John Mayer Calls for a Digital Cleanse to Bring in the New Year

When was the last time you corresponded via a personalized letter? Remember when you actually had to pick up the phone and call someone? With texting, Twitter, Facebook and e-mail replacing everyday communication, the New Year may be a time to take a step back from all of today's technology and remember that you can't always express yourself in 140 characters.

Yesterday, John Mayer urged his Twitter followers to take part in a New Year's Digital Cleanse in an effort to "defrag" our technologically overloaded minds. Mayer suggests a one-week cleanse, beginning January 1st and ending on January 8th, which doesn't require you to completely remove technology from your life, only take a step back. Here's the recipe:

• email only from laptop or desktop computers.

• cell phones can only be used to make calls, and no text messages or e-mails are allowed – if you receive a text, you must reply in voice over the phone.
  

• no use of Twitter or any other social networking site – including reading as well as posting.

• no visiting of any entertainment or gossip sites.

Following these guidelines should be manageable for even the most connected individuals. Work commitments may prevent you from participating in the cleanse, but it is still refreshing to think about how far communication has come, even just over the last year.

Counting Down Around the World

It has been a tradition since the early 1900s to celebrate the famous “New Year’s Eve Ball Drop of Times Square.” But do you ever wonder how others around the world bring in the big day? There was a neat posting in the Bing Community today referencing just this. Did you know that the Japanese culture typically brings in the New Year by more calming activities such as cleaning the house? Check out Bing’s “New Year’s Around the World” for some amazing images.

So from New York to Australia [and everyone in between] and however you prefer to bring in the New Year -- may it be a prosperous one for all!

Start Off the New Year By Getting Better Acquainted with Facebook

A great resource on Facebook that surfaced this week is brought to you by Mashable.com. The Facebook Guide Book is a great resource to bookmark for anything Facebook related. Whether it is learning the basics, to learning how to use Facebook for business, this guide will help you get started.

Towards the bottom of the guide, feature Facebook posts by the Mashable team, such as popular Facebook lists and most recent Facebook news. If you want to start the new year learning about Facebook, I think this is a great place to start.

Pay Per Click Advertising Tip - Define Customer Personas

When setting up a pay per click advertising campaign, a very important key to success is to break your campaigns into tight, granular ad groups. One way to carefully segment campaigns is to identify customer personas.

As internet users, we don't all search for the same products and services the same way. Different demographic groups may use slightly different search phrases and respond differently to offers. For this reason, it is important to understand what groups would be interested in your product or service and how to speak to them through your advertising.

Identify your customer subsets and give them names (i.e. high school students, soccer moms, etc). Think about the words each segment would search that would result in a sale/lead. Set up a different ad group for each customer segment and focus on the phrases that specific group would likely search. This will also allow you to present different ad copy/creative and landing pages to each segment.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Why The Small Screen Gets BIG Results!

There will soon be more mobile phones than there are people on the planet. If you are like most people, that phone in your pocket has dramatically changed your behavior and the way you think about and access your information, communications and entertainment. For the younger generations, the mobile phone truly is the center of their universe and the hub for their social interactions. What better place for advertisers and marketers to reach a captive and attentive audience?

In this discussion we will review:

• Why Mobile? Another device vs. a personal accessory…
• Mobile Advertising vs. Mobile Marketing
• If Content is King, is mobile content Master of the Universe?
• Is there really an App for that? How should marketers leverage the current “app” craze

Jeff Sass is the VP of Business Development for leading Mobile Entertainment site, Myxer. With more than 28 million users, Myxer delivers over 70 million mobile downloads per month and is a pioneer in ad-supported mobile content. A former entertainment and game industry exec, Jeff Sass has more than 10 years experience in Mobile and was co-founder and CEO of early mobile commerce player, BarPoint.com.

This webinar will take place on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: Why The Small Screen Gets BIG Results!

Social Media for Small Businesses

Sarah Evans - the face of PR Newswire - had one of my favorite posts this weekend:









As an Internet marketer, I have to agree. Not everyone, and everything, needs a Facebook fan page, or a Twitter account, for that matter. Let's face it - it can get annoying. However, social media does have its place in the Web marketing toolbox. And especially for small businesses on a limited budget, social media can be effective - if it's used properly.

According to a recent article in eMarketer, lead generation is the biggest benefit social media brings to small businesses. Other benefits as listed in the "Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010" from Ad-ology include:


















Like any marketing or advertising campaign, social media efforts need to focused, with a clear strategy and measurable goals. Unfortunately, most small businesses face several challenges when it comes to using social media effectively, including a lack of education and/or the necessary resources to use the channel effectively.

So, before you build that Facebook page or create your Twitter account, think about what you want to accomplish... If you aren't sure what, how or where to begin, get some help from an expert. As we've seen in many instances, a misstep in the social media world can cause more harm than good. By engaging someone familiar with the channel to help you get started, you'll reduce the risk of a foux paux, as well as the learning curve, and see results faster.

Christmas Cheer… Can’t Forget the Donkey

For those of you who celebrate the holiday – Merry Christmas!

I think today is a very fitting day to have a little fun with this post and enjoy some Christmas related viral videos. Below are a few I know you will enjoy!


What a great mashup isn’t it?


Funny thing about this song – I didn’t even know of it until a few months ago; now I hear it everywhere I go.



Last but not least - I saw this video on CNN this morning and thought it would be a great share. Do you think it is real?

2010 Trend Predictions in Social Media

Trendspotting Market Research came out with a report about predictions for social media trends in 2010. I found it interesting that the predictions were in 140 characters, Twitter style. It definitely makes it easy to read. From this report, the major trends predictions in 2010 were suggested as mobile, location, transparency, measurement, ROI and privacy.

Some of my favorite predictions included:

• “Mobile becomes a social media lifeline.”
• “Companies get serious about social media, elevating their focus to social business.”
• “By the end of the year we’ll have a new interface for status updates that looks nothing like a microblog.”
• “Search will get more social: real time content in results, information from social network friends to results, using collective information from other web users.”
• “Social media in 2010 will cease being the shiny new object and instead, become part of the everyday lexicon on business.”
• “We’re going to see an explosion of things that use location.”

Are you ready for 2010? Do you have any trend predictions of your own regarding social media?

Read the rest of the report below:

TrendsSpotting's 2010 Social Media Influencers - Trend Predictions in 140 Characters

View more documents from Taly Weiss.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Motivating Your Butt to Succeed Online

Join Jim Kukral, of www.jimkukral.com, for Motivating Your Butt to Succeed Online. You have the ideas for an online empire. You have dreams of breathtaking success. Here's a sure-fire way to kick-start your plans and feed the momentum to finally make things happen.

You'll learn how to:

• Get over yourself! - Lose your ego to open yourself to make more money, faster than ever!
• Avoid self-sabotage - Learn the difference between "Failures" and "Losers" and know which one you are... and why it matters to your success!
• Move on to move forward - We all make mistakes. Find out how to overcome your mistakes and strategically use them to your advantage
• Feed the fire - How hot does that fire in your belly burn? Are you really pumped up for success? We'll help get you white-hot and motivated to "just do it" at last!
• "Fail" your way to success - Master the secrets of the most successful people in the history of the world, and discover how you can model them to surpass your goals!

The event will take place on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: Motivating Your Butt to Succeed Online.

Has Social Media Taken Over?

A Brevard County Florida woman is being accused of Tweeting while her son was drowning in the family pool. 37-year-old, Shellie Ross, is now being attacked online at her blog and through Twitter about not doing enough to save her son. Read the full story at APP.com. Has social media made us bad people, are we too involved that we don't realize our own surroundings, even at home? I don’t know what caused this young child to lose his life, and I hope that it isn’t due to his mom’s lack of responsibility, but I do think that people need to put down the Crackberry’s, iPhones and turn off the computers more and spend time with their family. This is the time of year when families should be together, not spent with your 2,000 closest friends online that you’ve never met before. I urge you to take a step back and put the technology down for one week and spend quality time with the ones you love this holiday season.

10 Free SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Tips

Below is a list of helpful SEO tips to always keep in mind:

1. Build sites in html or another simple language the search engine spiders can read.
2. Add a page of content to your website each day if possible (or every week).
3. Make sure your site has a site map.
4. Have a strong on-site link strategy.
5. Add meta tags to each page on your site.
6. Include a meta tag “description.”
7. Insert header tags.
8. Add image names and alt-text.
9. Target a keyword density of approximately 5%.
10.Keep in mind you can break up keyword phrases.

LoveJingles Provides a Jingle a Day Starting at $1

Many of our Ten Golden Rules blog readers have heard of Jason Sadler of IWearYourShirt.com, as he has worn the Ten Golden Rules shirt this past year.

A similar concept has emerged, but in the form of jingles. On January 1st, 2010, you can hire LoveJingles.com to write you a jingle, starting at $1 on January 1st, and increasing a dollar after that. I think the idea is really interesting, as you can get a jingle, get it promoted by him, and use it for your own company or personal brand.

There are still some spots open, and you can read about LoveJingles.com.

The video below explains how LoveJingles works.

Business Tweets Become Personal

Exciting news was released by Twitter this week for our business tweets. Currently in beta testing for some users, business tweets will now contain the “contributors” of the tweets from the organization. For example, tweets from Ten Golden Rules would now contain who in the organization sent the tweet via the byline. This is a neat feature because it gives tweets a more personal touch from the business perspective. It is also helpful to understand who and how different members of the organization communicate. You may enjoy or dislike tweets from specific individuals of companies and you can now decipher the author more precisely.


This feature is being rolled out in phases. I feel every opportunity to make a Company feel more authentic is a positive thing. A great aspect of social media is that it has the potential to give the corporate face a more genuine and tangible relationship. By human nature we have a desire for a personal connection. Have you ever visited a restaurant and asked the server his or her opinion on an entrée? That real and truthful response [be it positive OR not] makes the situation feel that much more authentic. I really appreciate the honesty when the server recommends against something I have chosen. In the same with social media and business tweets, consumers appreciate that human connection.

Do you see this feature as beneficial or do you feel it isn’t very necessary?

New Challenges to Becoming an Adwords Pro

If it is coming time for you to renew your Google Advertising Professionals Certification, you may want to stop by the Learning Center and polish up your knowledge. Google has recently announced they will be updating the Advertising Professionals certification exam to make it more difficult. Of course, they are not trying to make our lives harder, but rather to keep us up to date on always evolving best practices. With a wider range of knowledge available for being successful in pay per click, a wider range of knowledge will be required to pass the new exam.

Not only will the exam be more strategy focused and challenging, the passing grade will also be raised. Previously, a grade of 75% or higher was required to pass the exam. With the new exam, a whopping 85% will be required to achieve Professional status. Happy studying!

Melanie's Monday Mashup – Holiday Free Stuff

I really wanted to write about Facebook’s privacy changes – the ones that unleashed about 300 of its founder’s private pics - as reported by Wired.com.

However, in an effort to get everyone more in the holiday spirit, I’ve decided to go (almost) Internet marketing free – and instead offer some links to free holiday stuff, including music and ebooks, and a couple of must-haves you just can’t do without this holiday season.

Free Holiday Music

• Sampler Klaus – Seven free songs ranging from a variety of artists, including It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Frank Sinatra
• Classical Sampler – Five classical free holiday songs, ending with the Hallelujah Chorus by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
• iTunes Holiday Sampler – 20 free tunes from artists like Aretha Franklin, Rascal Flatts, Weezer, Amy Grant, David Archula and more.

Free Wi-Fi

• Free Holiday Wi-Fi – Just incase you didn’t already know, Google’s offering free Wi-Fi at over 50 participating airports throughout the U.S. and on Virgin American flights through January 15, 2010.

Free iPhone Apps

• Five Free Phone Apps for Holiday Savings – There are plenty of free iPhone apps, but this list from SmartMoney.com directs you to the ones that help you save money while holiday shopping.

Free Holiday Gift Tags

• Free Printable Gift Tags - Whether the weather outside is frightful or you're just too pooped from shopping to fight the crowds yet again, these free printable holiday gift tags will save you a trip to the store (and a few bucks) when you run out.
  

Free eBook

• What Matters Now – If you haven’t read Seth Godin yet, now’s the time. Use your downtime to catch up with his newest book, What Matters Now, chock-full of good info from some of the best minds in Internet marketing.

This Year’s Must-Haves (Not Free, But Worth Every Penny)

• Merry Christmas & Happy New York - Sold out last year, and back by popular demand, this CD from singer/songwriter Jo Davidson features traditional Christmas songs recorded on a vintage 1929 Steinway Grand piano in a NYC loft. If you haven’t heard Jo, get the CD now. She is amazing!
• Connected – The Amazing Power of Our Social Networks – Whether your New Year’s resolution is to quit smoking, lose weight or make more money, on control a epidemic, this startling book can help. It demonstrates just how influential our social networks really are, and offers suggestions on how to leverage them for better results.

EDITOR'S NOTE: DON'T FORGET THE CHANUKAH CLASSIC FROM ADAM SANDLER:

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Ten Steps for Setting Up A Successful Pay Per Click Campaign

Join Marc Purtell, Pay Per Click Advertising Specialist at Ten Golden Rules, for this week's webinar on how to set up a pay-per-click campaign:

- Setting up a campaign in Google, Yahoo and BING
- Defining Target Consumer Personas
- Determining budgets, regional targets and day parts
- Keyword selection, ad copy development
- Advanced tricks and tips

The event will take place on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: Ten Steps for Setting Up A Successful Pay Per Click Campaign.

6 Questions from my friend Chris Brogan at LeWeb in Paris

My friend Chris Brogan gave a presentation this week at LeWeb in Paris.

Here are some of his comments:

You live or die by your database. Don't build Twitter or Facebook at the expense
of a database you own after they flavor of the year passes.

He asked 6 thought provoking questions:

1. How do we share? How do you share information? What does your business share? Social Networks don't go anywhere if they're a dead end street, a locked up environment.

2. How do we collaborate? Are you encouraging information to flow from your system.

3. How do we go from HOME (the Home page) to being Nomads. There are tremendous advantages to building many outposts (Facebook, Twitter, communities) "Build outposts and passports back to your home page."

4."How do we extend experiences from the physical world to the web, and back." Foursquare is just scratching the surface. (and before that BriteKite and Dodgeball)

5."How do we wire humanity deeply? There is a difference between the person on Twitter representing Southwest Airlines and the person at the counter."

6. "How do we go from being a theater to being a theater in the round? 360 degrees. Does your website push information out, or does it start a collaboration and engage people? People are looking for a human face on a company.

Mobile Technology: A Glimpse at the Future

I’ve come to realize this past week – cell phone shopping has really become difficult [at least in my opinion]. There are so many choices now from the “Droid Does” to “There’s An App for That!” Where do I begin? It is amazing just how far along cell phone technology has come.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, revealed this week the highly anticipated “Square.” What’s that you ask? CNN has provided the following information, “Square, a tiny cube about an inch in length, contains a magnetic strip reader that allows users to swipe and read credit cards, then deduct payment on or offline through a downloaded application that communicates with card issuers in the same way as retailer devices. Customers then use their finger on the phone's touch-recognition screen to sign their name to the transaction.” Shopping will soon become even more convenient with the Square, which will allow us to integrate more activities into our busy schedules.

Mobile technology is not just advancing from a technical standpoint but also social. I’m sure you’ve noticed every other commercial on the television seems to be for a new cell phone with Facebook.com or some other type of integration. Now we are all set – we can watch videos on demand, tweet and post to our walls all from the palm of our hands. We are less and less restricted to our desktop and laptop computers.

In conclusion, the mobile space is continuously growing and has an endless future for advancement. The Square is giving us the opportunity to be on the go that much faster with a rapid payment method; while integrated social features allow us to always be connected to our friends and family. So, at the end of the day with so many options – I am still undecided on my cell phone upgrade.

Starting an Affiliate Blog: Getting Started

I recently have become very interested in affiliate programs and how one can use them on a blog. It definitely requires a lot of thinking before you actually start. First, you need to figure out what your ultimate goal is with your blog. Let’s say you want to eventually promote products in the form of blog posts.

You will then need to set up the blog and then think about what you will be writing about. A new blog needs a lot of content before you can even think about applying to affiliate programs. The best way to build a blog is to pick a niche topic you are interested in. It will be beneficial to you if you choose a niche that you enjoy writing about, that way you are less likely to abandon the blog altogether. Once you figure out a blog niche, create blog posts that are informative. This may require some research, and that’s ok. You will also need to be prepared to promote the blog by spreading the word to friends, and this can be done using Facebook and Twitter. It is also beneficial to visit other blogs and comment on posts to spread your website link around that way too. Blog promotion is a job in itself, and should be done every day.

Most affiliate programs may have requirements in order to be accepted to their program. They may only accept you when you have a certain amount of traffic coming to your blog, as well as how long the blog is up. You probably don’t want to start putting up affiliate ads all over your website anyway. You want to build a readership, and build a community of readers first. This takes time, and be expected to spend a lot of time doing this.

Also, you want to spend some time reading about tips and strategies by the leaders in affiliate marketing. By reading their blog posts, twitter updates and even listening to podcasts they’ve been featured on, it doesn’t hurt to learn. Becoming informed about affiliate marketing will definitely help your site grow and become successful. A great collection of podcasts featuring affiliates, blogging and general internet marketing discussion is at GeekCast.fm. The Ten Golden Rules Internet Marketing Podcast is syndicated there too!

Are Your Pages On Google Changing?

On Monday, Google launched real-time search results which will break up the page. From breaking news stories, Twitter feeds and blogs, the page will refresh automatically. You have the option to pause Google’s feed as well. Not all terms trigger the real time feature since information is not updated on a daily basis. Bing has also enabled this feature too for users which some are saying you are guaranteed to find more real-time results on a wider range of topics.

Melanie's Monday Mashup - Google Breaking News

Last week it was Twitter... This week, it's Google. For those of us who geek out on SEO, the search Goliath has stolen the limelight from Tiger, Twitter, TARP and tea parties, with these three big breaking announcements.

#1 Google Goggles – Just as I thought the Google app with voice search for my iPhone was the bomb, Google one-upped it with a new visual search application for Andriod devices. Need information about the business across the street? Or want information about the book the guy next to you at the airport is reading? Do you like the purse the girl at the next table is carrying?

No need to ask … Just snap a picture, and Google will send you the information.

#2 Google Real Time Search – Spending two hours a day commuting makes you appreciate devices like GPS, as well as the radio and cell phone - all of which can help you navigate through traffic more efficiently.

Those real-time updates, whether it’s the traffic on I-95 or reactions to the President’s State of the Union address, is something Google’s lacked. Now, however, you can find out what people are saying about your favorite sports team, traffic and anything else in real time. Google Real Time Search gives us the ability to see what is happening in our neighborhoods, and what people are talking about, as it’s happening.

Learn more about it by watching the Google Real Time Search Video.

#3 Google Personalized Search – While personalized search is nothing new, personalizing the results for you, me and all the other Googlers is...

Yes, that's right. On Friday Google announced it's personalizing everyone's search results by tracking everything you’ve searched for over 180 days, and using it to customize your results. And according to Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand.com, this shift is "the biggest change that has ever happened in search engines."

And while this will make determining ranking virtually impossible, it doesn't mean death for SEO or Internet marketing. You'll still need a solid strategy to get your site in the top results .

Read more and watch the video at Google, and then use your computer to click on your own site until it ranks #1!

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents New Media Secrets

Join Rosh Sillars, owner of the creative representation firm, The Rosh Group, Inc., in New Media Secrets. Rosh Sillars is a member of the InternetMarketingClub.org, as well as an accomplished photojournalist, magazine and corporate photographer. New Media Secrets will include:

• Expert advice to use new media for marketing your professional services
• The new rules in the continuously changing landscape of communication
• Understanding how new media marketing is about the conversation, becoming the expert, being engaged and attracting the attention of a world overloaded with information and resources
• How and why social media, tools, concepts and best practices for using Web 2.0 tools have helped Rosh Sillars continue to attract new clients and grow his photography business

The event will take place on Wednesday, December 9, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: New Media Secrets.

TrafficWave and Team OceanSwell - Part II

Hundreds of years ago, the Scots were a blood-thirty lot who liked to fight. They were good at it too and their favorite tactic was something called the 'Highland Charge'. Even though battles of this era involved gunpowder, the Highland Charge was (mostly) based upon weapon & shield use.

For a period of time, the Highland Charge was more or less invincible. Then a new kind of bayonet and some original thinking gave the British a chance to defeat it. To make a long story short, the British soldiers (formed in a battle line) would meet the oncoming Scotsmen with their bayonets ready - but were disciplined to attack the man on their right, instead of the one in front of them. Why? Because most people are right handed and the Scotsmen's shields were in their left hands.

In other words, each British soldier didn't defend himself. The man on his left did - and so on down the line. Not defending yourself in a fight (and counting on somebody to your left to do it for you) is definitely against human nature! But it provided a way to survive the famous Highland Charge.

I'm not here to give you a history lesson. Rather, to explain that the TrafficWave affiliate pay plan works in a similar way, with the help of the Team OceanSwell promotion and recruiting system. For many, it's a difficult concept to accept at first - the notion of advertising and promoting for someone other than yourself, but that's exactly what we do. Unselfishness, trust and TEAM WORK are how we operate a system that is enabling average people to succeed with TrafficWave's famous affiliate pay plan.

Unselfishness, trust and team work. That's how we win. Join us today and you'll see exactly what I mean...

Blogging: A Workout for the Brain

A regular workout routine is recommended for a healthy lifestyle. Though, sometimes we forget that working out is not only for the body but also for the mind. Have you flexed your brain lately?

When we blog, we don’t usually think of what is happening in the background but blogging affects us in many different ways. Beyond producing helpful content and connecting with great people, it is believed that blogging helps improve our cognitive learning skills. As we challenge ourselves with these interactions our brains are “flexing” and becoming stronger. Taking it a step further, the more involved we are with reading and responding to comments, the further our writing evolves and improves. Engaging through blogging also facilitates an environment in which we are able to expand our opinions and open our minds on different topics. As a result, many times we are exposed to a perspective we may never have thought of.

So let’s continue to produce great content and connect with others while getting that ever so important workout!

Guy Tweets at the Altar, Then Kisses Newly Wedded Wife

A video of a groom tweeting at the altar at his wedding has rapidly become a popular video on YouTube. This video is proof that Twitter and Facebook have become part of many people's lives, and definitely an easy way to tell everyone the great news!



Here is the tweet that he sent in that video - http://twitter.com/TheSoftwareJedi/status/5925126890

If I were him, I'd tweet after the kiss, not before!

...and if you missed it, here is another popular wedding related video that become very popular on the internet as well.

Top 10 Great Twitter Stories of 2009… aka I’m Tweeted Out

Over the long weekend, I thought I would catch up on some industry news. I started browsing Web sites, only to discover Twitter... everywhere. I couldn't escape the 140 character micro-blog site no matter what I clicked. And I came into work today, only to learn that Twitter was named the most popular word of 2009.

So, in honor of Twitter topping the entire English language, here’s my...

Top 10 Favorite Twitter Stories of 2009

1. Tweet & You'll Be Shunned – Former Vice President’s daughter Meghan McCain exposes cleavage on Twitter, and then apologizes to her 60,000 followers after posting the revealing picture.
2. Tweet & You’ll Be Fined – Players from the Phoenix Suns and Charlotte Bobcats are fined $7,500 for posting to their Twitter accounts during games.
3. Tweet & You'll Become News – Actor and comedian Stephen Fry announces on Twitter that he deleted his Plaxo account with 20 million friends after the site exposes his personal information.
4. Tweet & You'll Be Thin – Actress Demi Moore posts the “original” photo of her recent cover for W, and experiences a backlash by followers accusing her of using model Anja Rubik as a body double.
5. Tweet & You’ll Be Sued – Rocker Courtney Love calls fashion designer a cocaine dealer on Twitter, gets sued.
6. Tweet & You'll Be Suspended – A live Twitter feed to a local television billboard in Alabama creates a stir, leads to the suspension of the station’s general manager and news director.
7. Tweet & You’ll Go To Jail – Pulp Fiction writer is re-jailed after investigation that he tweeted from prison. Authorities deny Twitter use had anything to do with his incarceration.
8. Don’t Tweet & You’ll Go To Jail - Canadian teen sensation Justin Bieber attracts mob of teenage girls to a mall in Garden City, N.J. Island Def Jam Records senior vice president is arrested by Nassau County Police for refusing to tweet the crowd, asking them to disperse.
9. Tweet & You’ll Break Up – Jennifer Aniston allegedly dumps singer John Mayer over tweets.
10. Miley Cyrus Chooses Boyfriend Over Twitter - "FYI Liam doesn't have a twttr & he wants ME 2 delete mine w/ gd reason"

Whew! What a relief she chose her boyfriend over Twitter!

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents The Ten Golden Rules for E-Commerce

Please join E-Commerce Expert Scott Pooler from http://www.iBusinessLogic.com and Jay Berkowitz of http://www.TenGoldenRules.com for a fun and enlightening webinar all about Best Practices for E-Commerce.

- Best technical solutions
- How to promote your store
- How to optimize your store for the search engines
- Best strategies to convert visits to sales
- Advanced E-Commerce Strategies

The event will take place on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: The Ten Golden Rules for E-Commerce.

Adwords Report Center On Its Way Out

Remember having to go into the Adwords Report Center to find out what phrases people were searching to find your ads, what content placements your ads were appearing on, and whether your ads were performing better on search or content networks? Well, those days are near over as more and more advanced reporting is becoming readily available right in the Campaign Management tab.

It was always a hassle to go into the Report Center, set up a report, run the report, and analyze the report just go go right back to your Campaign Management tab to make adjustments. As part of Google's latest Adwords interface, this problem is quickly being solved with great data being available without running reports.

For example, instead of running a report to see what keyword phrases people are searching, you can just click on the "See Search Terms" button on your Keywords tab and get the complete list of search phrases that generated clicks on your ads. Right from that screen, you can add phrases as negative keywords with a click. You can also add well performing phrases to your campaigns with all matching options very easily.

The new Networks tab displays all the content network placements your ads appeared on along with click and conversion statistics. You can easily remove any content placements that are performing poorly or you just do not want to be associated with.

I am sure that I am not the only Adwords advertiser that is waiting patiently to see the Adwords Report Center disappear altogether.

TrafficWave and Team OceanSwell - Part I

This blog is titled 'My Internet Marketing Journey' for a good reason: because it catalogues much of that journey step by step. And where that journey has finally lead me is to the creation of Team OceanSwell - THE way for anyone to be a success with my favorite MLM/affiliate program, TrafficWave. This new Team downline (as of today's date), has accomplished more in a few short weeks than few people will accomplish in a year or more (or EVER), and I know that to be a fact.

There are so many people out there who want to earn money online. They hate their jobs and our money buys less and less at the store. It's getting really bad. What I've seen in my two years of marketing online is that there is no shortage of people with the desire to succeed and the willingness to work at it in their spare time. The problem is that they're lost, overwhelmed by it all and simply don't know what to to.

TrafficWave's product and affiliate pay plan attracts an enormous number of new members on a regular basis because of the 30-Day Free Trial offer. The problem is that virtually EVERYONE lets their account go inactive after those 30 days. This is because they join to make money and if they don't see any progress in 30 days, they simply quit.

The TrafficWave autoresponder is great product that, long term, you really need in this business. However, very few people join TrafficWave for the autoresponder anymore than people join GDI for the web hosting. They join for the affiliate pay plan. They want the MONEY!

For that reason, TrafficWave's 'forced' matrix affiliate downline structure has a very strong appeal. For most people, the idea that their sponsor simply can't recruit indefinitely on her or his first level, but must provide 'matrix-spillover', sounds very good. In fact, it sounds so good that most affiliate members simply do nothing but sit there and wait for it. The problem is that, though it is a 'forced' matrix, nobody is forced to do anything - and most will not, can not and WON'T! And one or two people can't do it all by themselves. Trust me, I know.
That's why Team OceanSwell is so powerful. It takes the idea of a forced matrix and adds the element of forced teamwork and forced referrel success. It accomplishes this with an aggressive and caring Team Leader and a SIMPLE system that everyone uses consistently and perstistently. Because everyone in the Team downline is forced to help and motivate each other (they have no other choice) it works like a miracle. And that means that the 'fantasy' of earning online money that can actually PAY a bill or two becomes reality.

Check it out: Team OceanSwell

And follow our brand NEW profile on Twitter.

Making Google Reader More Social Friendly & Colorful

As an avid user of Google Reader, I’ve noticed more and more social friendly features appearing within my Google Reader. Now you will notice favicon support has recently been added, which to some may add a little more personality to his or her subscriptions. There have also been a few other additions such as “sort by magic” and “recommended sources.” Of course, the more you allow Google to study your reader habits, the more personalized these results appear for you.

Another really helpful feature I have been using more of lately is the “send to” ability. You can access this feature by going to settings -> send to. This feature gives you the ability to share a post from a specific site by the click of a button from within your reader as opposed to having to go to the actual website. For example, if you have a subscription to a site and upon reading a blog post you think to yourself, this would be a great post to tweet, you can simply enable send to Twitter, and Google Reader will pop-up a screen with the tweet already prepared [as opposed to going to the site and retweeting].

Do you find these new features helpful?

Google Introducing New Ad Formats for Search

Anyone advertising in Google Adwords probably knows that Google typically only displays text ads on their search pages, while other ad formats (video, image, etc) can be shown on Google's content network. Well, somewhat behind the scenes, Google has been testing additional ad formats to be used in search, so don't be surprised when you start seeing videos, images, and products in the paid search listings.

For example, you may start seeing individual products with prices and links within a single Google ad as this is something they have recently been testing aggressively. Another ad format Google is experimenting with is the comparison ad. Great for consumers, comparison ads are designed to compare rates/prices of different advertisers within an ad.

As most of these new ad formats are of great benefit to the consumer, they can hurt the advertiser who does not stay on top of the changing landscape. Being competitive in paid search will require staying aware of new ad formats and using them effectively to reach your audience.

What Type of Apps Do You Want for LinkedIn?

According to a breaking story on Mashable, today brings big news from LinkedIn, which finally invited developers to contribute to its social media platform. The new LinkedIn Developer Platform is expected to spur the onslaught of new apps you can use with LinkedIn – much like those available for Facebook and Twitter. In fact, you can expect integration with TweetDeck as early as this week, according to the article.

What does this mean for Internet Marketing?

We’ll have to wait and see, but for those of you that currently leverage social media to network and market your business, it appears you will have even more options. Of course, instead of Roller Coaster Kingdom, Farmville, Mafia Wars and the other time-suckers you can find on Facebook, I hope we can expect more useful business oriented applications.

For starters, I'd like to see a way to sync all my friends (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) so I could group (segment) them more efficiently, and communicate (market) to them from one application, with the ability to choose my platform (medium)...

What types of apps would you like to see for LinkedIn?

Some tips for using Twitter properly

Twitter has become a world-wide phenomenon as both a social networking site and business-building tool. Incredibly, there are quite a few people who refuse to use it or are just turned off by the whole idea. From the standpoint of Internet Marketing, that's a mistake.

When you are marketing anything online, you will have both your automated systems and your 'daily punch list' of things that you do (every day) in order to promote and grow your business. Twitter should be BOTH.

Once you have a decent-sized following, you should 'tweet' out a little, compelling message at least once a day - but not too often, because that annoys people.

If you're just getting started with Twitter or would like to begin using it, there are three things you should do first:

1) Use the Free service at twitbacks to dress up your profile and focus your up-front message to all who will follow you.

2) Use the Free service at SocialOomph to automate your Twitter 'follow' and 'unfollow' system.

3) Follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/rustylshelton

Well, that last one is optional (smile), but you should follow people who are active with Internet Marketing because then your followers will be like-minded souls. There's no point in 'tweeting' business ideas or suggestions to someone who has no interest in Internet Marketing.

So how can you use Twitter on a daily basis to advance your business goals? First of all, you have to understand what Twitter is and what it isn't. It is NOT a group of opt-in subscribers who agree to be bombarded with your sales messages day and night. Remember, it's easy to follow someone and it's also easy to UN-follow somebody. If you go in there like a bulldozer, trying to 'dominate the page' with 15 tweets at a time selling this thing or the other, you won't make any friends and you'll lose your followers.

Think of Twitter as a form of safe-list that you have to be very gentle with, or even as a 'micro-blog'. It's definitely a community in which you can become a known personality - for better or worse.

Remember, its followers that you want. That's your goal. You need followers so that you can communicate with them. Put a 'follow me' badge on your blog and just promote your link everywhere that you can. Ultimately, a gigantic Twitter following is an invaluable treasure in this business.

If you haven't started building your following yet, then start... TODAY.

The Webby Awards Announces the Past Decade's Top 10 Internet Moments

With 2009 almost coming to an end, we tend to reflect on the past year to remember all those memorable moments. Taking that a step further, The Webby Awards has just released what it considers being the 10 most influential moments of the past decade.

Here’s a look at the top 10 moments:

• Craigslist expands beyond San Francisco (2000)
• Google AdWords launches (2000)
• Wikipedia launches (2001)
• Napster shuts down (2001)
• Google's IPO (2004)
• Online video revolution (2006)
• Facebook opens up, Twitter takes off (2006)
• The iPhone debuts (2007)
• U.S. presidential campaign (2008)
• Iranian election protests (2009)

With technology continuously evolving, let’s see where the next decade brings us in advances.

Oxford English Dictionary Announces 2009 Word of the Year - "Unfriend"

You know that social media has made a huge impact when the Oxford English Dictionary picks a word to be the word of the year that has to do with Facebook.

unfriend - verb - To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook.

As in, “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

This word was chosen as the word of the year because its meaning is understood in online social networking context, and considered an interesting choice since this word starts with "un-" and is different from the norm.

Some other Technology driven words that were considered for the word of the year were also:

hastag - a # [hash] sign added to a word or phrase that enables Twitter users to search for tweets (postings on the Twitter site) that contain similarly tagged items and view thematic sets

netbook – a small, very portable laptop computer with limited memory

Other Notable Word Clusters included Twitter related "terms" such as:
Tweeps
Tweetup
Twitt
Twitterati
Twitterature
Twitterverse/sphere
Retweet
Twibe
Sweeple
Tweepish
Tweetaholic
Twittermob
Twitterhea

Google and Bing Gaining Market Share

A measurement by Comscore shows increases in the percentage of searches running through Google and Microsoft servers from September to October. Where did the additional market share come from? Yahoo!

While Google continues to dominate the market accounting for 64.9% of all searches in September and picking up an additional .5% in October. Microsoft matched Google by picking up an additional .5% in October, now accounting for 9.9% of all searches. This is bad news for Yahoo, as they have been steadily declining throughout the year. If these trends continue, we just may see Bing overtake Yahoo in market share by the end of the year.

Is Your Link Profile Natural?

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about link building and the importance of your Deep Link Ratio. That post explained that backlinks built to your site – including your deep link ratio, the anchor text used in the links, and the speed at which those links are acquired - should always appear “natural” to the search engines. Taking this one step further, the “natural approach” should apply to your entire link profile (incoming and outgoing).

So, what does this mean to your inbound link building efforts?

First, a healthy mix is necessary. And not every link needs to be perfectly optimized. Although this might seem contrary to what you have learned about SEO practices, even some no-follow and links without anchor text are desirable to ensure the right "mix."

Second, it means spending some time analyzing and understanding not only your own link profile, but also that of your competitors. Learn what they are doing, leverage it, and do just a little bit better. Just don't overdo it - that's not natural either!

Remember, every site has “good” and “not so good” links. As long as you stay within the “average” of other sites in your industry, your link profile should appear “natural.”

Here's a few Link Building Tools that can help:

• MagesticSEO
• Link Research Tools
• SEomoz Tools

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents The Ten Golden Rules of Writing for the Web

Join copywriting and marketing expert Allison Nazarian founder of www.allisonmediagroup.com and Jay Berkowitz Founder of http://podcast.tengoldenrules.com to discover the Ten Golden Rules for Writing for the Web.

- How is web writing different from print and broadcast?
- What are the key strategies to write for the search engines?
- Learn the Apple A Day Strategy
- Determine how many words should go on a page and how to use linking strategies

The event will take place on Wednesday, November, 18, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: The Ten Golden Rules of Writing for the Web

Ten Golden Rules Teamed Up With IWearYourShirt.com With a Giveaway

Ten Golden Rules was featured on IWearYourShirt.com on our 6th year anniversary, October 10, 2009. We thought it would be cool to team up with IWearYourShirt and give away a Limited Edition Roger Federer shirt with the Ten Golden Rules logo on it. The contest was basically to find 10 things, take a picture of it, and submit it to Jason at IWearYourShirt.com. The winner definitely had a unique photo entry, which won him the shirt.

Congrats to Ken Westling for winning. We hope you enjoy sporting Ten Golden Rules on your sleeve! :)

The Reinvented Retweet

You may or may not yet have experienced the new retweet feature of Twitter, but the service has confirmed it is in the process of rolling out the feature to everyone. This feature and its attributes are progressively surfacing. Some interesting functions include:

• It can be turned off on a per-user basis
• The retweet area will have three tabbed sections: retweets by others, retweets by you and your tweets, retweeted
• You can still use the “RT” style for retweeting
• There will be a retweet timeline shown just below the individual tweets (perhaps a cleaner look)

The mechanics of the features were first explained by @Biz in a post entitled, Project Retweet: Phase One. Of course, all features have their pros and cons and will take some getting used to. Some additional information can be found at TechCrunch.

Getting Started With Twitter Lists

Twitter Lists is fairly new, and pretty useful too. A Twitter List helps you organize the people you’re following on Twitter. If you’re an organization junkie, then you’ll definitely have fun making your own Twitter lists. You can make a Twitter list for whatever reason, whether it is organizing your good friends, industry leaders, or favorite celebrities, you can make a Twitter list to group your Twitter peeps.

To create a list, log into your Twitter account, and on the right sidebar you should see an area called Lists with a link to create a New List. You can even set the list to be Public and have anyone subscribe to it, or Private, and only be able to access the list.



I personally find it helpful when it comes to finding industry leaders, as it is beneficial to follow the leaders in social media or the leaders in SEO. A way to see if you are part of a list is to log into your Twitter account and right next to your Following list, you can see if you are part of any lists.

A great site to find Twitter lists categorized by different tags such as bloggers, celebrities, food, health, politics and technology is Listorious.com. You can submit your lists for everyone to see and follow as well.

Manage Your Google Products

In the past eleven years, Google has been pushing out product after product, many of which collect personal information from the users. There are now so many products that many of us use, that it is hard to keep track of what you have registered for and where to find it. Once you are using Gmail, Reader, Calendar, Picassa, and a plethora of other Google interfaces, monitoring your security settings can become a very tedious task. Now, however, there is help.

Last week, Google launched Google Dashboard, a user interface that provides a simple and useful summary of all the products you are signed up for. When signed in to your Dashboard, you are presented a list of all your Google products and direct links to your personal settings for each. Now is a good time to brush the dust off of some of those Google products you haven't used in a while by logging into your Dashboard. For help understanding Google Dashboard, watch this video.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Online Marketing for the Hospitality Industry

Brian R. Walton, who led online marketing for brands such as Sandals Resorts, Beaches Resorts, Walt Disney World Resorts & Disneyland Resort, will be hosting a free webinar to discuss the following topics:

- Identify where the consumer is in the Vacation Planning Cycle
- How to use the right online marketing tactics and message based on which phase of VPC
- Consideration/Information Gathering
- Itinerary Planning
- Experience
- Return Visits

The event will take place on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: Online Marketing for the Hospitality Industry

10 Ways to Improve Web site Readability

Most SEO experts will tell you that “Content is King.” And it’s true... Both search engines and people visit Web sites for the content. Unlike a search engine, however, users are looking for content to help them solve a problem or complete a task.

When you provide your visitors with the information they need, in a format they can easily digest, you’ll discover your conversion rate improves, along with your bottom line.

Unfortunately, people don’t really read on the Web – they skim. And if your content does not convince them to take the next step - whether it’s to buy an item, download a file, or click through to the next page – within a few seconds, they’ll quickly move on to one of your competitors.

Help your users (and your site's performance) by feeding them the information they need, in a format they can easily digest. In other words, make it as READABLE as possible.

10 Tips for Improving Web site Readability

1. Understand your audience – The style and tone of your content should be appropriate. For example, the copy targeted to group of highly-educated doctors or scientists should be much different than that developed for a Pro sports Web site.
   


2. Consider the purpose – Every page of your Web site should have a purpose. This needs to be considered as copy is developed.
   


3. Write descriptive headings – Make it easy for users to find what they need by providing accurate, descriptive headings.


4. Avoid “word clutter” – Be concise. Don’t use two words, when one will suffice.


5. Keep paragraphs short – Long blocks of copy intimidate users. Keep blocks of text short - about 2 to 3 sentences.


6. Use lists – Aid comprehension by presenting information in a numbered or bulleted list.
7. Separate thoughts - This helps users find the information they need quickly. Limit the copy to one theme per page, and one thought per paragraph/section.


8. Leverage illustrations – Used wisely, images can convey your message quickly. Support your copy with visuals - just don’t overdo it, or oyu will create a distraction.


9. Utilize white space – Organize your page layout. Does it look neat and clean? Keep your design simple, and your copy will be easier to digest


10. Check your facts – Readers want up-to-date, reliable and accurate information, If your information is bad, it won’t natter how easy it is to read!

For more tips on how to improve the readability of your Web site, check out Letting Go of Words by Janice Redish.

* Image Source: Letting Go of Words - Janice Redish

Social Media Optimization Strategies Explained at Webmaster World Pubcon 2009

An expert SEO panel including Jay Berkowitz, David Snyder, Rebecca Kelley, Reem Abeidoh and moderator Dixon Jones will be presenting 'Optimizing for the Social Media Pay Day' at Webmaster World Pubcon 2009. They will be sharing social media optimization strategies to help build more traffic to your website and convert that traffic into sales. Using social media, businesses can improve search engine results and build links. This search engine marketing conference will be at the Las Vegas Convention Center on November 10-13, 2009.

Why you need to re-think TrafficWave

They say that 97% percent of everyone who tries Internet Marketing will FAIL. I don't know if that's true or not but it almost certainly is if you're talking about TrafficWave's affiliate program. The number of people who try and then give up is amazing!

That's why I created Team OceanSwell and launched it on November 7th, 2009.

TrafficWave has an excellent affiliate pay plan for its members and countless people have tried to use it as a basis for an online business. Anyone who is familiar with it knows that the income potential is staggering. Unfortunately (like most online, MLM, affiliate programs), the average person cannot succeed with it.

There are a number of explanations for this but, in my opinion, the reasons why the average person fails basically fall into these categories:

1) No money for advertising.

2) No coherent plan for marketing.

3) Sign-ups aren't motivated.

4) Too impatient (with unrealistic expectations) and gives up too quickly.

Team OceanSwell was created to address and overcome these problems in a way that makes it possible for the average person to succeed with TrafficWave.

It will definitely work for you. That's my promise, and that's why I am 100% committed to it. If you're curious to learn more, simply click through one of the two links and try it for free. Once you see and understand it, I think that you will be quite pleased.

Google Dashboard Allows You To See All Your Google Account Information

If you use Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs, Picasa, Google Reader, and any of the many products Google provides, you will now be able to view all your information in one place. By logging into your Google Dashboard, (www.google.com/dashboard) with your Google account log in, you will see a summary of all of your accounts with Google. It is pretty interesting to see how many Google applications you may have and not even realize. Of course, Google Dashboard is secure, and you can manage settings for all of your account in this area as well.

Below is a great video that summarizes what the dashboard is and what you can do in it.

What’s Your Web site’s Deep Link Ratio?

When it comes to organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the links pointing to your site are one of the most important factors that influence your search engine rankings. It’s not just a numbers game, however. The quality of those links is important, too - especially to Google. For example, if a large number of links and/or extremely reputable sites, such as The New York Times, point to your Web site for a particular search query, then Google "trusts" you are a relevant and popular authority on that topic.

From an SEO perspective, where those links point is yet another important consideration…

It addition to analyzing the quantity and quality of inbound links, you should evaluate your deep link ratio.

Simply put, your deep link ratio is the percentage of inbound links to your homepage versus all other pages of your site. To calculate your deep link ratio:

1) Calculate the total number of backlinks to your entire site. Important: Filter out links from your own domain. (Learn how to do this.)
2) Subtract the number of backlinks to your homepage. The result is the number of deep links to your site.
3) Divide the number of deep links by the total number of backlinks to get your deep link ratio.

Total Deep Links / Total Number of Links = Deep Link Ratio (%)

In general, sites with a higher deep link ratio tend to perform better in the search engines. So, all other things the same, a higher deep link ratio could give you just the edge you need to outperform your competitors.

However, be cautious of suddenly building a massive amount of deep links to your site. Links pointing to your site should always appear natural – both in terms of your deep link ratio, the anchor text used in the links, and the speed at which those links are acquired. Otherwise, Google and the other search engines may consider your site SPAM, and remove it from the search results.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Ten Golden Rules of Affiliate Marketing Webinar

Jay Berkowitz will be hosting a free webinar to discuss the following topics:

- How to get a virtual sales force selling for you
- Selecting the right solution
- Recruiting affiliates
- Best practices for program management
- How to stay current on new programs and technologies
- Payment strategies

The event will take place on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST and to register please visit: Ten Golden Rules of Affiliate Marketing Webinar

Stay Secure with a Fresh Browser

Now that National Cyber Security Awareness Month has wrapped up, it is a good time to make sure you are taking all the necessary precautions to keep your computer and network secure. One of the most common mistakes people make that leaves them open to a security breach is using outdated browser versions.

Regardless of what browser you prefer, always using the current version is important and often overlooked. Think about it...every website you visit runs through your browser. That makes your browser among the most prone software to viruses, malware, spyware, etc.

If you haven't updated your browser version recently, there is a good chance that you are missing important security updates and bug fixes necessary to maintain a healthy computer. If you are reading this post on IE 6 or Firefox 3.5, go get the latest version now!

Google Wave: The Email Killer?

Late Friday evening as I was going through my email, I came across an email I was pleasantly surprised by: a Google Wave invite! I don’t even remember when I submitted my interest (it must have been that long ago), but I do remember this new feature sparking my curiosity. So what’s behind this “Let’s Start a Wave” saying? To sum up the Google Wave, this apparently seems like a not so easy task; Lars Rasmussen compares it to a hybrid of texting, wikis, instant messaging, blogging and emailing. His name may seem familiar as he and his brother, Jens, sold their idea of “Google Maps.”

I haven’t actually sat down to “Ride the Wave” yet, but I must say I’m excited to try it out. I have read mixed reviews but as always, doesn’t Google spark your interest enough to check it out? If you want to learn a little more watch this Google Wave video.

Google Experimental Labs: Google Social Search

I was checking out Google Experimental Labs and stumbled upon this interesting experiment called Google Social Search. Google Social Search is basically an added element to your search results based on public content from your social circle. Your social circle is a combination of Gmail chat buddies, contacts, and people you are publically connected to on social sites such as Twitter and Friendfeed. In order to use Google Social Search, you must be logged into your Google account, and go to www.google.com/experimental to Join the experiment. Do a search, and if there is web content relevant by people in your social circle, you will see these results on the bottom of the search results. You can also click on '+ Show options' on the top of the result page, and choose 'Social' under All Results.

Here is an example of a search I did for ‘iphone case.’ Choosing only options from Social search, I can see if anyone in my social circle mentions ‘iphone case,’ on twitter. In this case, a friend of mine mentions a Hello Kitty iPhone case, which allows me to read about it.

(Click on image to enlarge)

There is a great video that illustrates what social search is and how it can be used. I think Google Social Search is pretty interesting, as it shows results from your connections, allowing you to read about your friends’ opinions on certain products, services or topics.

Product Plusbox Beta Test Commencing

You may have seen a plusbox below some AdWords ads that displays several products right on the Google results page. This is because Google has been giving certain advertisers a chance to participate in their beta test of combining AdWords ads with Google base to display product feeds directly below ads.

If you want to be a part of the test, however, you are out of luck because the test is coming to an end. Google will now be assessing feedback from the advertisers that participated. Look out for availability of this feature in the near future.

GDI Power Path actually WORKS!

If you are interesting in actually succeeding with Global Domains International (GDI), then you need a plan. But not only do you need a plan, you also need a SYSTEM. GDI Power Path is both a plan and a system. In my two years of Internet Marketing, I can honestly say that I've never been more impressed with anything.

That's the truth.

I have promoted GDI in a variety of ways and have had varying degrees of success, though my signups (with a few notable exceptions) typically do very little with regards to getting signups on their own. It's not just GDI, of course, it's that way with every affiliate MLM.

GDI Power Path solves this problem in an absolutely brilliant way.


Just imagine having FIFTY motivated people finding recruits for you! GDI Power Path is a group of people willing to help you grow a real GDI business if you will help them grow theirs. There is no investment of money because it doesn't cost you anything to participate.

The current projected timeline to complete a 6x5 matrix ($9330/month) within the GDI pay plan is 9-10 months. THAT is exciting!


Since GDI only costs a lousy 10 bucks a month to participate in, why wouldn't you try this?

If you have tried GDI and failed, you have got to try this program. It is pure GENIUS in its design and function. If you're like me, your greatest challenge is getting your signups to sign up others. This incredible system solves that problem once and for all.

I'm not kidding. This is new, it's revolutionary and it is Red-HOT.


Check it out for yourself: GDI Power Path


p.s. This is NEW and the ones who are going to make the serious money the fastest are the ones who join today

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Webinar On PPC Strategies

TenGoldenRules.com VP, Margie Schneider will be hosting another InternetMarketingClub.org Webinar focusing on creative PPC strategies. The event will take place on Wed, Oct 28, 2009 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM EDT and to register, please visit; PPC Strategies Webinar.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Rockstars Of Twitter Webinar

Jay Berkowitz will be hosting a free webinar along with Warren Whitlock, Gail Goodwin and @Iconic88 to discuss the best ways of doing business and building your personal brand on Twitter. The event will take place on Wed, Oct 21, 2009 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM EDT and to register, please visit; The Rock Stars of Twitter Webinar.

Early Holiday Gift From Google and Virgin America

With the ever-increasingly hectic holiday season around the corner, Google and Virgin America decided to make things a bit easier for travelers this year. Google will be providing Free Wifi on all Virgin America flights from November 10 to January 15.

This will give travelers a chance to get ahead on their holiday shopping, business demands, or whatever else they may need to do online all for free while they fly.

Ways To Share Video on Twitter

We all know we can share pictures on Twitter, otherwise known as 'Twitpics' but did you know you can also share video? There are a few sites out there that allow you to upload video to their site and give you a link to share on your Twitter stream.

TwitVid allows you to upload a video or record a video from your webcam and then automatically updates your Twitter steam. TwitVid also has an app for your iPhone 3Gs and Blackberry so you can even record video from your cellphone and then upload it straight to TwitVid. You can even embed TwitVids on other websites as well.

Twiddeo is another site that also allows you to upload video from the web, cameraphone or through your webcam. You can also embed these videos on other websites, and if you have the Firefox plugin, Greasemonkey installed, you can even view Twiddeos on your Twitter.com stream.

How Many Backlinks Does Your Website Have?

Building backlinks (links from other websites) to your website is a common tactic in most search engine optimization campaigns. Knowing how many backlinks your website has and monitoring the growth is an important aspect of assessing the success of your linkbuilding campaign. If you don't know how to determine the number of backlinks your website has, here is a simple command to give you an idea.

In Yahoo search, use the following query:
linkdomain:www.yourdomain.com -site:www.yourdomain.com

Of course you will substitute "yourdomain" with your actual domain name. For example, if you wanted to know how many webpages link to the www.tengoldenrules.com website, the Yahoo query would look like this:

linkdomain:www.tengoldenrules.com -site:www.tengoldenrules.com

This will provide you a good estimate of how many backlinks your website has.

Test Different Messaging on a Single Search Engine Results Page

It is a long standing debate on whether or not to bid on phrases in pay per click that your website already ranks for organically. One school of thought would ask why someone would pay for clicks on a search engine results page in which their website is already ranking for organically. There are actually several answers to that question, one being that it gives a website the opportunity to use different messaging variations.

Various messaging may be attractive to some people but not others. The messaging/offer included in your organic search listing may attract clicks from some users, but not others. Additionally, you do not have complete control over the messaging that is displayed in your organic listing. Adding a paid listing with a different message or a specific offer can appeal to an additional cross-section of searchers. You also have much more control over what is displayed in a pay per click listing than what is displayed in an organic listing.

FTC Announces New Blogger Policy for Endorsements or Testimonials

The Federal Trade Commission has announced that bloggers disclose that are getting freebies or being paid by companies to endorse their products, or else get fined up to $11,000. This is a new policy for bloggers in order to make product information more accurate for consumers.

Social media has become a big part on consumers' decisions to buy products that this type of policy was going to come up eventually. I think it's better for a blogger to mention they are either being compensated or getting an item in exchange for a review, so the reader knows that the review is biased or not.

Although it is not binding law, the FTC mentions the following, "In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act." When in doubt, make sure you note whether or not a company is giving you money or a free product in exchange for a product review.

Read the entire policy straight from the FTC and let us know what your thoughts are.

The best strategy to learn Internet Marketing "Just Do It" !

I am often asked by people who have a traditional marketing background how they can get into the new marketing.

My best advise is to: "Just Do It!"

As Nike says in their marketing, you must jump in and immerse yourself in the new tools and technologies, it is free and so easy a 10 year old can do it.

Get set up with your own WordPress blog right away so you can practice the different internet marketing skill sets. It only takes about 15 minutes! Pick a subject that you are passionate about and start developing blog posts. Learn how to link, set up Google Analytics and track how many people visit your blog and where they come from. Set up and track your own revenue generating programs such as affiliate banners and Google AdSense Ads - Yes you can make money from a simple blog!

Get involved with one or more of the popular social media sites. Pick one that people you know are always talking about among Facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube and Twitter. I love Twitter, if you'd like some basic tips on how to start a Twitter account and learn about this exciting new communications world read my Ten Tips Twitter Beginners Guide.

Good Luck Just Doing It - Please let me know how it turns out.