Let’s test a Social Bookmarking Content Theory…

Sorry I’ve been gone gang…I’ve been researching and talking with the experts to set up an experiment (along with finishing taxes of course). My personal thought is that this experiment is going to be SO much more fun than doing taxes could EVER be (but I’ll be sure to let you know when all’s said and done)

So here’s the scoop. Whenever I’ve suggested to folks that they just come up with an idea and roll with it, they tend to scoff…or worse…they whine. I’m not a big fan of whiners so I’m always looking for a way to do my part and put a stop to whining. This will be one of those projects that will attempt to remove a few more whiners from the world by taking away their excuses TO whine, while giving them something productive to do with their time.

Project:

* Start with a topic you know nothing or very little about

* Find the keywords that go with the topic

* Find affiliate products and/or programs that go with the top 5-10 keywords

* Set up a marketing strategy

* Use Squidoo, Hub Pages, and several other Social Bookmarking places and ideas

* Track the number of sales for each product that you market

Check back often and we’re gonna let you know how it’s going, what’s working and, more importantly, what’s NOT working (no sense in you wasting your time on what’s not working).

Until then…

Ha! You just GOTTA Squidoo it!

Ok, so I let everyone know a while back in my Well Squidoo you too post that I was absolutely clueless in regards to what Squidoo has to offer. Well, I’ve spent the past 3 weeks playing around with building lenses, reviewing other people’s lenses, searching thru the Squidoo forums looking for those who ARE the Squid masters, and finding out what works and what’s possible. Great news….I found some of the experts and the Squidoo system is a LOT of fun!

From the standpoint of putting your information on a page, the basics are pretty much the same as a Blog. But there’s more. They offer what are called “Modules”. You can add a module for Amazon, text links, Flickr Photos, an RSS Feed…you can even add a Poll that people can take. And you don’t have to know how to do ANY type of programming…just point and click!

As with anything else we set up to market our ideas and products, there are specific ways to go about it in order to generate free, quality traffic and backlinks. One of the Squidoo “experts” I’ve been reading a lot of information from keeps it very simple in the way of putting together a quality blog (And once you can build ONE, you can build hundreds!).

1. Use a keyword tool to find out how people are searching for your subject matter (these will be used in all of your content, and in the titles of ALL your modules, including the Amazon ones).
2. Use your lens to target long-tail keywords, especially long-tail phrases that contain a more competitive shorter phrase.
3. Start by writing an introduction (at least 250 words long using your keywords).
4. Write quality, relevant articles (at least 750 words total, broken up into 3 sections).
5. Include your introduction, your 3 articles, and a guestbook (no less than that before publishing).
6. Use ALL 40 tag (keyword) spaces allowed on your lens.
7. If you already have a primary website, have a number of links back to it using your target keywords in the links.
8. Once you’re comfortable with setting up these modules, you can beginning adding modules (in the “add modules” section), like sticky notes, big arrows, talk bubbles or links in your text to emphasize the links to your site.
9. You can then start adding pictures to your lenses (especially useful in your article modules) to break up the text and give your lens a bit more personalization and character.
10. Once you’re happy with your lens, submit it to any RELEVANT groups on Squidoo for inclusion.
11. Update your lens at least once a week (add a sentence or tow…or just republish).
12. Rinse and repeat!

So, is that ALL it takes to generate traffic to your website? Not quite. There are more advanced things you can do as well to promote your lenses, but we’ll cover those on another day!

Until then…

The Basics of Marketing…MY Bad….

Sorry gang. I got so wrapped up into what I was learning about that I’ve been forgetting to actually TEACH the basics!

I’ve been getting emails asking where exactly do we start if we’ve got something we want to let people know about. Well, as with everything, always start with the basics, keep it simple, and for goodness sake (and TRUST me…THIS is the hardest part)….stay focused on ONE THING AT A TIME!

So, let’s just begin with the simplest and fastest thing you can do to get your business going…

Create a Blog!

I know what you’re probably thinking…what the heck’s a blog? Simple enough…you’re reading one right now. And don’t worry, you don’t have to be a website designer to make it look professional or to get one online. In fact, if you found your way here, you’ll have no problem starting a blog.

I suggest you either create one here with Word Press or you can go to Blogger and start there. They both offer point and click templates and a simple system that can have you online shouting your opinions to the world within the next hour if you’d like!

So, what do you want to talk about in your blog? Well, that’s going to depend on what you’re looking to accomplish. Since you’re reading the blog I created about marketing, I’m going to go on the assumption that you either found a product or have created a product that you want to sell online.

First and most important when you’re making a blog that markets something. Whether you do a review of just one product or you critique several on one blog…don’t forget to include your product link or your Affiliate link! It’s amazing the number of sites I’ve run across that forget that very important point. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending time reading thru a really convincing sales letter that catches your attention and makes you want to get your hands on the product right this second…only to find that there’s no link to it!! (And I can guarantee that it won’t do anything for your bank account either!)

So, let’s say you’re getting started with someone else’s product (this is the simplest way to go and what I recommend to begin with, especially if you’re new to blogging to start with).

So, let’s look at a product I like and think is worth looking at called Super Successful Secrets. It’s an affiliate program (meaning YOU didn’t have to create the product OR the sales letter) that has a sales letter which converts at over 5%! All YOU have to do is set up a Clickbank account if you don’t already have one, market the program and, when someone reads your review, clicks on your affiliate link and invests in the product, you get paid $44.22!

Easy? No, it’s NEVER easy (and don’t let anyone ever tell you different)…but simple? Most definitely! I personally like it for this example because it falls in line with what we’re looking to accomplish…making money while we sleep so we can eventually have a farewell party for your boss…where YOU are the one who gets to leave! (And don’t let the fact that an 18-year-old knows more than you do…it should keep you motivated!)

You can stay completely focused on the benefits of the program you’re offering. For example:

======================================================================================

With Super Successful Secrets
You Will Quickly Conquer How To:

Create your own highly profitable product…

Take someone else’s highly profitable product and milk it for all it’s worth…

Choose the perfect niche that is just begging for a product to buy…

Find only the most profitable and successful keywords to use…

Take advantage of the simple first step that separates the millionaire from the beggars… (most people foolishly ignore this!)

Create an incredibly profitable website that pumps money into your account daily…

Send massive amounts of targeted traffic to your websites successfully, easily and quickly…

Spend 5 minutes at a specific website and get top rankings in Google almost overnight!

=====================================================================================

Now you can obviously go into a lot more detail about your program. In fact, if they have a sales letter that’s working, you could create your blog which includes the letter, then you can promote your blog link instead of your affiliate link. You may want to promote both, depending on where you’re placing the links. For example, if you’re using Google AdWords, they don’t always allow use of an Affiliate Link…so in that case you could use your Blog. It’s the same with most places where you post Articles too. We’ll discuss AdWords and Articles on another day though…FOCUS…remember?

Note:
It doesn’t take creating a blog to make money, but it is a very effective way to really pull in some good money. You can choose to just promote your affiliate link everywhere instead, but a blog with a review on it is much more convincing and works wonders.

Until next time…

Clear As…Mud?

First of all…bear with me while I preface this conversation…I promise, it WILL make sense when I’m done.

My son and I were chatting yesterday about random stuff. He was telling me about some things that had gone on at this job over the weekend. He handles security for some of the local raves.

Side Note: I didn’t even know that people still held raves. I’d heard about them in my younger years but that wasn’t really my thing then and it certainly isn’t now. But if you have kids between the ages of 14 and 25…you may wanna start finding out about them and more importantly, educate your kids about them, what goes on, and how to protect themselves from some of the dangers if they choose to sneak out and attend anyway…ok, so I’m that’s a whole other topic for another day!

Back on topic. My son’s nearly 22 years old and I’ve managed to keep him away from the drug scene…thankfully. However, as a security guard at raves, he’s now being exposed to a new and unfamiliar territory. He can tell me what the kids are doing nowadays…most of which includes Crystal Meth, along with the “never say die” world of pot-smoking, but he occasionally has questions. That’s what started me on today’s topic.

He had confiscated a small pipe from one of the rave attendees. Before throwing it away, he asked if I knew what it was used for. I told him it appeared to be a “one-hit”. Understand, I’m not an expert in the world of joints and marijuana, but I know some of the very basics from some of the guys I hung out with in high school. He asked which drug it would be used for. One sniff of the end and the answer was obvious…pot.

He had considered keeping it…cause it was unique…but then realized that it was drug paraphernalia, and that he’s applying to be a Sheriff or Police Officer…neither of which will not look nicely upon his drug paraphernalia collection. I laughed and told him yes, it was best he throw it away. I told him that I DO still have some roach clips in my possession (I bought them at the State Fair as a teen. There were feathers attached to them and they looked really “cool” on my cowboy hat)

That’s when the conversation began that led me here. He asked what a roach clip was. I explained that it was used to hold joints when they were lit so that you wouldn’t burn your fingers. He started laughing and said, “well that explains the “roach” comment I keep hearing xxx talk about at the raves.” He explained that the first time one of his co-workers had mentioned there being “roaches” on the ground at a rave, he thought that they might be referring to the nasty, winged kind that belong to the insect world. He had been meaning to ask me about it for some time but kept forgetting.

Once we finished laughing, he brought up the time that he had misunderstood something else. When he was about 15 or so, he decided to make cookies for me while I was at work (how cool is that!?). Anyway, when I got home, there was a pile of cookie on a piece of foil in the kitchen (and no, I didn’t forget the ’s’ on cookie…it was one pile). I laughed and asked what had happened. He proceeded to explain that he had read the recipe, followed the directions, and couldn’t for the life of him understand what had gone wrong. He said when they weren’t coming out right, he went back and re-read the recipe.

He then explained that the only thing he could think of was that when the recipe called for “1 tsp soda”, he had been unsure of which type of “soda” to use. Since we had both Sprite AND Coke in the house, he had decided on the Coke since it was dark and he was making chocolate cookies.

Wait for it…it WILL register…. And don’t worry…I explained it to him…and his cookies turn out just fine nowadays!

So why did I tell you all this? No, it wasn’t to make my son look like he doesn’t know anything (in fact, the boy’s got a much higher I.Q. than I do), and it wasn’t to provide a drug education. It got me thinking that even though we think we’re being clear, that’s not always the case.

It’s important to remember that we all have different backgrounds. We’ve experienced different things, known different people, spent time in different places. And just because I know something that seems simple to me, I can’t make the assumption that everyone around me knows the same thing.

Whether I’m talking with someone or blogging or writing an article or even recording a video…if I don’t keep that very simple fact in mind, I may lose customers that could be potentially worth thousands of dollars. Or worse, I could lose a potential JV partner that could cost me millions.

So, whether it’s basic cooking, drug enforcement, or social bookmarking, we have to remember that, whether we’re communicating verbally or in writing, the people we’re communicating TO have their own set of filters and their own set of life experiences that they’re using to understand what it is we’re saying to them.

Until next time…

Website Creation For Dummies…You CAN Be Taught!

Yes, it’s true! You don’t have to know anything about website submission, HTML, FTPs, Uploading files, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, CGI extensions….well, you get the point (and no, I don’t understand most of what I listed either…I just keep seeing the terms online when I start looking for website building information).

The good news?…I’m proof positive that you can be a complete website idiot and still build a professional looking, functional website. AND, you can have it up and running in less than a day (unless of course you’re the type of perfectionist that I am…in which case it could take a bit longer).

Six years ago:

I wanted to build a site of my own. I’d heard a lot about how you could generate some serious income using Google AdSense, as well as market your own products, offer Affiliate Programs, offer paid ad space, and generate lists of folks that would create essentially, money-on-demand. So began my journey into site-building education. Six months later, I was still without a site, without a list, and feeling so overwhelmed that I found myself saying it just wasn’t worth the headache…NOT good!

Two years ago:

I had spent 4 years building (yet another) successful business that was (ultimately) being controlled by other people. I had an average income of 15 to 25 thousands dollars a month, but I was still just an Independent Associate. This meant that I had control over how I marketed MY piece of THEIR company. There were changes being made that I didn’t agree with, so I made a choice. I walked away.

I wanted something that was MINE. A company that had complete control over what was being marketed, what was included on the website, who I got to work with, etc. I wanted something that was mine. The challenge obviously, was the fact that I still didn’t have a lot of technical abilities to build a website from the ground up. Once again, I was back online looking for a system that could assist someone like me.

That’s when I found the SiteBuildIt! system. Well, technically I had found it…AGAIN. I had been exposed to SBI! 6 years earlier, but there was so much to look at and read about on their site that it was just another thing I had brushed aside as, “Yeah, right.” It’s true that “when the student is ready, the teacher will present themselves”. It’s true. I was finally ready to sit down and go through all of their information to see if it was something I could learn to use.

Present-day:

I HAVE a site of my own. It’s at Attitude For Life. It’s a continual work-in-progress, but I like what I’ve done so far and, for the most part, I’ve only have to type, copy/cut, and paste. All of the technical stuff is handled in the background by the SiteBuildIt! system. There was some basic stuff that I had to learn as far as navigating their build area, but that was no worse than when I initially learned how to navigate the internet.

The best part about SBI! is that they have a support forum that’s incredible. I’d never seen anything like it before and, come to think about it, I haven’t seen anything like it since. There are a ton of people who are just like me and you…people looking for a way to generate income online, who have built their own websites using the SBI! system…and they’re truly willing to assist you in building yours! They offer site reviews, tips, hints, ideas, suggestions…it’s awesome!

Bottom line here is this: If you’ve been wanting a website of your own to get YOUR message out there, but you don’t think you have the ability, knowledge or expertise…SBI! is definitely something worth looking into!

Until then…

Well Squidoo you too!

Oh my gosh! Just when you thought it was safe to go blogging, here comes another tool in the world of Social Bookmarking that I’ve gotta figure out….Squidoo….

I know. Some of you I’m sure are cracking up laughing because you just don’t know how I would just now be finding out about Squidoo and lenses and such (for those of you NOT laughing…I don’t know yet either…hang in there…you’ll know as soon as I do)

For those of you laughing…you just gotta keep in mind that just last year, my son moved me to a Motorola Q (did you know you could get to the internet thru your mobile phone!?), an iPod (if your kids are trying to trash your portable CD player and shift you to one of these….LET THEM!…they ROCK!!), AND a megapixel camera that lets me upload my photos from the camera DIRECTLY to my laptop!! I have NO idea what I ever did without these items!

So, the fact that I will actually have to go play around in Squidoo world for a bit to get my bearings shouldn’t be a shocker. But for those of you still working on how to program your VCR…I’ll get back to you here with some basic information that even a child can understand (and you may just want to hand it off to them to put it all together for you since most of our children understand it all MUCH faster than you might!)

Until then…

I have a Blog…NOW what!?

So I created a blog. In fact, I’ve gotten good at it so I created a few of them…ok, so I won’t exactly say “good” at it…if I were good at it then I’d know how to add some of the fancy bells & whistle thingies and could find my articles I’m adding in less than 30 minutes right? So let’s say I now am ABLE to set up a blog! Cool…so now what?

Just cause I’ve got a blog set up and saying something, doesn’t mean anyone’s ever going to find it. There are MILLIONS of sites out there…how the heck am I gonna get people to my blog…especially when it’s so new…so tiny. Hmmmm…more time online researching how to make it happen.

Already using my Blog Comment Demon software. It’s been great from a link creation standpoint. But what I’ve also found kick butt about it is the fact that I can quickly locate high quality blogs with great information and a large following! And if you’ve ever gone searching for a blog on a particular topic, you know what kind of time it takes to sort through which ones are good or bad, and who the experts might be. With Blog Comment Demon, I get to use the readership as a basis for my deciding to read or quote someone’s blog. How cool is that!

Sorry…I sidetracked. You’ll get used to that with me, but I have a written goal to keep that in check as much as possible (yes, multi-taskers must actually write those silly types of goals down!).

So…here’s something I found to assist with my blog getting out there. In the process of selling my home…I was on Craig’s List one night searching for a way to advertise the link that my Realtor gave me. I ran across an ad that stated “Earn $7 per day”. Having been in business for nearly 10 years, I’ve learned to recognize opportunity ads because I’ve spent a lot of time creating and using them. When I saw this one I thought it MUST be a typo. After all, who’s going to get excited about earning $7 per day…that equates to what…$210 per month give or take $7 bucks?! Ooooooooh, sign me up!

So I clicked on the ad figuring I could email the poor guy and let him know that he should fix his ad if he wanted to make any money. All that was inside was a link. I clicked on the link to see how much it actually should have been listed as on the ad. I started skimming his sales letter. Then I started actually READING it. By the time I got to the bottom…I purchased the product…for $7 bucks. I figured why not…if it turned out to be the crap I expected it to be…I was out $7 and had a kick butt sales letter that I know works. That alone was worth $7 to me!

I read thru the $7 ebook I received…AND I purchased the upgrade that was offered…man! This guy was good! So, was the information worth it? You bet. I immediately started using it. I made a couple of adjustments…not to the product or salesletter, but to the approach used in chatting on the forums. I like to chat. And the forums that were mentioned in the ebook…they’re full of experts in the Internet Marketing arena so I now have access to folks that I never even knew existed! They’re providing me with information that will assist me in building a million-dollar plus online business and all I paid was $7!!

Bottom line…don’t just dismiss things that seem to good to be true. Some of them may be worth checking out, researching, and even taking a blind-faith leap into. Oh yeah…you can check it out for yourself at On Demand Profits. I posted 4 comments to 2 forums and in less than 1 week, I had my $7 back. Just think what I could do with that one if I start following all my other online strategies that I’m finding from the experts at the forums!

Until next time…

So Many Choices…Will I Ever Find the Time?

For as long as I can remember, every time I’ve started searching the internet to learn more about the most effective ways to market my websites, it typically takes me several hours…and when I’m done (or exhausted)…whichever comes first, I’m usually more confused about it than when I started looking!

Whether it’s my breast cancer support site, one of my blogs, or my affiliate pages, I just couldn’t fathom ever having a hundred or so sites generating income (I know that’s what it takes cause I’ve spent hours reading about it!). When I’ve had enough and my eyes are blurred for the day, that’s when I give up looking. I keep going to bed thinking, “there’s GOT TO be a better way!”. I’m an army of one and I don’t have 24-hrs a day for the next 10 years to devote to building websites, blogs, newsletters and now, creating back links, lenses, or whatever else the social bookmarking gurus are talking about nowadays.

So what’s the answer? Well, as you may have already read, I’m adding (and of course by default…LEARNING) one new marketing technique at a time until I have the knowledge to know how to use it without it taking hours at a time to get 4 things or less accomplished! Some of the techniques or software programs may take minutes, some may take hours or even days. The bottom line is that I’m going to take the time to learn, implement, and then report my results back here.

Who knows? By the time this project is done, I may have several of my OWN information products put together!! Regardless…I WILL find tools to do what must be done on the marketing side while at the same time…FREE UP ONES TIME!! So for all of you solo-marketers…keep the faith!

Until next time…

How To Get FREE, High Quality One-Way Links To Your Website

I’ve spent the past 7 or so years playing around with and attempting to learn and understand what it takes to market online and create a successful, thriving business. When I started, the gurus were talking about ezines, email marketing, and banner ads.

Before I could comprehend all the information that was available, the gurus had changed direction and were talking about blogging and podcasting. Then came the online audio creation…then online videos. And all the while that this was going on, I just kept feeling more and more overwhelmed. And I STILL wasn’t generating any income online!

Now it appears as though we’ve finally come full circle in regards to marketing. After so many years of people using every possible technique to remove real people from the actual marketing equation, here comes Social Bookmarking (or Relationship Marketing).

The good news for many of us at this point is that we understand the importance of having a real person involved in the marketing process. From an internet marketing standpoint, it means that we must find ways of getting quality, themed links to our websites.

How do we do that? Well, if you are the kind of person who loves to build websites and hope that the search engines will index and rank your site…then you will never see a single cent in earnings.

In the early days, it was possible to set up a few sites with some unique content and get indexed and ranked well, with a few links pointing to the sites. Sometimes, we didn’t even need to promote those sites.

Those days are gone.

Without a reasonable amount of links pointing to your site, it is difficult to get ranked by the search engines. So does that mean that the more links you have the better your search engines ranking? No!

“Not All Links Are Made Equal…”
The rules of the search engines have changed. Not only do you need more links, you need themed links.

Themed links are links coming from a site that is related to what your site is all about. A related link is worth more weight than links coming from a non-related site.

For example, if you have a site about dog training, you will need to have links from other sites that are related to dogs, rather than having links from sites related to cars.

There are many ways to get such links. One of the best that I’ve found to reduce the amount of time required to get the job done is Blog Comment Demon. Be sure to check it out…it may just put your marketing efforts back on track!

Until next time…