivation for writing such a post is to share information about a truly great product that will benefit walkers like myself. In return, I hope to earn new feed subscribers with the invitation “If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!” that appears at the end of every post.
Furthermore, the site is monetized in many ways. Those who appreciate the information may browse around and find other products of interest to them that are sold through an affiliate program. Or, they may leave the site through a Google Adsense ad for which I get paid.
Assuming I get only 1 click per day from that listing over the period of a year, that would be 365 visitors to my site — for free — from a post that took me only 10 minutes to write. If only 10% of those visitors sign up for my feed / newsletter, that would be 36 new subscribers to whom I can promote products on a continuing basis. Now, if you write a post like that once a week, you can multiply those results by 52, and estimate nearly 19,000 visitors and 1900 new feed subscribers — for free.
But, those traffic estimates are probably low, especially considering the personal nature of the blog post title and content description that appears on Google, which is in striking contrast to the ’salesy’ nature of the other listings that appear on the first page of Google results.
For example, inthe last 23 hours, my most recent first page listing has generated 4 site visits, or 33% of the estimated traffic for the term ‘Rhode boots’.
So, imagine how much free traffic and revenue you can generate by targeting those ‘less popular’ phrases if you post to your blog 3 or 4 days a week, or better yet, every day!
Popularity: 77% [?]
Holiday Greetings: Justin Makes a Great Point
Sure… we all appreciate our clients and customers and want to send them our very best wishes for a happy holiday season.
But SHOULD we send those greetings as a separate email? Or, are our SinterKlaas, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years greetings better received as an inclusion within a regular newsletter?
Justin Premick posted a great article on this topic at Aweber, titled “Holiday Marketing Tip: Don’t Send Pointless Greetings!”
Although the title reveals Justin’s slant and the article justifies his reasoning, I want to add a few thoughts of my own on the matter.
One of the commenters on the Aweber blog made a good point against sending denominational greetings because not everyone on your list will celebrate Christmas. That should be SO obvious, yet how many “Merry Christmas” emails did you get last year?
In a similar vein, email marketers should also make themselves aware of when certain holidays are celebrated in countries.
Case in point.
I received an Inbox full of “Happy Thanksgiving” emails on or about the 4th Thursday of November. That would have been nice except for the fact that I live in Canada and we celebrate Thanksgiving on the 2nd Monday in October… so those greetings came about 6 weeks late.
Those marketers need to figure out how to parse their lists geographically and send their messages accordingly.
For more reasons not to send pointless holiday greetings, read Justin’s article here and check out the comments.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Bloggers: Having Problems with Technorati Indexing and Display?
Technorati has been acting very strange of late.
Last week, all my sites were indexed and the posts were displaying correctly. Then a post that I made on Roamsters (about Baggallini bags and tagged ‘baggallini’) showed up almost immediately and now can’t be found for love nor money (literally).
Weirder still, the Roamsters blog no longer seems to be indexed - while this one shows up sporadically.
I noticed on that a lot of folks are complaining of similar problems on the Technorati forum, but was wondering if any NPT folks had noticed the same strange happenings… and if so, were you able to correct it?
Now, let’s see if this post shows up….
Popularity: 7% [?]
Carl Ocab: 14-Year Old Ranks #1 in Google for “Make Money Online”
It’s hard to believe that a 14 year old kid who started his blog just this past summer, would rank #1 on Google for a highly competetive keyword phrase like “make money online”, isn’t it?
Well, it’s true.
After attempts to make money online with a tech blog and then a gossip blog failed, Carl Ocab says he was “Heavily Inspired by my Dad, I tried my best to find a broad topic that I can blog about for ages”, so he started blogging about how to “Make Money Online with a 13-year old”.
What a great hook!
And although you might be skeptical that the genius behind this effort is really only 14, reporters Annalyn Jusay and Abe Olandres from Manila who have interviewed Carl, both verify his age (with pictures) and also comment on his outward shyness.
Online, he doesn’t seem so shy - with a big ad plastered in his top navigation that reads “I’m on the frontpage of the bloody competetive keyword “make money online” which goes on to an advertisement for placing your advertising on his site. Smart!
Here are a few posts to check out:
- My #1 Advice In Handling Negative Comments
- Why MOST People Don’t Make Money Online
- Making High Profile Bloggers Reply To Your Emails - With Example Inside!
Carl’s site is highly worth a look if you want inspiration or linking opportunities from his blog via reviews, advertising, guest blogging and comments.
Popularity: 17% [?]
An Unexpected Way to Get Traffic from Flickr
Our Roamsters.com travel blog receives a little bit of traffic from the pictures that I upload to Flickr.
But I discovered another way that blogger photographers can get traffic when I received the following message about the picture shown here to the left.
Your photo(s) shown below have been short-listed for inclusion in the third edition of our Schmap Vancouver Guide, to be published mid-November 2007.
While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr.
If you would like your short-listed photo(s) to continue to our Vancouver Guide final selection phase, please read our ‘Terms of Submission’ and press the ‘Submit’ button, no later than our editorial submission deadline – Sunday, November 11.
I set the credit to go to Roamsters.com and accepted the invitation.
I’ve also granted another ‘permission to use photo’ request for a photo to be used in Trail Blazer Magazine which will also be credited to roamsters.com.
Who knows? All it takes is one visitor from the Vancouver Schmap Guide or Trail Blazer magazine to visit the site, make a big buck purchase and my 1-minute picture upload and responses to their requests will have been very worthwhile.
Popularity: 7% [?]
235 Hours Worked - Zero Dollars Earned
This morning I came across a reference to Caroline Middlebrook’s “Stats & Analysis for October ‘07″ blog post on Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger.net.
In the post, Caroline shows in great detail her blog traffic stats, new RSS subscribers, a breakdown of how she spent her time online during the month and her final earnings for the month.
After reading through her stats and thinking “Wow! Those are awesome results for a 2-month old blog”, I was absolutely shocked to learn that after working 235 hours and getting 11,000 visitors to her site (without PPC) during October, only 259 folks signed up for her feed and despite all that effort, she didn’t earn one red cent.
More shocking still is the fact that Caroline left her job in late September to become a full-time Internet marketer / blogger.
She says..
Money Earned $0
Let’s get one thing straight here… I did not quit my job to launch a successful blog! I quit my job so I could earn a living online! I love that the blog has done well but all it’s doing right now is stroking my ego. A great (unmonetized) blog does not pay the bills! I slipped further into debt this month as I will every month until I am bringing in enough money to cover my living expenses.
Later in the post she analyzes the areas in which her efforts were misdirected and commits to shifting gears in November.
From the perspective of someone who has been working online for almost 10 years and whose blogs and sites earn 100K+ per month, I’ve listed some suggestions below for those who are tempted to head down the same path as Caroline.
- Monetize your site! Maybe I’m blind, but despite linking out to a number of different sites, I couldn’t find Adsense or one affiliate link on Caroline’s site.
- To make money, blog about what you know. Caroline writes very well and shares detailed information along with helpful advice. She is also upfront about the fact that she is ‘blogging out loud’ as she learns how to make money online.
- Less research, more writing. When point #2 above is heeded, a blogger doesn’t need to spend nearly 50% of their time researching material in order to develop content.
- Write to sell. Much of your informational content should be written with a product in mind - i.e. to drive traffic to your product recommendations.
- Avoid time-wasting marketing techniques. I write copious amounts about using pay-per-click search engines and blogging to drive traffic to my (properly monetized) sites as opposed to expounding the virtues of social media marketing.
- Lastly, do not quit your job… just yet! Not unless you have a rich relative who will support you until your business venture is self-sustaining.
I recommend monetizing a new site with Google Adsense until you start earning a sufficient income from your product recommendations to warrant its removal.
So far, so good… so what’s the problem?
Well, as I see it, Caroline doesn’t know her audience. For example, if you had a medical problem, would you seek advice from a student who just started med school 6 weeks ago? NO!! You would go to one or more qualified doctors with experience and follow their recommendations.
Likewise, would you accept a product recommendation for an Internet marketing tool from a blogger who admits to making no money? Probably not until you confirmed its viability with more experienced online marketers whose advice you trust… and they’d earn the commission from the sale.
So, although Caroline’s visitors may read her Internet business learning journal with interest, they will probably go elsewhere to buy until she demonstrates success in her pursuit.
Ultimately, when you work to your strengths and start with a topic you know well, you make money faster.
Here’s a tip.
Before you sit down at your computer to work, pick your topic for the day and create a bullet list of the most important items you want to cover. Then, before you check your email, the latest Google Alerts or your feedreader, open up your text editor and flesh those points into an article. Only then should you open a browser to surf for more information and statistics if required… not before.
Approaching your content development in that manner will save you hours and hours (even days) of time and ultimately results in more content to monetize.
Start with the question, “What product do I want to sell today?” followed by “What problem(s) does that product solve for my readers?”. Answer the question(s) in your article and link to your endorsement.
Depending on the nature of the market and my subscribers, anywhere from 20% to 50% of my articles ultimately link to a product recommendation.
That’s because I’ve found that compared to PPC and blogging, the latter is a huge and on-going waste of time.
I suppose if I had a free weekend, I could spend it Digging my own articles or trying to make a bunch of MySpace or Facebook ‘friends’ whose primary objective is to sell me something. (I especially appreciate the ads - a.k.a. ‘comments’ - that promise to help me ‘get rich quick’ or sell me ‘legal bud’ … NOT.)
While I do make time to comment on the occassional blog post that I find interesting, intelligent and unique, I don’t consider blog commenting a marketing technique - unlike the 2362 webmasters who tried to post comments to my blog today.
To me it makes much more sense to spend an hour building a PPC campaign that targets customers with fat wallets who want to buy dating service memberships, travel gear and the other stuff I sell on my affiliate sites, than giving free advice on other webmasters’ forums (that what my blog is for) just for the sake of a few backlinks.
Furthermore, that hour invested in a PPC campaign has a long term payoff. I have campaigns and keywords that have been in place since 1999 that just keep sending my sites traffic and resulting in sales.
Wait until your sites have more than replaced your current income. Although I too invested anywhere from 50 to 80 hours per week when I started my online business, I quit my job only after my sites were netting 10K per month, which was double my gross earnings as an air traffic controller.
When you quit too soon, you run the risk of making rash business decisions based on desperation and fear rather than knowledge and confidence acquired through experience.
To summarize, although a blogger’s primary objective should be to inform and/or entertain his or her readers with quality information, the ultimate goal of any business is to make money. While hobby blogs or journals can be monetized to a certain extent, you have to gain your visitors’ trust if you want to make serious coin.
You can read Carolines full post at “Stats & Analysis for October ‘07“.
So… any thoughts? What could Caroline do differently at this point to monetize her current site? Should she invest more time blogging about blogging, or concentrate on building another site? What do you think? Lemme know!
Popularity: 16% [?]
