Social Marketing

Interesting…

I don’t know if ya’ll have noticed, but I’ve not promoted the Stomper launches as they’ve come and gone.

I was a member way back when, but quit because I honestly didn’t have the time to look into their forums for tidbits of information every day.  At that time, the site was very different then it is now.  Now, they have “Training Modules” on every IM topic imaginable, you just log in and watch the info you need.  Back then, there was a lot more digging one had to do to find the info you were looking for, and that was time I just didn’t have.

Regardless, I’ve had a JV account with them and as such, sometimes get privy to insider information or even access to their content, despite not being a full member anymore.

They are apparently coming out with “Stomping the Search Engines 2″ (and updated version of their SEO training video set) and are sending a review copy my way.  And “The Net Effect,” which is a printed monthly newsletter.

I’m uncertain, still, as to whether I’ll promote it.  I tend to not promote “big” launches; I think it’s just more noise in people’s inbox.  There are plenty of affiliate marketers who will email you on launch day, right?  With Reese’s latest “Traffic Secrets” launch, I didn’t promote, but wow, that price was AMAZING and if you didn’t get it you should’ve.  For that reason - the BIG products that are actually EXCELLENT values from TOP marketers - I sometimes wish to recemmend to ya’ll when something exceptional comes out.

Regardless, I’ll have a look at Stompernet’s materials and let you know what I think.

Perhaps abit more realistic then the 4 hour work week?  I enjoyed that book, but even Tim Ferris is admittedly working more then 4 hours a week these days (although, to his credit, he’s not obligated or chained into doing so).

Anyway, I listened in on a call with John Jonas about the “17 Hour Work Week” and his principles of outsourcing.  I’ve had outsources for years now, but still learned TONS from John’s call.  I recommend you have a listen (it’s a call that actually held my attention the entire time, which is rare these days…)

Listen in on the 17 Hour Work Week here.

I made a quick video showing you how I peek into a niche and see which social media websites I should be targeting in my link building efforts.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you the historical data so you know which Web 2 properties you should *always* focus on.

As your business grows (and you end up with more and more domains), you’ll likely outgrow your hosting environment. Wether it’s bandwith restrictions, disk space, the number of domains you are allowed or what scripts you can and can’t run, as your business grows, your hosting will need to as well.  I moved to a VPS several years back, and now have a couple of dedicated servers.

A VPS is like having your own server in that you can control the entire environment.  Got a host that won’t let you run certain scripts?  You can do whatever you want with your VPS.

This is an unsolicited post, but I wanted to throw my recommendation in for PowerVPS.  They are FANTASTIC, the support is always within MINUTES.  I adore them and couldn’t recommend them any higher.  I’ve done some dumb things, and the suppurt staff is alwsy kind (never condescending).  If you’re in the market, they are tops.

If you’re using Squidoo as an income generator, how much can actually be made there?

The thing is, if you’re participating in revenue share, you won’t make SQUAT.  If your Squidoo income for the month is over $0.50, consider yourself lucky.

The purpose of Squidoo, if you actually want to make any money, is to use it for two purposes:

1. Building links to your own network of sites to increase their link popularity
2. Creating a Squidoo lens that ranks high, and directs people immediately towards your “money” page - that might be an affiliate link or your own website that sells something.

That’s it.  The question of how much Squidoo income one can make is irrelevant, it’s really about using Squidoo to produce income elsewhere.

There’s a plugin I use on market testing blogs I wanted to share with you that adds Adsense blocks automatically to your Wordpress blog.

The process goes like this:

Start a Wordpress blog on the niche of your choice, optimize on-page, bookmark it, get it indexed, do some preliminary link building.

Once the site is indexed, add the “All In One Adsense and YPN” WP plugin.  Enter in your Adsense code and tell it to auto add Adsene to all your posts.  It’ll put the Adsense in both your previously published posts and in new ones you create, withough having to hack into code or write weird symbols in your posts.

Viola!

You can, of course, edit the colors of the ads to make them blend into your site.

One of my favorite features is that it has the option to automatically randomize the size and position of the ads.  This is nice because it helps with reader’s having ‘ad blindness” - that is, they see in ad in the same spot in every post, every time, and they begin to ignore it.

For getting your WP Adsense Auto - magically inserted into your site, this plugin is tops.

Later, you can check you stats, see what the payouts are and see if the market, or site, is worth moving forward in.

This is ridiculous.  Berserk.

The truth is, I have access to tools & staff that many of you don’t.

It’s just because I’ve been doing this for so long.

I decided to offer a HUGE *personal* asset to you because sometimes I just think it’s not fair that *I* can do some of this stuff so easily but *you* can’t.  There are 5 positions available.

You may have seen this page before, but something BIG has changed.

Check the “Just Added” section and tell me I’ve not gone nutso.

See you on the inside!

Getting a catchy name for your next software or web application is important in these days of Web 2.0.  Web surfers, and Google have wizened up to the old “how-to-get-cheap-life-insurance-info.info” trick.

You need quick, you need interesting, you need fun.  But at the same time, you need something that’s somehow descriptive of your service.  One of the things that, in the beginning, made Twitter such a hit was that the name - while not a “real” word, was totally descriptive of what the service provided: a place for people to “twitter’ little thoughts as they stream by.

I was very amused when i came across the Web 2.0 Name Generator; just hit “Generate Name!’ and it’ll spew out all kinds of Web 2-ish potential product names for you.  The catch, of course, is to find one that actually fits your service.  Catchy name software generators like the Web 2 Name Generator might not give you the best domain name right off the bat, but they can get your imagination flowing and LEAD you somewhere that’ll be a perfect fit.

There are two Wordpress social sharing plugins available for download from this site.

1. PlugIM Votebox allows you to have a vote counter for PlugIM directly on your blog posts.  People can vote your story up on the internet marketing social sharing website PlugIM without ever leaving your site.  The plugin will update the number of votes your post has received dynamically.
2. Wordpress SphinnIt puts a “Sphinn” button on your posts.  Visitors can vote for your story on the SEO social sharing site, Sphinn, directly from your site.  The Wordpress plugin will update the number of votes your article has received automatically.

Both Wordpress social sharing plugins have an Admin interface which allows you to select where on your post the voteboxes will appear, and both plugins allow you to even select to ONLY show the votebox on specific posts.  They are quite customizable, and all instructions are available within the readme you’ll find in the download for each.

There is another Wordpress social sharing plugin that incorporates many social bookmarking and social voting sites into it - this is “Sociable.” (There are actually quite a few plugins like this, but this one is the best for SEO purposes - read more on the author’s homepage).  If you’re looking for a Wordpress plugin for social sharing, bookmarking and voting that’s all in one, Sociable is a great pick.

Keep in mind though, that a myriad of social sharing buttons below a post can be overwhelming and even an eyesore.  Make sure to ONLY display the voteboxes or icons of websites that your target audience actually uses.  Haveing 3 social sharing icons that are actually USED by your visitors is 100x better then having 30 that your readers always ignore.  Be selective and discerning.

I’ve been asked is one can integrate Store Stacker and adsense and the answer is - Yes!

Aside from displaying products coded with your affiliate link from Ebay, Clickbank, Amazon, etc., you can also choose to display adsense ads on your custom niche store.

The just released a package of 20 new templates as well, which is VERY nice, as there were only two before.  Of course, the templates are SMARTY based, so they can be edited easily should you need to do so.

To display adsense in your StoreStacker store, you just put your Adsense ID in the admin control panel.  The ads are then displayed for your, already built into the templates, and already coded with your Adsense ID.  It makes it VERY simple.

Enjoy using Store Stacker and Adsense!