Consumers - Don't Just Think 1st Position Is Best

When shopping online this holiday season buyer beware. A customer purchased eyeglasses and was sent the wrong pair along with being over charged. After complaining, the owner of the business harassed her and threatened her. Just because the business ranks #1 in the search engines, consumers must do their research on the company they are buying from. This man loves the negative publicity and welcomes it, even links to the complaints from the Facebook page to several compliant websites that call the company a fraud.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Conversion Design for Websites, How to Design Your Website So Your Visitors Convert to Customers

Join Margie Schneider, VP Operations of TenGoldenRules.com, as she presents “Conversion Design for Websites ~ How to Design Your Website So Your Visitors Convert to Customers.” During this webinar, you will learn about the convergence of website usability and internet marketing as we explore how to build and design your website so that your visitors will convert themselves into customers.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Understanding the difference in utilizing landing pages versus web pages
• Defining and tracking conversions on your website
• Successfully using funnel tracking to identify issues
• Ad hoc crowd sourcing/usability testing

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, December 1, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Conversion Design for Websites

Will Diaspora Be The One?

We first started hearing about the Diaspora project several months ago, as this week the site officially began sending out invites. Diaspora prides itself on three aspects: Choice, Ownership and Simplicity. As a Diaspora user, you have complete granular control over every aspect of your information including who sees your info, the ownership of it and the ease of maintaining this privacy. So, will it be the one to trump Facebook?

Only time will tell if Diaspora can take on the giant, but according to Pete Cashmore Founder and CEO of Mashable.com, it seems highly doubtful. Nonetheless, I’m still interested to see how this site develops. A little competition is always helpful in product refinement and improvement. Even though Diaspora may not be the one to give Facebook that competition, perhaps it paves the way for another contender.

Will you be signing up with Diaspora?

TrafficWave - OceanSwell TEAM Update (#65)

Team building for TrafficWave is my passion.  That's because, in 'My Internet Marketing Journey', I have learned the true value of an autoresponder and how precious of an asset your opt-in email contact list really is.  I didn't know it before, but I know it now.  But more than that, I've come to realize the power of collective-recruiting and what Napoleon Hill always referred to as 'your mastermind group'.  That's because (in my opinion) you cannot succeed in an MLM-style affiliate sales program without being part of an organized team.  That doesn't guarantee quick success, but it does guarantee a legitimate chance at it.  You have to put yourself in a position to win before you'll ever have a shot at victory.

You see, when you are running a business you can count your assets.  Your building, your inventory, your established customer base, your name recognition & good will, your un-collected receipts, and so on, are all assets.  Online, it's similar in some ways, though quite different in others.  For example, your email subscriber list is a major asset.  If you are a part of Team OceanSwell, then having the entire Team working for you is definitely an asset as well.  In any business, your assets are a measure of your success, your worth and your potential.  Unfortunately, most people who fancy themselves to be Internet Marketers simply don't think about these assets... or even care about them.  They don't don't want to 'build a list'.  It's too much work and too much trouble.  They don't want to join Team OceanSwell or stick around long enough for it to help them.  It just 'takes too long'.  I work in a hospital and I see it there too.  People come in with chronic illnesses and expect a quick fix via a 'pill' or something.  That, and they expect fast miracles from the medical staff (and sometimes get very angry when it doesn't happen).  It just isn't reality - i.e. that thing that nobody wants to accept. 

I believe in having a personal philosophy and mine has evolved from reading biographies.  I like quotes too, and General George Patton has some that I like.  One of them (speaking about himself) was, "I am the master of the possible."  So what does that mean?  It means that if it can get done, he'll make it happen.  But if it isn't possible, then don't bitch about it.

That's what each of needs to become; 'a master of the possible'.  Did you know that this blog receives about 30-50 unique visitors from around the world on a daily basis because of it's content and page-depth?  It's true, but it didn't happen overnight.  Do you also notice that the links to TrafficWave (and Global NPN) are the rotating Team URL's and not mine (though I am in the Rotator too)?  Do you think that's a valuable aspect of being part of my Team?  These blog posts don't write themselves.  I do it for you - ME.  By the way, do you think it's possible that you could create a blog of your own like this one?  Of course it is.  As a demonstration, my buddy (Jeff) & I have created a generic Internet Marketing blog that you can see here:

Home Business Ideas for the 21st Century

Take a look at this thing.  Right up at the top, there is a banner that links to our Team URL for Global NPN.  In fact, there are links to Global NPN and TrafficWave throughout, and all of them (without exception) link to the Team URL's, rather than Jeff's or mine alone.  That means that, so long as you are part of the Team, that blog is working for you 24/7, 365 days a year.  That blog is going to grow, and grow and grow.  In 2011, even more are coming!  That's what I'm talking about by 'mastering the art of the possible'.  We also threw Amazon & click-bank stuff in there too to show everyone how to set up a blogger.com site like this and what you can do with it.  This is something that everyone who is reading this can do.  Did you know that blogger.com will give you stats on how many visitors your site is receiving and from where?  It will even give you the keyword searches used to find your site!  That's another asset.

Last, but not least, I want to recognize a loyal Team Member and good promoter, Mr. Bud Hall.  This month, he receives the $40.00 cash bonus to help with his marketing efforts - yet one more benefit of being a member of the now-famous Team OceanSwell.  If you're reading this and still haven't joined us yet, what in the world are you waiting for?

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.  Take a break from Internet Marketing, enjoy the feast and the time off.  We are going to have a very good 2011...

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Website Lab Webinar

Join Jay Berkowitz, Founder of InternetMarketingClub.org, as we step into the Mad Scientist’s website analysis laboratory in our featured Wednesday Webinar, “Website Lab.” This webinar invites attendees to submit your websites for review by Jay Berkowitz and the TenGoldenRules.com team.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Understanding how to adhere to standard web conventions
• Advanced Tactics for Improving the User Experience
• Proven Strategies to Successfully Optimize your Website for the Search Engines
• Best Practices for Website Usability

To submit your websites, please message Jay Berkowitz through the InternetMarketingClub.org.

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, November 24, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Website Lab

Reputation Scores for Twitter Users

Mashable recently posted a really interesting article about reputation scores on Twitter. This post states, Federated Media’s John Battelle posed the question to Evan Williams, how does Twitter determine who to suggest in the Who to Follow section? And according to Williams, Twitter calculates a reputation score for every user which the company uses internally and that it may become part of Twitter’s public-facing features at some point.

So this makes you think – how can you improve your brand’s clout on Twitter? Although we do not know the algorithm behind Twitter’s reputation scores, one thing is definite; your reputation on Twitter will undoubtedly improve if you provide value to the community. Don’t just use your Twitter stream as a one-way broadcast. Engage with your followers, provide them with value that is RT worthy and throw in a few laughs for them every once in a while.

How do you believe Facebook differs in assessing your influence?

Image credit: 7son75

Facebook launches 'Deals' - a version of Foursquare with offers

Facebook has just launched 'Deals'. Deals adds a significant feature to another service they recently introduced 'Facebook Places' - Deals gives businesses the opportunity to reward customers when they check in on Facebook.

Check-ins have become a popular type of Social Networking. The leading check-in site is Foursquare and another competitor is GoWalla. When you 'check in' at a location you are telling your friends in the social network where you are. Read about some user experiences on Foursquare and GoWalla here and for more info check into a book by my friends Craig Agranoff and Herb Tabin Checked In Book.


Learn how to create Facebook Deals with this free eBook














The risk/opportunity with any new social networking concept is that you need a mass amount of users to make make the network 'social'. If I check in and I have no friends in the network it isn't much fun. If I tweet and I have no followers I am not going to get many replies. So, for the new concepts it is critical for them to gain a lot of users to prevent Facebook or another big network from adding the functionality and eliminating the need for the new service. Do we need to Tweet if all our friends can see our Facebook 'updates'? And will we check in on Foursquare if checking in on Facebook may give us a 'deal' from the merchants?

According to Facebook here's the scoop on Deals:

"Deals gives businesses the opportunity to reward customers when they check in on Facebook, and this helps generate awareness, encourage in-store traffic and build customer loyalty. In addition, if someone checks in to a business that is offering a deal, their friends have the opportunity to hear about it through word of mouth marketing that is generated naturally on Facebook."

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Google Places and Optimizing for the Local Business Results

Join Scott Gallagher, Founding Faculty Member of Local Marketing Source, as he provides a thorough review of the current components in Google Places, key factors influencing Local Business Results and successful strategies for a local business to obtain top rankings.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Detailed review of Google Local Business Results
• Understanding Local Business Results vs Organic Results
• Complete overview of Google Places
• Best Practices for using Google Places for a local business

Scott Gallagher is also the owner of CCS, a leading online marketing agency serving local businesses. For over 12 years Scott Gallagher has provided consulting and online marketing services to hundreds of businesses with annual revenues up to $50 million. Scott has become a recognized expert in the rapidly growing field of local internet marketing and frequently publishes articles and conducts training seminars focused on using email marketing, search engine optimization and social media to reach a targeted local audience.

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, November 17, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Google Places and Optimizing for the Local Business Results

What’s Your YouTube Strategy?

YouTube is continuously growing and evolving with the popularity of online videos. What’s your brand’s video and YouTube strategy? Video should absolutely be a part of your social media strategy as many would argue video is the way of the future.

Last summer YouTube announced it extended its video time limits from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. YouTube is now announcing its users are uploading over 35 hours of video per minute. Yes, per minute. That is up from their announcement last March of 24 hours of video uploaded per hour.

This growth is shown in the chart below from SocialTimes.com:


Establishing a YouTube Channel for your brand and filming videos does not have to be an expensive production either. With such a large user base on YouTube, are you harnessing its power for your brand?

Facebook Will Start Email Service To Compete With Gmail

According to reports at TechCrunch and ZDNet, Facebook will be releasing an email service to compete with Gmail, Hotmail and all the other web based email services. The team at Facebook is calling this the “Gmail Killer.” Rumors have it, people will have an @Facebook email address.

Yahoo News writer, Jeff Van Camp, writes how “Facebook is used to operating in a closed environment.” Now, the company “will have to allow people outside Facebook to contact people inside Facebook.”

Will you want another email address, another log in, another password to remember? Will my username change, what will my login email be? These are all questions that will be answered very soon, and with over 500 million users, I’m sure it will catch on.

Facebook Bejeweled Blitz Addicting

For those who are not aware Facebook has an application that is called Bejeweled Blitz. This is a one off of the popular game Bejeweled that was created by Pop Caps. The full length version allows you to play until you either run out of times or until there are no more moves left. This one only gives you one 60 seconds to get as many points as you can hence the name “Bejeweled Blitz”.

I must confess that I have spent hours upon hours playing this game. Yes you read correctly, I have spent hours playing this game simply because 60 seconds just flies by and I am always saying, “Just one more game just to beat my previous score.” On top of that each day you play you get to do a lottery spin to see if you can win more coins in order to buy special gem attributes.

The faster you can match the jewels the higher your score will be and it will actually put you into hyper speed as if you were a Jedi Knight! If you haven’t played, I suggest you take just one moment (I would say 60 seconds but you’re going to play longer than that) to play this awesome game.

Breaking The Rules: Foursquare Style

I've been lagging on my blog responsibilities. I've been working like a dog and there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day. Compound those issues with a lack of inspiration and we have a recipe for lagging blog posts, eh?

Well thanks to our good friend @lapp. I'm inspired. You see @lapp and the crew @tengoldenrules have a little running joke going on Foursquare. He likes to stop by and steal the mayorship from our staff members. Let me clarify, he likes to drive by and check in from the parking lot. We never actually SEE him in the office. Consider his check in from last night:

Notice the 1:03am timestamp? Yup. That would be our parking lot. According to an article on TechCrunch, Foursquare has added a "cheater code" that actually checks your GPS to confirm your location (and we all know ways around this) but Mr. Agranoff is probably close enough (considering he's in the parking lot) for this to be a verified check-in in the eyes of Foursquare. I just think it's really comical that he does it.

Here's a funny video on the subject



How do you feel about Foursquare check-ins?

Hey Craig, next time you're in the parking lot, come in and say HI. We'd love to see you. Well, if it's during business hours that is. :-)

Google Instant adds a preview feature

If you are a Google user you have likely become familiar with Google Instant, the feature instantly posts search results as you type. For example when I type 'ten' Google shows me tennis websites, when I type 'ten g' Google dynamically changes the search results on the page.

The new feature is Google Instant Previews this includes the addition of a magnifying glass just to the right of the website name TenGoldenRules. When I clicked the magnifying glass image it gave me a full-page preview. Google's plan is to roll this out to Adwords ads as well.

The early feedback is that Google Instant has not had a dramatic impact on the number of keywords included in searches according to a SEER blog post .

The most important thing we recommend when there is a change in Google or any other important website is to do a few searches, use the tool and see how it may be impacting your brand. Think about any opportunities that may arise due to the change and try to take advantage of a market opportunity before competitors.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents How to Build a Successful Blog Business by Answering Reader Questions

Join Dave Taylor, Principal of AskDaveTaylor.com, in this week’s Wednesday Webinar, “How to Build a Successful Blog Business by Answering Reader Questions.”

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Understanding how Q&A sites are reference sites
• How to make the most out of questions asked on your blog
• Best Practices for managing comments on your blog
• Mobile is Important! How to establish your blog within the mobile space

Dave Taylor has been involved with the online world since 1980 and is widely considered an expert on all things digital. He runs the popular tech answers site AskDaveTaylor.com, along with three other blogs, including his daddy blog APparenting.com. AskDaveTaylor.com answers questions about a wide variety of technical topics. He has two masters degrees, 20 published books and is an award-winning speaker and workshop leader.

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, November 10, 2010 12:30pmEDT – 1:30pmEDT. To register and for more information please visit: How to Build a Successful Blog Business by Answering Reader Questions

Latest Released Twitter Resources

Accompanying the new and improved look and functionality of the Twitter website interface, Twitter has now also refreshed the available logos, buttons, and widgets available as Twitter resources. Below is an explanation of each resource:

Follow Buttons: Utilize these buttons to make it easier for people to follow your business directly from your website. Twitter allows you to select the desired button and simply copy and paste the code into your website’s source code.

Tweet Buttons: Adding a Tweet button to your website will allow people to easily share your content on Twitter. Twitter provides a slightly customizable solution for this tweet button.

Widgets: Twitter widgets allow you to place your updates anywhere or even create a live stream for a business event, conference, meeting etc. The widgets are compatible with a variety of sites such as Facebook and Blogger. There are also a handful of widgets to choose from such as Facebook, search, faves and lists widgets.

Twitter Logos and Icons: Select from several different Twitter-approved logos and icons for your use. Twitter provides you with the ability to select slightly different color schemes of course, inline with the Twitter black, aqua and white brand colors.

You should be utilizing the above resources to promote and expand your brand’s Twitter presence. So long as these resources are used in accordance with the Guidelines for Use of the Twitter Trademarks, you can freely use them to Twitter-enable your brand. Enjoy!

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents The Psychology of Marketing

Join Joel Nielsen, Chief Evangelist of MediaSharkLLC.com, as he presents, “The Psychology of Marketing”. This webinar will teach the core fundamentals behind the Psychology of Marketing and proven methods for business success.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Understanding the key to business is establishing credibility and authority
• Why the Law of Reciprocity is critical to the success of your business
• Explanation of how and why “free” absolutely pays

Owner, Author, Professional Heckler, Joel Nielsen is the founder of MediaSharkLLC.com in Salt Lake City, Utah. A chronic entrepreneur, Mr. Nielsen has 16 years of experience consulting thousands of businesses in Marketing, Management and Social Media optimization.

He has a BS in Business Marketing from the University of Phoenix and a double Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) and Sports Administration (SAFM) from Ohio University. Mr. Nielsen recently completed his Six Sigma certification through the University of Utah.

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, November 3, 2010 12:30pmEDT – 1:30pmEDT. To register and for more information please visit: The Psychology of Marketing