Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part V

When I was first planning Team OceanSwell, back in October of '09, I considered more than one affiliate program before deciding on TrafficWave. But I made my choice for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that you NEED an autoresponder if you plan to earn a living online - especially long term.

You simply have got to have one. Which brings me to the subject of today's topic...

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List Building: The fundamental key to your online success

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Affiliate Funnel holds a weekly class on the basics of list-building and what it all means. In fact, it's a revolving four-part series. I recommend it! With the TrafficWave autoresponder tool, you are able to put lead-capture forms in your ads, on your blog, etc. so that readers can 'opt-in' to your letter series, newsletters or whatever in return for a giveaway, an ebook, an information package or any other kind of online product.

Whether you are an OceanSwell Team Leader or you've gone through the Rotator and are promoting on your own, your subscriber list is something that you will want to grow forever. And your relationship with the people on that list is CRITICAL. I've got a saying that applies to list-building and autoresponder letters: 'Either do something worth writing about, or write something worth reading about'. If you can do either one, your subscribers will have a reason to open your emails and read what you have to say. That's when you will have a productive mailing list.

Most of us, myself included, are just ordinary people with ordinary lives. We're not all 'writers', and most of us have had no training in marketing. What we know has come from the school of hard knocks and lessons learned along the way. But that's good information to share with others! What's more, virtually all of us only have a few hours a week to devote to our businesses at first - i.e. we all start out as part-timers. just about all of your online sales prospects are the same way, and it's important to remember that. But an autoresponder is the ultimate TIME-SAVER - for everyone involved. It allows you to communicate with others 24/7, world-wide.

Of course, you still have to know how to use it!

To be an Internet Marketer, we are told, is a few easy 'clicks' away. Just turn on the computer, hit the enter key and watch the money start rolling in! Of course, you soon learn that it's much harder than that. You have to learn a whole LOT and you have to develop systems for everything you do. But an autoresponder is an INVALUABLE tool that helps make things easier and more profitable for you over time. In fact, it's the foundation of everything that you will do online and so that's why TrafficWave (and it's famous affiliate pay plan) was my choice for TeamOceanSwell.

If you are reading this and have joined TrafficWave, you should have set up your DEFAULT autoresponder by now. If not, then please do so today. Brian Rooney's stock letters are fine, though you can modify them if you want - or add more! But if you haven't done this yet, that's your first mistake. It is crucial that you set up the DEFAULT autoresponder that links to your TW affiliate pages. You'll never get anywhere with TrafficWave if you don't know how to use the product!

Suffering from Blogger’s Block?

Do you ever sit down to write a blog post, fresh out of ideas and scratching your head until that light bulb turns on? Or are you planning to start a blog but not really sure what to write about? It happens to all of us at some point, so don’t feel like you are alone. Here are some tips to get those blog writing gears going:

1. Set goals for yourself. Although this may seem like the obvious, it is easily overlooked. Why begin a blog writing expedition without an end game?
2. Do some planning. As part 2 to setting your goals, plan out your blog posts for the next week or month – whichever goal you set for yourself. The focus of this exercise is preparation.
3. Research. There are many sites out there that aid in curing writer’s block. Bookmark these sites to reference in those times of need.
4. Read! The more you read the more your brain muscles will flex. Reading will expose you to different writing styles and topics. Go ahead and set a goal for yourself with this as well – start a bit ambitious, such as reading a book a week, so you have plenty to strive for.

So, don’t get stressed or flustered. Even putting one of these tips into effect will result in blog writing improvements. Take a stand - combat writer’s block by proactively taking advantage of those days that flourish with ideas; and most importantly have fun!

New Podcast features Ten Tips for Twitter

Our latest Ten Golden Rules Internet Marketing Podcast features Ten Tips for Getting Started on Twitter.

The podcast was recorded for an Internet Marketing Club Wednesday Webinar and it featured famous Twitter experts Warren Whitlock, author of Twitter Revolution, Gail Goodwin from Inspire Me Today and Huffington Post and iconic88 a Twitter Superhero with a semi secret identity.

There’s an App for That, no Really There is

I dropped my iPhone yesterday and shattered the screen. I’ve dropped it numerous times in the past and nothing ever happened to it. I have to admit I didn’t realize how dependant I was on my iPhone until it went to the big tech graveyard in the sky. I used “her” for everything from accessing my email, Twitter, Google Buzz, Foursquare, and Facebook to name a few. Yes my phone is female and believe it or not I named her. I’ll give you a buck if you can guess her name correctly.

So I made an appointment at my local Genius Bar to get the screen replaced. I got there right on time and they were a little behind on their appointments. No problem I thought to myself and figured I could checkout the latest and greatest apps for the iPhone.

The latest and greatest I did not find during my search but I did find some interesting apps. Well I guess you could call them interesting…

iMated 2: Ever wondered what it’d look like if you and your friends mated? Yeah, us too. Question no more, because iMated makes it easy!

Click Here for a YouTube click showing how it works.

iSqueeze: You have 4 cartoon characters plus an unlimited number of pictures – use any picture from your gallery or the iPhone camera! There’s a special camera interface and image editing/preparation menu - pimples appear only in right places!

iPoo: Always find yourself with nothing to do while you're sitting on the can? Introducing iPoo - a new iPhone application that gives you something to do - while you poo! iPoo is a social community that brings together pooers from around the world.

Note: there will be no clip showing how this app works.

iTrust: Does your girlfriend or boyfriend trust you, or do you think they read your texts and emails while you're away from your phone? Start iTrust. Follow the simple instructions and leave it with someone you would like to test. If your test subject tries to access your phone while you are away. A log will be saved of the events that have taken place, and you can playback this log at your own convenience.

Click Here for a YouTube click showing how it works.

Have You Received Phone Calls From YELP!?

There is website set up announcing two class action lawsuits against Yelp Inc. The company operates a website that enables people to post comments and review on businesses. The suit alleges that San Francisco based, Yelp, is an extortion scheme and that when a company is listed on their site for a negative comment, employees offer “advertising contracts” to remove the listing. This started after a veterinary hospital asked if Yelp would remove a false claim, and the company “demanded” $300 a month. The case, which is styled Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital Inc. v. Yelp Inc., was filed on February 23, 2010, and is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part IV

While you are awaiting your turn to go through the OceanSwell Team Rotator, your mission is really quite simple: Promote the Team Ad links anywhere and everywhere possible, as often as possible. However, if you are marketing something else at the same time, or if you have graduated from the Rotator, or if you are one of those with the time, skills and resources to be a Team Leader, then you need to focus upon: Lead Generation, E-Mail Marketing and Prospecting in general.

If you expect to have a big online income, then you have got to BE big. You have to do a lot of different things and you must reach out and contact large numbers of people. For me, that has always meant email marketing - either bulk mailing, safelists or a combination of both. There are plenty of good safelists featured within Affiliate Funnel. And under the Tools tab, there is one particularly good information product that you can look
at here:

Email Promos Exposed

It is very good! Of course, you can pay for services that will 'blast' your message to hundreds of safelists at a time. But that isn't free either, and you can't buy everything when you're just getting started. And don't forget what I said before: This isn't a race! If you're getting
overwhelmed, take a step back and slow down.

Anyway, there are lots and lots of resources out there for gathering double-optin email leads. If they are free, then the 'leads' are probably not very good. But hey, free's free, right? It's always a numbers game, and you can sell ice to Eskimos if you advertise ENOUGH.

A little searching around online can turn up numerous 'free leads' outlets. Here are three examples:

Orange Leads

Free Survey Leads

Free-Leads


Given the time and resources that are available to you, it will be necessary to develop a regular schedule of marketing tasks - things that you do on a regular (or even daily) basis. Email marketing should be a part of that. Just take it hour by hour, one task at a time, one day at a time. And please, don't get discouraged if you aren't getting dozens of signups right away. It takes TIME, so let it take time.

Pay Per Click Tip - Focus On Longtail

When starting a new pay per click campaign, there is no need to get into a bidding war with your competitors before you know how well your campaign converts. Rather, focus on very specific, long tail phrases that are likely to have less competition and a lower cost per click than the more general short tail phrases.

Additionally, don't start out with broad match phrases. Instead, start testing with exact and phrase matching on your keyword list. This will help your ads to only show up for highly relevant searches. Using only very specific phrases will give you a better idea of how your creative performs and how your landing pages convert without breaking the bank.

Once you have your ad copy and landing pages optimized based on your campaign data, then you can start including more broad phrases.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents 10 Golden Rules of Facebook for Business

Join Keith Burtis who recently built the Best Buy Remix Community to over 1,400 members and Jay Berkowitz, Author of The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing, to learn all about how to maximize your Facebook marketing for Business.

- Develop a laser focused strategy
- Build great Facebook ‘fan’ pages
- How to promote Facebook in other marketing activities
- Apps for business
- How to build your fans
- Best practices for Facebook insights
- New opportunities for S-Commerce

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: 10 Golden Rules of Facebook for Business

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part III

Love 'em or hate 'em, Traffic Exchanges (TE's) are vital to the Team OceanSwell approach of promoting the TrafficWave product and affiliate pay plan. When Team OceanSwell was created, the idea was to provide a plan and a system that average people could use to finally have some success at building an online business. Traffic Exchanges are something that everybody understands how to use.

And if you took my advice and explored Affiliate Funnel a little bit, then you noticed that they have an entire tab devoted to TE's. That only makes sense. Affiliate Funnel was created by TE owners!

I'll be honest with you right up front. A LOT of people don't like TE's. Personally, I love them. It's a variation of the Safelist concept (which I also use), but they are like the trading pits in the Chicago Futures Market - it's raw competition at it's best! They are also communities, but I'll get into the important subject of social networking later on.

BTW, I think that everyone should sign up for Jon Olson's newsletter. Another one of my mentors, I've read his book and chatted with him in the affiliate funnel forum many times in the past. Jon is the king of Traffic Exchanges and, IMO, his word is gospel. He's also a TrafficWave user!

You can check out his newsletter here: http://www.hitexchangenews.com/

Doing this one thing will teach you everything you need to know about this often misunderstand method of advertising and Jon's newsletter will also keep you updated on current events in the industry.

You know, there's kind of a stigma to using TE's. A lot of people consider it 'beneath them' to ever go near one. For one thing, they can be VERY labor intensive - prohibitively so for many. And there is also the legitimate fear of catching viruses from malicious advertisers. Word of advice: Use good security programs like Norton Anti-Virus when visiting ANY online marketing sites.

Anyway, Traffic Exchanges are good and bad. Useful and useless. Effective and ineffective. It just depends on your approach. The challenging thing is, there really aren't any rules! However, here are some universal guidelines to using TE's effectively. Notice that most or all of them are incorporated into the Team OceanSwell system.

1) Remember that you are marketing to other marketers. Marketing affiliate programs in the exchanges is largely a waste of time. Instead, market the things that other marketers NEED, such as tools, services, systems and other information products.

2) Use squeeze/splash pages and keep them real simple. Think of your ads like billboards on a busy freeway. The drivers are speeding by and concentrating on driving. Your 'billboard' had better be eye-catching and it had better get the message across QUICKLY! Humor works very well in the TE's too, by the way.

3) Brand yourself by putting your face and name in your ads. People like that! They like to see you and (if you stay at this long enough) your face eventually becomes recognizable within the TE community. That helps you in a variety of ways, long-term. If you can't put your face in your ad, use one of the brandable ad-rotators that many of the TE's provide for free.

4) Use banners, because they work! Banners will generate a click-through about every 3000-5000 impressions, depending on the banner. Some exchanges really allow you to pile up the banner credits with bonuses, surf rewards and upgraded accounts. Amazingly, a large number of people simply ignore them! That's a mistake because you should be using every resource at your disposal. We've had numerous Team OceanSwell Members come up with GREAT banner designs, but here is a link to one Team Member's page that is really worth a look:

http://erixonline.ws/TWOS.html

5) Keep your ads in rotation 24/7. Be consistent. They say it takes 6 or 7 times for a consumer to see an ad before making a buying decision. That may or may not be true on TV, but it takes a LOT more than that on the TE's! You need to keep your ad in their face every day.

6) Did I mention that you have to be patient? TE advertising is sloooooooow, but it DOES work - and there are new people coming into the exchanges every month, not to mention those who leave and come back.


Lastly, it's always a good idea to promote the TE's that you are a part of. In your blog, email signature lines or wherever. Getting referrals in the exchanges is another long-term marketing strategy because (in most cases) you can email them, they earn credits for you and some will upgrade and help cover your online expenses.

Speaking of which, there is a new TE that's kind of interesting in that there is NO free membership. Basic membership is 3 bucks a month and it's an affiliate matrix, like TrafficWave. I bring it up because there are those who like the idea of earning money by getting TE referrals and PowerPath GDI has encouraged their entire membership to join. Anyway, if you want to look at that, you can go here: 3x6surf

To your success,

~Rusty (TW OceanSwell Admin)

Using Press Releases For Reputation Management

Many companies are listening, but are on the defensive, waiting to hear “XYZ Company SUCKS” and other brand bashing done on websites where consumers are able to comment. Well, what if it was just a one off instance, or if the person ' s profile isn’t real as you tried to contact them, what do you do then? How do you attempt to get rid of that negative comment that shows up?

Using a web optimized press release any chance you have is a great way to proactively speak to your customers and be on the offensive. We all know there are so many great opportunities for keywords, link building and others for press releases, but what about preventing your customers from seeing the brand bashing comments that aren’t even real?

Take action before people start commenting, give them information they are looking for, share your great news. By publishing new content often you can potentially push down some negative comments that may show up on the first pages of the search engines. When sending out a press release, use all the services that are available even the free ones as they show up in the search engines.

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part II

In my previous post, I wrote about the importance of approaching Team OceanSwell and any other Online venture as a long-term project. Today, I want to briefly start on the subject of Traffic Exchanges (TE's). But before I do, I want to revisit the earlier topic on more time. It's THAT important.

Team OceanSwell isn't the 'Guru Formula for Instant Riches' that everyone seems to think is out there somewhere. In my experience with the affiliate programs such as TrafficWave, the magic formula for long-term success boils down to two basic things:

1) Having a plan and a system that someone else can easily duplicate.

2) PATIENCE.

Yep, there's that word again. And do you know why? Because upon that word rests everything else. Sometimes in life, you just have to wait. It's like that in every business. Nothing happens overnight. Yes, I'm a broken record, but I'm going to say it AGAIN: Be reasonable and give yourself a year (that's right, a YEAR) before you decide that TrafficWave and Team OceanSwell aren't for you. And the same rule applies to anything else that you are doing online, so long as it's something decent.

At any rate, the subject of TE's is one that I can't cover in one letter. It would be too long. The first thing I would say about them is to go to a central source for links, reviews, advice and coaching. For me, that place is Affiliate Funnel. 100% FREE to join, Affiliate Funnel (AF) is an absolute MUST for beginners. It is many things, including an impressive array of marketing tools, weekly training seminars (live and on the web), a list-builder and a means to promote programs that you like, such as TrafficWave. It's also a 'tools store' of sorts, because all manner of systems and programs for online promotion are featured there. Do I use them all? Absolutely NOT. There are some that I just outright don't like or are duplicates of others.

In addition, signing up for a number of these can be a tedious process as you wade through OTO after OTO. Still, I have found Affiliate Funnel to be a great resource in a lot of different ways. In fact, the most important thing about AF has always been the Saturday webinars on topic such as how to use TE's properly, how to approach social networking, how to build a list, build a website or even create your own product. In short, just about every topic related to online business is routinely covered. Much of what I know today was gleaned from those webinars - especially my current approach to using Traffic Exchanges.

You and your referrals need to know these things. Getting set up with the components of AF that you choose to use can be a time-consuming process, so take your time with it. Remember, what we're doing is a long-term project rather than a race. Trying to do too much too fast will only result in headaches and the feeling of being overwhelmed. That's bad.

Speaking of overwhelmed, this is enough reading and writing for one blog post. We'll get deep into the subject of Traffic Exchanges in the next section...

This isn’t Your Father’s Twitter

What does man’s best friend, popcorn making robot, and a tree have in common? They’re all using Twitter in ways we’ve never would have imagined.

Mattel, Inc. is getting ready to release Puppy Tweets, a sound and motion sensor that will randomly generate 500 canned tweets on Twitter. If the device detects your pouch barking or moving then expect a message from your favorite four-legged friend.

Click Here for the entire article.

Dave Britt and Justin Goeres have created a popcorn-making robot that pops a new batch whenever somebody mentions #popcorn on Twitter. I just cooked my first bag of popcorn or at least I think I did by posting a message on Twitter. Now if only there was a way to get extra butter on that popcorn.

Click Here for the entire article as well as a video that shows the robot.

At the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Ericsson introduced a Twittering Tree. The tree senses changes in the electromagnetic field as people pass it and reflects its mood directly to its Twitter account. One of the differences between the talking tree and Puppy Tweets is the tweets are not random. If you move away from it the tree will express loneliness. I’m wondering what the tree would tweet on pruning day?

Click Here for the entire article as well as a video that shows the tree.

Until next week Twitter and out…

Enter the World of Audible News

The term podcasting was first spoken of by Ben Hammersley in a British newspaper publication. A podcast is defined as, “a Web-based audio broadcast via an RSS feed, accessed by subscription over the Internet.” I have recently really taken advantage of podcasts – and I can’t believe it has taken me so long! Podcasts are such valuable tools in that they are portable knowledge feeds which can be accessed while driving, walking your dog or just in casual transit. If you have a passion for podcasts or just want to learn more about them, I highly recommend you join the InternetMarketingClub.org’s Marketing Podcasts Group. Here you will find free podcasting resources amongst a variety of marketing discussions, webinars, and just really great people to speak to, network and learn with.

A few podcasts I’m enjoying right now are:

• Internet Business Mastery
• DishyMix
• This Week In Google
• And of course, Ten Golden Rules

And the great thing is all of these [and many others] can be accessed for free on iTunes. Podcasts are an alternative to reading blogs or books and for many is considered a more efficient way to consume your news.

Adwords Analysis Toolbar Introduced

As part of Google's latest Adwords interface, they recently introduced new functionality for analyzing your campaigns. This new functionality is included in a toolbar within the interface and allows you to segment and customize the data columns and graphs displaying your campaign data. This gives advertisers the ability to streamline their reporting so they can get the most out of their campaigns. This is just another move in the direction of making the old-fashioned reporting in which users actually have to run individual reports a thing of the past.

Google will be continuing to roll out more data types, to provide more in-depth analyses.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents 10 Golden Rules of Web Video Part 1

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 1 of a new presentation "Ten Golden Rules of Web Video."

Part 1 of this presentation will examine the benefits of web video and best practices for producing web video.

- How to produce web video, best formats, how to upload to YouTube and other video sites
- The 4 types of videos to use in your web marketing
- How to optimize video for the search engines
- Why YouTube is so important in the marketing mix
- How to make video go viral

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: 10 Golden Rules of Web Video Part 1

Internet Marketing Tips from Team OceanSwell - Part I

This is going to be the first in a series of tips, 'lessons' (if you want to call them that) and general advice on Internet Marketing. And I'm not just talking about the Team OceanSwell promotion system for TrafficWave. This applies to any and EVERYTHING that you promote online.

In this first piece, what I want to talk about is THE most important subject of all - and that is: PATIENCE

There is no single quality that is more important to success. You simply must grasp and understand that marketing anything online is a long-term project. If you cannot accept that, then abandon Internet Marketing altogether and do it today, because it will save you a lot of grief. I don't care what you've been told. I don't care what you believe. The truth is still the TRUTH.

Sadly, most people will not stick with an online marketing program for more than 60-90 days before giving up and trying something else. Repeated over and over again, this behavior pattern is a guaranteed recipe for eternal failure.

Take the Team OceanSwell Rotator, for example. Obviously, it takes longer than a month to go through it. In fact, it averages about 8-10 weeks. So WHAT? Once you pass through the Rotator, you get your money back (with a profit) in the form of Fast-Start bonuses - AND - you have a functioning downline with members who are using a duplicatable marketing system.

My God, if that's not worth waiting for, what is?

And yet, I still have people (angrily, in some cases!) insisting that 'it's just not good enough'. REALLY? So doing this on your own is faster than our Team system?

Mike Paetzhold is a man I respect and who's opinions I hold in high regard. I've never met the guy, but he's one of my mentors nonetheless and I've chatted with him online many times. Almost two years ago (when I was just getting started), he told me, "Rusty, the hardest thing you will ever do online is reach the point where you are consistently earning $200-$300 a month. But... after that... it's quite a bit easier to reach $1,000 and so on."

Then you know what he told me? "Give it a year, and you'll be OK."

And you what? He was right. It took me a year to really 'get' Internet Marketing. It took longer still for me to conceive and create Team OceanSwell so that anyone reading this can have online success in FAR less time than it took me.

So no matter what you are promoting online, I tell everybody the same thing:

Commit to a YEAR.

A year is a good benchmark for any online affiliate program and/or marketing system. Not only that, a lot of ads, links, articles, blog posts, etc. will STILL be getting click-throughs years after you put them online!

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Never, never, never quit! ~Winston Churchill

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Quitting too soon is so expensive and destructive. Not only have you wasted your money, but you've wasted your time. And if that's not enough, you've also destroyed future opportunity for sales and growth. Worse still, you've wasted the time of those who tried to help you. It's just a TRAIL of destruction and waste. It would have been better not to start at all.

This is 'Part I' in a series, but it's the most important part. Because if you don't approach Internet Marketing (and that includes Team OceanSwell) as a long-term project, then you don't need to read 'Part II'. You're already finished.

Is Your Online World Colliding With Real World?

This past weekend was Super Bowl Sunday, and of course I had my crackberry out (@michaelgustman) reading all the great tweets from people about ads and the game. A lady came up to me and my fiancé and asked what platform I was using. Her and my fiancé started to talk, and it turns out they are following one another! Having similar interests and events going on in life, they are following the same people as well and noticed each other from their pictures. This had me wondering, has this happened before to other people? Is the whole six degrees of separation now moving to our online connections as well? With all these social networking sites, it’s bound to happen, how would you react if you see someone that you tweet with or in an online community in real life?

Laser Beam Targeting with Facebook Ads

To succeed in advertising on Facebook one has to take full advantage of the targeting system Facebook has developed for the advertiser. With over 350,000,000 active users the last thing you want to do is show your ad to the masses. Are you looking to advertise to people that are engaged? How about advertising to people whose birthday is today? “Keywords”, “Education”, and “Interested in” are all possible targets for your ads. Facebook actually has 11 targeting factors and with these the possibilities are endless to your target audience.

Let’s take a look at each of them now:

1. Location - Target by country, state/province, city, and metropolitan areas. You are required to have a location selected to advertise on Facebook.

2. Age - Age is a standard demographic factor.

3. Birthday - This is one of Facebook’s newest advertising targeting filters and to me this is one of the coolest.

4. Sex - Gender is a standard demographic factor.

5. Keywords - Keywords will are based on a user’s profile information including Activities, Interests, Favorite Books, TV Shows, Movies, About Me and more.

6. Education - Target based on level of education.

7. Workplaces - Target based on where they work.

8. Relationship – Single, In a Relationship, Engaged, It’s complicated, In an Open Relationship, and Widowed are all possible targets. Note: selecting any of these settings will remove all users that haven’t selected a relationship status in their profile.

9. Interested In - This factor is useful if a user’s preferences are relevant to whatever you are advertising.

10. Languages – Another standard demographic factor.

11. Connections - The connections fields enable you to include and exclude users based on pages, events, and applications that the users are members of.

If you use the targeting factors correctly it will increase your chances of finding success with your Facebook ad campaign. Remember to use multiple ads and to test, test, and then test some more.

The Linkerati Effect

Beyond news sites and information aggregators is the world of social news. What is a social news site you ask? Besides presenting very buzzworthy content, these sites put the power in the hands of the users by "voting" on content and allowing content to become “popular.”

A Couple Examples

You don’t want your story “buried” on this website as it is all the rage in this space. Digg has a highly sophisticated algorithm in determining which content makes the front page. It is by far one of the most if not the most well known social news website. If you are looking for more traffic and/or links, Digg provides you with the opportunity to reach the front page, even if for the shortest amount of time. This can drive lots of traffic to your story potentially making it headline news.


Allowing the opportunity to remain “pop” for longer than Digg, stories can be voted up and down and comprises of several sub-Reddit categories ranging from technology to funny news. One of the most important factors to gaining popularity on Reddit, appears to be the speed of voting on your content. The faster a story is voted upon, the more importance is placed on that particular story thus making its rank higher.

So in Conclusion…

These are just a couple examples of two of the leading social news sites. Digg and Reddit are alternative options to take advantage of to create pop or buzz worthy content. Accomplishing prominent positions on these sites allow for the opportunity of viral content as well. And remember to always keep your audience in mind with each site as many of these communities tend to have highly active participators.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents 10 Golden Rules of Podcasting

Jay Berkowitz, CEO of www.TenGoldenRules.com and Author of The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing will share his presentation "Ten Golden Rules for Launching and Promoting a New Podcast"

- Finding your theme
- How to produce a podcast
- Equipment and technology requirements
- How to get listed in Podcast directories and iTunes
- How to get your podcast picked up in Google and the other search engines
- How to launch and promote your podcast
- Ongoing promotion and community building

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 1:00pmEST – 2:00pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: 10 Golden Rules of Podcasting

Advanced Linkbuilding Techniques – Co-Citation

There are many things to consider about a page from which you are requesting a link from. Of course, you want to take into account the relevance of the page to yours, the quality of the backlinks of that page, the PageRank, etc. Another very important factor is co-citation, which refers to the outgoing links on the page.

When a page links to your website, the other websites the page links to say a lot about your website in the eyes of the search engines. Google considers websites that are linked to from the same page to be “related”. Ideally, all other links on the page would be to other websites that are highly relevant to yours. If a page links to your website and also a bunch of spammy sites, it can actually hurt your rankings.

Let’s say for example you have a website that sells diamonds. It will help your rankings to get a link on a page that links to other diamond websites. Even better, if the page links to a page about diamonds on a .edu domain, Google will consider your website similar to the .edu which carries a great deal of trust.

To see what other websites Google considers to be related to yours, enter the query “related:yourdomain.com” into Google search. If the websites returned are not similar to yours, you need to work on your co-citation.

Happy Birthday, Facebook

Today is Facebook's 6th birthday, and to celebrate, the social networking site has overhauled it's homepage. According to the post at Mashable, more than 80 million users will have the update live by tonight.

Of course, mine's not updated yet, or I'd share a screenshot with you. If you're interested, Mashable and Matthew Sander's Preposterous have some pictures. Here's some of the features Mashable says you can expect when your page is updated:

1) Notifications will be located on thetop left
2) Your pic and status will be on the homepage
3) The ability to see your inbox from the homepage

Also, expect the design to place a much larger emphasis on real-time search - Facebook's attempt to compete with Twitter's latest updates.

I'll be interested to see how Facebook users react to the changes over the week. Occasionally, I still see people joining the "Bring the old Facebook Back" groups." However, on my end, I've enjoyed MOST of the Facebook's improvements - except for those regarded to my privacy.

Although to some extent, I do feel like perhaps I have a little more control, the privacy changes were likely a strategy to tempt users to share more content for the upcoming real-time searches. With that mind, it leaves me feeling a little uneasy... Of course, if you follow the nothing you post on the Internet is private rule like I do, you shouldn't have any problems :)

Happy Birthday, Facebook!

Improve Your Local Search

If you have brick and mortar locations, or operate a local business, its important that your customers can find you - in the right place, at the right time. And as more and more people turn to mobile phones, local search engine optimization is especially important. Just take a look at the information below, published from WiredWebMarketing.com:

A very large percentage of all searches now have a local intent, so much so, Google is displaying a (7-Box) Google Maps listing in the search engine results on many searched broad keyword terms. Look at some these local search statistics:

• 82% of local searchers follow up via a in-store visit, phone call, or purchase (TMP / comScore)
• 73% of online activity is related to local content (Google)
• 54% of Americans have substituted the internet and local search for phone books (comScore)
• 35% of all searches are local (DM News)
• 32% of people with smart phones conduct local search (Google)

If you're ready to improve your local search engine optimization strategy, The Professional SEO's Blueprint to Local Search Optimization by Planet Ocean is a great place to start. At only $49for SearchEngineNews.com members, it's a steal. The ebook features updated best practices for local search strategies, and provides a step-by-step guide on how to setup and claim your local listings fast, as well as:

• How to avoid getting hit by Google's infamous penalty stick.
• How to deal with bad reviews...or no reviews.
• What to do when things go wrong.
• And much, much more!

What’s This Foursquare Thing I Keep Hearing About?

First the big social network was MySpace, then Facebook, then Twitter and now, Foursquare! Foursquare is basically a social network “game” where people check into specific locations. If you have a smartphone, such as an iPhone, Blackberry or Android, you can use Foursquare.

Why would you want to use Foursquare? The fun of Foursquare is to let people know where you are so if they are nearby or at the same place you can meet up or find new places to go to – like restaurants, museums, parks, etc. Now, this usually works when you have your actual friends on Foursquare, so it is best to add other Foursquare users who are your actual friends. Once you visit places, you will notice that you receive badges, which correspond to things like, checking into a specific place a certain number of times, or tagging specific places using keywords.

If you check into a place at least 3 times, you will become ‘The Mayor’ of that place. At some businesses that participate, being the mayor of a place gives you special discounts and treatment. You also get points every time you check in somewhere. While these points are just points for now, Foursquare is figuring out what they can translate into in the future. In my opinion, I was unsure about it at first because I was revealing my whereabouts, but the great thing about is that you can check in and not tell anyone your exact whereabouts but still get the points and badges. But, what’s the fun in not telling anyone where you are, right?

Foursquare is free, and has potential to being the next big thing in social media this year. What do you think? Are you on Foursquare? If so, do you find it valuable, or just ‘stalkerish?’ Discuss it in the InternetMarketingClub.org forum or in the comments below.

Pepsi Missing A Super Advertising Opportunity?

Don't look for Pepsi's great commercials this year. The company will not be spending the estimated $2.5 million for 30 seconds of air time during the most popular advertising spot on TV, the Superbowl. Instead, the company has decided to stop the 23 year run and shift to social media and helping the world, which is a great thing. This new interactive campaign, "Pepsi Refresh," plans on giving $20 million in grants to fund projects for health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods and education. The website Refresheverything.com is going to be extremely active with people voting and submitting ideas on the most appealing projects for the money. When you go to vote, you can connect through Facebook and Twitter which shares your interest with your friends. I know they want this to go viral and it is a great idea, but I'm not sure how many people are going to talk about this at our status meeting on Monday at TGR. Ultimately, sales will determine if Pepsi made the right choice.

Twitter On the Red Carpet

Entering the music scene in the latter part of the 90s, Imogen Heap hails from London bringing indie / electronic like music. Known for her distinctive beats and melodies, she may now be known for something a bit different – a Twitter dress. While accepting an award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical at the 2010 Grammys, Imogen Heap showcased a dress which displayed Twitter pictures sent by her fans using the hastag #twitdress.

This is just another illustration of how social media is so incorporated with our lives. I personally happen to listen to Imogen Heap’s music, so I appreciate her creativity. But theoretically this concept could be taken a step further. Maybe one day a concept such as this could be used as live walking ad space?

Imogen Heap may have opened up a brand new take on “real time” with social media.

TrafficWave and Team OceanSwell - Part V

Working from home is the dream of a great many people in the United States and around the world. If you're clever and you work very, very hard, it's certainly feasible. But at the end of the day, 'working from home' means starting and running a business.

It's complicated and requires a great deal of determination.

Starting and then successfully running a business is what many people talk about doing and very few people actually DO. Most never even get their dream off the ground and those who do usually fail for one of two reasons: They didn't have enough money and they didn't have a good plan.

Of course, there are other reasons why businesses fail (including home-based businesses), but those are the two primary ones.

Fortunately, the rise of the Internet makes it possible for average people (with little to practically nothing in the way of start-up capital) to create a functioning home-based business. Buying and selling on Ebay is a good example. And since Internet businesses can be launched with little to nothing in the way of 'start-up capital', the marketing PLAN becomes the most important element with regards to ultimate success or failure.

That's why Team OceanSwell was created for those wishing to market TrafficWave's famous affiliate pay plan. You see, it takes an ENORMOUS amount of advertising in order to have any hope of success with an online affiliate business. If you are one of those who have tried one program after another and failed, it probably wasn't your fault. You just didn't advertise enough.

That's the genius of the Team advertising co-op. An organized group of like-minded people can succeed with an affiliate marketing program FAR more easily than the average person can on their own.

If you tried to build a business with TrafficWave (or any other MLM affiliate plan) before, the future doesn't have to be like the past. If you're ready, you can join our team and start down the road to having something that very few ever actually attain; a real Internet business that pays you money every single month and never stops growing.

How about it? Are YOU ready?

Click-To-Call Mobile Advertising

Google recently introduced click-to-call phone numbers in local pay per click ads on mobile devices. Now, if you have Adwords pay per click ads targeted on mobile devices with full internet browsers, you can include a phone number which people can call with a simple click. Included in this update is new tracking data that allows you to track the number of people who called you from clicking on an ad.

It is often the case in pay per click advertising that including a phone number in the ad copy can increase click through rates. This also holds true for click-to-call mobile advertising as seen in data gathered from beta testing that shows an increase in both website visits and phone calls as a result of adding a click-to-call number.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents 10 Strategies For Social Media Search Engine Marketing

Join Jay Berkowitz, Author of "The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing," where he will explain how to use Social Media in combination with Search Engine Marketing to drive traffic to your website or your personal social media locations.

Also, learn how to use Crowd Sourcing, People Search, Search Results from Social, Social Media Transcriptions, Link Bait and ‘Follow’ Link Sites for your benefit.

This free webinar will take place on Wednesday, February 3, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: 10 Strategies for Social Media SEM

Back to Basics: Why Start a Blog?

Blogging has been around for quite some time now, and every day, someone decides to start a blog. There are many reasons why people start blogs – from wanting to share their daily lives with their friends (or complete strangers), to helping out others through the knowledge they have, and even to make money, there is a blog for that.

When starting a blog, or even if you are just thinking about starting one, the first thing that you should think about is – what is the goal of your blog? There should always be a purpose to doing something, just like in everyday life. Do you want to help others with your knowledge in SEO? Or, are you a photographer who wants to show off your latest photos? Are you a business that wants to promote your products? A defined goal is definitely important to have.

Once a goal is set, you will then have to figure out a name for your blog, figure out if you want to host it on a blog platform like Wordpress or Blogger. If you’re really serious about blogging, and you may not know right away, it will be best to buy a domain name (like a dot com) and web hosting. From there you can either set up your blog using the Wordpress platform or by using Blogger.com.

When your blog is set up, you can go ahead and start writing out posts. Another important part of blogging is planning out what you want to write about. Having a list of blog post ideas definitely helps. Adding relevant images to blog posts also livens up the post and makes it more appealing to read. It is also best to post frequently, so you have fresh content for your readers. Three to four times a week is recommended. Once you have about 15-20 posts on your blog, you can go ahead and promote your blog through Twitter, Facebook, and submit to Blog directories.

A blog is a commitment, just like any project. You may not get any comments on your blog at first, but as long as you update and promote your blog, people will slowly come to your blog. So make sure you keep at it!