Michelle MacPhearson » Social Media Optimization

“STOP Being a Prospect and Become a Marketer”

Michelle MacPhearson — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:03:37 +0000

“STOP Being a Prospect and Become a Marketer”

What a powerful quote.

It comes from Alex Jeffreys.

Did you ever read the post I wrote called “It’s Not Me, It’s You: Three Pillars of Social Media Marketing“? In it, I talk about how broadcasting – that is, shouting about your products and services – is actually the least effective way to utilize social media. And I give further details on how one can get past that uncomfortable “lookit me!” broadcasting stage and make social media produce better results, faster and with less work.

But the fact is, you don’t even have to USE social media to make it work for you. In Alex’s new report (where I lifted that fabulous quote above from) he talks about how social media is a word-of-mouth referral-machine for his business – and get this, he doesn’t even have a Facebook account!

How can you get this kind of leverage, STOP being a prospect and become a marketer? Read Alex’s report, Guru’s Nightmare.

It’ll cost you an opt-in, and it’s worth the 96 page read. I read it this afternoon, picked up my kids from school a bit later than normal when I couldn’t put it down. Settle in with it for the weekend!

Internet Marketing and Social Media 2010 Predictions

Michelle MacPhearson — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:10:33 +0000

As 2009 winds to a close, we look to 2010 with antici…….pation and enthusiasm. It’s a whole new year with a clean slate. And with the new year comes a reflection on where we’ve been and where we’re going. The web has changed drastically and that changes the way we, as internet marketers, do business.

2009 Predictions: 4 1/2 out of 5 Predictions

Before rolling into 2010 predictions, let’s establish a track record – how well did I do with my 2009 predictions? Let’s see!

2009 Prediction: With the “down” economy, opportunities in “make money online” will be even bigger. TRUE! The business of teaching others how to do internet marketing has grown exponentially. Ed Dale saw the biggest number of 30 Day Challenge participants ever in August while my own Crowd Mountain launched and grew exponentially in February. Big product launches, once again, broke sales records. But even folks new to the game were able to break out and do big business. There’s still more room than ever in this market.
2009 Prediction: Data portability becomes more a norm rather than an exception. TRUE! You’ll be hard pressed to find a new social service these days and not have it integrate with Facebook, Twitter, and/or Gmail to port your current contacts into your new profile.
2009 Prediction: Using video as part of the sales process will become a necessity. TRUE! I’ve continued to run tests, and a salespage with video has outperformed a salespage without video every time. Simply put, if you’re not using video, you’re leaving money on the table.
2009 Prediction: People will bring more focus to their social media marketing efforts. FALSE! I wish this were true, and I could probably call it true without any arguments from readers, but it’s just not. I still get messages nearly every day with people overwhelmed by the vast array of social media sites, and while I think many folks “get it” there are still many who don’t. So I’ll shout it from the rooftops one more time: Pick 2-3 social media sites that are active in your niche and focus on them rather than spreading yourself too thin across every available network!
2009 Prediction: As a product owner or a niche leader you’ll be expected to be available, responding and engaging with your “tribe” more often than not. TRUE! People want to know you’re available to them more than ever, and those that are tend to rise to the top.

Drumroll please…. Here are my 2010 internet marketing and social media predictions:

Location, Location, Location

Many folks are claiming location based services, like BriteKite and FourSquare will be the breakout hits of 2010. I disagree. Location WILL become increasingly important in 2010, but for mass adoption, these services will have to be rolled into existing, already adopted platforms, like Facebook and Twitter.

My mom lives in Oakland and works in San Francisco (two areas where loacation based services have really great data from their users). Would she EVER use something like FourSquare? No. Would she use it if it was integrated into Facebook? You betcha.

I live in a little mountain town of 900 people. I can’t really even use these location based services – my town is literally not on the map! Would I be interested in my local Facebook friends (most of the locals I know are on Facebook exclusively) location info? Absolutely! Can I get it anywhere else? Nope.

The digerati and web wunderkinds aside, most folks don’t have the time and interest in creating and maintaining another social profile.

After recording this prediction on IMTW last night, rumors started flying that Google was in talks to buy Yelp, a local business reviews site. It’s speculated that Yelp data could be integrated with Google Maps.

And this is where I predict successful location based services will go in 2010: merged into already existing products that have been adopted by the masses.

The Death of Software Downloads

We’ve already seen it with services like Google Docs and Gmail – why keep files or email on our harddrives when we can keep them on the web and access them anywhere?

I made the switch in 2009 to storing as much of my data as possible online, so it doesn’t matter where I am or which computer I’m on, I have access to everything I need.

It makes sense from a user standpoint in terms of being able to work with the software wherever you are. But it also makes sense from a business standpoint:

Updates are server-side and seamless for the user, no re-downloading a re-installing (which inevitably leads to customer support issues)
Web based applications work on Mac or PC – you’re not leaving a giant segment of your market behind
It’s easier to find web developers
Less compatibility problems with different operating systems and conflicts with already installed programs which leads to less customer support issues
Allows for a recurring access charge

We’ve seen some movement in this direction in the internet marketing space in 2009, and in 2010 web-based software (aka “cloud computing”) will become the norm.

Link Popularity Gets Social

While simply having links on social media properties was once enough to boost your search engine ranking, in 2010 the popularity of those links will become a bigger ranking factor.

Consider this scenario:

Two blog posts on the same topic. One is retweeted a gazillion times, is linked all over Facebook and has a ton of comments. One gets little traction in the social media space. Which one do you think *should* rank higher in the SERP’s? The one that people shared the most!

The easiest way to achieve this is…. producing great content that people will want to share. You can also encourage people to share your content by using the tips in The Three Pillars of Social Media Marketing.

Social Media Marketing Matures

In 2010 social media marketing will mature in a variety of ways.

Firstly, we’ll move away from conversations about why one should be using social media in your marketing towards *how* to use social media in your marketing. It will be assumed that a social media presence is necessary, and we’ll see more instruction on exactly what to do.

We’ll also see more focus in how businesses use social media. Rather than using SM “because it’s the thing to do” we will more strategic at moving folks from social media into our sales funnels. Social media marketing will be less about “joining the conversation” and more about specifically growing your business (the “conversation” is still important, but our joining of it will be more purposeful).

Finally, our collective psyche’s will move away from a “bigger is better” mentality. Rather than valuing social media by the number of followers or fans, we’ll look more at those followers’ and fans’ engagement. 100,00 YouTube views or Twitter fans does not sell products if those folks are not engaged.

Wordpress As a True CMS

We love Wordpress, and it’ll just get bigger and better in 2010. With products like Affiliate Theme and Squeeze theme, and more flexibility with offerings like the Thesis Theme (used on this blog), Wordpress is moving more towards a true CMS that can be used for anything, without custom coding.

Building a membership site or a review/rating site or even a salespage exclusively with Wordpress has picked up steam in 2009 and will be even simpler in 2010 as developers create more plugins and themes to do so.

Products in this space will grow and our adoption of them will follow.

Additional 2010 Predictions

As is our tradition, Lynn Terry, Paul Colligan, Ed Dale and I recorded our 2010 predictions show last night for Internet Marketing This Week (that podcast will be out shortly). Watch the @IMTW Twitter feed or subscribe on iTunes to listen.

What trends do you see advancing in internet marketing, social media and the web as a whole in 2010? Leave a comment and let us know what YOU think!

All About You

Michelle MacPhearson — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:00:22 +0000

This entry is part 7 of 23 in the series 31 Day Internet Marketing Makeover

Welcome to Day 7 of the Internet Marketing Makeover (#31DIMM for short)!

There are certain elements of a site that can inspire confidence in your site visitors.

Confidence that makes those visitors more likely to click you ads, buy your products or trust your recommendations.

We’ve covered some of these already in previous #31DIMM posts (if you’ve missed earlier articles, you can find instructions on joining the Internet Marketing Makeover at the bottom of this post).

Today, we’ll cover 2 more ways to increase the confidence of your site visitors and encourage conversions.

DAY 07 OBJECTIVE

Update your “About” and “Contact” pages.

DAY 07 ASSIGNMENT

ALL ABOUT YOU

Folks want to know who it is they’re buying from or taking advice from.

Not only do they want to know that you’re qualified, but they want to know who you are as a person. as the old saying goes, folks buy from those they “know, like and trust” and without knowing a little bit about you, it’s impossible for people to know, like and trust you.

An “About” page gives people the opportunity to know a little bit more about you, and your blog sites should have one.

(An “About” page is probably not in your best interest in a salesletter type of site, instead, you can incorporate some of your story into the salesletter itself to build confidence in the visitor).

“About” pages always surprise me in that they get a lot more traffic than I ever expect. So not only is it a good opportunity to let people know who you are, but it’s another chance for your to lead them into your marketing funnel as autoresponder subscribers, Twitter followers, RSS readers, etc.

Adding an “About” page to your blog, if you don’t have one already, is as simple as creating a “Page” in Wordpress and linking to it in your sites navigation (many Wordpress themes will do this automatically).

Let’s look at the central elements of an effective “About” page:

Your Picture: A picture of yourself instantly gives credibility in that you are a “real” person. Include one on your “About” page.
Your History: Include how you came to be blogging in your niche, your expertise and passions and a bit about you personally. Who you are in a business sense is important, but a list of your achievements alone can be off-putting. Use your own voice and talk about who you are, not just what you’ve done.
Your Offerings: Sometimes folks enjoy your writing and want to jump right into business with you – give them the chance to do so! Link to a product (I speak of a link to Crowd Mountain on my “About” page), a main catalog page on your site or info on your services so interested parties can buy from or hire you.
Your Loop: Those who aren’t ready yet to buy should still be brought into your marketing funnel. Your “About” page should provide folks the opportunity and encouragement to subscribe to your mailing list, RSS feed, Twitter account, Facebook Fan page, etc. Whichever are the most popular mediums in your niche are the ones you should offer here.

Add an “About” page to your sites (except salesletters, as mentioned above).

Include these pieces in your “About” page and visitors will not only get to “know, like and trust” you, but will also be funneled directly into your areas of influence so you can continue to contact them and impress them with your offerings!

GET IN TOUCH

Your “Contact” page will instill even more confidence in your visitors by letting them know, even subconsciously by just seeing that there is such a page on your site, that should they need it, they will be able to get help from you. Whether it’s a shipping question or clarification on a product review, people want to know that if they have a problem there’s a way to reach you and solve it.

If you’re using Wordpress, you can install Contact Form 7 (that’s what I use on my Contact page). It’s simple to use yet incredibly flexible.

If you’re not on Wordpress, you can use FoxyForm – it’s free and provides you with copy and paste code to put into your sites’ HTML.

With my Contact Form on the blog, I left separate instructions for folks who need customer support or are interested in a Joint Venture. There were the two most common items people submitted though the contact form, and the least effective way to get help for either. So I let people know where to go to get help with support or JV’s the fastest. If you have similar inquiries that are best routed elsewhere, it’s a good idea to let people know!

Install contact forms on all of your sites – for salesletters, a “Contact” page might not be your best option, as support inquiries are usually best handled through a support desk software.

By giving your site visitors more information about yourself, ways to stay in your loop and options should they need help, you’ll bring their confidence and trust in you even higher – which can do nothing but help your bottom line!

ABOUT THE 31 DAY INTERNET MARKETING MAKEOVER

You will also want to keep up-to-date with 31 Day IM Makeover happenings through the following channels:

Twitter: Follow @michellem on Twitter

Facebook: Become a fan on Facebook and you’ll get notification when a new post is up

RSS: Subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed to have new posts delivered to your feedreader

The official Twitter hashtag for the 31 Day Internet Marketing Makeover is #31DIMM (yes, I know it reads “31 Dim” but that’s kinda funny, right?). You can find other participants by searching Twitter for the hashtag.

Join using the form above and look in your inbox tomorrow for the next step in your Internet Marketing Makeover!

And use the social icons below to share the Makeover on your preferred social network:

Best in Social Media – August 10, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:00:06 +0000

The bandwidth-sync correlation that's worth thinking about

August 5, 2009

Coming Soon: Update Facebook Pages from Desktop Apps

August 5, 2009

Ed_Dale: Everyone should start their day with a High Volume rendition of “Dont Stop Beliving” by Journey.

August 5, 2009

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Twitter’s DOS Attack (And Why Social Media Sucks)

Michelle MacPhearson — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 06:21:06 +0000

This week, Twitter was hammered by a DOS (denial of service) attack. I have no idea what that means, other than it’s some kind of server attack that’ll make your site go down.

So as part of this attack, Twitter was down for some time. If you could get on Twitter, tweets that seemed to go through didn’t actually appear in your follower’s timelines for hours.

No biggie, right? A minor inconvenience, not being able to use the service.

But what if your whole communications platform, your entire social media strategy, was based on Twitter? You’d have been SOL, to say the least, while Twitter was under attack.

You must never, ever rely on one service to get your message out.

Use Twitter? Great – it’s a fun platform for engaging readers, and if you’re interesting it’ll bring your site click-through visitors. But you shouldn’t be using JUST Twitter (or any other service) to communicate with your customers, readers or clients.

Get a Facebook fan page (look at the Fan Page widget I’ve installed here – slick, eh? Click through to join me on Facebook). By all means, start collecting email subscribers so you can communicate with them directly (my subscription box pops up on your first visit here, and is in the upper right too – subscribe to get an email when there are new blog posts). Encourage RSS subscriptions (click here to subscribe to this blog).

When something borks, you can reach your fans, friends and subscribers through another channel.

Social media sucks when it’s all you’ve got. 400,000 Twitter followers doesn’t mean jack if you can’t reach them when Twitter is down.

(I’m picking on Twitter here, but this applies for any social networking platform. Facebook fan pages with 5k fans suck when Facebook is down. And so on).

The goal with social media isn’t just to amass large numbers of subscribers. (If they’re untargeted subscribers, perhaps people who are just following you so that you follow them back, they’re pretty much worthless anyway).

No, what you need to do with social media is attract people interested in you, in your niche and then funnel them into other channels, other places, where you can reach them.

Again, you want blog readers, email subscribers from your social media friends. Get them out of the social network and into your funnel!

(This will happen naturally when you offer superior content and are a news maker (or even “reporter”) in your market).

Keep in mind too that people prefer different methods of communication. Person A might love email and abhor Facebook, have a Twitter account but never use it and be a casual RSS reader. Person B could never check their email, RSS feeds or Twitter but be a rabid Facebook user.

You job is to be in contact with both Person A and Person B. Your job is to connect with your potential customers, clients, reader, subscribers in whatever medium or platform they choose. You need to be where they are. You need to be right there in front of them whenever they open up their favorite app or web address to see what’s happening.

Finally, there’s the issue with where you’re hosting your content – that “Buy Now” button or affiliate link.

For the sake of God’s green earth, GET YOUR OWN DOMAIN!

Relying on Squidoo, Hubpages, Facebook, WetPaint, whoever to host your “money page” is internet markeitng SUICIDE.

Sites change their terms of service (Squidoo just did recently). Your page can get banned. The service might go down. The service might run out of money and die. Some asshat competitor might report you (even when you didn’t do anything wrong) and get your account deleted. The service might decide to change their design or layout and it might kill your conversions.

When (not if, WHEN) any of these happen, those pages you worked so hard on, that you are earning from, are GONE. And you’re not earning anything.

(Yes, one should still use external sites to build links to your main domain. Just don’t make your “money page” anywhere but on your own domain).

So, to recap, social media sucks if:

If it’s your only method of communication with folks in your niche
You’re not funneling social media friends to other channels
It’s where you host your “money page”

Social media is awesome if:

It’s one of many methods for you to reach your subscribers, customers and fans
You’re using it to bring in new subscribers, customers and fans into your marketing funnel
You’re using it to boost the link popularity of domains you own

(We talk more about this stuff inside Crowd Mountain – you can get in for $1 right now).

Reassess your social media strategy to ensure you’re using it as an adjunct to your marketing plan, and not a crutch.

Best in Social Media – August 3, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:31:10 +0000

3 Ways to Find Twitter Users by Profession

August 3, 2009 – Some handy resources for searching Twitter profiles by keyword. Great for finding people who are professionals or just really into your niche.

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Best in Social Media – July 6, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:48:24 +0000

AndrewNez: The next #30DC preseason lesson is now live and is all about using Skype to connect with your #30DC team. http://bit.ly/FR37n

July 6, 2009 – Enjoy the Thirty Day Challenge – free internet marketing training developed and presented by some of the brightest folks in the biz!

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Best in Social Media – June 6, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 06:51:50 +0000

Google Squared Goes Live, Formats Your Searches Into a Spreadsheet [Search Engines]

June 3, 2009

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Best in Social Media – May 25, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:00:16 +0000

colligan: Friday I'm doing a Q&A Webinar re Premiumcast.com – free to all – https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/895671001

May 18, 2009

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Best in Social Media – May 18, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:00:17 +0000

DanRaine: Contrary to recent popular video hype…. Google really does understand LSI, and I have the proof. Seriously, don't believe the hyperbole!

May 14, 2009 – Thank you so much Dan for speaking up – I have a blog post in draft on this very topic!

RSS is Now Simpler Than Ever

May 12, 2009 – Yay Market Samurai team! Always innovating, improving and delivering an indespensible product.

30 Day Challenge Preview Show recording Now Live (if that makes sense!)

May 12, 2009 – If you're new to internet marketing, the Thirty Day Challenge is the place to start. It's free & the content is unparalleled.

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

It’s Not Me, It’s You: Three Pillars of Social Media Marketing

Michelle MacPhearson — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:35:24 +0000

“OMG if I use social media I can go to all these awesome sites and tell people about my product/service/website? And then they’ll buy my stuff? That’s so neat!”

That’s the initial thought process when someone considers social media marketing.

And it’s dead wrong.

People aren’t on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube to BUY YOUR STUFF. They might, as a byproduct of seeing you there – Twitter referrals consistently convert well for my products, for example. But heading out to a social media site to “get” people to BUY YOUR STUFF won’t work. Here’s why:

THREE PILLARS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

There are three “pillars” or methods one can use in their social media marketing attempts. The best strategy uses all three. The weakest and least affective uses the first only (and it’s, unfortunately, where most people get their feet wet, decide it doesn’t work and give up).

Pillar One: Broadcasting

When you’re broadcasting, you’re talking about yourself, your product, your service, your website. You’re using the social media sites as a way to transmit your (marketing) message to others.

Yes, it’s necessary. Customers, web site visitors, prospects have friended you on the various social networks and it’s another way in which you can (and should) update them when there’s something worth updating.

But it’s still just you yammering on about yourself.

And social media isn’t about the “me” (me talking about myself) it’s about the “you” (your customer, prospect, reader.)

And that’s where the next two pillars of social media marketing enter:

Pillar Two: Customer Support

No, not just helpdesk kind of stuff (although that can be a part of this pillar). But supporting the people who have friended you by providing tips, info or news related to your niche. If doesn’t always (and shouldn’t always) have to link back to your site, and it doesn’t always have to have a link at all. You’re a dog trainer? You’ll help folks out with training their dogs. A real estate agent? Tell folks the myths about buying foreclosures.

What’s relevant to the people who’ve friended you? Talk about it.

Having opened yourself up to your niche in this way, those who are following you will often ask questions which you should, of course, respond to (support them!).

Now you’re having a conversation. You’ve built a seedling of a relationship. When people say “social media is about relationships” that’s what they mean. Not you yelling from the rooftops about “ME ME ME!” (Pillar 1) but you SUPPORTING the people in your niche.

Do you think someone is more likely to visit your website, buy your product, etc. if they’ve had a little conversation with you before? Of course.

That’s why social media click-throughs convert well for me. I talk to people. I try to support my friends on the social media platforms, they know me a bit, many of us have had conversations.

But there’s another pillar that will bring the effectiveness of your social media marketing way up:

Pillar Three: Round Robin

You’re broadcasting. You’re supporting your followers by providing them interesting and relevant information and responding to their posts (and maybe even initiating conversations when you see people talking about your niche).

Now you take the “Me” out of the equation all together. You don’t exist. It’s your customers / web site visitors talking about you, your product or service to their friends and followers.

This is when social media marketing gets REALLY powerful, but it’s unlikely to happen if you don’t initiate the process with the first two pillars.

If you create a positive experience for your social media friends in Pillar 2, they naturally want to “give back” to you (this is the “Law of Reciprocity”). In Twitter, this can be in the form of a retweet or unsolicited mention of how great your product it. Or in blogging, it’s a link back from their site to yours to a great blog post you wrote.

And when it’s OTHER people talking to THEIR friends about how great you are, rather then you broadcasting to people who are already following you, the effect is MUCH bigger.

Someone posts that they really like my product, Crowd Mountain, to their friends. Their friends check it out. They’ve gotten a personal recommendation from someone they trust (not me, the seller) for the product. Are they now even more likely to buy? Of course! And that’s the REAL reason why social media converts so well for me – because it’s not about ME it’s about YOU.

It’s not because I’m so awesome and so is my product and I tell people that everyday, it’s because other people are telling that to their friends everyday for me, without my intervention or my solicitation.

You need to educate the people you’ve friended to make this happen. How? By doing yourself exactly what you want them to do. Retweet an interesting blog post one of your friends has posted. They’ll see that you did, your other followers will see that you did, and will follow your example. Like a product? For no reason at all, without an affiliate link, tell people about it in a blog post – they will follow your example and perhaps choose to recommend your product.

Model the behavior you would like to see, and if you’re being a leader in your marketplace by being informative, helpful, supportive and opinionated (Pillar Two) people will do as you do. Evangelize for folks you support, and people will evangelize for you.

——————————————-

These are stages – it’s near impossible to get to pillar three without having mastered one and two. (Unless you’re Apple and already have had evangelists drooling over you). It’s an evolution from the least effective to the most effective, and you can learn as your grow.

Stop being a broadcast-only social media marketer (what’s social about that anyway?)! Move towards SUPPORTING your friends and followers, and then lead by example in teaching them how to evangelize for you.

CLICK HERE to Tweet this blog post.

(You can review it before you send it out).

Best in Social Media – May 11, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:00:25 +0000

Steal This Killer Niche!

May 10, 2009 – Yep – free niche marketing keyword research for the taking, courtesy of me and the amazing Market Samurai software!

MeatCards: Print Your Business Cards On Beef Jerky With A Frickin’ Laser Beam

May 6, 2009

Listen In As Mari And I Have “The Talk.”

May 6, 2009

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Best in Social Media – May 4, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Back from the Samurai Roadtrip

May 3, 2009

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Best in Social Media – April 25, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:00:19 +0000

April 18, 2009

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Best in Social Media – April 18, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:24:34 +0000

Once again burying me head in @michellem 's internet marketing boot camp – http://tinyurl.com/az8mlj – HIGHLY recommend it, learning so much (via michellem – Twitter Search)

March 20, 2009

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Best in Social Media – April 11, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:00:08 +0000

LINK: Study Finds Business Plans a Waste of Time

April 9, 2009

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

How-To “Trim the FLUFF”

Michelle MacPhearson — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:48:57 +0000

So many “training programs” leave things out.

They tell you to “build a website” but don’t show you how.

Or they’ll show you how to put up a great search engine optimized site but will skip the part about monetizing it.

Maybe they cover monetization but monetization is no good without traffic generation.

And then there’s the programs you get that say it’s a “system” but that system involves buying another $500 worth of “stuff” to make it work – or worse, they want you to spend on PPC advertising.

What customer wouldn’t be mad and jaded?

Instead of bouncing from program to program (and throwing your earnings down the drain looking for the “secret”), you can get everything you need to build a successful online business in one place.

The training: building optimized sites, configuration, plugins, market and keyword research formulas, monetization strategies, traffic generation, content creation, social media domination.

The tools: Hands-free link building, niche market spying, global task management for all your domains, RSS submission.

The advanced techniques (since you’ll have mastered the basics)…

It’s all in one place and it’s waiting for you at
http://www.crowdmountain.com

You won’t spend another dime on training and tools after logging into Crowd Mountain because you won’t have to – that’s my promise to you.

Watch the video I made for you at http://www.crowdmountain.com and I’ll see you on the inside!

I won’t even ask you to take my word for it – check out what Crowd Mountain members are saying:

(These comments were unsolicited & uncompensated and can be seen at http://likaholix.com/michellemacphearson/633937/crowd-mountain )

Best membership site I was ever part of – Debbie Vera

Michelle certainly knows how to trim out the “fluff” and deliver
focused training for getting your social presense established and
maintained. – SwiftPoint

The training provided in Crowd Mountain is awesome, tasks that at
one time seemed overwhelming are explained and broke down into easy
steps that a person can truly take action on – Michelle’s teaching
style ROCKS! – Erica Rueschhoff

Crowd Mountain is the defintive guide to IM and social media. -
Jack White

Great tools and great teaching techniques for Internet marketers. -
Nikki Backshall

Michelle’s Crowd Mountain program is phenomenal. I don’t think
there’s a program that can match the training, resources and
information she provides. Great for new AND advanced internet/niche
marketers! – Katherine Saunders

Visit http://www.crowdmountain.com and join these folks.

Likaholix – Closed Beta Invites

Michelle MacPhearson — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:50:46 +0000

Likaholix is a social sharing site in closed beta where you “like” the things you like in life- web sites, books, people, YouTube videos, movies, etc. The site has a recommendation engine that will then recommend other things you might like. Your “likes” can be published to your FriendFeed, Facebook or Twitter account, and in turn Likaholix can pull your current friends from Facebook or Gmail so you can keep up with them.

Created by two former Google employees (FriendFeed is an ex-Googler venture as well) it’s worth grabbing an account on and establishing a presence.

Get your Likaholix Beta Invite here.

Best in Social Media – April 4, 2009

Michelle MacPhearson — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:00:05 +0000

The Most Awesomest Social Media Show Ever and Death of Artificial Influence

April 3, 2009 – This was a fun live show I was honored to be a part of honoring @successfool’s 1 year anniversary. Lots of excellent internet marketers contributed.

colligan: Internet Marketing This Week #14 is LIVE – http://ping.fm/ari1q

April 2, 2009

Want Me to Show You the Money? Show Me the Pics!

April 2, 2009 – Another reason why “long copy” salesletters and salesletters w/ video tend to convert better – the potential buyer’s questions are being answered so they can make an informed decision.

Some great ideas on illustrating your product here.

More Tips on Linking – Does Google Count PDF Links?

April 2, 2009 – Now you know.

Is Twitter Killing RSS?

April 2, 2009 – I asked about this on Facebook but folks there disagreed. For me, I have less need for news RSS feeds as any big news gets Tweeted. Any news outlet I’m interested in I can follow on Twitter. And many of my fav bloggers publish updates on Twitter.

No, Twitter won’t kill RSS – but it makes some feeds, at least, more of a “backup” in case you miss the Twitter post when it’s originally published.

Could Twitter Cannibalize the Web's Link Graph

April 2, 2009 – Back when blogging was shiny-new everyone was sold on the “community” aspect of it – being able to connect with other people like you, tell your stories, share and share alike. Linking to those other bloggers with whom you shared a common interest was big part of creating that community.

Nowadays, most bloggers, even newbies, know about the potential to “make money blogging” and are less likely to link to one another.

Blogging isn’t as much about community anymore – we have Facebook or Twitter for that. Blogging is now about the “ME”.

And I totally could’ve blogged this response, but instead added it to my Google Reader Shared Items where it will automatically be posted to my Twitter feed and then my blog at the end of the week.

It’s too easy to publish content on other platforms than to blog it. Ask @Scobelizer.

Damn It TWITTER!!!! This Follow Thing Has Gone TOO Far!!!

April 2, 2009 – Please take this to heart folks. Autofollow creates NOISE, not connections, not even clicks on your links or interest in your products/services etc.

6 Spicy Ways to Use Hot Topics & Trends to Explode Your Traffic

March 27, 2009

Presentation Tricks Of The Trade I’m Testing the commercial

March 26, 2009

brenthodgson: It's funny how most Twitter users love the new Facebook changes, but Facebook addicts don't.

March 28, 2009 – Have noticed that as well – and I, a Tweeter, like the new Facebook too! What do you think?

colligan: We now have Disk.com integration with Premiumcast.com – how cool is that?

March 24, 2009

New Features: Analyze your own pages – and we now have tooltips!

March 28, 2009 – The commitment the Market Samurai team has shown to continually developing, adding to, improving and expanding their product is incredible. And because of that effort, they’ve got the best keyword research tool out there.

Ed_Dale: Cool competition from The Macpherson http://is.gd/oD1E Tweet away!”

March 23, 2009

All of these items are published as I find them to my Twitter feed. For real time notification of trends and resources, follow me on Twitter!

Twitter Contest: Acer Aspire One Netbook

Michelle MacPhearson — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:10:53 +0000

The Twitter Contest for the Acer Aspire One netbook is nearing a close – but there’s still time to enter.

The contest officially ends at midnight on March 31 – which means (ironically) that the winners will be announced on April 1 (April Fool’s Day).

For full details on the Twitter contest, a look at the prizes and rules, click here.

But if you know you want in, here’s how to enter:

1. Follow @MichelleM (that’s me) on Twitter

2. Tweet this to your friends: I just entered to win an Acer netbook – follow @MichelleM & retweet to enter too! http://is.gd/oD1E

CLICK HERE to send the Tweet out to your Twitter friends automatically.

I look forward to sending you a DM letting you know you won!