Tweet For Bucks

Sir Tweet O' Lot is perching on some profitable trees. Also if you would like to have a skills competition, click on the bird and let us know.

It has taken me longer to get to post here since last. That was on April 15th, Tax Day. First I’ve to thank everyone that has stopped by here over the last year. I’m not getting wildly rich from this blog, but the support here does help make ends make. I really appreciate each and every one of you.

There has been a lot going on online and off. I’ve had a lot of contact in e-mails, social networks and phone conversations with a few readers. It’s been a great experience and I hope that folks were about to walk away with some new ideas from  the exchange.

The Overlooked Tree

Everyone goes looking for the richest forest. The biggest misconception is that you have to reach all the over the map to achieve that. We tend to overlook how valuable the wood is from trees in our own backyard. I was looking over a budget for friend during this past weekend when I noticed something that caught my eye. Take a quick look at these keywords and bids:

california auto insurance quotes $57.34
auto insurance quotes california $57.01
arizona divorce attorneys $53.56
dui attorney los angeles $52.75
personal injury attorneys chicago $51.59
houston criminal lawyer $49.59
criminal houston lawyer $49.59
san diego criminal lawyer $48.30
chicago personal injury lawyers $46.81
dui attorney san diego $46.04
chicago injury lawyers $45.22
maine white water rafting $45.18

Have you noticed the common denominator in this list? There is a city or geo-location in each keyword. This list knocked home a point I try to make when someone is looking for a market that can help them be profitable online - THINK LOCAL, REACH GLOBAL.

Plant an Acorn and Grow a Strong Oak

OK so you don’t live in one of those cities and you are thinking this list won’t help you. You are missing the big picture. More professionals with a local service area is using Google Adword to market on the Internet today. They could care less about landing a client on the other end of the country, it would cost them more than they would take in. They want clients in their backyard. They are competitive with the advertising budgets because have get the customers in their area before their competitor does. They are targeting their local market and you should be too.

A hyper-local blog or website, augmented with Twitter and Social Networks as traffic feeder can become profitable faster than a blog about blogging, Work at Home, car buying or dieting. People are more interested about restaurants, movies, festivals, public service, professionals and etc close to home. They going to be looking online until they find a good local information source.

Hyper-local is a hot market and chances are you aren’t going to have too many others swimming in the same pond. If you do find interest that they aren’t devoting as much coverage on.

Using The Lunch Money Challenge In Your Neighborhood

This week we will start looking at ways to use social media to make lunch money. To participate in this exercise doesn’t require any investment at all, it will be sticking to the No Start-Up Cost theme that everyone enjoys.

There is one low cost purchase I would suggest that would help you - an Internet domain name. This usually less than $10 at most registers. Don’t purchase one just yet until

Here is a list of the things you will want to gather:

  • Google Adsense account - The user name will be used to access other Google services
  • Pepperjam account - This affiliate network has some great advertisers and tools to help you monetize your website
  • Facebook membership. Myspace is also OK, but it doesn’t have the reach of Facebook
  • Memberships to social bookmarking sites like - Reddt, Propeller, del.icio.us, Digg and Mixx
  • Yahoo account - for Flickr and Site Explorer
  • Free classified, weekly and alternative newspapers from YOUR city

All the Internet services are free, so there is no excuse not give this exercise a try.

A Contest

If there is enough interest in participating in the Hyper-Local exercise I might be able to find a few sponsors that would step up for some prizes. Are you up for the challenge? If so then click on Sir Tweet O’ Lot (or just his name) at the top of this article to send a tweet my way or leave a comment below saying you are interested.

acer_aspire_one

The Acer Aspire One is just one the must have tools to take your Social Networking to next level and increase your revenue.

Recently I was asked what tools can a blogger use to help create this best possible experience for the reader.  Naturally I began to think of wild exotic laptops, high end video production equipement and the like, but the question was asked by an old friend wanting to start out blogging and they didn’t want to spend a lot of money. After looking at the list I knew that this short list of equipment could be used be anyone wanting to expand their Social Media experience. After we finish going over the list I’ll share how some of these items helped a friend of mine make a big sale in a cold market.

The All Too Important Card

The first item that I believe is a necessity is a Business Card. You can put just enough information on the card to point people to your Twitter profile, website, blog or Facebook profile. The Facebook URL is fairly long and it’s not as important compared to the other profiles. Definitely but your Twitter user name on the card (i.e. @tweetforbucks). The cards won’t set you back too much and Bizcard.com Offers 250 FREE Business Cards To Help You Get Started! After spending a few minute preparing your copy and using their website you can mark that on off your list.

Smile You On Your The Net

Number two on the list would be a decent digital camera, like the Nikon Coolpix S60. This camera is small and easy to carry in your pocket everywhere and is ready to snap a photo at the drop of a hat. The results are great and easy to share on Flickr or Twitpic. If you are writing a post about attending an outdoor concert, like Sundown in the City, a few photos to accompany will help tell the better and build your reader base. If you’re a salesperson you should really consider keeping a camera in your pocket constantly, I’ll explain this in the end.

Have Netbook, Will Travel

The third item is something you can get by without, but it makes blogging, Twittering or surfing the Internet possible virtually anywhere. A netbook, like the Acer Aspire One is small, lightweight and easy to take anywhere yet it’s still powerful enough to get more Internet and office task down in short order. It has a built in webcam, so you can start a webcast or chat from anywhere with a WiFi signal or just add a cellular 3G card to ditch the hotspot.

Roll Video

The fourth and last on my short list of equipment for blogging and social media kit is  The Flip video camera. This little wonder is small, can record up to an hour of video in standard or HD quality video depending of the model and it is easy to upload and share.

The software is built into the camera, so you are not limited as where you have to upload from. If you were to make a video from a social event you could post it to your blog or social network profile and send out a tweet to let others know what is happening there almost live as it happens. It’s a great way to help bring more people to attend an event or show to support a cause. A person in the sales profession could record a video showing and demonstrating the latest arrival in the showroom and post to Youtube, Facebook and other social networks.

Mixing It All Together

Now let’s put all this together on how a salesperson can use all these tools, mix it up with social media and land the big sale. If you were working as a car salesperson for dealership and business is slow, the economy and gas prices aren’t helping things. Then you have a person come on the lot wanting to test drive a Corvette. You put your business card ith your Twitter profile in his hand right off the bat before you head on the test drive. After the drive as they get out of the car you ask to take their picture sitting behind the wheel or beside the car. After you take the photo give them your business card again and tell them if they want to see the photo you’ll post on Flickr, Twitpic or some other social network. Tell them to just check your Twitter page to find the link to the photo. You can have the photo online in under five minutes and you have one more way to contact the buyer.

But Wait Didn’t Forget the Cellphone?

One thing I did leave off is a cellphone, smartphone, iPhone or other type device. The reason being that you are probably already using one to post to Twitter already. I like to use the iPhone or iPod Touch myself, but that is just my choice. I’m considering an Android in the future because of the applications.

Does This Work?

In the case of my nieghbor and friend who I have been coaching on using social media and networks yes. He had been resistant to try it, but the car market had him trying everything to make any sales. When he finally did the photograph of the prespective client with a car they were interested in and posted the photo online. The morning following the photo going on his Facebook page and linking to on Twitter the test driver sent him a Tweet back wanting to buy the Vette at a lower price. The dealership accepted the offer, my friend made the sale and there was one more Corvette owner in the world. I don’t believe that this social interaction will make every car on the lot roll of the lot, but I don’t feel this will help close the sale for those customers that are on the fence.

One thing to consider is about purchasing any equipment for blogging and social networking. If you are making a living, full or part time, you may be able to deduct some or all you purchases on your income taxes. You should check with a tax professional to get their expert guidance in this matter and not rely solely on this post.

Well there you go, another idea on possible way to make money using social media and you didn’t have to spend $99 on another get rich quick program or sit through a long PowerPoint presentation. If you are a car salemans you should give this a try to thaw out a frozen sales season. Please visit this website’s sponsors and see what they have to offer. Without them this blog would have dried up by now. So until next time, keep Tweeting and seeing opportunities.



Click Sir Tweet O' Lot to Tweet This Story

Click to Tweet this story.

Today’s post is from a guest author, Ben Johnson. Ben generously offered to fill in while I was in transit over the holiday weekend. As you can tell by the story, Ben is an authority of on the subject of Branding and Logo Design. Ben is with Logoinn, a UK based service company that provides a wide range of services from basic logo, graphic and website design plus small business services.


Lots of marketing and branding efforts make your logo the face of your company. People start to instantly recognize your logo when it appears on your advertising and marketing mediums. Obviously you like your logo and never want to let it go or change it. However what you may not be considering is the fact that with changing times, the design preferences and tastes change too. No wonder why larger organizations update their logos to portray a more contemporary feel. This however does not mean that you should change your logo overall. In this piece of writing we will discuss why improving small bits of rudiments in your logo are essential to maintain your heritage and brand image.

The evolotion of the Xerox logo.

The evolotion of the Xerox logo.Ask yourself before going for a face lift

Ask yourself before going for a face lift

Before going for a change, ask yourself few questions, if your answers is no to all or most of the questions below, than the effective logo redesign is the answer.

1. Take a close look at your logo not being as an owner rather being as a customer. What do you feel? Does the design appeal to you?

2. Can the color, font, style and other elements are recognized easily?

3. Is your logo look fresh and modern with contemporary logo design trends?

4. Is your logo successful in portraying a business image to your target audience?

5. Is your logo compatible with all the advertising and marketing mediums?

6. Is you logo unique and doesn’t match with your competitor’s logo?

Possible reasons for logo redesign

Redesigning of logo and improving the look sometimes become crucial. There are several reasons which can justify the above mentioned comments:

1. Updating your logo look more eye-catching to viewers. The graphics, images, colors, fonts used in the logo must all reveal the aesthetic element of the design. If the logo you have does not meet the above standard, a logo redesign is highly recommended to earn benefit out of the logo.

2. Colors, fonts, and all the other elements should be located in your logo in such a way that they are easily visible to the viewers. If the fonts are hard to read, or logo is over-crowded with too many colors, it tends to irritate the customer and he won’t be able to recognize your logo when he sees it next time. Whereas, simple and easy to recognized logo will provide the viewer to memorize it at a glance. If your current logo has necessary message buried and irritates the viewer in finding the purpose of your business, then a logo redesign is a turnkey solution to draw attention of the viewers.

3. The style of your logo is another very important factor. There may be many things you wish to put in your logo, but at the same time you must keep in mind that the style should be similar to the characteristic like the type of your business or the kind of your target audience. If the logo you own does not suitably portray your business purpose to the old customers, logo redesign is necessary in order to carry targeted message accurately and efficiently.

4. The logo design trends are constantly changing. New trends like Web 2.0, Waves, and Organic 3D are in the market that make logos look fresher and eye-catching and portray the company’s image as an innovative and modern. Thus, if your logo is not according to the current logo design trends, and doesn’t look fresh and modern, you will not be able to battle with competition. When such things happen, giving your logo a face lift can prove to be enormously successful.

5. Determine how you are going to use your logo on different marketing and advertising mediums like billboards, brochures, letterheads, pens, buttons etc., therefore, logo is meant to be versatile, and its design should bestowed to any use imaginable. But, if your logo is not compatible with all the available mediums, it’s better to consider redesign.

Winding up the discussion

Briefly, your company’s logo is one of the key elements to its potential success and the starting point for branding of any type. Getting a logo redesign with slight changes, not only looks appealing to the customers, but also helps in increasing the revenue. Additionally, changing necessary elements will add the professionalism to your logo, which is the sole identity of your business to the millions of viewers.

Now Playing: You™

Now Playing: You™

Have you been on the bubble about buying one of those super cool video cameras The Flip? Here’s something you might not have thought of yet, The Flip and it’s cousins could actually help you with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. Go ahead and order one and I’ll tell you how. You can order it from the links in this post or the Sponsors area of the sidebar, I could use the commission to help keep to keep this site going.

Social Videos

Once you become acclimated to social media, you’re going to find yourself watching a lot of videos. YouTube is the most popular of video websites and everyone has been there or seen a video from YouTube embedded on another website. There are a lot of websites that attempt to emulate YouTube, but none reach it’s audience share. Not to be left in the cold, social networks like Facebook, Myspace and others have added a video section that allows users to upload their own videos. For the sake of demonstration I’m going to stay mainly YouTube.

Adding Movement to Your Social Media Marketing

If you are using social networks and media to promote your business or have started practicing some The Lunch Money Challenge exercises, then you already had a few photographs to your profile. Those photos may have used to show what you sell or what your service does, but wouldn’t moving pictures and sound go a long ways towards making you look like a three dimensional living being and not a flat object on a computer screen.

You have a website and social media profile on the Internet in hopes that you can draw customers in to hear your best sales pitch. Nothing is stopping you from giving it to them before they even darken your doors or visit your website. In fact you can refine and deliver your sales pitch without interruptions or other distractions thanks to video editing software that come with The Flip. Your potential customers are also able to view and listen on their own time - rewinding if needed - to understand everything in your video and becoming an educated customer in the process.

The Great Video Search Factor

Once you’ve have recorded and edited your video, it’s time to uploaded to YouTube. There are some factors to help you get your video discovered and improve your in position in SEPR (Search Engine Page Results).

The algorithm for YouTube is based mainly on five elements:

  1. Title
  2. Description
  3. Tags
  4. Number of views
  5. Rating

These factors also become mixed in to Google’s algorithm and SERPs because YouTube is a part of the Google universe. Knowing this you should take the extra time to make sure your entries in the first three factors are on point to help the second factors.  Let’s take a look at each the five factors.

Title

When you title your video use the keywords you want to associate your video and your website with. Be selective and don’t cram keywords, stuffing will stick out like a sore thumb and will only hurt you in the long run. Pick one keyword and sculpt an easy to remember sentence with it.

Description

The is self explanatory, but you do need keep to things in mind while filling it out. Again include keywords that you want your video and website associated with when someone is searching for it. Be honest in your description don’t try to get listed with something that isn’t closely related to the video. Try to stay with the one keyword your picked for the title.

Try to include the main keyword in the first 27 letters of the description as this will be returned with the search results. If you can include your website address in the first 27 characters (i.e. Beggars.us This car rocks.). Then use the rest of the description for when they come to the video.

Remember the viewers will be rating the video, so if you’re were less than truthful with your description you are going to taking a beating. They can also write in the comments that description was a lie to warn others not to bother watching it.

Tags

You now need to tag your your video, which is simply assigning keywords that fit the video and your website. Be fair and honest. Don’t stuff the tags with something that is far reach for the subject matter. Five tags at best should serve you well.

Number of Views

You may think you have little control over the number views on the YouTube, but that is not necessarily true. YouTube is a social network and you can add friends. You can build them by taking the time to view other videos on the site, leaving comments and adding the submitter and other commentators as friends. Then when you submit a video they will get a notification about it. You might every so often send messages to a few friends asking to check the new video, just don’t do it constantly.

Consider promoting the video on social bookmark sites like Digg and Reddit. Remember that the narrative you use to link to the video is going to be an extension of what you want your website to be associated with. Don’t cram to many keywords or mislead people about the subject matter of the video.

You can also use Twitter to promote your videos. You can use your RSS feed from your profile to send like we did with RSS to Twitter post.

Rating

You have more control over the rating of the video than you give yourself credit. If you are honest by not misleading people to view your video you should receive high marks. Also there is nothing in the terms of service that says you can’t ask for people to rate it high in the description. You will find it’s easier to get viewers, even if they a marginally interested in your subject matter, as long they know going in to it what the video is going to be about.

Now that we have been over the five biggies of the YouTube search it’s time to turn to other ways to turn your video to attract traffic to your website. I’ll just throw out a few, because I will adding another post about YouTube/SERP at a later date.

YouTube Video Overlay

You see the “Bugs” on television and YouTube videos all the time. The “Bug” is the graphic overlay on the video that list the website. A bug or overly is easy to add with The Flip software or other video editing software. Use a easy to read font with a color that complements the video.If possible fade it a little so that the overlay doesn’t take over the message of the video.

Putting the Best Light on the Subject

When you are shooting the videos keep and eye on the quality of light you are filming under. If the light is dim the colors will be muted and won’t be as sharp. If you stand in noon day sun, you are going to get deep shadows and a contrasty scene that will be hard to see important details.

Family Friendly Video

Expect that some of your viewers are children and they don’t need to see or hear any vulgar language or see sexy shots. While the children aren’t going to the purchasers their parents will and Mom & Dad may have to bring their children with them. If they see or hear something on the video they don’t want their children around they aren’t going to come to you if you’re cussing constantly on video.

Mash and Grab

YouTube videos can be embedded into web pages and other social media networks. Grab the embed code and place the videos on your website and social network page. You can’t have too much exposure for your marketing materials.

Enhance Your Blog

Adding a video of an event you attended or an activity you blog is the perfect way to capture the reader’s attention. Using video is also a chance to build a stronger personal relationship with your reader base and having them stopping by your blog even more.

Now that you have a good understanding on how The Flip can improve your SERP and raise your bottom line you now longer have an excuse not to buy one, plus it’s always handy to have around when the dog is stuck in you golf bag or the kids decide to turn flower pots into a fortress. If you do plan on purchasing one please consider doing so through one the links in the post or the banner on middle sidebar.

If anyone is using The Flip to promote their business on YouTube, I’d love to have you post a link to it in the comments section.

http://twitter.com/home?status=http://www.tweetforbucks.com/breaking-out-of-diggbar/

Fly out of the Diggbar and other frames with Sir Tweet O' Lot.

Recently Digg introduced the DiggBar to it’s website  (The DiggBar is not the Digg Toolbar). Some people are liking the DiggBar and others are hating it.

Here’s how the DiggBar works, when someone checks out a link that is posted they are taken to a page on Digg’s website where the web site is in an iFrame below the DiggBar. Sounds OK on the surface, but there’s plenty of SEO fanatics are worried this may cause cause damage to a website search ranking. There is no way of knowing for certain until the summer Google Dance, by the way rumor has it that the April 9th will be the latest page rank update.

Back in the 90’s I was working for a newspaper group and the owners wanted us to create a similar contraption as the DiggBar to keep visitors on our websites as much a possible. The company charged per advertisement impressions and they were going to do everything they could to milk every impression possible. I created script in Pearl for the outlink bar to please my bosses, but we found that our readers and the sites we linked to hated the outlink bar. What we noticed was that we started to lose readers over the run of a year. Finally the decision was made to drop the bar and the readers slowly returned.

At the time of the outlink bar I owned website that I that was linked to from a few of the newspapers and I hated the bar because it was a distraction that would prevent first time viewers from bookmarking my site. I decided there was something I could do about the problem and came up with a short script to breakout of the framed page. It was nothing fancy, just functional and there are a thousand variations that can do the same thing. After reading and hearing people cry foul about the DiggBigg I thought I would share the script.

The script in the area below is simple to install and incorporate into your website or blog. Simply highlight and copy the text between the “—Copy Below—” and “—Copy Above—”, paste it into the head of area of your webpage and save the page to your web server. It shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes to do and you can go find the next issue help with your search engine optimization strategy.

—Copy Below—

<script language=”Javascript”>
<!–
if (top.location != self.location) {
top.location = self.location.href
}
//–>
</script>

—Copy Above—

UPDATE: You can download the script here in a text file. Simply open it up in a text editor, then copy and paste into your the head of you webpage anywhere before the  closing tag </head>. Thanks to Mantis108 for pointing out this out. I’ll double check things on the final post in the future.


If you are interested in more SEO issues be sure to check out the advertisers on this blog for their advice and software.

05 Apr, 2009

Blogger + Digg + Ansense = Lunch Money

Posted by: Jeff In: blogging

Here’s another way to generate income using free Social Media and Networks following in The Lunch Money Challenge Series:

Today Sir Tweet O Lot is going show another way to start an online business without spending a penny.

Today Sir Tweet O' Lot is going show another way to start an online business without spending a penny.

If you’ve turned on the news or read anything in the last few years you have heard about ‘Blogs’ and chances are you’ve read a few, like this one. Have you ever considered setting up a blog, but didn’t feel you had anything to new to offer the Internet world? Well you do and you just haven’t realized it yet. The websites you visit because of an interest you have in particular subject can become the content that can fill the content of a blog faster than you might think.

Enter The Link Blog

A “Link Blog” is very easy way to begin attracting an onlne reader base. When it is done right people will return over and over. Here is a quote that fits so well:

” Now the fundamental law of the Internet seems to be the more you send them away the more they come back. It’s why link-filled blogs do better than introverts. It may seem counter-intuitive — it’s the new intuition, the new way of thinking. The Internet kicks your ass until you get it. It’s called linking and it works.

People come back to places that send them away. Memorize that one. “

Now that was writing in 2005 and for the large part it was ignored, except for companies like Google, Yahoo, Digg, Facebook, Reddit and so on. They jumped on it and found unique way to local those resources. It would have been impossible for websites of their size to employ a staff large enough to cover every sector of interest, so who did they turn to? You the Internet users. They created ways for you to bookmark and share websites that you found interesting, informative and funny. The Internet users did all the research and the companies profited from the users’ work. Millions of people amassed links for topic that were narrowed focused by keywords that others could come, click and visit. Along the way they also clicked an advertisement or two that targeted to those keywords.

The Steps of Building a Link Blog

Setting up a “Link Blog” is simpler than it sounds and everything you need is available for free on the Internet. I would suggest somewhere along the line purchasing a top level domain name (TLD), you can find some go .com domains for a few bucks here. We are going to walk through the steps of getting your link blog running in an evening and filling it up if content.

Pick a Blogging Platform

The first steps of having a blog is deciding which software you are going to use to publish you links and comments. There are several options out there, my favorite is Wordpress it because it is powerful and simple. Wordpress does offer a free service, but it’s Terms of Service rule out adding advertisements for yourself. Because of that I’ll limit this example to Blogger.com, a free hosted blog offered by Google.

It will take all of five minutes to sign-up for a Blogger account if you aren’t already a registered Google user. Keep in mind that you will be using a subdomain (i.e. ) instead of . Knowing when you choose your subdomain put a little thought to what .com name you would want to have in the future. You can find check to see if that domain is available also at TotalParkSolution .com, look for the “Register” search box.

“Show Me The Money”

Now that you have the blog up and running it’s time to find a way for it to pay you back for the time you are spending find your content and links. The most popular and easiest advertising network to implement with Blogger is another Google service Adsense. The advertisements that Adsense delivers are targeted to the stories that you have, which in theory show higher click through rates than ads that has nothing to do with why your readers have come to your site. The Internet is full of other ads networks, but few can feed targeted ads like Google’s Adsense.

You may have to wait for approval to join Adsense, which is fine you can spend the time adding links to the blog.

I will throw few thing out here to make certain you understand some important facts about Adsense. Once you have the ads on your blog, DO NOT CLICK THEM YOURSELF. This is a violation of Adsense’s Terms of Use and it will get you banned. The same hold true for having friends and family clicking the ads. Google can find rouge trends faster than people can dream them up. Don’t place instructions asking people to click your ads in any way.

When you put up a blog there are no guarantees that people coming to your blog will naturally click on your ads. You can hope that the readers appreciates the service your blog provides and they visit the advertisers to help keep the blog running. You want to believe that the readers understand you are wanting to make money because you have ads running and that it doesn’t cost them anything to investigate your advertisers’ links. You hope they know that the simple act of a click can help make a difference in your life by helping you pay the mortgage, send the kids to college, pay medical bills or make ends meet following a job loss. Do not get discouraged if they don’t click on your ads, just keep building on it’s value up by adding more content and you will attract viewers that know how to reward a quality blog.

Once you are Adsense approved go the “Monetize” tab to enter your Adsense information. Once you’ve got the info entered, go to the “Layout” tab and click on “Add a Gadget” and choose “Adsense”. Select the size ad you wish to have displayed, then select colors that will match your blog’s design or template to make the ads look like they belong on the site. Once you are done click save and get ready to start placing useful information on your Link Blog.

Fill ‘er Up

It’s time to let the rubber meet the road. Here you are going to start finding the links and other content to be placed your blog. The process is simple and you can automate some of the steps.

Before you do this start off with a little planning. Decide on the types of sites you want to link to – travel, sports, education, gardening and so on. If you have a vast array of links for an equally vast amount of topics you are never going to get a following. Picking one topic and other related links well be where your blog’s strengths and value will be. If you were to do a Link Blog on NASCAR, then adding links about activities near track is not that far of a stretch when you add a short narrative like “ While you’re Bristol be sure to check this restaurant out”.

To build your links you could go to the websites that normally would, search for websites on the topic, find what people are linking to on message board and many other ways. Whatever method you use consider using Social bookmark sites like Digg to help you organize, discover and publish your links.

For the purpose of demonstration we will be using Digg because of it’s nifty Digg to Blog tool.

Once you have signed up for Digg got to the “Blog Settings” of your profile. Here you will input your Blog information like user name, password, blog name and blog URL. When the data is input, save and return to your profile.

The Next step will make your Internet browser ready for Link Blogging. In Digg go to the “Tools” sections at the bottom of the page. When you reach the Tools go to Digg Bar, when you get there you find the button to drag to your bookmark bar. Now that you’ve add the Digg button.

Now you are ready to run. Here is the way that you can now publish to your blog without going on Blogger’s control panel but using Digg’s tools:

  • Find a webpage related to you topic them and click the “Digg” button.
  • A pop-up will open up for you to provide a short narrative about your find. In the case you can also copy a little text and past in the narrative box. Try to avoid copying more than 200 characters of the page text.
  • Now you can go to your Digg profile and find the story.
  • From there look under the narrative where you will find the “share/shout”.
  • Click you the third tab that says “ Blog It”, now click the bottom button that again says “Blog It”.

The other nice feature with Digg that you can send a “shout” to your friends in Digg Nation and ask them to check out your post and Digg it also. I lean towards the Digg way because it can help your blog receiving traffic soon than waiting for the search engines to find your new blog.

Final Thoughts

Now that your blog is alive, find your content and try to stay on your core theme, if it’s about cookie cutters – don’t link to funny videos of pandas. You are working towards becoming an authority on a topic, not a person with a little bit of knowledge about everything. It also helps to “qualify” your readers as someone who is more likely to click on your advertisements that are targeted for the content.

Also when you are choosing the theme or topic for the blog remember that it’s better to find one with fewer competitors already established online. There are millions of blogs (and online versions of magazines) on blogging, computer blogs, Mommy blogs and Internet marketing. But there are fewer blogs (an virtually no online magazines) on topics such as Hot Wheels, Hallmark Christmas ornaments and auto body repair. Fewer blogs are fewer competitors.

If English is not your primary language, consider writing in your native tongue. 99% percent of the time your blog will be ignored if your English is bad. My Spanish is terrible, knowing that I will not take a chance to offend anyone with the use of a wrong word.

Think local, aim global. A link blog on everything in your ZIP code could make you the first place people turn to online in your community. Find every website there is in your home town and get it on your blog. Being local also gives you a chance to sell ad space directly to businesses in you city and you may make more money in the long run. Don’t overlook any business that you do patronize either, they may be more willing to pay a customer for a service or even barter their goods and services for a spot on your local flavor link blog.

Publish your links and content on a regular schedule, even if you only have five minutes a day. This will show search engines and viewer that your blog is an up to date authority. I spent at least a half hour every night sometime after the news.

Now you can see you are in business and ready to go. What did cost you? Nothing. Anything you make is all profit. Once you do get going and receive your first commission check it would be advisable to add a .com or other domain name. It will help brand your blog and will easier to remember for potential readers.

Be sure to check out some of the advertisers on this blog to help keep it running. It doesn’t cost anything to check out what the merchants have to offer. You aren’t going to find many blogs that are giving away ideas and how-tos of making money online without spending any of your own money. I enjoy helping everyone make money, but I too can always use a little extra money to help build up the site more and cover my other expenses.

Coming Soon

We cover how to integrate your blog into your other Social Media services and website.

Click on Sir Tweet O Lot to tweet this story and follow this blog.

Click on Sir Tweet O' Lot to tweet this story and follow this blog.

Advertising with Google Adwords is a great way to reach the most targeted and relevant audience. By using the tools that Google Analytics offers to help make the most out of geo-targeted keywords, you can maximize the results and conversions that your AdWords campaign can bring.

For many businesses relevance varies by region. You wouldn’t want people in Florida seeing your ads for snow removal. Another example is while you would target patio furniture to the entire country in the summer, in the fall you’d only want to target the Southern states that don’t get snow. Using Google Analytics to help plan our geo-targeted keyword campaign can dramatically increase your conversion rate.

Geo-Targeting Your Keywords

It can seem difficult to decide which areas to use geo-targeted keywords with. Google Analytics can help you expand your business and increase visibility by helping you decide what markets to enter. There may be potential markets that you haven’t even thought of targeting. You could be losing revenue and not even knowing it.

You can use the Map Overlay Report to see exactly where your traffic from your general search campaigns has been coming from. Click on the ‘Goal Conversion’ tab to see which regions have had the best conversion rate. This lets you see, out of the areas that have the highest traffic, which regions had the highest conversion rate.

Finding Steady Traffic Flow to Conversion by Regions

If you find a location that has had steady traffic and a high conversion rate, this is an opportunity for you to increase your sales even further. Set up a separate campaign for any regions that have been identified; for each of them, be sure to use geo-targeted keywords that will appeal to the consumers in these identified regions even more.

Once you’ve decided which regions you want to run specialized campaigns in, log into your Adwords account. To choose your campaign geographically, edit the campaign settings by going to the ‘target audience’ section, and choose the geographic region that you want to target. There are several ways you can do this: by state, country, zip code or city. Play around with it a bit until you’re satisfied with the region you’ve chosen.

It’s that easy! Now that you know where the ads will be running, make sure to write ads using geo-targeted keywords to draw them in even more. You’ll be up and running with a geo-targeted campaign with regionally targeted ads in no time. This will get you even better results for your Google AdWords campaign.

Simplify Your Adwords Campaign

Another way to maximize the results from your AdWords campaign is top use PPCKahuna. Go to PPCKahuna and see how their tools and resources can dramatically improve your AdWords campaign results.

As promised The Lunch Money Challenge has started back up with new ideas.

Sir Tweet O Lot has the information on how to make money online without spending a cent.

Sir Tweet O' Lot has the information on how to make money online without spending a cent.

Here is a way to make money without spending a nickle and using only social media.

OK you’re sitting there surfing the Internet and would like to earn extra money from your time online. You don’t want to or can’t afford to spend anything to get things started. Here’s one way to begin and you can get it started in a few minutes.

Social Bookmark websites like Digg allow you bookmark, tag and share websites you find interesting. What you will find is that many of those social media networks create a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed of all the bookmarks you have made. Wouldn’t you like to get something back from all that time you have spent online finding sites that interest you? Well you can and here it is easy steps.

1. Sign up for a Twitter account if you haven’t already.

2. Go to your Social Media Bookmark service and find the RSS for your account. Copy and paste the address for your RSS to a text document in Notepad or other text editor.

Here is an example from Digg to show where you will find your RSS feed for your bookmarks.

Here is an example from Digg to show where you will find your RSS feed for your bookmarks.

3. Now set up a Google Adsense account. If you have one already then just scoot on down to the next step.

4. In Adsense go to the “Adsense Set-up” tab and select “Adsense for Content” and set up an ad unit for a 234 by 60 advertisment. Copy text to Notepad or your favorite text editor and save it until we need it again.

5. Point you web browser to Hootsuite.com and sign up for their service. It’s free.

In Hootsuite go the Account Settings tab

In Hootsuite go the Account Settings tab

6. Once you have created a Hootsuite account, find the RSS/Atom Feeds tab. Click the Add New Feed button. Then copy and paste your RSS address from the text document you created in Step 2. Then click the Twitter profile you want to send Tweets from. From the pull down menus decide how often you want to send a Tweet with your link and how many. Next click the Save button.

7. Now select the global Settings (Upper right hand corner, second from the far right).

8. Click on the Settings tab and scroll down to the bottom where you see Google Adsense Code section. Copy and paste your document you created in step 4. Select the Twitter profiles you want your ad displayed with and click Save Adsense Code button.

That’s it your done. Get back and start posting some more bookmarks to feed that bad boy.

I’m not going to tell you are going to become a millionaire from this. You can earn some extra cash depending on the amount of time your spend bookmarking and the quality of the links you are sharing. If you try to stay within one or two topics that you bookmark you are going to see a following on Twitter. Those viewers will be waiting to see what new sites you have found when you consistently stay focused on the subject they are interested in, remember the “Virgin Niche“. Remember that Google’s Adsense will be targeting the followers by serving ads in that match their interest and there is a higher conversion rate for niche followers.

As you can see you had nothing to buy to start  out. Anything you make is all profit. I’m not charging for this because I know everyone is either wanting make extra money to get by or they are looking get started in an Internet business and don’t have much cash to invest. The Lunch Money Challenge has been a lot fun to share with everyone.  When I get an e-mail from someone telling me they got their first commission check using only social media and the information they got from this blog it’s a cool thing to hear. I would ask you do check out some of the advertisers on here to help me keep this site running. Just remember the old “It doesn’t cost anything to look”.

Well put this knowledge to work and get ready for the next idea coming up. If you haven’t signed up for Pepperjam Network yet, you might want to as we will be using them in the next demonstration. You can earn $10 Sign On Bonus for All New Pepperjam Network Affiliates with this link.

Google Analytics can help you zero in on a money making ad campaign. Click Sir Tweet O Lot to tweet this story.

Google Analytics can help you zero in on a money making ad campaign. Click Sir Tweet O' Lot to tweet this story.

Google’s AdWords network has become one of the biggest online PPC ad networks. Millions of users everyday around the world are exposed to ads from Google. How many of those are your ads, and how many out of those millions are seeing them?

You’re probably already running a search campaign, but are you on the content network? If you aren’t, well, why not? You’re missing out on the opportunity to exponentially expand your reach to customers around the world that you aren’t getting to by using search. Using Google Analytics to help you refine your Google site placement within the content network can maximize your results from a content campaign.

There are thousands and thousands of sites to choose from on the content network, but you can choose the sites where you want your ads to appear. It can be overwhelming when you’re first trying to figure out what your campaign will be. There are several ways you can run your content campaign in order to optimize the result you get.

How To Choose The Right Sites

But how do you choose which sites to advertise on? Google Analytics has a great tool to help you figure out just that. It’s the Google Placement Tool, and it’s a great way to get an ultra-targeted campaign.

Using the referring sites report in Google Analytics, you can see all of the sites that sent visitors to your site. These are usually people who are writing about your site, such as press, articles, blogs, forums, or other online publications. A lot of these referring sites are part of the Google content network, and you’re able to run advertisements on them.

So why not run your content network ads on these sites? They’ve already proven to have an audience interested in your product or service. This is a super-easy way to get access to a highly targeted audience without any extra cost.

To do this, you will have to use Google’s Placement Tool. You start by importing the list of referring sites into your AdWords campaign, and then export the referring sites list into a .csv. Next, you copy the list of sites, and then paste it into a placement targeted campaign that you’ve already set up in AdWords.

That’s all you need to do to start running a highly-targeted campaign on sites that are already talking about you. Since it only takes about 5 minutes to do, what reason could you have for not trying it out?

Maximize Your Next Campaign For Free

Another way to maximize your content network campaign is by using AdWords Digger, It searches and ranks sites based on your criteria, from which you can then pick and choose and import into your AdWords placement targeting list. It’s also completely free.

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Sir Tweet O' Lot has the scoop on how to find your niche and make online money with affiliate marketing. Click Sir Tweet O' Lot to tweet this story.

Despite the fact that there are so many people out there trying, it is still possible to make money on the internet. While there is definitely a lot of competition out there, it’s not so much that you can’t stand out and succeed. One of the greatest advantages of the vastness of the internet is that there’s enough room out there for all of us.

Another common misconception is that you need to already be experienced in online business if you actually want to start making money. Think about how ridiculous that is for a second. Every person who is right now making money online was, at one point, a newbie. Everybody has to start somewhere.

You just need to make sure that you’re going about it in the right way. Everybody can make a profit on the internet, but what you choose to start with will decide how long it takes you to start making money.

For me, this meant starting out trying to make money online with affiliate marketing. When I first decided to try my hand at internet marketing, you name it, I considered it: online retail, surveys, blogging. I ultimately decided that affiliate marketing was the way to go if I wanted to start to make money right away.

Now, I’m not saying that I made a fortune right from the start, but I felt that, by going with affiliate marketing, I had the biggest chance of running in the black right from the start. No matter how small my profits were, it was better than losing money!

And I also looked at it from this perspective: I was gaining more than my small profits; I was gaining experience in how to make money online.

The first big decision I had to make was what kind of niche to focus on. I could either go for what people call a “virgin niche” or a niche that hid not been discovered or exploited, or a popular niche, where there are lots of buyers, but also a lot of competition. With a virgin niche, I would not have a lot of competition, but there also might not be a lot of potential customers; with a popular niche, I’d have lots of customers, but also lots of other businesses competing for their eyeballs.

After careful consideration, I decided to go for the popular niche. And I soon began to see results, even with the hundreds or maybe thousands of other affiliate marketers that I was competing against. Because you have to remember that even though there may be thousand of people competing for sales, not all of these sites are created equal.

What I did that helped me to make money with affiliate marketing, even in a popular niche, is that I went in prepared. I researched and found a system that I knew was proven to help people succeed in affiliate marketing. I used the system and learned from their experiences which kept me from making a lot of the same mistakes when I was starting out.

No Experience Required to Make Money Online

There are a lot of systems out there; some work better than others. Some don’t work at all, and it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes. So I’ve done the work for you, looking into all of these affiliate marketing guides. And this is what I’ve found: that there’s only one guide that shows you how to make money online with no previous experience. The others just show you how they’re making money online (namely, by getting you to buy their guide.)

So, with all the work done for you, what else are you waiting for? I’ve tried and tested these guides so you don’t have to. Read my review of what I feel is the best product out there; make all my hard work save you time and money. Because who doesn’t want to make money online? Go to Portalfeeder for more information.


  • Joel: I think you are right...hopefully they fix this bug. Keep up this blog man, great articles...I've been inspired to take my 10 yrs of web knowledge and
  • admin: The ads WERE BEING displayed in the bar area of the Hootsuite. I have noticed that the ads haven't been displayed and sent a trouble ticket in on the
  • Joel: Where do the google ads get displayed during the process of hootsuite sending your digg rss feed to twitter?

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