Archive for November, 2008

I’ll admit it - I’m an addict. And I know many of you reading this are, too. Look at you sitting there, your index finger twitching on your mouse just waiting to click out to Twitter or Facebook. Why you oughta be ashamed of yourself!

Or should you?

I know for many marketers, social networking addiction can actually become a bad thing. Someone sidles up next to you and says, “Come on, have a little hit of Facebook - everybody’s doing it!” Off you go to get your own account and next thing you now your ignoring your kids and spouse, neglecting your business so you can post an update, and wasting hours looking at pictures of you that have been tagged from 1989.

That’s the downside.

The good side of this highly addictive virtual drug is that it can help you make a LOT of money and position yourself as the creme de la creme of all things in your niche. The key is knowing your limits, putting restraints on yourself so you aren’t crashing and burning every day with your web 2.0 addiction.

I’m going to be your pusher - prodding you on to get signed into certain social networking sites. But I’m also going to wear the hat of interventionist to make sure you don’t OD and wipe out your business in the process.

A social marketing junkie has to be weaned off the hard stuff and taught how to manage their addiction so that it doesn’t interfere with earnings - and LIFE in general. If you feel you’re wasting too much time with web 2.0 or don’t see the results you want from your efforts, then sign up for my FREE 14-day Social Marketing Junkie course that will help you achieve the results you desire.

I think I have it easier than many of you when it comes to creating Squidoo lenses and knowing what to write. Not because I know more about lens creation, but because I have a knack for writing off the top of my head. I studied it exclusively in college as a Journalism major and I was always good at it.

On Squidoo, what to write can be the hardest question for many lensmasters who don’t have the same wordsmithing background as I do. Whether you’re writing about Internet marketing or another narrow niche topic like dog health, doll houses, or gardening, you have to map out your vision for delivering great content.

So what to write on Squidoo is the question - how do you find the answer? Here’s the formula I use:

1.) What is my goal? On Squidoo, what to write for me is determined by what I want to achieve with my content. Is it just content to get me to the 50 lens Giant Squid status for one of my accounts? If so, any old topic will do and any modules. I might do a lens on Stephanie Myer books and link it to some Amazon pages. She’s the author of the now famous Twilight phenomenon. When figuring out what to write on a lens like this, I’ll usually do an introduction of the topic (in this case, the author), then add two more narrow modules - in this case, about her top books specifically.

If my goal is to further my career, I will take more effort in what I write on Squidoo. If I want to promote a product that I believe in, like Info Product Killer, I’ll make a lens that tells about it, has a selling aspect to it, and answers questions that come my way. These are the questions people are typing into Google, so I get a good deal of traffic from choosing my content that way.

2.) What are the keyword searches showing? I go into Google’s keyword tool and type in my broad keywords to dig down deeper. Let’s say I wanted to tap into the toddler niche. I type in toddler and from the search results, I get to see that on Squidoo what to write might be best built around toddler furniture - because there’s a lot of searches for toddler beds, toddler bedding, toddler furniture, and toddler room.

3.) How can I monetize my information on Squidoo? When determining what to write on Squidoo, you want to choose information that will somehow help you turn a profit. Someone searching for celebrity news will not likely be in a buying position. Someone searching for celebrity collectibles will have money in hand. So on your lens, you wouldn’t just give news about a celeb, but you’d talk about the investment of collectibles and their future rise in value.

Don’t get too bogged down in the details of what to write on Squidoo. The good thing is - it can be CHANGED! You can watch your stats, see how trends change, and morph your content into something fresh and cutting edge. Your lens on Internet Marketing might go from Squidoo being the next big thing to another web 2.0 site.

Tiff

Funnels. That’s where we’re headed. I was so excited when ordinary people got access to quick social marketing avenues such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more. It brought the web 2.0 peer-to-peer platform to a whole new level.

Instead of just reading customer comments on Amazon, which was a move from the made up testimonial you saw on a static sales page, we’re now able to tap right into the lives of those we wish to follow on the ‘net.

We get to hear about John Reese washing his Lamborghini baby or Rick Butts being stalked by a pretty young thing (what’s a guy to do?). It’s fun – it makes them real people.

We’re all in this work at home “cubicle” we’ve chosen and without the current web 2.0 environment, we would have no water cooler to head to for gossip, casual small talk, and camaraderie.

It can’t all be about work (boring)! We need to have that element of socialization through WORK. You can turn to your spouse and start saying, “Man, it’s a shame Michel Fortin’s Copywriters Board shut down, isn’t it?” But they won’t understand. You have to use web 2.0 to discuss with like-minded people.

But it’s getting out of control, isn’t it?

There are too many people to follow. I can log into Twitter and spend a good half hour reading and Tweeting and catching up with NicheLady and Dana_Willhoit and NicheProf but then I also have to log into Facebook and see what Seth Godin’s up to, what Kevin Riley’s cooking up, and what madness Jason Moffat’s stirring up.

Then (whew, getting tired), I have to log into YouTube to see what Ed Dale’s posting, and so on. If I really want to keep track of everyone, I’m wasting a lot of my day logging in and out of various places and seeing who’s doing what!

Likewise, I want my followers to be able to check in with my various blog posts, Facebook, Twitter messages, and more without having to visit every one of my sites.

FriendFeed to the rescue. I’m on it. Ed Dale’s on it. Everyone’s doing it. It’s perfect for the social marketing junkie in all of us. Give it a try and subscribe to my feed there.

OMG you know what this means? My friend Lewis Smile will be laughing an evil laugh. He’s been trying to convert me to be an RSS user for months and I’ve always refused. But FF makes it SO easy…I’m heading to the dark side. Join me!

Tiff

Pssst: Guess what’s on MY horizon? Stay tuned…

Okay so in keeping up with my testing, I created the Elmo Live lens to compete with my Elmo Live dot info domain that I created by following Info Product Killer. It took about 24-48 hours for the website to get indexed. I’m getting GREAT traffic for one of the dolls in particular - have top spot for that. I don’t want to tell which one, of course.

I loved how he taught us to create depth pages with other keywords. For example, on his Bumblebee Transformers page, he had a page bolding the keywords “cheap,” “yellow,” “robotic,” etc. I did that and that’s how I’ve captured top spot for another Elmo doll.

My Squidoo lens took FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRR to get indexed, which is very unusual! I linked to it from other highly indexed lenses, and from EZA, etc., but it sat stagnant until yesterday! That was very annoying.

Just started seeing search engine traffic to it today. Whew! Just in time for Christmas So we’ll see how it goes. I’m still selling some Elmo dolls via Amazon. I will admit this year is MUCH slower than last year (hello, rotten economy!). Last year from October 1st on I was making great money, and even on established pages, it’s slow. But maybe it’ll pick up close to Christmas. I know I’m shopping late this year myself.

I’ll keep ya updated! You let me know too how YOUR Squidoo versus domain journey is going. I’m gonna put up some other lenses today that compete with my other dot info domains for the IPK strategy.

Tiff

I have a dilemma I’m sure many of you have, too. I got on Facebook for marketing purposes and tons of old friends found me! So now I have a combination friends list of people from as far back as 4th grade paired with marketing followers.

This makes my participation there a bit harder. On one hand, I want to promote my business, giving good tips about web 2.0, writing, and marketing in general. But then when I post an update on Facebook that says, “Here’s a great autoresponder tool for building your list,” my “old time friends” pipe up and say, “Huh?”

Maybe I should have created two accounts. But it’s too late now. I may have to put a disclaimer for all of my marketing messages.

It doesn’t work both ways, either - well, not really. In marketing, it’s good to let your followers get to know you. I can share news about my family activities with my marketing fans. But what about if an old friend posts on my profile about some wild girls’ night out I had my freshman year in college? (Mind you, I’m being hypothetical here - I would NEVER have been wild - hee hee). In that case, you might not want your marketing fans to see your personal business.

How do you separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak?

Post your tips here!
Tiff

Hi everyone!

My son, Shawn, who is 9 years old, is on a mission to donate 2,000 canned goods to the Tarrant Area Food Bank this holiday season. They provide meals to many people - from the homeless to disadvantaged children’s programs, senior citizens, and more.

I need your help to spread the word about his plans so he can meet his goals! I posted some options here: Stop Hunger for the Holidays and I hope you’ll help spread the word with me!

We all know this year will be lean times for so many families, and I fear the food banks will be stretched to capacity. Anything - even a 50 cent can of corn - will mean the world to some family or individual.

Thank you!
Tiff

Whenever I recommend anything having to do with a real domain, I always get asked, “Will this work on Squidoo (or insert social networking site name of your choice here)?” People are in love with the idea of getting something for nothing, and that’s exactly what a web 2.0 business offers - a free platform.

There are pros and cons to running your business solely on the back of social networking sites. I’m a big proponent of using them, as you can tell, but I’m also an advocate for buying your own domain. It used to intimidate me - until I found out how easy it is to register a domain (under 10 bucks for a dot com and 99 cents for a dot info at GoDaddy).

Hosting was not complicated, either. Hostgator makes it very easy to operate your own domain. I use the Legacy File option which is very functional - you choose your folder to upload in, click upload files, and you’re done. You can also use an FTP program if you want to.

But the question remains - “Can you operate a web 2.0 business without taking the domain route?” The answer is simple - Yes!

It is possible and you can even have a great deal of success with it. Let’s look at the pros and cons of this option so you can make an informed decision:

Pros to running a web 2.0 business:

1.) It’s FREE! (And in the case of some sites like Squidoo, Hub Pages, Knol - you get unlimited pages)
2.) It’s easy (Squidoo has point and click modules to choose to build your pages)
3.) It brings an instant audience to your pages (because you’re part of the community)
4.) You ride the coattails of the site’s search engine ranking power

Cons to running a web 2.0 business:

1.) You’re at the mercy of the site owners. (If they close your page, alter its layout, etc., you have no control.)
2.) Marketing may not be accepted as widely (ie: Hub Pages, where your links are limited)
3.) It can appear unprofessional. (while web 2.0 platforms serve as good branding tools, some consumers consider this a pitstop only and want to go on to your “real” site if they’re going to trust you).

I’m sure there are many more you can think of yourself. My advice is to utilize web 2.0 platforms as your funnel to your main domains. From time to time I sell directly from these sites, but I always have links to my authority domains (like this one at TiffanyDow.com) for good measure.

My recommendation is if you have ZERO funds and are a newbie, start with a web 2.0 business. Branch out from there and get your own hosting and domain as soon as possible. Stick a good WordPress theme on your domain if you’re not familiar with web design.

Tiff