Twitter Homepage Facelift

Twitter unveiled their new homepage design today which will feature more dynamic content on the front page, giving those who are not current Twitter members a taste of the Twitterverse. Some may argue the revamping of the homepage complicates the once simplistic page. Within a blog post today, Twitter said the following regarding the change, “All of our recent changes embrace the notion that Twitter is not just for status updates anymore. It's a network where information is exchanged and consumed at a rapid clip every second of the day. With so much being shared, we know that there's something of value for everyone. People who internalize the value of Twitter understand the power of this simple medium. But it hasn't been easy to make that value transparent or obvious for curious folks coming to Twitter for the first time.”

How do you feel about the change?

I do suspect the revamped homepage will entice new people to sign up although I do not feel it will make that much of an impact. But Twitter needs to regain its “wow” factor back as it is overtaken in traffic/users mainly by Facebook and Foursquare. Although many would disagree in that they feel Twitter is more for an impersonal interaction; personally, I still enjoy the simplicity of Twitter and the form of interaction it has to offer.

My first thought to the new Twitter homepage; the news feed in the middle looks similar to Foursquare’s. Coincidence or not?

Become A Better Searcher

When using major search engines, such as Google, to find information, there are some little known commands that can help you make your search more precise and find information faster and more efficiently. There are a large number of different commands in Google, so I will discuss some basic commands that will help people find information and some more advanced commands that can be used for competitive research.

Almost all of us have reached some level of frustration trying to find something in a search engine. One of the most basic ways to make your search results more specific is to use the minus symbol next to irrelevant keywords. Let's say for example, you are searching for information on a new Honda Accord you are planning to buy. You search "2010 Honda Accord" and most of the results are about repairs. To remove any results that are about repairs, you can include the minus symbol next to the word repairs in the search query. Your search query would look like this:

2010 Honda Accord -repairs

Something else that causes people frustration is trying to find a page of a particular website. You can use Google to search for a phrase only within a specific website. For this you use the "site:" command. Let's take the example above and say we are looking for information on the 2010 Honda Accord on the Honda.com domain. You can eliminate results from all other websites using the following query:

2010 Honda Accord site:honda.com

This will only return pages on the honda.com website.

Finally, let's discuss some more advanced search commands. Let's say you are trying to rank your website for a specific phrase and you want to know how competitive that phrase is. You can determine how many competing webpages have that phrase in the anchor text of an inbound link using the "allinanchor:" command. For example, if you are targeting the phrase "internet marketing consultant" you can see how many other pages have links pointing to them with that exact phrase in the anchor text using this query:

allinanchor: internet marketing consultant

The number of pages returned will give you a good idea of how many pages you will have to compete with.

List Of Ways To Have Your Employees Help You Build Links

We all know the importance of link building, and here are some natural ways to gain valuable links from the people you work with on a daily basis. These are probably some of the easiest ways to gain natural links and help improve your search results.

Personal Blogs
Many employees often have their own blog that is not work related. Encourage them to add a post about the company they work for and link to the site. Also, have them mention it on their personal social media pages such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Other Blogs
Are your employees able to be a guest blogger on other industry blogs? Can they post about specific topics they are great at? Doing so could offer a link back to your website since they authored the article.

Employee Networks
Are you employee’s members of an organization such as the local chamber, American Marketing Association? Do they have a website listing members with contact and website information that can link to the employees company? If so, ask them to link to your website which can help drive business to your site.

Available Web Opportunities
As your employees surf the web, ask them to search for available linking opportunities. What other sites are they on that can link to your site? Turn surfing the web into something positive for your business.

Articles
Do you have an employee that can create great linkbait? What is something unique that will have others wanting to link to your website? Employees have a lot of great ideas that can help increase natural links.

Events/ Seminars
When an employee has been selected to participate in an event there is often a website that offers more information about that event. Ask the organization for a link on their page back to your website.

Forums
Encourage employees to become part of a forum where they can chat. As they are reading articles to learn more, have them participate and leave links pointing back to your website.

Use Old Content
Do you have offline articles that are just lying around? Have an employee make these electronic and post them on article syndication websites.

Social Media
Research Digg, StumbleUpon and others to determine how best you can use these social networks to potentially make something go viral and build up links naturally to your website.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Ten Golden Rules of Facebook for Business – Part 2

Join Margie Schneider, VP Operations of TenGoldenRules.com, as she presents Part 2 of Ten Golden Rules of Facebook for Business.

Part 2 of this presentation will cover:

- Facebook Advertising (Laser Targeting, Test Images, Test Headlines)
- How to Use Facebook Insights (Best Practices, Analysis, Demographics)
- Promote in other marketing (Website, Blog, TV, eMail Signature, Events, Brochures, FB Connect)
- Viral Concepts (How to Reach Fans' Friends)
- S-Commerce (Social-Commerce: BestBuy, Dell, Jimmy Johns)

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Ten Golden Rules of Facebook for Business – Part 2

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part IX

When it comes to driving web traffic, blogging is truly gigantic. There are just so many ways to make a blog (or multiple blogs) work for you. Over and over again, you will see me talking about 'the long term' approach to Internet Marketing. Building up a blog is no exception. It takes a long time to truly bring one to life and get real business benefits from it. But the results are worth it. If they weren't, you wouldn't see so MANY of them out there! For one thing, not everybody can create a sales website. On the other hand, anybody can put up a blog - and a blog can function in the same way as any other website can. Even better, blogging platforms like Google's blogger.com are FREE to use, and they are hosted for free.

Have you ever noticed how your Google searches turn up results that aren't necessarily a relevant website, but are (instead) a blog? Have you noticed that this happens a LOT? The reason for this is that there are many more blog posts that apply to any given topic than there are specific websites related to it! Those magic little 'search engine spiders' (or whatever they are) are constantly probing and scanning the web - picking up content, sorting it, ranking it, sifting it, etc.. But one thing is for certain: Blog content gets picked up by search engines. For example, google the phrase Team OceanSwell.

You NEED a business blog and you need to add content to it regularly. This post isn't designed to tell you how, but that's not a great mystery. A quick look around the Internet will turn up thousands of tutorials for setting up and promoting a blog. It's incredible! But the beauty of promoting your blog is that it's uniquely 'you'. It changes every time that you update it with new content and it's a fantastic way to connect (on a human level) with you visitors or affiliate downline. And what I like about it is that there really aren't any rules. Creativity and inventiveness is very, VERY important in this business! On your blog, you can be yourself, tell stories, add pictures of you and your family, your pets or whatever! As far as TrafficWave is concerned, it's easy to add the subscription form to a blog. In fact, it's a MUST.

Just remember, the Internet is a cold and lifeless thing. It's a machine. Like a toaster or washing machine, it's a robot. Signing up affiliate referrals in your TrafficWave downline is a lot of work!Retaining them (and helping them to do the same with their referrals) is just as much work. And, of course, it never ends. But when your associates and referrals can see you and get to know you through your blog, it adds a personal/human element that would otherwise be lacking. One of the greatest things about the whole Team OceanSwell idea is the way in which it forges new relationships between people who wouldn't normally interact with each other. A good blog will amplify and enhance that effect. Even though it's 'the Internet' where we are digging for gold, those with whom you do business are living and breathing souls. You need to connect with them online just like you would if you were face to face - by letting them into your world a little bit and getting to know each other.

I know you're tired of reading by now, but there's one more vitally important thing to mention. You must constantly strive to drive traffic to your business blog, in every conceivable way! Always, always, ALWAYS be searching for new ways to add back-links to your blog. Never, ever stop. Add new content as often as possible and pack your post titles and content with key words. But most important of all, design your blog as the kind of site that YOU would like to visit -especially if you were just getting started with Internet Marketing. The key to success with your blog is to pay attention to it and make a study of driving traffic to it. It's a never-ending learning process and it is fundamental to your success with TrafficWave and/or anything else having to do with online business.

Optimizing Your YouTube Presence

Whether you own a small business or you’re an individual, there is room for you on YouTube. There is usually a reason why you want to share your videos to not only the YouTube community, but to the entire internet. Whatever that reason may be, you need to make sure that you are optimizing every part of your YouTube presence, which starts at your YouTube channel profile.

It’s important to fill out the profile information fields that YouTube provides, as it relates to the company’s mission or message, as well as uploading an image thumbnail. This will help users understand what your company or brand is all about and what they can expect from your videos. It is also recommended to change the colors of your YouTube channel to keep in line with your company or brand.

Before you are ready to upload your video, you should have some keywords in mind to describe your video. Optimizing your YouTube video is just as important as optimizing content on your website. Add a descriptive title that includes keywords relevant to the video, along with your brand or company’s name. Also include text in the description that includes those keywords you have in mind. Lastly, include tags that include your description that includes the keywords you have in mind, as well as your company or brand’s name. You need to make sure that your video has these elements in order for the search engines to include your video.

There is a lot more to optimizing your YouTube presence, but this is just an overview!

Page Speed

I just downloaded and installed Page Speed which is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on (note, if you do not have Firebug Add-on installed the Page Speed Add-on will not work). With Page Speed I can evaluate the performance of my client’s’ web pages and I’ll receive a set of scores for each page, as well as helpful suggestions on how to improve its performance which I can send to my clients on how to improve their pages.

What’s the big deal about speed, right? I have two words for you, Matt Cutts. Let me share with you a couple of quotes from a series of interviews he did with WebProNews.

The first quote, "I think a lot of people in 2010 are going to be thinking more about 'how do I have my site run fast,' how do I have it be rich without writing a bunch of custom javascript?'"

The second quote, "No. Relevancy is the most important. If you have two sites that are equally relevant (same backlinks...everything else is the same), you'd probably prefer the one that's a little bit faster, so page speed can be an interesting theory to try out for a factor in scoring different websites. But absolutely, relevance is the primary component, and we have over 200 signals in our scoring to try to return the most relevant, the most useful, the most accurate search result that we can find. That's not going to change."

Now that I’ve peaked your curiosity I bet you’re wondering how Page Speed works. Page Speed performs several tests on a site's web server configuration and front-end code. These tests are based on a set of best practices from Google known to enhance web page performance.

The tool is simple to use and if nothing else you’re going to improve the speed of your site. But I have to tell you I think speed is going to be playing a larger and larger role in the coming years for higher rankings in Google’s search results.

Device Targeting in Google Adwords

When setting up a pay per click campaign in Google Adwords, you are able to determine if you want ads displayed on the search network, the content network or both. I have previously discussed duplicating campaigns and running one mirror campaign on each network to see which performs better for your business. Another targeting option that is currently available is device targeting.

By default, your pay per click ads will run on desktop and laptop computers, as well as mobile devices with full internet browsers. The problem with this default targeting is that unless you are promoting a product or service specifically for mobile devices, running ads on mobile devices can decrease your conversion rate.

The reason for the lowered conversion rate on mobile devices is accidental clicks. As most people with a touch screen mobile browser can tell you, it takes a lot of precision to click on the right place on the screen. There are many free applications for smart phones that display pay per click ads within the app. The problem is that the ad is often very close to a function of the application, leading many people to click on the ad when they do not mean to. This results in a wasted click.

With this in mind, I usually target pay per click ads to only display on computers. If you are selling a device-specific product like an iPhone case, then it is probably worthwhile to run your ads on iPhones. If not, you will reduce wasted clicks by removing mobile devices from your campaign targeting.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Ten Success Strategies for Generating More Business in LinkedIn

Join Erika Barbosa of Ten Golden Rules and Jay Berkowitz, CEO of Ten Golden Rules and Author of The Ten Golden Rules Of Online Marketing Workbook to learn the "Ten Success Strategies for Generating More Business in LinkedIn."

This presentation will share the 10 best strategies to use LinkedIn to build an effective business network, and how to use this network to increase your business.

- How to create a profitable profile
- How to build and nurture your relationships through LinkedIn
- How to optimize your profile for findability
- How to create and participate in Groups
- Our single favorite LinkedIn's function for business
- Strategies for incorporating LinkedIn with other marketing activities

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Ten Success Strategies for Generating More Business in LinkedIn

Happy Birthday Twitter!

Please note: this post is more than 140 characters.

Yesterday marked Twitter’s 4th birthday and to celebrate, let’s take a look at the top reasons why we love Twitter so much. Mashable started a hashtag, #thankstwitter4, which collected thousands of tweets for why Twitter is valued by so many. Here’s a look at a few of my favorites:

1. Finding Love
2. Finding Fame
3. Staying Up To Date with Current Events
4. Making Friends Around the World

Twitter has become a great tool for so many of us in our own ways. From personal reasons such as finding love [and proposing] to connecting with people we never thought we could connect with.

Some of you may still remember Twitter Co-Founder, Jack Dorsey’s first tweet. Four years later, Twitter now has over 50 million tweets per day. In the course of a year, registered Twitter accounts have grown more than 1,500% and their team has grown 500%. And with no pun intended, they recently hired their 140th employee. Happy Birthday!

Foursquare and Privacy Concerns

I have been using Foursquare for a couple months now and it has actually become routine for me to ‘check in’ whenever I go somewhere. If you're new to Foursquare, there is a post just for you. It really is a fun application, especially when you have your friends participating with you! I recently got married and while my friends were here for the wedding, we were Foursquaring all over the place. Then, when my husband and I honeymooned in Hawaii, it was especially fun to ‘check in’ all over the island, and I even became mayor of a couple places! I was surprised that many of the places I checked into were already created, which indicated to me that many people are participating in Foursquare. It’s great to know that the app is growing rapidly!

There have been concerns about privacy on Foursquare, and I did some further digging and found that Foursquare does not show your whereabouts or the history of check ins on your public profile. Sure you can publish your Foursquare check ins on Twitter so anyone who isn’t on Foursquare can see where you are, but it is optional.

Some of my personal tips to being more careful when using Foursquare include:

• Don’t put the exact address if you decide to create a check in spot for your home. If you live in an apartment complex or a community, use that as your check in spot. Even though your location is pinpointed, it does not reveal your exact whereabouts, but a general area.
• Don’t become friends with people you don’t know. Foursquare is a lot fun with your friends anyway!
• Adjust your Privacy settings. I’d uncheck the box that allows to show your name in the ‘Who’s here’ list when checked in, so those who aren’t linked with me on Foursquare can see I am actually there.
• You do have the option to check in and not reveal your whereabouts. When you check into a place, you have a choice to tell your friends, or not tell them. You can simple turn that option off and you will show as [Off the grid]. But in my opinion, I’d use this if you really want to be private about a specific place, but if you’re at a place where a lot of people are, I’d share, such as a baseball stadium, or theme park.

What do you think? Do you have any tips about being more cautious when using Foursquare, or even any general tips not outlined here?

And here is TenGoldenRules' Foursquare page if you were curious! You'll see yours truly is currently the mayor. :)

Ego – The perfect iPhone App for the Account Executive

I’m in love with the latest app Ego , I’ve downloaded for my iPhone. I cannot tell you how many times I whip out my phone when I’m patiently waiting…red lights, bank lines, picking up takeout, grocery shopping, and the list goes on and on. I’m typically on my iPhone checking Facebook or iTunes for the latest and greatest.

With Ego, I now have the ability to get a snapshot of how my clients are doing using my phone. I do not have to visit multiple sites, logging in and out, to access the data. I’m now able to quickly view the number of visits to each of their websites (including daily, hourly, and monthly numbers), feed subscriptions totals and changes, and how many people are following each of my clients on Twitter.

The app currently provides statistics for Ember, Feedburner, Google Analytics, Mint, Squarespace, Twitter, and Vimeo. I would love to see Facebook, YouTube and FourSquare added to the list. It would also be great if they provided a deeper-dive into Google Analytics.

So the next time you see me picking up a pizza pie for the family know I’m also scanning my client’s analytics for the latest. How’s that for multi-tasking?

My Top 5 Extra Ordinary Tweets

So there are millions of people that are on Twitter and people have said everything from where they are, to exactly what they are doing. Here are five "tweets" I found to be some of the most interesting so far. 1. When @maxkiesler proposed to his fiance on Twitter

AND SHE SAID YES!!!!

2. The fact that the cat @Sockington has over 1.5 million followers!


3. How Twitter helped save someone's life thanks to @mrskutcher.
4. How breaking news hits Twitter before the media is able to report on it. For instance, when @jkrums sent a picture of the US Air flight landed in the Hudson River.



5. How @kickbee was able to tweet after daddy developed a way to send signals to a Twitter account while in the womb of mommy

Customizing Your Reader “Playlist”

Google recently launched within their Google Labs a new feature, “Google Reader Play.” Have you checked it out? I briefly tried it out and boy is it different from the standard Google Reader. The feature is intended to be a more visual or entertainment browser – giving a new and interesting way to browse stuff.

It is based with a black backdrop and comes with some popular features such as “like” and “share.” Although it looks pretty neat and I always like exploring new concepts – I’m not sure if this fits my browsing tastes. Now of course this will depend on how you enjoy learning as an individual, perhaps you are more auditory than visual etc.

At First Glance
A lot of what is being served to me appears as jokes or comedic… not too much meaty news and information.

There tends to be more viewing of photos/images as opposed to reading. But aside from the random images (it was pretty neat to see IKEA furniture displays in a subway of Paris) there wasn’t much substance. Maybe it was just the images I happened to be served?

Taking this into account, I didn’t see a way or at least an easy way [if hidden] to dislike what appeared. I guess I grew accustomed to seeing likes/thumps up next to dislikes/thumps down. But this didn’t really matter too much when on the slideshow option as the slides just came so fast you didn’t have much time to digest what you saw/read.

Conclusion
As always, Google reveals a range of different tools that are meant to be helpful for an assortment of people. I definitely recommend checking out Google Reader Play. However, I do think this browsing method will be an acquired taste as it works outside of the norm.

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part VIII

Here's what I call a Major Rule in Internet Marketing: Know Your Product

Why do you expect that people will desire to buy the product or service that you are marketing online? What's the primary benefit? Like, why SHOULD they do it, rather than just keeping their money? I'm serious. There needs to be a reason that you can explain, both distinctly and succinctly. In the case of TrafficWave and/or the Team OceanSwell idea, what exactly is it that you're selling and why should anyone pay for TrafficWave or be a part of this Team promotion system? If asked these questions directly, do you have a ready answer?

If not, don't feel bad. MOST people can't sum up the primary benefit of whatever they're promoting in a few simple words. But think about it. If you can't do that, how on earth can you convince average people to get out their credit cards and join your programs or buy your products and services? Obviously, as a Team OceanSwell member, the letters, Updates and blog will do a lot of that for you - not to mention the mountain of information available in the TW Back Office and Discussion Forum. But imagine that a friend or relative is sitting there with you and is genuinely interested in what you are 'doing online'. What if they ask you to explain it? What if others are there listening as well? Could you do it?

I'm asking you these questions for a reason. Most people 'freeze up' when asked about their online business because they simply aren't prepared to explain it. If you can't briefly explain to someone else (in a face-to face setting) what it is that you do online, then it could be that you don't truly believe in it. It's my contention that the PRIMARY reason people give up and quit so quickly in this business is because - deep down - they don't really believe in it. I've been around MLM for a long time and I can tell you that most people who try their hand at it are lazy and afraid, in that order. The Internet only exasperates the problem.

Bottom line: Become an EXPERT on your product, service or program. Know it inside and out. Actually use it and become good at using it. That's fundamental to success with any sales program. The Internet creates the fantasy of 'click, click, clicking' your way to a fortune. But that fantasy ignores the fundamental rules of selling anything - and there aren't any new fundamentals. Always remember this phrase, 'Nothing happens until something is sold', because you'll never successfully sell anything that you don't understand and believe in. Have a student's mindset at all times. Make this business a STUDY and you will be one of those who seems so 'lucky' to everyone else.

Whoa!

Well, it finally happened. And with the incredible momentum of the last few months, I guess it should come as no surprise. As reported by CNN, Facebook has now edged out Google in total U.S. traffic for the week ending March 13th, as determined by Experian Hitwise.

The article makes a few assertions, but there is one which I really don't agree with. The Director of Media Relations at Hitwise, Matt Tatham, is quoted as saying, "People want information from friends they trust, versus the the anonymity of a search engine". Although this statement probably has some truth to it, I don't think that is the reason that Google was beat out by Facebook for traffic.

I believe people will continue to use Google for search - meaning to FIND information. But I also believe they will continue to use Facebook for what they use Facebook for - and that's not primarily for the accumulation of information. I believe the huge boost in its popularity has little to do with its ability to replace Google as an information source - and EVERYTHING to do with its ability to connect people.

I could be wrong, but I don't think this portends bad times for Google. What I do think it shows is two things: 1. people are accepting of online connection/communication and 2. Facebook does a great job of delivering that.

As a veteran internet professional, I'm very excited about this.

Optimizing Video Content

With Google's Universal Search, showing up in search results with video thumbnails is a great way to generate web traffic. Optimizing videos to show up in search is very important but the way this is done is very likely to change.

As of now, Google places weight on the keywords that appear in the title and description of videos, and most likely the closed captioning. The actual voice-over of the video is not yet believed to be a factor in rankings, but current trends point out that it is not too far from becoming an integral part of Google's algorithm.

It is commonly known within the search engine optimization community that Google has been working on transcribing audio for some time. The question is just how long from now will audio matter in search engine rankings?

Judging by voicemail transcription compliments of Google Voice, they still have a long way to go before transcriptions become accurate. Anyone who uses Google Voice for voicemail knows that the transcriptions are not very accurate. But the fact that this is something Google is working on lets us know that eventually it will become a search ranking factor.

What should we do? In order to have lasting search results for videos, it is not too early to start optimizing content. Do your keyword research prior to video production and ensure the phrases you are targeting are clearly mentioned in the voice-over of the video. This way, once Google decides to start taking the audio into account for rankings, your videos will be optimized.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents 10 Strategies to Make Social Media Make Money

Jay Berkowitz, CEO of www.TenGoldenRules.com and Author of The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing will present, “10 Strategies to Make Social Media Make Money.”

Facebook has 400 million members! YouTube is the #3 site on the Internet! Twitter grew 1043%! This presentation will share 10 strategies to capitalize on the traffic you can generate from top social media websites.

* Learn the single best opportunity in social
* The first eCommerce strategies for Facebook
* Secrets to build your friends and followers
* Make social media money without facing FTC fines
* The 3 E's of social media
* Amazing apps

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: 10 Strategies to Make Social Media Make Money

The First .com Turns 25 Today

It is amazing to me that the very first .com is 25 years old today. Symbolics.com, was registered on March 15, 1985, and was the first dot-com web page. Today, there are more than 80 million dot com domain names, and today, owning a domain name is as easy as getting an email address. Following Symbolics.com, big companies like Apple, IBM, Intel and AMD bought their domain names. Today, the internet is more a necessity than ever before, and it’s definitely here to stay. I wonder how much traffic Symbolics.com will be getting today...

How to get a job in Internet Marketing

I teach an Internet Marketing Course for the University of San Francisco. Several of the students have asked me how to put their knowledge to work and get a job in Internet marketing. Despite the tough economy, one sector that is still looking for good people is the internet.

My best thoughts on finding jobs in this economy are on our website and an internet marketing podcast I recorded with 10 job hunting tips.

The 2 best suggestions I could share with you are 1. the vast majority of jobs come from relationships and 2. the best thing you can do to get a job in internet marketing is to do work in internet marketing (freelance and volunteer work count). Let me explain:

1. Relationships. The first thing most managers do when hiring is ask staff and friends 'Do you know anyone who is great at X?' The last thing we do is spend money on recruitment advertising. I love hiring people that I have worked with through volunteer committees or people I know form industry events. Get busy connecting with old friends and make sure people know what you're good at and what you're looking for. Also, find an excuse to stay top-of-mind each month. I love to help people out, but I am busy - you need to remind busy people that you're still looking.

2. I prefer to hire people with relevant experience and a great positive team-based attitude. We hired our Social Media Guru because she had a great can-do personality and a personal fitness blog that had higher ratings than our company blog. Companies were sending her free fitness products to sample hoping she'd blog about them. So how do you get real, relevant experience? Pick a cause that you are passionate about such as a local charity or non-profit and ask them how you could help. For example, the calls is doing some volunteer work for Rescue Rehab Home, a charity that rescues abandoned dogs. Volunteer for your local American Marketing Association or Interactive Marketing Association. Doing real interactive marketing work such as blogging, search engine optimization or social media (Facebook Fan Pages, YouTube videos, Twitter) is a great way to build your resume and show off your skills. Many hiring managers are likely in senior positions on the Board of Directors for these organizations. Or, do some freelance work to put on your resume. Websites such as www.Guru.com or www.eLance.com offer you the opportunity to make money doing real projects for real companies. Lastly - make yourself interactive! Create a great personal blog, make sure your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles are top notch. Google yourself to make sure there is lots of good news hitting the first page - if not get busy creating Social Media profiles to hit the first page of a search.

If you are looking, good luck for your job search and please let me know if there are other ways I can help. If you know someone who is looking for an internet marketing job, please share these tips and a link to our podcast with them. http://podcast.tengoldenrules.com/10goldenrules-podcast-episode32.html

Photo Credit Pieter Baert Flickr

Twitter's 10 Billionth Tweet

Jack Dorsey, one of Twitter's co-founders, sent the first tweet on March 21, 2006. Twitter hit a 10 billionth milestone late Thursday March 4, 2010 when someone clicked the update button. I could think of a hundred cool tweets number 10,000,000,000 could have been but unfortunately it appears the ground-breaking tweet was posted by someone who had set their feed to be private by default.

I’m the type of person that needs to know what the tweet said. I’m not asking for much Jack just a 140 character answer. We all know what the 5 billionth tweet said, “Oh Lord,” written by Robin Sloan. Anybody want to take a guess at what the 10 billionth tweet said? I’m thinking it could have been “If she admits the dinner she made tastes bad, do NOT agree. It's a trick…”

I’m hoping the next milestone, 20 billionth tweet, is going to be a little more interesting. We only have to wait 188 more days to find out. I can see you’re impressed with my math skills - don’t be - I checked GigaTweet...

Have You Checked Out Chrome Extensions?

Taking advantage of extensions for your browser of choice is a great way to customize your browsing experience. I tend to use Google Chrome, and lately have been paying more attention to the ton of extension options offered. The great thing about utilizing extensions for any browser is that you tailor your browsing experience to your own needs. Of course everyone will have their own preference on how they browse, and this gives you additional abilities to do so. There are three basic types of extensions offered with Google Chrome:

• Browser Actions
These extensions add a button or icon in the upper right hand corner of your browser.
• Page Actions
These extensions add an icon to your address bar for a variety of actions.
• Content Scripts
These extensions add a button in the upper right hand corner of your browser which will directly interact with the pages you visit.

Click & Clean
“Deletes your browsing history, typed URLs and other tracks from your PC; allows you to clear browsing data when Chrome closes.”

This extension is great for the days when your browser has fallen ill to “lazy browser syndrome.”

Webpage Screenshot
“Fast and simple solution to save JPG screenshots of any webpage; the first extension that captures the whole page.”

This extension is a nice alternative to the “print screen” function.

Learn More
To learn more about Google Extensions, check out the helpful video they have provided on the basics.

TrafficWave and Team OceanSwell - Part VI

Have you ever heard of Mel Fisher? He was a very famous treasure hunter who remains one of my heroes and who's story is a must-read for anyone in the online affiliate/MLM business. You can learn a little bit about him here, though I recommend reading his autobiography. Mel's signature saying was 'Today's the day!'. He said that every single time his crew went out to search for sunken, treasure-laden ships that he KNEW were there.

He'd go out to sea and the weather would send him back. He would organize one expedition after another as people mocked and ridiculed his efforts. 'You're a crackpot 'till you hit the jackpot', Mel would say. And then one day... he did. When he finally discovered his quest, the sunken treasure ship called 'Nuestra Señora de Atocha', he and his team saw gold bars strewn across the sea bed as far as the eye could see. In fact, a lot of it's still there! His personal story is AMAZING and should serve as a constant inspiration for anyone searching for online riches.

I bring up Mel Fisher's life story because, unlike Mel, most people will give up searching long before they ever find the online treasure chest that they're seeking. That's because it's well hidden, as are the keys to open it! But there are treasure maps and other clues available to all who will relentlessly seek for them. And the ones who will never, never quit are the ones who will find them.

About me: I've built a successful online business using the ideas, methods and programs contained in this blog. So can you. What do I mean by 'successful'? I mean that I am in the profit every month and that profit continues to grow steadily (slowly, but steadily) every single month - and will keep growing forever. Has it been easy? No, it has not. I won't lie to you. It has NOT been easy. It feels great now, but it didn't for a long time! Like Mel Fisher, I 'went out to sea' many times and returned empty handed and poorer for having funded the trip. But, like Mel, I'm one of those crazy people who kept at it even when it wasn't working. And that's how I am able to share my experiences with you.

Here are some truths about online success:

~ It's going to take longer than you think
~ It WILL work if you stay with it
~ You have to spend a little before earning anything (i.e. take risks)
~ You need a system
~ You must be CONSISTENT and PERSISTENT
~ You must have patience
~ You must continuously improve your methods
~ IT WILL BE WORTH IT

Of course, it goes without saying: Don't quit! To be honest with you, most people fail because they gave up way too soon. That's really the 'secret' that everyone seems to be searching for and it's the ultimate clue that will lead you to online riches. Given good, solid companies and marketing plans, the VAST majority of those who fail simply gave up too quickly. There is this strange illusion that online business is different from offline ('brick and mortar') businesses. It isn’t. Just because it's 'online' doesn't coat it with magic pixie dust. It's the same thing. Be realistic, treat your business as a BUSINESS and never, never quit.

The treasure awaits. Why not let Team OceanSwell help you in your quest to uncover it?

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part VII

In this business, one thing that you're going to want to do on a continual basis is track the results of your various ads and/or ad campaigns in any way you can. These days, there are plenty of good marketing systems out there which include a tracking feature - TrafficWave and TE Tool Box, for example. There are plenty of others.

You might as well know that you're limiting your success if you don't test and re-test various versions of your ads to see which pull the best results. Things like ad headlines, graphics, special offers or even where you are running the ad - all of that should be tracked. Do NOT ignore these tools! I realize that for many people, Internet Marketing is more of an interesting hobby or diversion than anything else. But if you're truly serious about this, then you are going to need to use ad-tracking so that you can fine-tune your marketing message for MAXIMUM impact. You do want maximum impact, right? Of course you do!

On another note, you do know that you can market off-line, right? Yeah, I know. It's the thing that nobody wants to do. But that's why nobody does it. Charity groups, church fundraisers, little league clubs, college business clubs and many similar groups would be perfect places to give a little presentation to. I've actually had some success with old-school business cards and fliers. If you're clever and inventive, you might be surprised at the results you can get! One of the keys to successful advertising is to do it where nobody else is. If you really, really want want you think you want (online success, a better job or even a mate!), then marketing needs to become a part of your every day life. In fact, it should actually BE a lifestyle. Whether you are selling a product, selling a service (such as Team OceanSwell) or selling yourself, you need to be using every available tool at your disposal. But remember, these tools and tactics only work if you USE them.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents 10 Golden Rules for Blogging

Join Marc Purtell and Michael Gustman from Ten Golden Rules to learn the "Ten Golden Rules for Blogging."

This presentation will explain the significant business opportunities for blogging and how to build your personal brand with a blog.

- The benefits of blogging
- How to blog
- Optimizing for Google and the search engines
- How to generate traffic to your blog
- What to blog about

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: 10 Golden Rules for Blogging

Choosing Keywords for SEO

To run a successful search engine optimization campaign, an important step is choosing keywords for SEO to focus on. Simply trying to rank for a list of keywords you think are important is not always the best for your bottom line. You should be less focused on generating lots of traffic and more focused on generating revenue.

To develop your list of keywords to focus your efforts on, you want to consider a few things: how frequently are they searched, how competitive they are, and how well they convert for your business. Keyword research tools, such as Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, and Google Suggest are useful in determining how frequently keyword phrases are searched and how competitive they are. While this information is valuable in deciding which keywords present the greatest opportunities for optimization (high search frequency, low competition), you also want to determine which keywords are likely to generate a lead or a sale.

If you run a pay per click campaign, you have a head start in identifying your best converting keywords (as long as you are tracking conversions). Go through your campaigns and see which phrases have the highest conversion rate. If they convert well from pay per click, there is a good chance that they will convert well in organic search. Choosing Keywords for SEO will improve your overall performance and search engine results.

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part VI

When you are using your autoresponder for a letter series and/or broadcast messages, one of the basic things that we all need to understand is how to inform, teach and motivate in an honest and professional manner. As they say, "PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING". If you don't believe what you're saying, people can sense it. There are a lot of liars in this business and the fastest way to ruin your subscriber list is to become one yourself. Never try to sell something to your readers that YOU don't believe in. That's the worst thing you could do.

So don't publish misleading ads in order to entice opt-in subscribers and don't make promises (in your ads or letters) that you can't keep. Speaking of ads, TrafficWave has many good templates and the newer video and Matrix-Buster pages are very good. I use Instant Splash Page Maker (not free), Instant Squeeze Page Generator (free) and there's a newer one out there that's also free - Instant Splash.

You're not going to get many subscribers unless you have good-looking, eye-catching ads that entice potential subscribers with a good REASON to opt-in. With the Team OceanSwell Ads, the reason for opting in is to learn about a service (i.e. the Team Rotator) that will help build a real affiliate income with TrafficWave's pay plan. That's information that a lot of people want! So, in order to build your list, your ads must offer something that people WANT - especially the kind of people that you are marketing to. Give the people what they want, be honest and informative and you will have a growing and loyal subscriber base.

There are essentially two reasons for having a large mailing list on your autoresponder:

1) To sell 'em stuff.

2) In the case of a program like Team OceanSwell, to inform, update, coach, etc.

In either situation, the TrafficWave autoresponder is a MUST. So if you haven't started yet, please begin building your list today. List-building (and all that goes with it) is really the central pillar of creating a long-term, satisfying online income. It's THAT important...

Facebook Page Marketing 101

I was recently developing a Facebook strategy for one of my new clients and figured it would be a great topic for this week’s post. Anybody can create a business or fan page for Facebook. What you do with the page is an entirely different story.

Where do you begin? You need to start off by asking three questions. What are your goals for the Facebook page? What is your strategy for achieving your goals? What tactics are you going to implement?

I’m going to use a fictional company (Acme Rockets) as my example. Acme Rockets wants to use its Facebook page to drive new people to www.acmerockets.com to purchase their rockets. They also want to use their page as a way to increase brand awareness.

The first things we need to look at are the goals.

• To triple their fan base in 12 months.
• To increase total new fans a month by 10% per month over the next 4 months.
• To increase interactions a month by 20% per month for 4 consecutive months.
• To increase likes per month by 20% per month for 4 consecutive months.

Now that we have goals set the next thing we need to do is develop a winning strategy.

• Increasing your interaction with fans. The interactions are going to show on your fan’s feeds. This is free exposure to people who do not know you. The more interactions you have on your page the more real-estate you own on your fan’s pages. I know this sounds simple but figuring out the types of interactions that will help you reach your goals is not so simple.

The goals are set and so is the strategy. The final step is the tactics we’re going to use.

• Make two to three posts a day.
• Link to articles relating to rockets.
• Interact with fans that make posts on your wall.
• Post pictures of rockets on your wall.
• Create a Coolest Rocket Photo contest. For example, to enter the contest you have to be a fan. The photo has to be tagged by you. The more comments your friends make the better chance you have at winning the contest.
• Create a custom FBML page promoting “becoming a fan”.
• Create a custom FBML page selling your latest rockets. Jay Berkowitz recently coined this type of selling as s-commerce and more and more companies are doing this through Facebook.

Facebook Insights is going to be your gift from God when it comes to figuring out what tactics work and do not work. It’s a great tool to measure user exposure, actions, and behavior relating to your Social Ads and Facebook Page. By understanding activity and performance, fans and ad respondents, and trends and comparisons, you are better equipped to improve your business on Facebook and elsewhere. For example, your fans might like certain types of photos better than others. We want to know which photos the fans liked and commented on the most - Insights will show you this. The same principles can be applied to articles as well.

So remember, you aren’t guaranteed results just because you created a Facebook page. You have to map out an effective plan that includes goals, strategy, and tactics. And remember to use Facebook Insights; the feedback it provides will help you develop better tactics to reach your Facebook page’s goals.

Part 2: Suffering From Blogger’s Block?

I thought it would be helpful to provide a post about some next steps for your blog writing journey. Before I do that though, check out Part 1 of this post; you will find this post is a beneficial supplement.

So you now have some blog ideas and a plan in place – but then you ask yourself – in what format do I put down all of my thoughts? Here are a couple of the best ways to format/structure your posts:

Lists. Creating your blog posts around a “list” format makes the information that much more digestible for the reader. You want to make sure you don’t lose your reader a few sentences into your post. Lists make it less overwhelming for the many on-the-go readers.

Segmented Paragraphs. Not every post you write is going to be short and sweet or able to be chopped up in a list format. A great way to write a longer post but still keep a reader’s attention is by putting each of the points you are illustrating under “headings”. Take a look at how this post has two separate thoughts broken up by preceding bold headings. The concept of this is that readers’ eyes will scan “headings” and skip to the section they are most interested in without abandoning your post altogether.

Think about some of your favorite posts and how they were formatted. What did you enjoy most about them? What about them enticed you to keep reading until the very end?

PPC Tip - Remove the Spaces

To any pay per click advertising veteran, it is well-known that bidding on misspellings of keywords is a good way to cut down on the cost per click of your campaigns. In competitive industries, however, your competitors are also aware and even commonly misspelled keywords can become very expensive to bid on.

A misspelling that is often overlooked, but common in virtually any industry is leaving out a space between words in a phrase.

People are busy. They type fast. Look at a document you recently wrote quickly. It's very likely that there is a space missing somewhere. The same holds true for your market.

Let's say for example you are in online marketing. Bidding on the phrase "online marketing" will cost you about $5.72/click while bidding on "onlinemarketing" will only cost about $2.26/click.

If you decide to bid on misspellings like these, you should set up an ad group specifically for that and not use keyword insertion in your ads. Using keyword insertion when bidding on misspellings will cause your ad copy to contain misspellings and look unprofessional.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents 10 Golden Rules of Web Video Part 2

Jay Berkowitz, CEO of www.TenGoldenRules.com and Author of The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing and Margie Schneider, Ten Golden Rules Vice-President will share Part 2 of "Ten Golden Rules of Web Video."

Part 2 of this presentation will cover:

- Optimizing for YouTube
- Best practices for conversion
- Testing and Measurement

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: 10 Golden Rules of Web Video Part 2